Page 3 of The Dating Game

“I believe you mean whenyoumakeyourjump. Your very solo jump. As Jason Derulo would say, you’ll be riding solo.” I start dancing in my seat to the beat of said song. A beat he can’t hear, since it’s in my head. Whatever, maybe if he thinks I’m crazy he won’t want to skydive with me.

But no, instead something astonishing is happening—he’s dancing too. To the same inaudible beat!

Perhaps he thinks he can ingratiate himself to me by dancing…this may be typically true, but in these extenuating circumstances Ren McCormack couldn’t even worm his way into my heart.

“C’mon,” Will cajoles, offering his hand to me again, “give this a try. I promise I won’t let you get hurt.”

Goodness. Those are some sexy words. An alarm starts blaring in my head:Boyfriend! Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend!Well, at least my brain has switched off of the whole 10,000 feet thing. I glance over at the boyfriend in question to see him staring at the two of us and instantly feel a pang of remorse.

In my defense, I just meant that they were sexy words in a very general state, not because Will is the one who said them. Safety is sexy. That’s why so many women find firemen attractive.

“And are you a man who keeps your promises, Will?” I ask. Shoot, that sounded flirty. I wince. Can I blame stress for the way I’m acting? Because this whole skydiving business is very stressful.

Some women eat chocolate when they’re stressed. Apparently, I flirt.

“I would never make a promise I couldn’t keep,” he says in a low voice. An intriguing statement if there ever was one. There’s got to be a story there. “Now, how long does a guy have to hold his hand out before you take pity on him and accept the boost up?”

I stare at his hand again, contemplating my options here.

“I can see your wheels turning.” He drops his hand. “Would it help if I offered you some positive skydiving facts to outweigh the negative ones that are obviously running through your head?”

“It certainly couldn’t hurt,” I reluctantly agree.

“How about this one? Did you know that dogs can skydive? The Navy SEALS train dogs to jump into combat situations. They wear these special canine tandem harnesses and jump with their handlers. How cool is that?” He gives me a boyish grin. “And if a dog can do it, so can you.”

“Maybe the dogs don’t want to skydive?” I retort. “Did the SEALS ever think about that?”

“Dogs love the wind in their fur,” he shoots back.

“Ah, but I do not love the wind in mine.”

“Your fur?” He pops a quizzical eyebrow, and I blush.

“I meant my hair,” I amend hastily. “I don’t like the wind in myhair. Do you have any idea what it’s like to deal withtangled curls?”

His gaze travels up to my hair, tied back in a tight ponytail atop my head. “Can’t say that I do,” he says. There’s nothing untoward about his gaze, but tingles run down my spine nonetheless.

“Try this one for size,” he goes on, “did you know that a single skydive can burn up to 250 calories?”

“Wait, really?” Now he’s speaking my language.250 calories!Just from falling? What a great deal!

“Really,” he confirms with a deep nod.

“Is that why you’re so fit?” I ask. He looks taken aback by my blunt assessment of his body, but honestly–there’s no way he can’t know that he’s in good shape. And I tell him as much. “What?” I say. “Are you really going to stand there and pretend that you didn’t know that you were in good shape until I mentioned it just now?”

“Uh, no.” He runs a hand uncomfortably through his hair. “I mean, I do make it a priority to be active everyday. I’ve just never had a woman I barely know speak so, uh, candidly on the subject.”

I snort. “You started it by saying I had nice ankles.”

He studies me, then nods. “I guess I did.”

“Hey, are we doing this thing or not?” One of the other instructors calls over to us.

“Right. It’s go time, Brooke,” Will says. “No more delaying.” Then he reaches down and takes me by the hand of his own accord, yanking me to standing.

“Surely you don’t plan on insisting I do this,” I hiss at him as I stumble after him across the tiny plane.

“Of course not. But at the very least we can get you strapped to me before we make our final decision about going.”

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