Page 22 of Love's a Glitch
I set my jaw, determination welling up inside of me. After releasing a long breath, I slowly reached for the side ropes, pivoting on the plank as Luke squished himself to the side to make more room.
My stomach completed a full somersault as I forced myself to the next step, and then the next. One more to go…
At long last, I was safe on the platform, which was similar to the one we launched off from but suddenly felt huge in comparison to the skinny planks.
Luke didn’t even hold onto the ropes as he skipped across the last few steps and jumped onto the platform next to me. “See. I knew you could do it.”
“I need proof, so that later when I start to think I imagined it or my friends act all skeptical, I can pull up the picture.” I withdrew my phone, gestured him closer to me, and smooshed my face against his so that Stardust’s horn bopped his temple. It made him smile, cheek groove and all, and I snapped, snapped, snapped, already looking forward to how intensely I’d study the photos later tonight.
Luke unhooked the top of the rope from the overhead cable and, right as I was about to request he reconnect it so I’d have the extra help for the climb down, I noticed there wasn’t a ladder on this end. “Ziplining time.” He gestured to the two long ropes that stretched out twenty or thirty yards. “This is the reward for making it.”
“You say reward, I say come again?”
Luke did the same thing to his upper rope as he’d done to mine. Then he sat on the edge of the platform and patted the place next to him. “Do you want to go first, or do you want to go together?”
“Are you saying you don’t trust me to not get scared and stuck up here?” The only thing to catch us if this malfunctioned was hard packed dirt.
“Haven’t I earned your trust yet?” he asked, and I scowled at him as I plunked myself down next to him. Naturally, he just grinned. I was starting to think it was his home setting. “In order to keep mine, you’ve got to commit to going on three.”
“Fine,” I said, and this time when my stomach lifted to high-five my heart, there was an edge of excitement that hadn’t been there before.
Luke counted down and, as soon as he hit three, I pushed off, already screaming before I could decide if ziplining was scary or not. But as the wind rushed over my face, leaving my hair streaming behind me, I leaned back and basked in the free fall.
Completely weightless, no concerns or cares, fresh sun and air, and Luke soaring along at my side.
I righted myself and skidded to a stop, clouds of dirt puffing around my feet. My rope bounced, and I jerked down a little too hard, not wanting it to take me into the air again.
Bright side, it worked; not so bright, I landed on my ass, the gravel biting into my thighs.
Luke quickly unhooked himself and rushed over to me. He extended a hand my way. “You okay?”
“I lost my underwear to my ass, but other than that, yeah. It was sorta awesome, actually. But don’t go saying you told me so, or you’ll get the business end of Stardust’s horn.”
The zipping motion he made over his mouth didn’t keep the smugness out of the curve. I slapped my palm in his and allowed him to help me to my feet.
Our gazes met, time slowed, and I hoped the bobbing of his Adam’s apple meant he felt the pull between us, too.
“Luke. You’re back.” A guy who appeared to be in his early twenties skidded to a stop next to us. It took him a couple of seconds to register my presence, and he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I was just hoping you’d be up for a race. I’ve gotten so much faster since the last time.”
“Right now I’m showing Ellie the ropes”—Luke nudged his elbow into my side, so proud of his joke—“so I’ll have to take a raincheck.”
“Don’t miss out on my account,” I said, stepping out of the harness. One of the straps caught the tip of my shoe and I wobbled, and Luke’s hand shot out, bracing my hip as I worked to regain my balance. With him touching me, I wasn’t sure that’d ever happen, and it took a moment to remember where I’d been going with my sentence. “I could use a break, anyway.”
I glanced at the younger kid who was practically vibrating with excitement. “Tire Luke out for me so I’ve got a chance at keeping up, will you…”
“Brandon,” Luke supplied. “He’s Aaron’s younger brother.”
“And I told him to let you be,” Aaron said as he strode over. “But the punk thinks he can beat you now, just because he took me one day after I’d already exhausted myself at the gym.”
“Excuses, excuses,” Brandon said with a laugh, dodging the playful swipe his older brother took at him.
Luke draped his arm over my shoulders. “Brandon, this is my friend, Ellie.”
Ooh, I’d gotten upgraded after the rope course—score! I extended my hand, and Brandon took it in his slightly clammy hand and shook it over and over. I started to worry if I’d ever get it back.
“You can let go of her hand now,” Luke said to Brandon. “We’ve got to teach you to be a little smoother around pretty women if you ever wanna get la—one.”
I bit back a smile, catching the quick shift, and the flutter over Luke’s sheepish expression couldn’t be helped. His hand returned to my lower back as the three of us crossed the grounds to a course so tall and complex that my jaw dropped as I blinked at it.
