Page 56 of Jingle Bell Jilt
I bat it away. “You can pull me down anytime.”
She gives another whole-body shiver, and I reluctantly pull back even though I want to try using my body heat to warm her up. That’s a thing, right? “Let’s get you into the house and warmed up.”
She runs up the beach, a trail of drips following behind. Grabbing her towel, she wraps it around her.
“There’s a Walmart about fifteen minutes away. Do you want me to run and grab you some clothes to change into?”
She grins at me. “No.” Her teeth are chattering. “I came prepared. I have yoga pants in my bag.”
We walk to the condo and she stops at the bottom of the stairs. She jerks to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” I look over my shoulder. “Did we forget something?”
“No, it’s the stairs.”
I look and notice the stairs are missing the back risers. So maybe Nathan hadn’t been wrong about everything. “What about them?” It’s not like I can acknowledge her fear that I’m not supposed to know anything about.
“They don’t have backs on them.”
“Yeah, so what?”
She swallows and I can see her pulse throbbing in her neck in between convulsive shivers. Whatever Nathan’s belief, this is a real fear. She isn’t just trying for attention.
“I get a little freaked out by these kinds of stairs.” She chews on her lip like it will give her courage.
“Why?” Maybe if I know the reason, I can understand it better.
“I don’t really know. Maybe it’s that they seem less stable. I mean, they’re literally half a stair. Or maybe it’s that I’m afraid of falling through the hole. They just freak me out.”
I laugh. “But that isn’t what provides the stability. It’s the frame that does that.” I look her over. There’s no way I’m saying she’s too big to fit through the back. I don’t have a death wish. “And I’m pretty sure you won’t fall through.”
She nods. “Logically, I know that’s true. But fears are rarely logical.”
I walk to the landing and lean against the railing. “But you walked down them fine.”
“I was watching the ocean and didn’t notice them on the way down.” She stares at me with big eyes. “Again, NOT LOGICAL.”
I shake my head. “Alright, you leave me with no choice.”
“No choice for what?”
I quickly snatch her up and throw her over my shoulder. Before she can do much more than scream, I race up the steps and deposit her on the deck above.
She stares at me. “What the crap was that?” Her eyes are nearly the size of saucers.
I wink at her. “I’ll always rescue you from riserless stairs, m’lady.”
“I don’t need to be rescued,” she murmurs quietly and looks at her feet. Oh no, I think she might cry. She hasn’t done that since the day I met her. But I was just trying to help.
I pinch her chin between my thumb and forefinger, tipping her head back so she can look into my eyes. “Shay, we all need rescuing sometimes. Just promise me you’ll be here when it’s my turn.”
She smiles up at me and nods.
* * *
Twenty minutes later,Shay emerges from the bathroom after a hot shower. I have a pot of hot water on the stove and the fireplace turned on.
I’m watching a rerun of the curling Olympic trials. It’s oddly hypnotic.
