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‘Well, if you can’t jump…’ He paused, presumably to give me the chance to contradict him and tell him I would jump after all. I didn’t. ‘Then you’re just going to have to let go.’
‘Let go?’ A mangled laugh worked its way past my lips. I tipped my head upside-down again and saw the serious expression on his face and my laugh became more of a choke. ‘Were you still standing in the “cute” line when brains were being handed out?’
He grinned. ‘You think I’m cute?’
‘I think you’re insane.’
‘Quite possibly…’ Zac shrugged. ‘It’s your call.’
‘No chance.’
‘Fine. How much longer do you think can you hang on?’ he asked.
‘Um…’ I couldn’t deny that I was tiring fast. Twinges were pinging through my limbs, warning me cramp would set in soon and my fork of the branch had been creaking ominously.
‘That branch doesn’t look too good either,’ he said, confirming my fears.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said, mindful of Charlie hanging on to every word.
‘That’s what I figured. So how about it?’
‘You’re absolutely sure there’s no other way?’ OK, so I was clutching at straws as well as branches.
‘Well there is, but not soon enough.’ His words were emphasised by another suspicious creak.
‘I’m heavier than I look.’
‘I’m sure I’ll survive.’
I wracked my brain for another excuse but nothing came. ‘Alice…’ I blurted. ‘My name is Alice.’ It was the about closest I could get to admitting I was scared without actually coming out and saying it. My pulse stuttered as if it were laughing at me. It knew as well as I did that I was so far beyond scared, I was working on a whole new level of fear that didn’t even have a label yet. Terrified out of my wits was closer.
‘Pleased to make your acquaintance, Alice.’ Zac took a step toward me and I lost sight of him. ‘Ready when you are,’ he said from directly beneath me, where he was no doubt getting an eyeful of my knickers.
I lowered my voice, not wanting Charlie to hear me. ‘Seriously, Zac, I don’t think I can—’
‘Yes you can,’ he said, cutting me off.
‘But—’
‘Listen, you’ve already done the hard part and if you can do all those fancy acrobatics then you can do this, no sweat.’
Unable to share his confidence, I simply had to face facts. One way or another, I was going to fall so it was more a case of fall now and hope Zac caught me, or fall later and hope I didn’t break anything when I hit the dirt. Neither option appealed but the one with the hot guy had the distinct advantage.
‘You’d better not be messing me about or I will hunt you down and I will make your life a living hell. Capiche?’ I added with extra fierceness to leave Zac in no uncertain terms of his imminent future if he were to screw up. Except he laughed.
Oh man, his rippling laughter had the same effect as his smile. Times an hundred—no—a million. Electricity zipped along my veins with the force of a lightning bolt and I feared not only for the branch but the whole damn tree. I’d seen pictures of trees destroyed in a thunderstorm and this mighty oak didn’t stand a chance.
‘I capiche, Alice,’ he said once he’d stopped laughing at me. ‘Now get on with it so I can finally prove how big and strong I am, because I’ve gotta say, you’re hurting my pride here.’
Now it was my turn to laugh. Carefully.
‘Plus there’s a little guy down here who looks like he really needs you,’ continued Zac.
The thought of Charlie sobered me up all right. I nodded and sucked in a deep breath, then puffed out my cheeks before exhaling sharply. ‘OK.’
‘Relax, I’m right here.’ Zac practically cooed at me but it worked. His tone released enough of the paralysing tension to let me untangle my aching limbs.
‘Three. Two. One…’ I clamped my eyes tight shut and…nothing.
‘You can do it.’ The sincerity in his voice wrapped itself around me like a comfort blanket and lulled me into relaxing my vice-like grip even further. ‘Just let go, I promise I will catch you.’
I believed him.
In what amounted to a few minutes at most, Zac had achieved what few other people could ever hope for and had won my trust. Too shocked by the revelation, I forgot all about clinging onto the branch. My grip faltered for no more than a split second before my reflexes kicked in to override my brain but a split second was all it took for gravity to lynch me.
Again.
My stomach fled and abandoned me. It took refuge in the tree so that I was left with nothing but an empty, hollow feeling in my gut as I fell for what felt like an eternity. More than long enough to convince myself I was indeed the most stupid idiot that ever lived for putting my trust in a stranger. My inner berating got cut short when two strong arms caught me and broke my fall.
In reality I knew I could only have been falling for a second, two at most, but it proved ample time for panic to set in. The scream I’d been trying to stifle mutated into a single sob and burst free of my tightly pressed lips. Desperate for something to latch onto, I locked my arms around Zac’s neck and buried my head into his chest.
‘It’s OK, Alice. I’ve got you.’ Zac cradled me against his torso and spoke softly next to my ear. ‘You can open your eyes now.’
The rational side of me knew he was right but the less rational side of me wanted to dwell on the fairy-tale image I’d built up of Zac a little while longer. He’d made quite the first impression on me but I didn’t know if it had been real, not when it could easily have been skewed by the unorthodox angle I’d seen him from, so I went for the mature option of shaking my head.
At the sound of his throaty chuckle, my eyelids ignored my wishes and flew open anyway. I found myself staring into his eyes. Neither brown nor gold, they were a mixture of both and looked uncannily like my favourite tiger’s-eye bracelet. His warm gaze smiled down at me and filled me with the weirdest sensation that I was still falling. If my arms weren’t already clamped around his neck, they soon would have been; it was all I could do to stifle another squeal.
‘Thanks,’ I said, trying to cover up the bizarre noise I’d made instead. ‘Good catch.’
‘You’re welcome.’
I knew I ought to say something but my mind came up blank. Aware that I was staring like a moron, I dropped my gaze and stared at Zac’s chest instead. A rather fine chest barely concealed by a tight blue running shirt which was punctuated with darker patches of sweat to form the shape of a triangle. A runner as well as a swimmer, then? My dashing hero truly was fit in every sense of the word.
Zac adjusted the position of his hands, signalling that he was getting ready to put me down. ‘I er… I think the little guy might like a word. Or something.’
‘Really?’ It was the ‘or something’ that captured my attention so I turned my head to look at Charlie. He looked fine to me. ‘Are you OK, Charlie Bear?’
‘I’m hungry,’ he replied, but then he did some sort of cross-kneed jig which must have been what Zac had seen.
‘No problem.’ I groaned inwardly and unclasped my hands from around Zac’s neck, then tapped him on the shoulder.
‘And I really, really need a wee.’
You don’t say, Charlie.
Zac set me carefully on my feet and I darted towards Charlie the moment I’d regained my balance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zac put his hands on his hips. ‘OK. Now that you’re both sorted, I’d best be off then.’
‘No!’ The word came out of my mouth like a gunshot and I froze to the spot. Wings flapped furiously overhead, the poor birds startled from their tree yet again. ‘Sorry,’ I said, addressing nobody in particular. ‘I didn’t mean to shout.’
Charlie whimpered but from the contorted, almost pained expression on his face, it had nothing to do with my shouting and everything to do with his bladder. I sprang into action again and snatched up his hand, then led him over to the tree before dropping to my knees.
‘There’s no time to get to the toilet, Charlie,’ I said, yanking his trousers and pants down. ‘You’re going to have to wee against the tree; do you think you can do that?’ The grin that spread across his face gave me all the answer I needed. Rather than watch Charlie watering the grass, I looked across to the spot where Zac had been standing. My pulse stuttered to see him still there.
‘What can I say,’ he said, ‘it’s one of the best perks of being a boy.’
‘Do boys ever grow up?’
‘Not if they can help it.’ Zac launched a lop-sided grin at me not unlike the one Charlie had worn.
‘I’ve finished.’ Charlie interrupted my train of thought before I could come up with a witty retort.
‘Good boy.’ I reached for the clothes around his ankles to pull them back up but searing heat flared in my hands. The sharp breath I sucked in made a loud hissing sound that carried all the way over to Zac.
‘Are you OK?’ he called over to me, his voice laced with concern.
I glanced over to him and half shrugged, using just one shoulder since the aches were setting in already. There was no point hurting both shoulders when one would do. ‘I’m fine, but I think I need to give up juggling fire balls.’
Zac closed the distance between us and sank down onto his haunches. ‘Can I see?’ he asked, holding out his hands palm up in front of him.
‘Um…’ I hesitated. I’d grown so accustomed to showing no sign of weakness that I struggled to accept help from anyone.
‘I’ll be careful.’
‘Hey, Charlie Bear,’ I said, turning my attention back to the little boy still stood naked from the waist down. ‘Can you be a big boy and show me how well you can get dressed again all by yourself?’
He immediately reached for his pants.
Zac waited without saying a word as though he could sense the battle going on inside my head. Hell, the way he was looking into my eyes he could probably see the battle going on inside my head without my usual shields in place. The strong desire to withdraw and lick my wounds alone was in direct opposition to the whole weird trust thing telling me it was OK.
‘Charlie, do you think you could have a hunt around the tree for my phone? I accidentally dropped it.’
‘Sure,’ he said.
‘Thanks, I knew I could rely on you,’ I said. Charlie’s little chest puffed up. ‘There’s a photo I really wanted to show you. I took quite a few in fact so help yourself.’
‘Cool!’ He immediately turned to begin his search so I looked back at Zac.
Kindness and concern were all I could see in his eyes. He hadn’t let me down—not yet anyway—and my hands really did hurt so his first aid skills could come in useful. Ultimately, it was his patience that swung the decision in his favour and I placed my hands face up on top of his open palms. We both winced at the mess I’d made of them and my eyes prickled.
‘Ouch.’ He tenderly raised my hands, inspecting them one at a time. ‘They look like they’ve been in a fight with a cheese grater.’
As comparisons went, it was pretty good. The entire surface of both hands was grazed, bleeding in some places and oozing clear icky stuff in others. Whether that was leaking out of me or was nothing more than residue from the tree was hard to tell.
‘They feel like it too,’ I said through gritted teeth, fighting the urge to rip my hands out of Zac’s despite his gentle touch. ‘Then, for an encore, I juggled a dozen hedgehogs.’
‘I thought you only juggled fire balls?’
‘Hedgehogs, fire balls, axes…what can I say? It’s a hobby of mine.’
‘Is falling out of trees a hobby of yours, too?’
‘You could say that.’ I allowed myself another sly peek at him. ‘Let’s just say my one hundred per cent record is still intact.’
‘Do you do it often?’
‘Hell no. I was seven the only other time I tried and it resulted in a broken wrist.’
‘Oops. Third time lucky, then? I mean the climbing part, not the falling.’
‘No way, I’m never setting foot in a tree ever again.’
‘Probably for the best.’ One corner of his mouth turned up a fraction but it didn’t make a dent in the serious expression he wore. ‘You need to get these cleaned up, Alice.’
‘Yeah, I know.’ I heaved a sigh, then nodded towards the abandoned picnic blanket. ‘I’ve got some kit in my bag.’
‘You carry first aid kit around with you?’ he asked, not quite masking his surprise.
‘Yeah, just in case Charlie falls over,’ I replied. ‘I didn’t really expect to be using it on myself.’
‘I’m impressed, but I doubt it will have everything we need?’
A single butterfly fluttered its wings somewhere in my stomach. ‘We?’
‘Sure,’ he said, peering into my eyes again but hitting me with the cocky grin I was rapidly learning to associate with him. ‘You’re not really going to deny me the chance to put my training to good use, are you?’
‘Don’t you have places to be? A run to finish?’
‘Nothing that can’t wait and my shift doesn’t start for a another couple of hours.’ Zac had to be too good to be true.
I even opened my mouth to tell him as much but chickened out. The words ‘OK, thanks’ came out instead.
His smile grew wider still. ‘You don’t have to sound so glum about it, I’d make an excellent nurse if I wasn’t too busy playing the hero.’
‘Pity,’ I deadpanned. ‘I’m sure the dress would look great on you.’
‘Definitely.’ His chuckle set off a tingle that fizzed from my head to my toe. ‘I have a great pair of legs.’
I made a show of appraising his lean, tanned legs but it backfired. Muscles clenched deep inside my core and crushed the tingly warm and fuzzies, replacing it with a different kind of heat. I’d lay down a bet right now that even a nun would find Zac irresistible so what chance did I have?
‘Yes, you do,’ I said, staring right into his eyes.
‘Told you so.’
For once I didn’t have to pretend to be interested in a guy before I tried to pull him. ‘But what about your bedside manner?’ I slipped effortlessly into ‘flirt’ mode, complete with coy smile. ‘Is that great too?’
Zac’s smile flickered but he didn’t miss a beat. ‘I guess you’d have to take that up with my girlfriend.’
Yeah right.
