"Guys, this is Karen. She's gonna be with us today as we explore the caves."
A record screeched in my head.
"C-c-caves?" I sputtered, staring at Drake.
"Yeah. We'll start with the tree course to get you familiar with it all, then move into the caves."
Chrissy is dead. She's worse than dead. She's going to be chopped into 1000 pieces and strewn about the cave so the bats can eat her.
"Okay, not what I was expecting, th-that's fine." I swallowed. "I got this, I mean, how hard can it be?"
Around me, the men chuckled but didn't answer.
"Hey, I'm Will. " Salt-and-pepper hottie held out his hand. I took it, giving it a firm shake, noting with approval the warmth and strength of his grip and the delicious callouses that rasped against my palm.
I must have died and gone to lumberjack heaven. 'Cause this guy is an absolute dish!
"Karen," I replied, feeling strangely breathy.
"Oh no," one of his boys muttered.
"Jay," Will warned, shooting him a look. The younger guy had tattoos up and down one arm, and his hair, now covered by a helmet, had been a short mohawk. He looked like the kids I'd gone to school with back in the day, Emos that had listened to metal and been the ones drinking in the car park after school.
I'd always wished I was brave enough to join them.
"Don't worry, I get it all the time. Your name becomes a meme, and suddenly you're the embodiment of it without even opening your mouth."
The kid had the grace to blush. "Sorry. I should know better than to judge."
"Yeah, looking at him, you'd expect him to have more brains." The third guy had to be closer to my age, maybe a few years younger, but not by much. "I'm Liam.”
I shook his hand, grinning as he elbowed Jay.
"Nice to meet you all. Looks like I'll be tagging along for your boy's trip. Sorry."
Drake smoothly inserted himself in. "Don't apologise. Having even numbers makes it easier on me. Shall we get started?"
They signed the waivers, finished getting suited up, and I wrangled their permission to record them for the podcast before we headed outside to the beginner tree course, where I found myself sandwiched between Will and Jay as we listened to the briefing. Drake took his time explaining in detail the various activities we'd be undertaking and what we could expect from the course.
"Now, I'm going to be using a lot of rhyming today, so prepare yourself," Drake said with a grin. "First things first, these are the orange lifelines, and you must remain connected to them at all times. So how do we do this? Simple, we grip and clip."
The orange lifeline was a small metal hook that was embedded in the wood. To climb safely, you had to clip yourself to the lifeline, take a step, then clip the carabiner on the second line to the small metal loop, and so on and so forth.
"Let's partner up. We're gonna practice everything you just learned."
Will turned to me with a gorgeous smile. "Partner?"
I grinned, feeling a flutter of attraction. "Sounds like a plan."
We started off on small platforms, and I could tell immediately that these guys were experienced. Jay and Liam scrambled up the platforms, gripping and clipping like pros.
"They've done this before," I muttered, my heart thumping loudly in my chest as I watched them scramble across the balance bridge.
Beside me, Will chuckled.
"What do you guys do?"
"I own a lumberyard and sawmill. We specialise in sustainable timber harvesting."
