Page 16 of Emma's Element

As if reading her mind, Marcus held out his hand to her. “Come on; I want to show you the best part of this house.” Emma stared at his hand, remembering her previous thoughts. Not allowing herself to overthink the gesture, she slipped her hand into his before hitching her backpack over her shoulder to follow him around the side of the house.

Marcus led her to a copse of trees just at the edge of the bluff. Emma smiled at Marcus and strolled to the lovely porch swing at the clearing. He positioned himself next to her, his long arm across the back of the seat as they admired the view together. The sun was getting lower and showing off for them, a riot of colors across the sky.

Marcus gave the swing a little push with his foot and set it in motion. Emma sat back, and he let his arm drop across her shoulders, pulling her closer to his side. Needing something to do with her hands, Emma twirled her father’s watch around on her wrist as she settled against his shoulder, though she knew that for her own sanity’s sake, she should stay away.

As they sat in silence, Emma felt the hand behind her travel up the back of her neck till it reached the hair behind her ear. He absently played with it, his fingers brushing against the sensitive skin there. Emma shivered at the sensation.

“Cold?” he asked huskily.

Emma shook her head, not trusting her voice to work. The sensation of his fingers against her neck was more of a turn-on than anything she’d experienced before. Closing her eyes, she surrendered to the fantasy of having his hands on her for just a moment longer; she ignored the nagging voice that told her there was nothing behind his actions but friendship. Never had any of her other friends’ touch affected her the way Marcus’ touch did though. She nearly groaned out loud. She was such a goner when it came to him, and it would lead her to nothing but heartbreak.

Suddenly a scream rent the air, jolting them from their contentment. Instantly on their feet, Emma grabbed her pack, immediately in rescue mode. They raced in the direction of the scream. As they got closer, they heard more sounds and then small whimpers.Holy tugboat! Was that a kid?

As Emma reached the spot the sounds came from, she saw that someone had fallen from the bluff. Knowing how unstable erosion had made the edge, she got down on her belly. She remembered how Annika, whose house wasn’t far from here, had fallen from the bluff trying to save a dog. Thankfully, Logan had found her before she became hypothermic due to landing partway in the cold water.

“Hello?” Emma called out as Marcus lay down to peer over the edge beside her, his shoulder brushing against hers. More whimpers greeted her call. Emma struggled to see through the brush that clung to the side of the cliff.

“There!” Marcus pointed. The remains of a staircase that had once led down to the beach were partially hanging off the bluff; erosion had worked its destructive power. Two teenagers clung to the wood of the staircase.

“Hello?” Marcus called out this time. His deeper voice able to be heard more clearly over the wind. Both boys looked up with hope in their eyes.

“Help!” One of them cried. “We’re down here. The stairs collapsed.”

“We see you!” Emma shouted; the whistling wind and roaring waves crashing so close to the bluff below made conversing difficult. “Are either one of you hurt?”

“I don’t think so,” the boy closest to the top said. “Just stuck.”

“Okay. Give me a minute, and we’ll have you out of there.” Marcus was on the phone with 911 as she tore open her pack. In it there were a climbing rope and harness. Unfortunately, the rope wasn’t long enough to extend to the trees. Marcus would have to be her anchor.

She threw one end of the rope over the edge, and once Marcus had put his phone away, said, “I need you to be the anchor.” She handed him the other end of the rope. “I’ll climb down and get the first kid in the harness. Then I’ll need you to pull him up. Okay?”

He nodded, wrapping the rope around his back. He braced his feet as he prepared to anchor her weight. She smiled her approval of his technique, remembering the day they’d practiced just such a maneuver on the climbing wall.

“Be careful,” he said, his eyes told her he was worried about her. She was thankful he hadn’t insisted that he do the climb down. His confidence in her skills and understanding that his strength would be more useful up top empowered her. It was going to be risky enough; the bluff was unstable, and the wind relentless. Not to mention the crumbling staircase the boys were clinging to could complete its collapse at any moment.

Emma spared a moment to reassure Marcus. She placed a hand on his arm. “I got this,” she said softly. He nodded and braced himself to hold her weight on the rope.

Slowly so as not to dislodge more earth, Emma lowered herself over the edge of the bluff. She cursed the limited movement her jeans allowed her, wishing she had worn her cargo pants. Holding the rope with one hand above her and the other acting as a brake below her, she half rappelled, half climbed her way to the first kid. She was a little too far to the left of the boy, so she had to pick her way over brush and staircase debris to reach him.

“Hi, I’m Emma,” she told him as she approached him. “What’s your name?”

“Luke.”

“Okay, Luke. I’m going to put you in this harness and clip you into the rope. Then my friend up there is going to pull you up. All you have to do is hang on. Okay?” He nodded, and she got to work fitting the teenager into the harness, working quickly since they were losing light as the sun set. Once she showed him how to hold the rope, she called Marcus, who started to pull him up.

“Put your feet out in front of you and use them to walk up the cliff, so you don’t bang into it,” she directed as she observed him. “Yeah, just like that.” Once she was confident he’d reach the top unharmed, she made her way down to the other boy.

She didn’t have the rope to help her this time, so she moved slower, making sure her hand and footholds were secure and wouldn’t crumble out from under her. The second kid hadn’t said much, and she was worried he might be injured and hiding it from his friend.

Emma reached his side just as his friend got to the top, and Marcus helped him clamber over the edge to solid ground. She ran her eyes over the boy looking for any overt injuries. “How you doing?” she asked. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

He shook his head, still not making a sound. “Okay. We’re going to do this just like your friend did. Easy peasy.”

He shook his head again, tightening his grip to the wood of the staircase he was clinging to. He was as pale as a sheet, his eyes dilated and as large as saucers. A whimper escaped his lips as a rock bounced down the cliff beside him. Marcus lowered the rope and harness to them, and Emma grabbed it when it was within reach. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“J . . . Joey.”

“Okay, Joey. Everything is going to be okay. I’m going to get you strapped in now.” He barely moved as she fitted the harness to him and clipped him into the rope, but she could feel his body tremble in fear. Only a glow of light remained as the sun slipped below the horizon. She had to get him up top . . . now. She tried to get him to let go of the staircase and grab the rope, but he wouldn’t budge. Fear had him frozen in place.

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