Chapter 26
“Great job, Hope!” Macey beamed at me when I made it to the other side, but I was still recovering from the trip down. Tony came barreling down the line soon after me, and he didn’t seem affected at all.
“Great job, team! Let’s head to the next one.”
Tony didn’t hesitate to take the lead at the front of the line again and everyone followed after him.
“You okay?” Tyler asked me, gently putting his hand on my back.
“I’m good,” I said, trying to smile but worrying it looked more like a wince.
“We can do this,” Tyler assured me, his hand reaching down to mine to give a reassuring squeeze before starting up the path again to catch up with the others.
I stumbled up the trail for what felt like another mile. The group naturally split into two sections—Jenn, Erica, Dr. Jay, Shelby, and Devin up front, laughing and chatting easily while Macey, Tyler, and I stayed just behind.
When we reached the second zip-line, I barely had time to panic before I was clipped in and pushed off.
The jump was still terrifying, but once I was in the air, it wasn’t as bad as the first. The third platform was easier, and when I completed that line, I finally exhaled fully for the first time.
Tyler was really sweet and made sure to always go either before me or directly after me, always giving a word of encouragement right before each jump.
Then we reached the fourth zip-line.
Tony clapped his hands together. “Okay, friends, this one’s a little longer than the others. We’re getting into the more intense ones now. Get ready for the adrenaline.”
“Let’s do this!” Macey yelled. She’d managed to be the hype woman the entire tour.
I couldn’t help but smile a little.
When I stepped to the edge to look at the fourth platform, I found it stretched out above an even deeper drop, the line disappearing into a thick grove of evergreens. The lake below glittered like glass. We were so high up that the lodges looked like tiny toy houses, scattered among the trees.
“Who’s up first?” Tony asked.
“I’ll go!” Erica said, unbothered. She clipped in and vanished down the line, a streak of bright pink over the blue-green trees.
Macey followed, then Jenn, Shelby, and then Devin.
That left me standing with only Tony, Tyler, and Dr. Jay.
“Who’s next?” Tony asked.
Tyler glanced at me before answering. “Dr. Jay can go. I told Hope I’d stay back with her until the last second.” He shot me an encouraging smile. “We’ve got a system going.”
Jay’s head turned slightly—just enough for his eyes to flick from Tyler to me and back again. Something unreadable tightened in his expression.
“Why don’t you go, Tyler. I can help Hope with this one.”
I felt something in the air shift immediately. And it wasn’t the altitude.
“Oh—uh—” Tyler hesitated, clearly thrown off. “It’s just, she’s been doing great, but this one’s high, and I thought—”
“I got her,” Jay assured him.
Tyler’s smile faltered a little, obviously caught between wanting to insist and not wanting to make a scene with the boss man. Irritation burned in my chest. What did Jay think he was doing?
“Okay,” Tyler said, quickly recovering and giving me a small smile. “See you at the bottom, Hope.”
He stepped toward Tony, who clipped his harness in and sent him down the line with a push. Tyler disappeared between the trees.
“Who’s next?” Tony asked, looking between the two of us.
I opened my mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the crackling of a walkie-talkie at Tony’s hip.
Through the static reception, a voice emerged. “Hey, Tony, I need help on line two. It’s urgent.”
Tony unclipped the plastic brick at his hip and pressed the fat button on top, bringing it to his mouth. His recently bright demeanor turned suddenly serious.
“I’ll be right there.”
He stepped down from the ledge and started back down the path. “Sorry, I have to hurry and help Jess on the previous line. I won’t be longer than a few minutes.”
“No worries,” Jay said. “We can wait.”
Tony gave an apologetic smile and then disappeared through the trees.
And just like that, I was alone with Jay.
I crossed my arms, irritation flaring in my chest. “Why did you do that?”
Jay looked over, brows lifting in what appeared to be innocence. “Do what?”
“Make Tyler go down first,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “He was trying to help me.”
His head tilted slightly, and his eyes narrowed in assessment. “You’re upset with me.”
“Yes,” I said immediately, then regretted how fast it came out. “It was rude.”
“Rude?” His brow arched, amused. “I told him I had you.”
“That’s exactly the problem!”
“Why is that a problem?”
“Because—” I struggled to come up with the right words. “Ty and I talked in the van, and he said he’d stick by me through the tour.”
“Oh, so you wanted Tyler—specifically.”
I glared at him. “He promised me he’d stay by me. That’s all.”
Jay let out a dry laugh that sounded more like a huff. “Oh, that’s all?”
“Don’t,” I said, shaking my head. “He was trying to help.”
“Sure.” Jay stepped closer, and I had to lift my chin to look up at him fully. “And I’m the one who got in the way, right?” he chuckled darkly. “Sorry, I ruined your little moment with Tyler.”
My jaw dropped. “It wasn’t a moment.”
“No?” He stepped closer, tilting his head. “You two seem to be getting pretty cozy on this outing.”
“No, we aren’t,” I said defensively, crossing my arms even though my pulse was pounding. “He was just trying to help.”
“Mmhm.” Jay’s eyes flicked over my face, searching for something. “And I wasn’t?”
“You were taking over,” I snapped.
“You’re getting pretty upset about me ruining your moment for someone who claims it wasn’t a moment.”
“You’re unbelievable.”
“So you’ve said before.”
I didn’t respond. I had no good comeback, so I spun on my heel and crossed to the nearest rock at the tree line.
I sat down, refusing to look at him. I reached into my pocket, yanked out my battered little book, and opened it like it was a panic button.
I tried to read but ended up just staring at the words, too distracted by Jay’s overbearing presence only a few feet away.
“Really?” he finally asked, his voice drifting over to me. “You’re reading right now?”
I lifted the book higher, using it as a shield. “I am blissfully ignoring you, actually.”
“How did you even smuggle that book up here?”
Erica’s sweatpants pockets were the perfect size for a mass-market paperback. But I didn’t inform him of that.
I could feel him watching me, the air between us buzzing with something I definitely did not want to define.
“I can’t believe you brought a book to a zip-line tour,” he continued to berate.
After a moment of charged silence, I heard his footsteps approach. A few sticks crunched under his shoes, and then his voice penetrated the quiet tree ring again.
“What book are you reading?”
I didn’t even look up. “I’m ignoring you, Jay.”
“Are you?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Because you’re answering me.”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “It’s Endless Wonder by Lindy Parker, okay? Happy now?”
His eyes flickered with victory. “Very.”
I reopened the book, trying to hide behind it again, and that’s when Jay reached out and snatched it cleanly from my hands.
“Hey!” I gasped, launching to my feet. “Give that back!”
He held it out of reach, turning it over in his hands with thoughtful scrutiny.
“This thing has been through it,” he observed, running his thumb over the cracked spine. “Do you always maul your paperbacks, or is this author special?”
“Give it back, Jay.”
“Relájate, Amapolita. I couldn’t possibly ruin it more than you already have.”
“I’m not worried about that—”
“He touched her like he’d been waiting his whole life for the moment…” he started reading one of the passages aloud, and my mouth dropped open.
“Jay, stop!” I squeaked, panic constricting my lungs. I tried to reach for the book again, but he was much taller and easily sidestepped me.
Lindy didn’t typically write romance, but of course Endless Wonder had more than usual, and Jay just had to flip directly to the most intense section.
“And when she looked up at him, trembling, he knew there was no world in which he’d ever let her go.” His brow furrowed. “Trembling?” he echoed softly. “Interesting word choice.”
He opened his mouth, probably to continue reading and driving me insane, but I launched myself forward again, and finally, he allowed me to snatch it back out of his hands.
“Thank you,” I quipped sharply, hugging the book to my chest.
He folded his arms across his chest, an infuriating half-smirk tugging at his mouth.
“Hey, I was just getting to the good part,” he accused.
“I hate you.”
“Sure.”
I spun around before he could see how red my face had gotten and stomped back toward my original rock. My shoes crunched irritably over the pine needles. When I sat down, I stuffed the poor, traumatized book back into my sweatpants pocket.
Behind me, I heard Jay laugh softly, and it made me roll my eyes so hard I saw the forest canopy.
“You’re incredibly adorable when you’re angry, Amapolita.”
I froze. He did not just call me—
“Sorry, guys. A little problem on line two, but we’re all good now. We can continue on our adventure now. Hope, you want to go next?”
I was just about to unleash my furious thoughts onto Jay when Tony came running back up the trail again.
“Yeah, um. I’m ready.” I shot one last irritated glare at Jay, who was not even trying to stifle his little smirk.
I stomped toward the platform ledge, and Tony thankfully was quick to clip me in and send me flying through the trees again.
I had never been more grateful to be soaring hundreds of feet above the ground. I took the two-minute ride over the trees to compose myself. And when I landed on the other side, with watery eyes and trembling legs, my coworkers were there to greet me.
“What took so long?” Tyler asked, coming over to me with slight concern in his expression.
Jay was being insufferable, I wanted to say, but I held back.