Page 61 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

He looked up at the ropes course, worry etched on his face.

“Trust me,” I said. “If it weren’t safe, they wouldn’t let us go on it. You know how sue crazy everyone is.”

It was something he complained about all the time, how careful we had to be not to do anything that might cause harm to a person, no matter how ridiculous. Like signs next to outdoor pools warning people not to swim during thunderstorms.

Some of his worry cleared and he pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Good point.”

He let me go and I hurried over to get in a harness. Noah and Cody were both strapped in and giving me questioning looks, but I ignored them.

It was December in the mountains, so there was no wait to get started. I could see a couple of people already on the course, but the place was otherwise pretty quiet.

Luckily, the day was sunny, with temperatures in the mid-forties, so we’d be fine in our sweatshirts and jeans, no gloves or hats necessary.

Cody climbed the stairs to the highest level and Noah gestured for me to go ahead of him. I had a bad feeling about being sandwiched between those two, but it had been years since we’d done anything fun like this together, just the family. “Where’s May?” I asked. “She would have loved this.”

“Had to work,” Cody said. Even if his tone hadn’t been curt, I would have known he was annoyed. He wanted May to work for him at the winery, but she was determined to make her own way.

“It’s no different than what you did,” I said. “Running off to start a winery without help from any of us.”

Cody reached the top platform and faced me. “I was an idiot. I’m trying to stop her from making the mistakes I made. I could give her a job as an in-house photographer for special events. She’d have a more flexible schedule and more time for taking pictures on her own if she worked at the vineyard. She’s wasting time waiting tables.”

“It’s her choice. At least she hasn’t left Catalpa Creek. Keep pushing and she just might.”

He chewed on that for a moment, looking pissy, before I gave him a shove forward. “Come on. Alex paid for two hours and I want to get his money’s worth.”

Cody’s expression cleared, and he grinned. “I’ve been wanting to do this forever. It’s going to be awesome.”

With those words, he spun and crossed a narrow, hanging-log bridge like he did it every day.

I was behind him, halfway across the bridge, when Noah’s voice rumbled behind me. “You and Alex a thing now?”

His words startled me, and I tipped to one side before catching my balance.

“Shut up and let her concentrate,” Alex yelled from below. There was no way he’d heard what Noah had said to me, but clearly, he’d seen that he’d said something.

I ignored both of them, crossed to the platform and watched Cody struggling across the next obstacle, a vertical rope net with some pretty large holes in strategic spots. “So,” Noah said, coming up behind me. “Are you?”

I kept my back to him, fingers crossed that Cody would hurry the hell up and get across the obstacle. He was three quarters of the way across and moving like a sloth with a gut full of molasses.

I looked down and waved at Alex who was on the nearest path below us.

“Don’t look down,” he yelled up at me.

I chuckled. Damn he was a scaredy cat.

“We are really high up,” I said to Noah. “Didn’t you used to have a thing about heights?”

He grunted. “It’s called common sense. And you’re changing the subject. What the hell is going on with you and Alex?”

Finally, Cody stepped onto the platform on the other side. I leapt onto the rope netting like a spider monkey. “My turn. Talk later.”

“For the love of god,” Alex yelled up at me. “Be careful.”

He was like a frail grandmother worrying about a new-born kitten.

I clung to the netting and decided to have some fun. I couldn’t really fall, and I might never get another opportunity like this. When the first person-sized hole in the netting appeared, I chose not to carefully navigate my way around it. I sat down in the harness, pushed off hard from the netting and swung out and around the hole, landing on the other side with a whoop. I glanced down to see Alex with his hands over his eyes.

I scrambled across the netting, swinging out and around two more holes, and joined Cody on the platform. “That was easy,” I said. “What took you so long?”

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