Page 13 of Stunts and Sparks

She nodded adorably. “I know you wouldn’t. Learned your lesson today, didn’t you?”

“Absolutely.” He knew she was kidding, so he decided to play along. Her eyes were wide in the dim light of the cabin. She really was giving him a lot of trust, and he decided it wasn’t fair. “You know, I’m okay with sleeping on the floor if it’ll put you at ease. I don’t mind.”

“Absolutely not,” she said without any hesitation. “If you don’t get the best sleep you can, you’ll use that as an excuse when you lose to me tomorrow. I can’t have that. I’m going to beat you fair and square.”

Cole chuckled at her determination. “All right, then.”

She snuggled into her sleeping bag and rolled away from him, and Cole had the thought that he might actually sleep better on the floor. She was so close. He folded his arms under his head, and stared up at the ceiling again, trying not to notice her breathing beside him.

The following day was uneventful until the afternoon exercise. It was an obstacle course, complete with monkey bars, nets to climb, tires to sprint through, and objects to leap over. It looked tricky, and Cole couldn’t help thinking it was a lawsuit waiting to happen for most of the people who attended this camp. He wondered whether they knew what they’d gotten themselves into, or was this one giant, unpleasant surprise? Judging by the expressions on some of their faces, it was the latter.

In contrast, Heather looked beyond hyped. As soon as she saw the course, she clapped and shouted, “Let’s go!”

She was so excited to start that, when it was their turn, Cole gestured at the course and said, “Ladies first.”

It took Heather about two seconds to gear up and get into position. There was a woman with a stopwatch keeping track of her time. Heather ran the course like some kind of gazelle. Her coordination was impressive, and she had a flexible kindof strength Cole found extremely attractive. He couldn’t help cheering her on. She was in her element, he thought: strict competition, a clear path and a clear goal. “Go, go!” he shouted. “You can do it!” And when she crossed the finish line, he clapped for her.

She came back panting, more from excitement than lack of energy. “Beat that if you can,” she said, a huge, bright grin on her face.

Cole stretched his arms over his head and walked to the starting line.

“Are you ready?” the woman with the stopwatch asked.

“Born ready,” Cole answered.

“Go!”

The course itself was relatively easy, but Cole’s lack of sleep from the previous night was making his performance less than perfect. Either way, he did his best. Just the fact that he was running some kind of course, pushing himself physically, reminded him of his days in the military. He had done well in his old boot camp. He appreciated the strict schedule, the lack of indecision. Everything was planned for him. Nothing was ever out of place or in question. The military used to suit his personality perfectly. But after getting into stunt work, he had begun to discover a preference for spontaneity and fun. He had to wonder whether his time in the military had set him up to prefer spontaneity the way he did, like a mental rebellion against the rigidity of military life. Either way, he finished the course and jogged back over to Heather to hear his time. It wasn’t better than hers, but he only lost by a hair. They may as well have tied.

“What?” Heather shouted. “I was sure I had it in the bag. That can’t be right.”

“Face it,” Cole said with a smirk on his face. “You barely won, and I slept terribly, so you had an automatic handicap. Try me again when I’m at my best.”

“Sure, whatever.” She was clearly trying to hide it, but Cole could see a pout to her face that he thought was downright adorable.

“Rematch tomorrow?” he said, trying to cheer her up.

“Sure, whatever,” she repeated and headed back to their cabin to get ready for dinner and more bonding classes.

Heather barely said another word to Cole for the rest of the day. He thought it was odd. He’d had no idea that what he thought was a silly little challenge had meant so much to her. He berated himself for not “throwing the game” so she could have some confidence. Maybe a little confidence was all she needed, now that he thought about it. Maybe it would lighten her up a bit and make working conditions a hell of a lot better for him. He decided to work on building her confidence tomorrow, if he could. If that turned out to be impossible, he wasn’t sure what more he could even try.

CHAPTER 7

HEATHER

As far as Heather was concerned, she had always been a good loser. She was the type to high five her opponent and say, “Good game,” with a genuine smile on her face. For some reason, Cole Reynolds brought out the worst in her. For goodness’ sake, she hadn’t even lost. She’d won, hadn’t she? But it was too close, and he was exhausted, he’d said. She should have won easily. At least, that’s what she told herself. Suddenly, the win itself wasn’t enough. She needed to demolish him. She needed to beat her own time.

In the evening, when everyone else was preparing for bed, Heather went to the training center and asked the person at the desk if she could borrow a stopwatch. “What do you need it for?” the woman asked.

“Practice,” Heather admitted. “My… partner has challenged me to a rematch.”

The woman smiled at her. “Well, well. Be sure to kick his butt, then.”

“Oh, I will.” Heather winked.

She walked with the stopwatch back toward the obstacle course with only her phone light to guide her. It was a bit of a hike, and after a while, she turned her light off and allowed her eyes to get used to the dark. The trail to the course was an odd combination of wild forest and tamed grounds. All the brush had been well cleared, and the ground was level enough. She could still hear wild animals moving in the dark, though she doubted any of them were dangerous. Though it was out in the forest, the camp was well populated, and no one had made any mention of bears or coyotes in orientation. Of course, no one probably expected one half of one of the pairs to sneak out in the night to up her game.

The funny thing was she never really used to be this obsessively competitive. Something about Cole just brought it out in her. She wanted to beat him at everything the two of them did together. Or was it that she wanted to impress him? She laughed at the thought. Not a chance! The last person whose opinion about her actually mattered was that infuriating man.

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