Page 93 of The Accidental Text

“Very,” he says. “Okay, on the count of three.”

We walk to the edge, he counts down, and we jump. Down, down, down into the water.

It feels like jumping into ice, the water is so cold compared to the heat we were just in. When I come up to the surface, I let out a little scream.

“It’s freezing,” I say when I see Chase bob up. I’m kicking my legs around, trying to get my blood pumping again.

Chase whips his head back to get his hair out of his face. “It is,” he says, his words coming out breathy.

We swim over to the side and pull ourselves out of the water, the heat of the day having little effect.

“Oh my gosh,” I say, feeling shivers from head to toe. “Are my lips blue?”

“They’re a little blue,” he says after examining my lips. “Come here.” He pulls me into him, wrapping his arms around me, my cold wet body up against his. I’m too cold to wrap my brain around this, being in his arms. But I’m coherent enough to know I like it. It’s not long before our bodies, with help from the sun, start to heat back up.

“I don’t know if I can do that again,” I say, my cheek up against his nice firm chest. I’m warming up but still not warm enough to pull away from him. I also kind of don’t want to. I kind of want to stay here forever. Crap.

“We have to do the thirty-foot one,” he says. “We came all this way.”

“I don’t really feel like dying today.”

“How about this,” he says. “Let’s go back to our towels, eat lunch, lie out and get nice and hot, and then see how we feel.”

I agree to this and allow Chase to take my hand and guide me back to our spot. Once there, I wrap myself up in my towel and sit on the warm sandstone, letting the heat of it work its magic on my body.

“I love heat,” I say.

“Me too,” says Chase. He’s lying out on his towel, his eyes closed. He’s drenched in sunlight from head to toe, making him look almost as if he’s glowing.

“I need sunglasses. Your butt-white skin is blinding me right now.”

He doesn’t even open his eyes. “Like what you see?”

“No,” I say, but it comes off a little too emphatic, especially since I was staring at him and I did like what I was seeing.

Better go douse myself in cold water again.

“Ican’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

After an hour of lying in the sun and then eating the lunch Chase packed, which consisted of a yummy ham sandwich and some chips, Chase works his charms on me and convinces me to do the tallest cliff jump the Crack has to offer.

“You can do this,” he says.

“I know I can do it,” I snap back. “I just don’t want to.”

“Come on,” he says, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the edge. I use my weight to try to keep my body in place, leaning away from him, but somehow he’s still able to get me closer to the ledge.

“Do you want to count down, or do you want me to do the honors?”

“I don’t want to do this at all,” I protest, removing my hand from his.

“For me?” he asks, and pushes out his bottom lip, giving me the same look Alice gives me when she’s trying to manipulate me into doing something. Works every time with her. I’m falling for it this time too.

“Fine,” I say, shaking my head and rolling my eyes.

“Thank you.” He gives me a broad smile.

We walk toward the edge, our toes nearly hanging off the side of the smooth sandstone. I look down, and it’s a pretty significant drop.

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