She touched the railing, letting the cool of the metal seep into her skin. When she glanced up, it was to see everyone in the group still moving forward…except Jace. He’d stopped and let everyone pass him. Now he just seemed to be waiting for her. A part of her almost expected him to come back and tell her again she wasn’t doing it. He didn’t. He just…waited.
And that’s when she realized that looking at him took an edge of the fear away. Maybe he was a distraction, or perhaps a comfort. Or hell, maybe both.
It didn’t matter. She let her eyes bore into his ocean-blue ones, and she took a step forward. Then another. Her heart still beat too fast, and her breathing still felt too shallow, but she was doing it.
When she reached Jace, something flashed in his eyes. Pride, maybe? “Good job, Tink. You proved me wrong. That doesn’t happen very often.”
Despite everything, she scoffed. “I’m sure it happens more than you care to admit.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Glad you’ve kept your sense of humor. Come on.” The second he fell into step beside her, and she couldn’t look into those blue eyes anymore, the fear tried to choke her. But then his hand went to the small of her back, the heat of his skin seeping through her clothes.
His head lowered, his voice almost a whisper. “We both already know this, but in case you’ve forgotten, Casper was a jerk.”
Oh, there was no forgetting that. “He was worse than a jerk, and I didn’t feel sorry for him when he couldn’t find a job here in Misty Peak.”
He’d moved to New York but still came back to visit every so often because he had friends and family here. Anytime she saw him in town, she pretended she didn’t, because she had nothing to say to him. Well, nothing nice anyway.
In a moment of weakness, her gaze lowered, and she saw just how high they were—really freaking high.
Oh God, oh God, oh God!
She wasn’t sure if her breathing changed or her steps slowed, but somehow Jace knew she was internally freaking out, because he leaned down, letting his breath brush her cheek as he whispered, “Hey. I’ve got you.”
She glanced up at him, letting the gravel of his voice fight off that fear again. Let his side touching hers chase away the chill.
He was still looking down at her, and her gaze was hopelessly chained to his when Jake called out.
“Yo, Jace, I need to ask you a question.”
He didn’t look up. His gaze didn’t so much as flit away.
“Go,” she said quietly. “I’m okay.” Or at least, she wanted to be okay. She didn’t want toneedhim.
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.” To prove her point, she stepped out of his touch. The panic tried to take hold once again, but she breathed through it.
There was a flicker of his brows before he moved forward, his steps a heck of a lot faster than anything she’d attempt. But she’d been telling the truth. Shewasokay. She was actually on a freaking skywalk and she wasn’t a blubbering mess.
Keeping her eyes up, she walked forward with slow, purposeful steps. Nikita and Hendrix walked together, and behind them, Jake and Jace.
She’d never liked Hendrix. He and another member of the SAR team, Theo, had always been dicks. Jake, on the other hand, was friendly enough.
They were about ten minutes in, and she was so focused on her breathing and remaining calm that she barely recognized that they’d stepped out onto a lookout.
She paused. This felt different. There was a slight wobble to the lookout, probably due to the fact it had a type of support structure designed to let it move with the wind. There was also a sign at the end that read “no rocking.”
It was fine. She was safe.
She took a few more steps, only to suddenly stop when the walkway beneath her feet rocked harder, more aggressively. It was a full body rock, and there was no way it was just wind.
She grabbed the railing, her heart jumping into her throat.
Someone laughed up ahead, maybe Hendrix, then Jace shouted at him to stop rocking the walk. But she couldn’t focus on them because the floor beneath her was still moving.
She looked down to the ground beneath the walk, immediately realizing her mistake. Her huge, gigantic mistake.
She was too high, the skywalk too unstable.
