“The kitchen timer.” She turns around swiftly so he can fish it out of her bag.
She isn’t sure if it’ll work, but they’re out of options, and she isn’t ready to give in just yet.
The bottleneck breaks to allow the herd to funnel out onto the ledge.
The wind picks up, grabbing their scent and casting it off the mountain.
Wade sets off the kitchen timer and tosses it over the edge, pulling her to the side into the smallest alcove barely big enough for the two of them to shield her with his body.
He is warm and firm, the safest place she could ever be. Where she felt terror only a moment ago, there is nothing but peace. If this is how she leaves this world, in the arms of the man she loves, then there are far worse fates.
Through the smallest crack of light between his arm and the rock, Kara watches the first rotter fling itself over the edge, chasing the blaring ring of the kitchen timer screaming in the abyss.
Then another follows, and another, and soon it’s an endless flow of corpses running straight into the sunrise. They are only following each other now. The sound is long gone, but the beauty of herd behavior is that the members at the back don’t need to know what they’re chasing. They only follow.
The frantic thump of Wade’s heartbeat stutters under her ear, his grip so snug around her that it might be uncomfortable if she were with anyone else. Her fingers twist in his shirt, and her tears wet the fabric, the two of them locked in the protective embrace of the mountain.
There are so many rotters that she begins to wonder if most came from neighboring towns or even states, following some deeply rooted signal to locate each other while using one of the only two functional behaviors they have left. To eat and to gather. When the last one finally tumbles over and the ground goes quiet, they quietly peek out of their cocoon and into a settling dust cloud. It takes a moment for the view to clear.
When it does, she has never felt so alive.
They made it. They survived when they shouldn’t have. They lived another day, and that means they have another chance to make up for so much lost time. What she doesn’t expect is for the ground beneath her feet to give way, leaving her scrambling at a new edge, her body dangling over the resting place of all the lost souls that just crashed to the ground.
One moment she’s staring at Wade and the next she’s falling with a shriek, grabbing what she can at the last moment until his grip finds her wrist, and then her backpack, yanking her up and over again with so much force that they both roll, landing on their backs.
“Are you okay? Kara?
“I’m good. I’m fine.”
They’re quiet for a long moment, catching their breath in a daze as the sun begins to warm the tips of the mountain.
She rolls her head to face him, locking eyes for a moment before a ridiculous bout of laughter creeps up from her belly and breaks loose. She doesn’t laugh. Usually. She absolutely doesn’t giggle, or snort, or embrace the kind of lightness that tickles her now. This can only come from facing death, not once but twice in the same hour, and it’s all she can do to keep the tears in.
His laughter matches hers, heavier and deeper, like the best song.
Suddenly, she can think of nothing she wants more than to seize their second chance.
Every intimate moment they’ve shared on this trip flickers in her mind one by one, softly encouraging her forward until she’s braced above him, one hand on his chest and the heat in her gaze quieting the laughter between them.
His eager acceptance is so plain to see that it burrows into her core and stokes those flames she’s been teasing, threatening to burn. Before she can let this opportunity slip through their fingers or say something else that’ll crash this moment downaround them, she surges forward and down to press her lips to his, lingering for a single heartbeat that feels like twenty, then pulling back to face the consequences.
She’s on the edge of that cliff again, ready to jump, irrationally certain that everything they’ve built is about to crumble. It had been such a brief, testing point of contact that she hardly gave herself time to enjoy it or feel it. It is simply a question asked without words because finding the right ones was never in her skill set. If he changes his mind and tells her this is a mistake, she will shove her love for him back into the deepest part of herself and take whatever he is willing to offer.
Instead, Wade catches her face with a warm palm against her cheek and leans up until he’s sitting and they’re on a level playing field. For a moment, they breathe each other in, the air heavy with everything unsaid. Years of yearning stretches between them, fragile and electric. His thumb traces the curve of her jaw, and something in her shatters.
They hang in limbo for a beat, balanced on the edge of everything they know about their relationship…changing.
Then his gaze flares and his lips find hers so swiftly that it steals her breath, not just from surprise, but from the ache of finally feeling something she’s only ever dreamed of. The force of the kiss pushes her back an inch, leaving her suspended in his arms, but he follows like he’s afraid she’ll disappear if there’s any space between them.
He’s everywhere at once. A roaming hand feathers up her back while the other cups her neck, anchoring her to him. His mouth is eager and reverent, like he’s remembering the shape of her because he’s been kissing her in his head for years and now finally gets to do it for real.
Kara matches his efforts with everything she’s held in for so long. Every what if, every I wish, every not yet, pouring them all into this one perfect moment they never thought they’d get.
Teeth click and noses bump and he sucks on her lower lip so hard she gasps. They aren’t good at this yet. What they lack in familiarity, they make up for with enthusiasm. She counters his every move with one of her own until she feels nothing but him.
There’s a gentleness to his kiss that sneaks into her heart to make her feel worthy of it. A tenderness to his touch as he grips her hip, the delicious pressure of his fingertips lighting her nerves aflame while a warm tongue teases the seam of her lips. She’s never been kissed so completely in her life, soaring so high that not even those mountain peaks could compete. How has she lasted so long without him when he’s already become an addiction?
“We should get off this ledge,” he breathes against her mouth, nuzzling his nose beside hers.
