Page 119 of Always a Bridesmaid
The rope zinged, and pain shot up his calf. For a breathless beat, he was free-falling, the miles and miles underneath him coming fast.
His harness jerked, and he slammed into the rocky cliffside.Ow.
On autopilot, his feet and fingers searched for and found purchase.
Each thump of his heart was a punishing relief, the beats frenzied but life-affirming.
The clouds parted, revealing a full moon, and the world lightened a shade. Enough to see the distance between him and going splat.
Just like that, his life flashed before his eyes, along with his regrets.
Namely, one.
She had dark hair, brown eyes, and the kind of smile that lit a fire inside him and obliterated his troubles. Violet made him feel strong, assured, and more important than anyone else ever had.
She made him better, not only because he’d worked to rise above his past but because her faith in him made him want to be his best version.
“You okay?” Mr. Wagner asked, their roles momentarily reversed.
“Yeah. Happens all the time in the rain,” Ford answered. The latter was true. The former, a bald-faced lie.
Do you have a sweetheart?Doris’s words echoed through his mind.Someone who makes your life worth that much more?
There’s peace in being fulfilled. In living without regret. And if it’s my time to go, I know my Harold will be waiting for me on the other side.
The past several days had forced a magnifying glass to his life. He’d stubbornly denied what his brain had whispered since Violet walked away from him last Saturday night.
With his adrenaline taking over, his mental shield was down, and he saw his life for what it was.
Incomplete.
At night, as he tossed and turned, he felt around for the woman who should be next to him, only to come up empty. No one called him on his shit. The absence of laughter rang through his house, the silence so loud he could hardly stand it.
Hell, even the dogs noticed the void.
If he plummeted to his death right now, his life wouldn’t be worth anywhere near what it could’ve been with Violet by his side.
For all his talk about adventures, he’d been too scared to take a real risk. Love was the biggest adventure of all, and he’d tucked his tail between his legs and pushed away the woman he’d fallen for.
No one would ever compare; he knew that much. He’d made a horrible, awful decision. Chalk it up to lapse in judgment or good old-fashioned fear—it didn’t matter. What mattered was he loved Violet, and he’d been an idiot to let her go.
I miss her. My life isn’t full. It’s so empty I can hardly stand being around myself.
Ford gripped the rope as resolve seized his body.
He wasn’t going to fall, because as soon as Mr. Wagner was on his way to the hospital, Ford was going to get his own act together and come up with a plan to fix what he’d carelessly broken.
A quick recalibration, and Ford lowered himself onto the outcropping.
After checking Mr. Wagner’s vitals, he assessed the ankle.
Definitely broken, and Ford reached into his bag and fashioned a splint.
Barks shattered the silence, and a couple of minutes after that, two beams of light cut through the dark. Backup had arrived.
Ford patted Mr. Wagner on the shoulder. “Hear that? That means you just have to hang on a little longer. We’ll have you out of here and on your way to the hospital in no time.”
“They’ll call my wife so she’s waiting when we get there, right? I need to see her.”
