Chapter 33 I didn’t realize this was going to be full-contact high ropes. #2
“You’d better make a run for it!” I growl, lunging after her.
She emits a panicked squawk. The wires zigzag far apart, and Josie bounces across them, legs wide, like she’s been riding a hippo all day and is now making a run for the safari hut.
I spring after her, sticking to only the wire on the right, like a tightrope walker.
Hand over hand, foot in front of foot, I catch up to her and take a leap, landing squarely behind her, my arm wrapping around her waist just in time to keep her from losing her balance when the wire dips violently from my extra weight and momentum.
“Gotcha!” I cry, nipping at her neck.
“If I go down, I’m taking you with me!” she laughs, trapping my hand around her middle.
“You can try,” I say.
“?ándale, Sheet, I mean, Josie, I got you!” Miguel reaches out a hand from the platform.
Josie dives for it, and Miguel yanks her out of my grasp to safety.
I almost lose my balance and manage to regain it just in time to feel the wires dance again and spot Jason over my shoulder, running at me like a linebacker.
Shit! I hustle onto the platform before he plows into me.
My heart is thumping. I didn’t realize this was going to be full-contact high ropes. But it’s fun.
After giving Snack some friendly heck, I glance over to where Josie chats with Miguel as they wait their turn for the next obstacle. She’s practically hanging over the edge of the backed-up platform, confident in the security of her safety straps. Beautiful. Fearless. Everything.
Everything? I don’t even know what that means, but my chest feels like a balloon. Maybe I have a deadly disease. Maybe someone spiked my water. Or maybe, like my brother claims, I’m obsessed.
“You know, it’s okay to let yourself fall,” Jason says from over my shoulder.
“Huh?”
“Just like that.” He points to a zip line to the left of us, where our costar Kayla goes zipping by while her little sister and Peyton cheer her on.
“Oh, Kayla’s here,” I say flatly.
“You know what I’m talking about. It’s okay to let yourself fall. For someone.”
Of course I know what he’s talking about, but I’m not about to admit it to Snack. I do another captain’s move—looking past him instead of at him. “Whatever.”
I manage to keep my hands off Josie as we traverse the next few obstacles.
I don’t want to look like I’m too into her, and from Jason’s comment, it’s pretty clear I’m failing at that.
Still, it’s driving me crazy to be this close and not get to touch her.
And she and Miguel spend most of their time speaking Spanish to each other.
Is it a sign of jealousy to want to shove a mariachi fanboy off an obstacle so he winds up hanging by his safety line and has to be rescued by a worker? If so, I plead guilty.
“Hey, Miguel.” I point vaguely into the crowd. “I just saw RDJ over there. Just now, I swear.”
“Really? Where?”
Josie’s eyebrows go up as Miguel hurries off, shoving his safety clip along the overhead wire. “You swear?” she asks.
I put a hand over my heart. “On Chuy’s grave.”
That earns me a smack and a smirk. Somehow, both feel like wins.
Right before the final zip line of our track, we run into Jason’s ex, Margarita, and her husband, Rhett. Josie whips around and throws her arms around my neck.
“Kiss me,” she demands, pulling me in close. “Make out with me. Hard.”
She plasters her mouth onto mine. I love a slow-burn lead-up, but this onslaught is fantastic, too. My body lights up like a Geiger counter at Chernobyl.
I hear Jason chatting with Margarita. “What are they doing?” Margarita asks. I can only assume she’s talking about us.
“What are we doing?” I mumble to Josie around our kisses. After all the agony of not touching her and having to share her with Miguel, it’s a rush.
“Hiding from Margarita,” Josie mumbles back. “She’s seen Club Bilingüe, and she watches Hugo Valencia’s show. She’s onto me.”
I peer over Josie’s shoulder at Margarita, who is glaring at the two of us writhing in each other’s arms. Frankly, I can’t imagine that anyone with a line of sight isn’t looking at us. I lift my hand from the middle of Josie’s back and give Margarita a little wave.
I should’ve known better than to poke the bear. Margarita’s blood-red lips set in a line of determination, and she marches our way in her Wonder Woman costume. She comes in close and perpendicular, her presence cutting right into our ravenous makeout session.
“Hello, Sean. Hello, Josie,” she trumpets.
“Hi, Margarita,” I mutter around Josie’s unrelenting mouth. Josie doesn’t say anything. Instead, she wraps a leg around mine. It’s an even huger turn-on.
“You two look like you’re having fun!” Margarita shouts, even though we’re only inches away.
God, Margarita is fearless. “Kinda busy right now,” I mutter as Josie continues to maul my mouth with hers. “Can you leave a message?”
She clears her throat. “I was just going to ask if you two needed any help planning Emmy and Jason’s gender reveal.”
Josie pulls back for a ragged breath. “We’ll let you know.” She dives back into devouring me.
“Great!” Margarita says and pushes her safety cord ahead of her as she marches back over to Rhett.
“Do we know what it is yet?” I murmur to Josie as her kisses slow down.
“A girl.” She starts to pull away, but I tighten my grip.
“Wait,” I whisper. Over her shoulder I call, “Hey Rhett, any chance you’d hire my brother?”
“Nope,” he says before leaping off the platform on the zip line.
“Great. Thanks. Appreciate it,” I say, mostly to myself.
Josie’s fingers trail across my forehead, fixing my mussed-up Han Solo hair. “I guess the fixer can’t always fix everything.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to feel that. Some days I just want to punch him until he cries.”
“I love that you’re trying to help Seamus, but I’m worried about you. He needs professional help.”
“He doesn’t want it.”
She cups my face and presses her forehead to mine. We stay that way for a moment, leaning into one another.
“If I’d had a brother like you, maybe things would’ve been different for me.”
Out of my peripheral vision, I spot Miguel on the ground engaged in an animated conversation with Zoe Saldana that has her chuckling. Go, Miguel.
“Wanna get out of here?” I whisper, gesturing to them. “Mission accomplished, right?”
Josie types a quick text into her phone, and we both watch as Miguel receives it and tilts his head back to give us a thumbs-up.
She pockets her phone and kisses my mouth. “Let’s go.”