“Indeed,” he said. “But this time there is a component that will drastically alter the outcome.”
“Oh? What is that?”
A grin touched his lips. “This time I’m strong enough to catch you.”
He probably expected a blush, and I may have blushed, but I took an appraising glance at his arms and said, “I doubt that.” But truly, I didn’t doubt it at all.
I didn’t wait for his response, but I could hear his low, amused laugh as I walked over to the stack of stones. Calling them a ‘staircase’ was a bit of a stretch, but by the looks of them I could likely reach the top unscathed.
I gripped the highest stone within my reach and looked down at the stone near my feet. It was the largest of the group, serving as a platform for all the rest. Once I had my feet in place, I moved my hands up and stepped higher at the same time, testing my weight on one of the balancing, less stable stones. I didn’t sense an immediate change in stability, so I continued upward the same way. It was a slow, tentative process, but I was approaching the top without mishap. A little smile curled my lips as I stepped up onto another stone, smaller than the last.
Pausing to look down, I saw that Owen was standing right below me, watching me closely. I shot him a smile. “I’m notgoing to fall, you know.” I turned around and started climbing faster.
His voice carried up to me through the soft rushing of the water. “I never imagined it.”
As I grew higher above the ground, my nerves began fluttering in my stomach. A sharp thought struck me as I was approaching the top: why was I doing this? And a more disturbing thought: why didOwenwant me to do this? I cursed myself for my lack of wisdom. I hadn’t even stopped to consider his reasoning until now. But it was too late. I needed to prove that I could do it.
The ‘staircase’ ended several feet below the top, so from where I stood, balancing on the smallest stone, I placed my hands on the highest, broadest stone and hoisted myself up. Moss coated the outer edges, slimy under my fingers. I pushed myself into a seated position and crossed my legs.
I looked down at Owen with a look of triumph, expecting to find a defeated frown on his face. Instead, he looked up with a congratulatory smile—and something else. I examined his expression closer and immediately recognized the mischief in his eyes. But I had noticed it too late. He had already begun disassembling his stone staircase.
I leaned forward in outrage. “What are you doing?”
Peter and Charles giggled, as if they had known about Owen’s plan all along. I shot them a berating scowl.
Owen glanced up innocently. “I like to teach by example. So I am going to demonstrate how a gentleman should rescue and assist a lady in distress.”
I shook my head. “No. You most certainly are not. I am coming down by myself.” I realized how childish I sounded, but I didn’t care. If Owen thought he could trick me into going along with his little‘demonstration,’ then he was horribly mistaken. Icursed myself for not expecting this. I knew Owen well enough now that I should have foreseen a trick.
He tipped his head to the side and raised his eyebrows. “Annette?—”
I lifted a hand to stop his words. “That’s enough from you, thank you.” I glanced over the edge of the stone. The large stones sloped straight downward with hardly any visible places for stable footing. From my perspective, I couldn’t imagine where I would place my feet. Nevermind the staircase—climbing down would be more difficult than climbing up no matter what.
I swallowed hard. I had already hesitated for too long. I was losing my nerve. So before I could change my mind, I turned onto my stomach and slid down to where I hung just above my chin. I searched frantically for a niche in the rocks in which to place my foot. I found one, thankfully, and moved my hands farther down the stone.
My foot slipped.
I let out a small screech and slammed my hands against the rocks, grasping for any handhold I could possibly find. My fingers caught in a small crevice between two stones. The movement jostled my ribs on my right side and I winced, pausing to painstakingly collect my breath. Why had I been so daft? I hadn’t proved anything but my stubbornness by trying to climb down. And now, I was hanging helplessly, letting Owen win again.
“Just let go!” he said from beneath me. “I’ll catch you, I promise. Trust me.”
I peeked at him from under my arm. His arms were outstretched in front of him. A wave of hesitation made me grip the stone tighter. Could I really trust him? What if he dropped me? Panic squeezed my lungs until I could hardly draw a breath. My hands were already aching with the effort of maintaining my grip, so I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I squeezedmy eyes shut and let go. The brief moment that I was falling reminded me of the time that I fell from the tree. I had shut my eyes then too.
But the pain didn’t come this time. I didn’t open my eyes hours later to see a doctor busily checking for injuries. Instead, I opened my eyes to see a doctor, a much more familiar one, holding me in his arms.
Owen grinned. “You are far too stubborn.”
Despite his choice of words, his voice was quiet and reassuring, and it made me forget why I was so upset with him. The warm summer air around me seemed dull and lifeless compared to the way Owen was looking at me—the way his smile made me smile instantly, as if I were his reflection in a mirror.
I realized that I was grasping his lapels—quite tightly. I released my grip and, intending to smooth out the wrinkles I had put in his jacket, ran my hand firmly over his chest. My hand froze when the reality of the situation caught up to me. Owen washolding me in his arms,and I was willfully touching him, mindlessly even, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
My eyes flew up to his face. The smile in his eyes had been pushed into the background by something else—something that I didn’t know what to call. It was intense but soft at the same time, a mixture of certainty and caution. No one had ever looked at me like that before. I wanted to continue my study of that look, to decipher what it meant, but I was far too nervous.
I frantically hurried my gaze away from his eyes, hoping to find something less unnerving to look at. But my gaze froze on his charming smile, the way his lips curled up more on one side, making that dimple dent his cheek. I felt a tug on that anchor in my heart as I realized how close his smile was—how easily I could kiss it.
I quickly tore my gaze away and looked down, so flustered with myself that I didn’t know what to do. This man had justtricked me into being trapped on top of a fifteen-foot-high stack of stones and now I thought about kissing him? Something was seriously wrong with me. Something was seriously wrong with this entire situation.
I looked up at Owen with a glare, hoping that by doing so I could dispel whatever was lurking in his eyes. It worked, thankfully. In fact, it seemed to take him completely by surprise. He set me down, and I hardened my scowl and planted my hands on my hips. “You tricked me!”
