Page 23 of Elijah
Following the sound, I found myself in a vast space which I knew was going to be a family room, which led onto one of the terraces that Tino had asked for.
“Hello,” I called.
“Elijah, help me.”
It was Amy’s voice and my skin went cold.
“Amy, where the hell are you?” I asked, anxiously looking around the room, my eyes landing on a pair of upturned step ladders and a couple of crates.
“I can’t hold on much longer.”
I looked up and there was Amy, hanging on to a beam which ran the width of the apex of the vaulted ceiling. One of her shoes was hanging on by her big toe and her blouse had come untucked from her tight skirt, giving me a hint of skin.
Amy squealed and as she dropped a few inches, I was dragged from staring at her gorgeous body as it swung in the air.
“Okay, I’m coming. Hold on.”
I ran over and bent to pick up the aluminium ladders, and realised they weren’t high enough and wondering how the hell had she got up there in the first place? Then it dawned on me that the stupid woman had made them higher by putting them on the crates. Thinking that she really needed to go on a health and safety course, I didn’t have a chance to think about positioning them onto the crates before I was clonked on the head by a red, stiletto heeled shoe.
“Fuck,” I cried and looked upwards.
Amy was now only hanging on by the tips of her fingers and was dangerously close to falling. I looked at the ladder, looked at the crates, and then looked at her and knew that even if I got it in place, timing meant that she was still going to fall and would either land on them, hurting herself, or land on the floor and potentially kill herself.
“Amy,” I cried jumping to my feet and placing myself directly beneath her. “Let go, I’m going to catch you.”
“No chance,” she grunted. “Just put the ladder back up.”
“No you’ll-.”
I didn’t have time to tell her that she might fall on them and hurt herself, because she screamed and came hurtling towards me. With only seconds to determine where she might land, I moved slightly to the left and caught her with a rush of air from my lungs. My knees buckled slightly with the force of her landing, but taking a half step back with one foot, I managed to stay upright.
“You okay?” I asked, my eyes scouring her face.
“Oh shit, I thought I was going to die.” A hand went to her mouth as she looked up.
I followed her gaze, at what I guessed was a twenty to twenty-five feet drop and swallowed hard.
“Yeah, I think that was a distinct possibility,” I replied, my heart beating faster than was healthy.
“Oh shit,” she repeated and burst into tears.
“Hey,” I soothed, tightening my arms around her. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, ssh.”
Her body started to tremble as the shock at what could have happened set in. With my own legs shaking at the realisation, I moved us over to the wall and I slid down it, Amy still held tightly in my arms. When my arse hit the floor, I leaned forward and without thinking kissed her forehead.
“Amy, come on, you’re fine. You’re safe. I wasn’t going to let you fall.”
“What if you hadn’t come in,” she hiccupped. “I might have died, or fucking paralysed myself. I’m so bloody stupid.”
“What the hell were you doing up there anyway?” I looked around the huge room and couldn’t see anything else in there. It was still just a shell with bare walls, although they were at least painted now after the decorators had been in.
“This end of the room’s going to be a play area, and I want to put an indoor swing up for the kids. I wanted to check the bolt size I’ll need.”
“And you didn’t think to ask the builder, or even leave it to whoever is putting the swing up?” I let my head drop back against the wall as I looked at the drop once more.
“I’ll be putting it up,” she grumbled, shifting in my arms.
“No you fucking won’t. You’ve already nearly killed yourself once, you’re not getting another go at it. I’ll get the correct length ladders and either I or one of the guys will do it for you.”
