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“I think she has to jump,” the same person says again, stubbornly.
“No,” an authoritative, masculine voice cuts through the din. “She is not fucking jumping.”
Just knowing Gage is here helps me relax. Once I’m out of this damn tree, I’ll probably feel embarrassed that he witnessed this fiasco. But right now, I just feel relieved.
Gage won’t let anything bad happen to me. He’ll fight gravity itself if he has to.
He makes his way to the front of the crowd, faintly out of breath, like he raced to get here.
God, he’s beautiful. With his dark hair and his flushed cheeks.
For a second I’m light-headed for an entirely different reason.
“Violet, honey, are you okay?” he calls up.
I nod, my tongue thick in my mouth.
“Just stay there, okay? I’m going to fix this.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “Where would I go?”
He smiles up at me. “I would never make assumptions about your schedule.”
Despite everything I smile back, and for a second it’s just us, locking eyes under a tree as the stars come out above us.
At least I think the stars are out. It’s Manhattan. There’s too much light pollution to see actual stars.
Gage turns away and within five minutes he’s bribed an off-duty parks worker a thousand bucks to go to a storage shed and get one of the big ladders they keep on hand, and another two men five hundred each to help him carry it.
Soon enough they’re back. The park worker sets the ladder up at the base of the tree. This time it’s tall enough. Several strong people brace the bottom to make sure it stays steady once I start to climb down.
It’s the perfect solution.
The only problem is, I can’t seem to let go of the tree branch. It’s like my muscles have fused around it. I blow out a shaky breath.
“Okay, Violet,” Gage calls. “It’s sturdy. You can come down now.”
I nod. But I can’t quite bring myself to meet his gaze.
“Just a sec,” I call. “I’m trying to figure out how to do this while holding the cat.”
Gage scowls. For a second I think he’s going to yell at me to stop being sentimental and leave the damn cat behind.
Instead, he wordlessly shrugs out of his designer suit jacket and hands it to someone. Then he starts climbing up the ladder to me. Once he reaches the top he gently reaches out and takes the cat from me. The cat has been fighting me tooth and nail, but she curls up against Gage’s chest and starts purring.
Traitor.
“Thanks,” I say. “You can go down the ladder now. I’ll follow.”
“Not until you show me you can let go of that branch,” he says firmly.
I roll my eyes. “I’m not an idiot.”
“I never said you were. But I think you might be scared. That’s a good thing.”
My eyes flash to his. “How?”
“It means you understand how serious this is. But that’s why I need you to be brave,” he says, and for a crazy moment, it feels like maybe we’re talking about more than my being stuck up a tree.
