Page 2 of The Marriage Deal
“Um…continued minding your own?”
“You’re on my land,” he returns dryly, and not wrongly. Itishis land, but the previous owner, even as he had been a little more than a lot pompous, had never enforced the boundary line. In fact, there was a trail that led right up to this looking point with a big old sign that cautioned: ‘trespass at one’s own risk’.
Sensibly, the sign had been planted to protect the land’s owner. But everyone in town knew the beauty of the lookout over Sunset Falls was for everyone. It always has been, and I’d just assumed it always would be. Even if old man Alder had allowed the townsfolk to hike his cliff just for the bragging rights that it washiscliff.
Now, looking at Briggs Alder, I’m not so sure.
“I’m not suicidal.” I harrumph. “Depressed? A mess? Sure. But not suicidal.”
His tense shoulders don’t fall. I cast my gaze out to the falls that now look like they are burning under theglow of the setting sun. I hadn’t come up here with the intention to jump, but now…
Well, now I kind of want to. I want to show this man, who came here to loom his righteous self over the town’s means of survival—the town’s way of survival—just where he was. And that the folks of Sunset Falls were a few nicks short on the scale of sanity.
I had to admit, on that scale I was probably a few nicks shorter than most. Whatever.
I might be a bit of a nut when the situation calls for it, but I’m not cruel. I ask, “Do you have experience with suicide?”
There’s no way I’ll jump if he says yes.
His brows, thick and full and dark, pull together. “No.”
I push a little more, just to be sure. “Why so freaked out then?”
“I already told you. You look like?—”
I cut him off. “Yeah, yeah, a kicked puppy.” I shoot him a suspicious glare. “How do you even know what that looks like? You’re not an animal abuser, are you?”
If he was, I’d throw him over the cliff myself. Then I’d follow him just to give him a good swift kick in the ass.
“What’s wrong with you?” He scowls.Goodness, the man sure is serious. I bet he could use some loosening up.
Who better to give him a real good shake-up than Sunset Falls’ very own wild child?
I shrug as I release a heavy, mock-contemplativebreath. “A lot, I’m afraid.” I take a couple steps toward him. This has him laughably tensing. Honestly, I can’t help my snicker as I stop and turn back to the cliff and the burning falls. “It was nice meeting you, handsome.”
With a parting two-finger salute, I turn and run for the cliff.
He barks a roar that looses a spill of unhinged laughter on the tail of my shriek as I fall through nothing before I connect with familiar cold water, sinking deep below.
The fall is—damn, it’s been forever since I’ve made this jump. Since I’ve felt this free. It feels like youth and freedom and blissful idiocy all wrapped in the cleansing of cold water threaded with the burning gold of a setting sun. And, God, how I need to be cleansed.
For a moment, I just linger in the deep. I let all the weight of being twenty-seven and totally screwed-up finally,finallylift. Even if it’s only for a moment.
I laugh again under the water, bubbles spilling into the deep blue before I swim for the golden surface.
Through the mist of the burning falls, I see the man leaning over the rocky cliff, hat gone. Even though he’s not exactly close anymore, my brain fills in the lines of panic and sheer male rage on his face.
I fight my giggle as I give him a flirty little finger-wave, wading on my back as though I don’t give a single fuck toward the shore. Usually, I don’t. I guess that’s why I’m in the predicament I’m in, though.
Like Briggs could loosen up, I could definitely muster a fuck or two. Alas…old habits die hard.
“Live a little, Briggs!” I push all thoughts of my messed-up life from my mind and call up once more with my very sage advice that I probably take a little too much to heart. “Sometimes you just gotta jump.”
I swear, Iseehim curse.
2
LITTLE LUNATIC
