26. Chapter 26
Chapter 26
Adalie
B y Sunday, I’m a vibrating, nervous mess. Derek and Spencer have agreed to come with us, but we’re going separately since Nate wants to ride and I need to wear pants to jump off a bridge, anyway. He picks me up early and we ride out of the city onto the Sea-to-Sky Highway. The drive is as beautiful as always and calms me a little. The view of the ocean combined with the freedom I feel on the back of Nate’s bike help me to relax.
Right up until the sign for Whistler Bungee indicates the turn off and Nate follows it onto a gravel road. It’s another couple kilometers down, and he rides slow so as not to kick up too much dust. When he pulls to a stop, Derek and Spencer are already there, sitting on the hood of Derek’s car. They had been watching the green bridge that arcs overhead, glancing at us as we approach. As I’m getting off, they turn back. I hear a shout above and look up as someone falls off the bridge, the long bungee cord seeming to float in the air until it stretches taut, and the person flies back up toward the bridge. I watch in horrified fascination, wondering if they’re going to hit it before they fall again, swinging and bouncing in uncontrolled motions.
Nate takes hold of one of my wrists, pulling my hand away from my mouth. I hadn’t even realized I’d pressed my fingers to my face as I watched.
“You ready?” he asks with a teasing smile.
I straighten my shoulders. “Yes.”
Derek and Spencer come over, greeting us with handshakes and hugs.
“Have you been here long?” I ask.
“No,” Spencer says as we start up a short hill. “Only about fifteen minutes. We’ve been watching. This looks awesome.”
“If you say so.”
He laughs and we step onto the bridge. It’s made from metal and has a little bounce to it as we walk. The deck is open circles, so when I look down, I can see the river a hundred and sixty feet below—I looked up the distance before we came.
“If you don’t want to do this, you don’t have to,” Nate says quietly.
“What makes you think I don’t want to?” I ask.
“The way you’re squeezing my hand like you’re afraid you’re going to fall off the bridge.”
I loosen my grip, and he chuckles. Then, someone calls his name.
“Nate! How’s it going, man?”
A man comes toward us, his hand outstretched, the t-shirt he’s wearing marking him as an employee.
Nate shakes the man’s hand.
“Good. Brought a few newbies today. This is my girlfriend, Adalie, and her friends Spencer and Derek. Guys, this is Max.”
Max looks us all over with excitement. “You’re all jumping?”
My friends answer enthusiastically. I just nod.
Max gives me a grin. “You don’t look too sure. Come on. Head over to the other side and Alice will get you all checked in. I promise, you’re in good hands here.”
We follow him to the centre of the bridge where he stays to help with the next person about to jump and we continue to the other end. My mind is a fog of anxiety. Derek and Spencer are chatting with Nate, but I can’t hear past the rushing in my ears. I can’t see anything except green railings and trees. On the far side, we enter a little hut with a counter where a woman takes our names and hands us waivers to sign. I’m able to focus on it and sign at the bottom. I assume everyone else is done because they’re just standing there, looking at the different merchandise options.
“We get the t-shirt whether we jump or not?” Derek asks.
“Yep. But if you don’t jump, you’re not getting your money back,” Alice says with a smile. “So that’ll be a pretty expensive t-shirt.”
“How many times have you been, Nate?” Spencer asks.
“I think I’m over fifty jumps total, now. But sometimes I come up and go more than once.”
Alice hands us our receipts with our weights written down on them. I don’t ask why she needs our weight. Then she sends us back to the bridge.
“How are you guys not nervous about this?” I ask my friends.
“It looks fun,” Derek says. “And Nate’s been like fifty times. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to—we’re going to jump off a bridge!” I say, noting that Max is coming toward us again. “And we just need to hope the bungee isn’t going to break.”
Max hears this and chuckles. “We have a 100 per cent safety record at Whistler Bungee. And we track the use of each of the cords.” He takes the receipts from us. “We retire them long before they’ve reached the end of their use.”
“Really?” I ask.
He nods, checking the papers. “Okay. I’ll get you to go first, Adalie. Then Spencer, Derek, and Nate. Come on.”
He leads us back to the centre of the bridge where the other staff are pulling someone up. I note three bungee cords curled up to one side, one is blue, one is yellow, and one is purple. The person coming up now is attached to a red cord. As I’m looking, Max grabs a harness, getting me to step into it. He tightens it around my hips, then helps me into a shoulder harness.
“I thought we jump with it around our ankles,” I say.
“The body harness is easier on your joints,” he explains.
I nod, looking at the railing of the bridge and the canyon beyond. Max finishes putting on my harness and leads me to someone else who tightens the straps a second time and clips the bungee cord to me. My whole world narrows to the big grey pillow thing that covers the spot where the clip is.
“Did you hear me?” the man says and my gaze shoots to him.
My eyes are wide as I take him in. He’s watching me, amused, and I shake my head. He laughs and starts over.
“When you jump, you can hold on to the pillow here.” He indicates the padding he pulls away from the carabiner connecting me to the bungee cord. “Or you can hold on to your shoulder straps. But don’t hold on to the carabiner. It won’t come loose, but it could pinch your fingers.”
My hands shoot away from the spot he’s pointing to, and he laughs again, before covering it.
“When you’re done bouncing, we’ll send down a rope.” He shows me a rope with another carabiner, bright pink tape wrapped around it. Then he points to a spot on my harness with matching pink tape. “You’re going to attach it here. Pink to pink, got it?”
I nod rapidly. “Pink to pink,” I repeat.
“Then we’ll pull you up. Ready?”
I shake my head. He basically ignores me and leads me to the spot where I’m supposed to jump from.
“Look over there, and wave to Patrick,” he says, pointing to the side where some guy is taking pictures.
I don’t wave, gripping the railing as I walk toward the edge, but I do give him something I hope resembles a smile. I face forward and all I can see is how very far up I am. A hundred and sixty feet. My heart is pounding in my chest. I can’t think. I can’t breathe.
The guy behind me starts counting down from five. Thoughts race through my head. I am not a jump-off-a-bridge kind of person. What was I thinking coming up here, agreeing to do this? When he gets to one, I shout, “Fuck this!” And grab the railing, wrapping my arms around it.
I hear my friends, and everyone else laughing. After a while, I guess they realize I’m not about to jump so I’m pulled away from the edge and delivered into Nate’s arms.
“Shit,” he says. “You’re shaking. Are you sure you want to do this?”
Now that I’m off the edge, I can breathe again. Derek is standing next to us, watching me with concern.
Do I want to do this? That’s the question, isn’t it? While I was about to jump, to trust the Whistler Bungee crew and one long red cord to keep me alive, I couldn’t remember why I’d wanted to do it. Now that I can think again, I take a breath and remind myself why I wanted to come here.
I want to get out of my comfort zone. This one last thing is like a graduation. If I can jump off this bridge, I can do anything.
“I want to,” I say, at last. “I just froze.”
“Hey, Adalie!” Spencer calls and I turn to see he’s on the edge now, strapped into his harness. “If all your friends jump off a bridge, are you going to do it, too?” Then he jumps.
My heart leaps to my throat as I watch Spencer fall to the water below. His yell is one of excitement and thrill. He bounces up, nearly all the way to the bridge like the person we’d watched from below.
I close my eyes and moan. “I could have gone to the spa with Vic, Lis, and Ava.”
Derek chuckles as he moves away from us, getting ready in his harness since he’ll be next. More people have arrived, coming back onto the bridge after being checked in.
“If you’re going to do it,” Max says after Derek is ready, “you need to go soon. We have others booked today.”
Nate nods. “Give her until after Derek?”
Max agrees and goes to collect the receipts from the new people. Spencer is pulled up. When he gets back onto the bridge, he’s laughing. “That was amazing. You have to try it, Adalie.”
“I want to. I’m not sure I can.”
Derek is on the edge now. Spencer jumped backward, but Derek is going forward, looking out over the canyon. He takes one step back then forward again, launching himself away from the bridge when the countdown reaches one. He falls through the air until the bungee stretches to its full length and shoots him back up. I can hear his shouts of excitement and laughter. Apparently, my friends are daredevils. Who knew?
“I want to jump,” I repeat, a little more sure.
“You want to go with me?” Nate asks, and my gaze shoots to him.
“Really?” I ask. “We can do that?”
Max checks our receipts and nods. “You guys can jump tandem. You’ll drop like a fucking rock, but it’ll be something.”
I’m not sure how falling like a rock would be different with Nate versus by myself, but I agree, and we get strapped in. Derek returns to the bridge, slapping hands with the guy who pulled him up, then Spencer, then Max.
“That was awesome!”
The next thing I know, Nate and I stand, facing each other as they connect us to the bungee cord. This one is purple instead of the red one I’d been strapped to before or the blue one Derek and Spencer used.
“It still counts if I need some help, right?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper as I stare at the purple cord.
“Absolutely,” Nate says.
“Why did they change the cord?”
“It’s based on weight. We weigh a hell of a lot more together than you by yourself.”
I don’t take my eyes off the cord as they perform their checks, pulling on the harness straps and reminding us not to touch the stuff beneath the funny pillow thing.
“What are you thinking?” Nate asks.
I glance up at him.
“Purple is my favourite colour.”
He drops his head back and laughs.
“Okay, Nate,” Max says. “Pick her up.”
My eyes widen. “What?”
“It’s easier if one person is doing the jumping,” Nate explains. “Come another half inch closer, princess.”
I swallow hard and wrap my arms around his neck. He lifts me easily, his arms coming under my ass and my legs locking around his hips. I press my face into his neck. He laughs again.
“You’re never going to see what’s happening if you stay like that.”
“I’m okay with that,” I say into his skin.
We’re moving, and my arms tighten.
“You’re shaking pretty hard, princess. Last chance to back out.”
“I’m not paying over a hundred dollars for a t-shirt.”
“Okay.” I feel him nod and the countdown starts.
“Five, four, three, two, one, bungee!”
Nate jumps.
I scream louder than I’ve ever screamed before until the force of falling drives the air from my lungs and I can’t scream anymore. My stomach lurches into my throat as we fall for what feels like an eternity. I’m certain we’re going to touch the water, or the bungee is going to snap, or—the line goes taut, and we hesitate for half a second before we bounce back up toward the bridge. I scream again as we start to fall one more time and I feel the shaking of Nate’s chest as he laughs at me again.
“You can open your eyes, princess. The worst of it is over.”
I shake my head in the crook of his neck.
“You’re missing the best part,” he says cajolingly.
I peek one eye open, and it looks like we’re flying, which we kind of are. We’re still bouncing up and down, but slower so that it feels more like we’re suspended in midair.
“You’d probably have bounced longer if you were by yourself,” he says. “With both of us, we’re pretty heavy.”
The bridge stretches above, and I can see where Spencer and Derek are watching us. Below, the river rushes past, and on both sides, trees climb up the walls of the canyon.
Now that the terror has faded, the adrenaline rushes through me and I start to laugh, almost hysterically.
“I can’t believe I did that.”
“Well, technically, you didn’t. I did.”
I glare at him. “You deserve a smack for that. You said it still counts.”
He laughs now and I can’t help it, I lean my face to his and kiss him. The adrenaline high is like nothing I’ve felt before. I feel invincible and strong. If I can jump off a bridge, I can do anything. I can take whatever I want, and in this moment, I want him.
His arms tighten around me, one hand sliding up my back as he returns my kiss. His tongue swipes at my lips, requesting entry, and I grant it eagerly, opening to him, meeting his tongue with my own. I moan into the kiss squirming my hips closer to his, feeling the hardening of his cock trapped between us.
Suddenly he breaks off the kiss.
“Stop,” he growls.
“What’s wrong?”
He glares at me, his grey eyes hard and burning. “I do not want to get back up there with a fucking hard on. We can take this up later when we’re alone.”
That’s when I notice the rope coming toward us.
“How are we supposed to grab that?” I ask.
“You realize we don’t actually need to hold one another. We’re literally strapped together.”
“If you let me go, I’ll scream again,” I say in a rush. Because it has occurred to me that I didn’t trust the Whistler Bungee crew, or the bungee cord. I trusted Nate to make sure I was safe.
“Then you reach for it, princess.”
I pry one arm from around his neck and reach my hand out. It takes a few tries, but eventually I grab it and clip it between us. “Pink to pink,” I say.
Then we’re pulled back up.