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“Yes. I want to overcome my fear of heights.”
“You’ve been thinking about this since we talked.”
“I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since we talked,” he said. “Mostly about how I always do what I’m asked regardless of whether I want to or not.”
“Like?”
“Like how I never stepped on anyone’s toes and always ate my vegetables.”
“Do you mean the reputation you have of being a nice guy?”
“Yes. I’m sick of that.”
“It was a good start when you asked Pet to move out of your seat.”
Without replying to her words, he began to walk to the bridge. Lana followed him.
When they reached the suspension part of the bridge, Lana grabbed his arm. “Sean, you don’t have to prove anything to me.”
“Why do you think this has to do with you? I need to prove to myself that I’m the kind of man who can take risks and live up to my own expectations.”
“I just want to make sure, that’s all. I didn’t know that you were afraid of heights. Now you want to scale the Golden Gate Bridge. You don’t have to.”
“It’s true, Lana, that I wouldn’t want to be seen as a coward in your eyes.”
“Sean…”
“Wait, I’m not finished. I need to do this for me. To prove something to myself.”
“Just so you know, I won’t think any less of you if you walk back to the car and we go get something to eat.”
He nodded. She cupped his face and held it between her hands. “You’re awesome. I’ve always thought so, before you changed, after you changed. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“So, are you going?”
“I’ve followed you through flaming walls of fire. What makes you think I wouldn’t go on this journey with you?”
“Your amazing intellect?”
“This isn’t about intellect. This is about a rite of passage. Your rite of passage. I’m along for the ride.”
He smiled and pulled her close for a quick embrace. One after the other, they stepped onto the suspension cable.
They moved along carefully, Lana a warm, distinct presence behind him. The three-foot-in-diameter cable they walked on was now 320 feet in the air. On either side of them, a thin wire reached all the way up to the North Tower that was their objective.
When Sean reached the top, he turned to look at her. Her hair blew in the wind, tiny wisps around her face. Her eyes were shining.
“It’s beautiful,” he said.
“Sure, if you overlook the death spiral of a fall, the wind whipping us around and the fact that I’m starving,” she said close to his ear.
Chuckling, Sean looked down into her face. She was a piece of work, all right. Insecure and tough, feisty and afraid, fierce and full of bluff, altogether amazing and astounding, breathtaking and absolutely beautiful.
All at once laughter faded. Because in a little more than a few days, he’d discovered that he liked being a bit reckless. It astonished him, and if he’d been smart, it should have scared him.
For better or worse, though, all it did was make him feel more human and more powerful, more…himself than he’d ever felt in his life.
It was then that he knew he loved her. Not for any other reason than because she was Lana. His heart jolted in his chest unsure of what he should do with these feelings he had. Should he tell her or not?
