Chapter 23
twenty-three
Chris
“Really?” Percy asks, studying the entrance with raised eyebrows. “An adventure park?”
“What’s wrong with an adventure park?” I demand.
“Don’t we have enough adventure in our lives right now?”
I laugh, his indignant expression only making me laugh harder. “Come on, Perce. Don’t you want to blow off some steam?”
I hadn’t meant it to be suggestive, but by the way he reddens and avoids my eyes, I can tell where his mind goes. And fuck, now I’m thinking about it too.
“Come on!” I say, beckoning for him to follow me toward the gate. “It’ll be fun!”
“Since when is risking your life fun?” he mutters. But hey, at least he’s following me, so I keep quiet and take the win.
I’d seen signs for this place on the drive up with Quinn, and with an entire day to kill before we could test whether the time loop reset, it had been the first thing that jumped to mind. A quick rideshare from the ferry, and voilà, here we are, ready to have a great time.
Or at least I’m ready to have a great time. Percy seems determined to be a stick in the mud. And okay, so maybe an adventure park’s more up my alley than his, but it wouldn’t kill him to loosen up a bit and enjoy himself.
The front area of the park consists of open dirt paths leading to several buildings.
I guide us toward the largest and most important-looking one, and sure enough, there’s a booth there selling passes.
We wait our turn in line, a frazzled pair of parents with no less than five screaming kids ahead of us.
For their sake, I hope the course wears their children out.
“Couldn’t we have gone to the library instead?” Percy asks.
I glance at him, noting the tension in his shoulders and jaw. “You’re nervous.”
“What?” He grimaces, sweat beading on his forehead despite the crisp fall air. “Am not!”
“You are, too!” I’d thought the idea of physical exertion at an adventure park simply didn’t appeal to him, but… “I didn’t know you were scared of heights.”
He huffs and shoves his hands in his pockets.
“I’m not. I just don’t see the point of entrusting my life to the quality of someone else’s safety equipment or engineering expertise.
Especially when it’s some small operation in the middle of nowhere that probably hasn’t seen a proper inspection in years. ”
“It’ll be fine. I’ve been to places like this dozens of times.” He raises an eyebrow, and I amend, “Okay, two or three times. But still, my point stands. It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
Some of the tension leaves him. “I do.”
His soft admission, so quiet I’m half-certain I must have misheard, uncoils something in me that feels an awful lot like hope.
Tonight might be about evaluating our time loop hypothesis, but today is for us.
Maybe this is the perfect opportunity to test the waters and see if we can salvage our lost friendship.
Suddenly, nothing in the world seems more important.
We get our tickets, and I opt for the most basic course on Percy’s behalf, earning a grateful smile from him.
A guide leads us around the building to a practice area with a few ropes, logs, and other obstacles set up.
I suppress a grimace when I see the harried family already there, the kids in some sort of improvised wrestling match. Oh, joy.
It doesn’t take long for an instructor to arrive with a slew of safety harnesses for us.
The guy is buff and kinda cute despite his scraggly beard and wild hair.
I catch Percy giving him furtive looks and fight down a surge of jealousy.
He can look at whoever he damn well wants to.
It’s not like we’re together…or like he’d ever leave the closet enough to make a move anyway.
Putting on the harness proves simple enough, especially since I’ve worn similar get-ups before. I finish tightening my straps, wincing a little at how snug it is around my groin, then turn to check on Percy. I snort when I find him a tangled mess.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the smart one?” I tease.
“These clasps and cords make no sense! I slipped it on my legs like the guy said, but I can’t seem to secure it right.”
A quick glance reveals the instructor is in his own personal hell as he tries to wrangle five hyperenergetic kids into their harnesses. The parents offer little help as they take advantage of the break. We could wait for him to finish, which could take anywhere from a minute to an hour. Or…
Swallowing, I step toward Percy. “Here, let me help you. You’ve got it twisted up.”
My hands move toward the tangled straps around his legs, and he takes a quick step back, his cheeks reddening. “No, that’s okay. I’ve got it.”
I roll my eyes. “Clearly.”
Percy hesitates, fingers hovering uncertainly over the mess of cords and buckles. “Really, it’s fine. I can—”
My patience runs out, and I slap his hands away to start working on the straps. “For God’s sake, Perce, we’ve been inside each other. I think we can handle a little physical contact without imploding.”
His body goes rigid as my fingers accidentally brush over his thighs, and I pause, worried I’d taken that too far. I don’t want to make him uncomfortable. I look up. “Is this okay?”
He remains tense but jerks a nod, so I keep going. As I untangle his harness, I try to stay focused on the task at hand rather than the heat radiating from his body, so close I could stretch out my fingers and…
“There, done,” I say a bit breathlessly as I step back. “Harness properly equipped so you won’t fall to your death.”
He pales. “Thanks for that lovely image.”
I grin. “You’re welcome.”
Eventually, the instructor finishes outfitting the family and gives us the usual safety spiel.
I look around the forested area we’ll be traversing, only half paying attention.
Percy, however, hangs on every word, his eyes wide.
Maybe I’m a bit of a sadist because, honestly, his terror is kind of adorable.
After running through the basics—never take off your harness, never unhook yourself from the safety line, don’t do anything stupid—the instructor makes us practice on the mini-course they have set up here.
Supposedly, it contains everything we’ll encounter on the actual course, including balance beams, unstable wooden platforms, and a short zipline at the end.
“These gloves smell like they haven’t been washed in years,” Percy says, wrinkling his nose as he slips them on.
“That’s because they probably haven’t.”
“And that zipline looks a bit wobbly, don’t you think?”
“It’s like three feet off the ground, Perce. Pretty sure you could stand up and walk it if you wanted.”
“Yeah,” he insists. “But if this one is in poor repair, then the real one probably is as well. Maybe we should—”
“Perce.” My voice wavers between annoyance and amusement. “I promise nothing bad is going to happen. I’ll be right there next to you the entire time. Okay?”
He swallows, meeting and holding my gaze. “Okay.”
Heat tingles down my spine, and this time I’m the first to look away.
To my immense relief, the instructor lets Percy and me go before the family, perhaps rightly surmising how much it would suck being stuck behind that group of rowdy kids.
I navigate the practice course with ease, stumbling only a little over an intersection plate where you have to twist your carabiner a certain way to shift it from one safety line to another.
Then it’s Percy’s turn. I watch with bated breath as he replicates what I’d done.
He moves far slower than I had, pausing at each new obstacle to take it in and frequently fumbling with his carabiner.
But he gets through it. When he reaches the short zipline at the end, he hesitates, eyeing the gap nervously.
I resist the urge to shout encouragements, worried that’ll only make him more flustered.
Instead, I give him a confident smile when he glances over.
Come on, Perce. You’ve got this!
His face firms with resolve, and then he’s zooming across, legs held up so they don’t drag across the ground.
Watching him go, pride blooms in my chest. It’s such a stupid thing—hell, we’re not even on the real course yet.
But I know that, for him, this was already a huge step outside his comfort zone.
As soon as the instructor unhooks Percy from the line and announces that we’re good to start the actual course whenever we’re ready, Percy bounds over to me, grinning. “Did you see that?”
“Uh-huh. Nice work. You nailed the practice course.” I meet his grin with one of my own. “Ready for the real thing?”
His smile dimming slightly, he nods and follows me toward the sign marking the start of the beginner course. As we walk, he awkwardly lifts one leg, then the other, tugging on his harness straps.
“You okay?” I ask.
He grimaces, his face flushing. “Riding the zipline like that wasn’t exactly, um…comfortable.”
Ah. I nod, heat coloring my cheeks. My head and heart might know where Percy and I stand, but my body seems to have other ideas, and talking about anything down there isn’t conducive to staying in the right frame of mind.
We reach the start of the course, and Percy cranes his neck to trace the length of a ladder extending up the side of a tree to a wooden platform built above. “We have to climb up that?”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure it’s perfectly safe.”
He seems unconvinced, and without thinking, I reach over to squeeze his shoulder.
For once, he doesn’t tense or flinch away, perhaps too distracted by his freak-out.
If anything, he leans more toward me, and my heart skips a beat.
The urge to protect him is almost overwhelming…
but so is the urge to coax him out of his shell so he can enjoy himself.
Deciding the best approach is to lead by example, I attach my carabiner to the start of the safety line and step onto the ladder. “Come on,” I call down to him once I’m about halfway up. “Unless you want that family to catch up with us.”