He nodded, though he didn’t look happy. “I get it. Fuck, Chloe, I just feel like I’m doing a shit job protecting you. Christ, he was here at the house, all over the fucking yard and I had no fucking clue!” He was pacing again, opening and closing his fists.

I beckoned him to me, moving my legs out of the chair to make room as he dropped to his knees in front of me. I wrapped them around his waist lightly as he leaned his head into my stomach, one of my hands moving to cradle the back of his neck, the other smoothing over the wide expanse of his shoulders. I felt his arms shift and, suddenly, they were sliding around me, holding me tight.

I held him like that for a while, each of us lost in our own thoughts. Finally, he moved and leaned up for a kiss, then gained his feet, holding a hand out to pull me up, too.

“It’s still early on a Saturday and, since you won’t run off with me,” he paused, giving me a playful grin, “let’s go do something fun. No point in just sitting here wondering if he’s out there. Noah has our numbers, so if they need us, they’ll get us. Whaddya say?”

I nodded, grinning back at him, wondering for the millionth time how I got so lucky.

Chapter 19

“Brandon…this is not what I meant when I agreed to go have fun with you,” I said nervously, shuffling my feet and trying my hardest not to look over the edge of the platform I was standing on.

Calland, who I’m still not sure I’m speaking to at the moment, spoke up behind me. “Come on, Chloe. Live a little! It’ll be fine, I promise!”

I glanced over at him and my heart seized as I saw just how close he was to the edge, peering over almost carelessly.

“I didn’t realize you were afraid of heights, sunshine.” Brandon’s voice rasped in my ear, his lips brushing the outer shell and making me shiver even through my fear.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “It’s not that I’m afraid of heights, per se…it’s more like I’m not fond of jumping off a platform high in the air and dangling from a wire as I speed over treetops that would be more than happy to break every bone in my body if I fell.”

I heard a snigger behind me and peeked through my lashes to see the guide shaking his head as he tried to cover his laughter with his hand. I opened my eyes to glare at him, huffing when he finally gave up all pretense and grinned at me unabashedly.

“Man, Luke, Jacks, and Allie are gonna be pissed that we did this without them,” Calland hooted, rubbing his hands together gleefully while the guide motioned for him to step into the harness he was holding.

“Not Emma?” I asked, curious about the answer, though really I was only asking to take my mind off of what was about to happen.

It was kind of a blur, the whole trip here, because I was too busy trying to come up with a way to change his mind. We hadn’t figured out what we were doing yet when we stopped at the gas station to get gas in Brandon’s truck, and ‘lo and behold, there was Calland, walking out with a huge fountain pop and three hot dogs stacked on top of each other in his hands.

“Hey!” He’d hollered, walking over to us. “What are you guys up to today?”

“Trying to figure something fun out. What about you? Other than stuffing your face with hot dogs…”

Calland sat his pop down on the bumper of Brandon’s truck, grabbed the top dog, and took a huge bite. Thankfully, he chewed and swallowed before he answered. “My buddies were talking about this zip lining thing down in Hocking Hills that they did. I was thinking about heading down that way, meeting up with them. You guys wanna check that out?”

“Zip lining?” Brandon repeated. “Huh.” He looked at me speculatively.

I shook my head, already knowing what was coming.

“Don’t they have that SuperZip thing now? The one that you actually are in a sling thing and fly like you’re Superman or something?” Brandon asked Calland.

“Hell yeah, they do! I wanted to try that but I also wanted to do their twilight tour or even the night flight thing. You actually go zip lining in the dark.”

I was still shaking my head, but, apparently, my vote didn’t count. And that’s how I came to be standing on a platform, being strapped into a helmet and a harness. I tried and tried to resist, to tell them that I’d just wait at the truck until they got done, but…it didn’t get me anywhere.

Okay, so it did…just not where I wanted to be.

“Alright, man. You’re ready,” the guide said, motioning Calland to step up to the line. He clipped his harness onto the safety line and showed him the hand brake again, giving him last minute instructions.

Calland grinned at each of us and then was off with a whoop, soaring down the line over the trees.

I looked over at Brandon who was grinning like a kid in a candy store as he watched Calland. Once Calland had landed safely on the platform at the end of the line, the guide turned to me. “You’re up.”

“Me?” I croaked. “No, Brandon can go first.”

The guide shook his head, smiling. “Nope, we’re sending you first. Remember the class we had before we even came up here?”

I nodded slowly, my stomach clenching as anxiety washed over me.

“Well, just keep that in mind. You’ve got this, and I promise, you’re going to have a blast.”

I gulped, watching and listening intently as he gave me the run down and then…it was time. I took a deep breath and stepped off, not wanting to disappoint Brandon by backing out. I knew, even though he pushed me to do this, got me up here, that he wouldn’t force me to do it if I absolutely didn’t want to.

My stomach dropped as I took off and then--then exhilaration took over as the wind ruffled my hair and I looked around at the scenery stretched out before me, the trees under me…it was amazing!

When the tour was finally done and we were all safely back on the ground, we headed home. We dropped Calland off at his apartment, where we’d met him before we left, grabbed some dinner at a late night fast food place, and cuddled up on the couch to watch a movie while we ate.

I yawned halfway through the movie and Brandon pulled my head down on his chest, running his fingers through my hair, smoothing the silky strands down my back. He shifted us so that I was lying on top of him while he stretched out on the couch. He kept playing with my hair and caressing my skin with light, soothing touches.

I realized that he wasn’t watching the movie at all; instead, his eyes were on me, roving my face like he was memorizing every inch of it. I propped my chin up on his chest and looked back at him.

“Take a picture…it lasts longer. Or so I’m told.”

A slow grin grew on his lips. “Turning my words around on me, huh?”

“Maybe.”

His smile faded as he reached up and pushed a tendril of hair back that had fallen across my forehead before drawing his finger gently down my cheek. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”

“Hmm,” I said noncommittally.

“It’s been a crazy fucking ride, hasn’t it?” he asked, still brushing his fingers down my cheek. “Who would’ve thought that the blonde hair brat that followed us around would one day be lying in my arms like this.”

“It is kinda crazy, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question. We both knew it was. “Do you regret anything?” I asked him, hesitantly.