Chapter 12
twelve
Tripp held the door to his Jeep open for me. Of course, he had a Jeep. It had two doors, was shiny and black, and screamed I do cool things ! I drove a sensible four-door hybrid sedan. I’d splurged on a sunroof that I rarely opened, but I did thoroughly enjoy the heated seats. My car rarely saw much action beyond the occasional road trip, while his Jeep still had mud caked to the trim from whatever adventure he’d recently been on.
I climbed into the passenger seat and tried to smile back at him as he shut the door, but I must have failed because he looked at me in confusion and said, “What?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking all you need to complete the Jeep Dude look is a backward ballcap and some Raybans.”
His grin widened and he held up his index finger telling me to wait. “Close your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Humor me.”
I obliged and closed my eyes. I didn’t give into the temptation to peek when I heard him open the driver’s side door and ease into the seat. Instead, I waited patiently for him to tell me it was okay to look. When he did, I shouldn’t have been surprised to find him wearing a backward cap and sunglasses. They weren’t the Raybans I’d been expecting, but they were still slick and cool and the sight of him sent my mind racing down a rollercoaster of daydreams that involved him in little more than the hat and sunglasses.
I managed to squeak out a barely audible perfect before I quickly diverted my attention somewhere else. He turned the engine and backed out of the drive. Staring out the window, I caught a glimpse of Ava staring wide-eyed out the front door. I knew without looking that she’d already sent me a text or two commenting on the Tripp transformation we’d both just witnessed. He went from the big city CEO to Hallmark romance movie small-town hero guy with a hat and a pair of sunglasses. I mean, he was always eye candy I wanted to devour, but those two little additions transformed him into book boyfriend material. I didn’t need to read her messages to confirm what I already knew.
I cleared my throat. “So, what’s the plan?”
“I don’t really have one,” he admitted. “That’s part of the fun.”
“Is it?”
“For me, yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I do love a good schedule and plan when it comes to my workday, but outside of work? I prefer to wing it.”
I considered this for a moment. “I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I make lists to prepare for making other lists.”
“You like structure, I get that.” I waited for him to add in the punchline and make fun of me, but he didn’t. Interesting. Liam for sure would’ve had something to say, but not Tripp. There wasn’t even a hint of mocking in his voice. “Did you make any lists of the tamer adventures?”
“You know I did.” I tried not to focus on the fact that he was heading straight for the interstate without a plan or GPS app. He drove with confidence even though he had no clue where we were going. I swiped away the text notifications on my phone and opened my notes app. “You already mentioned hiking. I also had roller skating, train ride, horror movies, karaoke, escape room, though I wouldn’t consider being trapped in a room tame , but whatever.”
“Mind if I throw one out that might not be on your list?” he asked.
I hedged. “I suppose that depends on what it is.”
“Fair. It might be too tame, even for you.”
I laughed and shook my head. “Now that does sound like a challenge. What did you have in mind, Mr. James?”
“The zoo.”
“The zoo? Interesting. There are snakes and bears and wild animals. So, that does check off a few of my random fears.” His suggestion surprised me. I was expecting him to suggest a zip line or something the exact opposite of tame. Or, worse, something like going to the mall to make fun of all of my silly phobias.
“But they’re in cages.”
“Cages that someone could open or fall into,” I said, “and we do kind of have to hike. They also have this rope bridge thing near the spider monkeys that I’ve been scared to try. Not that I am suggesting we do that. Not at all.”
“Come on, Sadie, I’ll hold your hand.” The suggestion of physical contact rendered me speechless. The silence hung between us like the thousand-pound weight of unasked and unanswered questions. Ava’s suggestion that he might have similar feelings toward me that I did for him lingered in my mind. I didn’t know what to do with that information or with the hint of hopefulness that clung to his voice.
“We’ll see. But I am definitely not going into that area that’s dark and musty and crawling with snakes.”
“You’ll have to pick one. Snakes or the rope bridge.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Our office was less than ten minutes from the zoo. Since it was still early and a weekday, Tripp found a parking spot near the entrance. He opted to keep his hat and sunglasses on, and I traded my everyday glasses for the prescription sunglasses I was thankful I’d thrown in my bag before leaving. I caught a glimpse of us in the reflection of his Jeep. We looked like a normal couple out for a fun day at the zoo. Well, until he strapped the camera to his hat. For a second, I’d hoped the camera on his hat would be ridiculous enough to make him look less attractive, but it didn’t.
“Do I need to strap mine to my head?” I asked, praying the answer would be no.
“Technically, Liam asked for footage from both of us, but I think we’ll be fine with this one. Only one of us needs to look like a moron.”
“A sexy moron,” I said without thinking. I slapped my hand over my mouth and turned away from him. But not before I caught the hint of red sneaking up his cheeks. “Please forget I said that.”
Tripp shook his head and smirked. “Yeah, no. That’s not going to happen. In fact, I think you should say it one more time so it can go straight to my ego.”
Mortified, I covered my face with my hands and mumbled, “Well, I am going to forget I said it.”
Thanks to my brief moment of stupidity, the first half hour in the zoo was painfully awkward. We stopped to watch the gibbons swinging through their trees and screaming at each other. Then made our way down to the meerkats and the flamingos. Tripp made polite conversation, but I knew the footage his camera was catching would be painfully boring. I could already hear Liam complaining. Besides, this wasn’t good for business or whatever this crush thing I had was. Obviously, I was most concerned about the business. So, when we wrapped up at the flamingos, I mustered up the courage to touch him and grabbed his bicep. It was just as firm and inviting as I remembered.
He halted and turned to look down at me.
“I have an idea.” I did not want to have this idea, nor did I want to verbalize it. He waited patiently while I dug deeper into my courage well and grabbed another dose. “You know they have a ride here, right?”
“The Soaring Eagle?” I nodded. “What about it?”
“Um, well, I think we might need some more engaging content if we’re going to be able to use any of this footage.”
“Are you saying I’m boring?” he asked, smirking.
“No, not at all. But I’m pretty sure Liam and your audience will think all of this is lame and boring.” It was time to slip out of my Sadie hat and into my Savie role. “The whole point of these less extreme videos are to show that there is a variety of things that Take the Leap offers. Sure, a trip to the zoo is great for me and fun, but what’s the adventure? Where’s the fun? How would Take the Leap make an average zoo trip more? The Soaring Eagle makes sense.”
Tripp was nodding along. His eyes lit up with excitement. “Are you sure? It would make for some great content.”
No, but he didn’t need to know that. The last thing I wanted to do was climb onto a small plastic seat and ride up a thin line and then plunge 110 feet down and through the air. Honestly, it was like the bungee jump all over again. I did not want to do this, but I knew I had to.
“Sadie?”
“Yes, I’m sure.” The only thing I was sure of was that we needed to do something to spice this day up, but I wasn’t okay with it. So, it wasn’t a complete lie.
We hadn’t brought the extra camera into the zoo with us, so Tripp suggested we use my phone to capture more footage. When I pulled it out of my pocket, I noticed several missed texts from Mel. I rolled my eyes and swiped them away. I didn’t need to add any more stress to the day.
“If you need to answer those, you’ve got time while I buy tickets for the ride.”
“No, it’s not important. It’s just my stepmom.” The word felt like sour candy on my tongue. I don’t think I’d ever called Mel my stepmom before. At least not out loud.
“Family is always important. They’re the only people you can truly count on.”
“Maybe in your family.” Changing the subject, I glanced at the zip line and said, “Looks like the line isn’t long.”
Once again, I’d managed to reignite the awkwardness. I could tell he wanted to ask more about my family and the comment, but he, wisely, didn’t push it. He just got our tickets and led the way to the Soaring Eagle line, which had dwindled down to one other couple. Not that we were a couple. There were two of us; we just didn’t go together. He was adventurous and fun, and I was boring and, well, just boring. Nothing about us made sense, no matter how much mental gymnastics I did every single time he smiled that sexy half-grin at me or how my entire body warmed anytime I managed to touch him. It was just a crush. It would pass. They always did.
When it was our turn, I surprised myself and climbed right into the seat. It probably helped that I was still distracted by Tripp. They strapped me in beside him, and I took a few deep breaths.
“It’s going to pull us up backward, okay? Then we’ll float back down. It won’t take more than two minutes.” He spoke in a low, comforting tone without being condescending. “Ready?”
I exhaled and nodded. “Let’s do this.” The quiver in my voice betrayed my confidence. The seat jolted and we started moving back. When I gasped, Tripp reached over and grabbed my hand. I didn’t bother pulling away or pretending that his hand wasn’t exactly what I needed. He laced his fingers through mine, and I tightened my grip. I was so focused on the feeling of how tiny my hand felt inside of his rough fingers, that I didn’t notice that we’d almost made it to the top. Somehow, there was even more intimacy in that single handhold than there’d been during the bungee jump.
I hadn’t closed my eyes, and as soon as I took in the sweeping view over the zoo and into downtown, I was grateful. It was beautiful up here. I could see the giraffes grazing. Just beyond that, the tall buildings of downtown. A sea of green trees surrounded us. Then I looked down.
“Nope. Nope. Nope.” Ijerked my head back up and met Tripp’s gaze.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered as the zipline released and sent us rushing back down to earth. I kept my eyes locked on his face the entire ride down. The fear melted away.
With every whisper of I’ve got you , I felt myself falling deeper and deeper into him.