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Hands on hips, she said, “I already did. Outside.”
His expression turned serious. “Fair enough. My sister loved the trapeze.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek, and another taunt sparked in his eyes. “I’m going up, and I promise not to call you a sissy if you don’t.”
By the time she realized he saidlovedand notloves, he was halfway up the ladder. She felt like her heart was clawing its way out of her chest in an effort to catch up to him.Loved.You lost a sister?
“Coming up, Tiff?”
Gigi’s voice pulled her back to the moment. This place, this event, and his friendship with Gigi, were important to Dylan, and he’dchosento bring her there.A hundred years I’ve known this guy, and never has he brought a woman in to play until now.
She wasn’t about to let him down.
Five minutes later Tiffany stood on shaky legs with her toes peeking over the edge of the way-too-high platform, gripping the trapeze bar so tightly her knuckles blanched, and watching Dylan swing like a monkey in freaking paradise over the net.
“Come on, Summers! You can do this,” he called out to her as he maneuvered his big body so he was hanging by his legs. He made it look so easy!
And she was petrified.
Sure she’d die.
Fall right through the holes in that netting and splat on the concrete floor.
“It didn’t look so high from down there,” she said to Gigi, who had given her a quick how-to on the art of trapeze swinging, falling, and jumping. She was pretty sure she’d master the falling part, no problem. The rest? Not so much.
“I know. It’s crazy how scary it feels. Just remember, all you have to do is let go and land on your butt. Pull your legs up into an L-shape and it’ll be just like when you were little and jumped on a trampoline.”
“Right.” She’d never jumped on a trampoline. Her childhood had been spent keeping up with her older brothers, playing football and baseball and basketball at local fields with the other kids from the neighborhood so she wasn’t ever left behind.
“At first all you want to do is get used to the feel of swinging and falling.”
“Falling. Right.”I can do this.
“Summers!” Dylan called. He was sitting on the trapeze bar like it was a chair. One leg was bent, his foot flat along the narrow bar, the other hung below him, and he had one arm around the cable. When had he changed his position?
For you, I can do this.“Yeah?” she called out.
“You look hot, babe.” His smile told her he was trying to put her at ease, but he was having the opposite effect. She was getting even more flustered.
“He’s so into you,” Gigi said. “If I were you, I’d just stand here and let him gawk for a while. Really play it up.”
Tiffany’s ears perked up. That seemed far less scary than jumping, but she was already leaning out over the trapeze, straining to hold on to the bar, and the only thing keeping her from leaving the platform was Gigi’s grip on the back of her harness.
“Next time I’ll play it up. I think I’m ready.”
“Don’tlook down,” Gigi said.
Tiffany’s eyes dropped. Why did she have to be so rebellious? Renewed fear ate at her. She forced her eyes up to Dylan again, strengthening her motivation not to let him down, and drew in a deep breath. “Okay, let go!”
Gigi released her and Tiffany pushed off the platform, flying down and then up toward Dylan, who was hollering, “That’s my girl!”
Air blasted against her skin. She heard screaming and realized it was coming from her. She was screaming like a little girl as she soared backward, fighting through heart-thumping fear. Dylan’s handsome face came into view again as she swung forward, and a second later she was soaring backward again, still screaming. Hysterical laughter came out of nowhere, causing her to lose her grip. She fell like lead to the net and bounced like a Ping-Pong ball. Dylan landed on the other side of the net, sending her up into the air again, laughing as he made his way over and she tumbled into his bear hug.
“You did it!” He kissed her everywhere—her cheeks, her lips, her forehead, and her lips again—laughing and hugging her so tight she hoped he’d never let go.
“OH MY GOD that was insane!” Tiffany laughed, clinging to Dylan so tightly he was afraid to let go.
She’d been opening up to him so much more lately, he wanted to experience every bit of this with her. “Were you scared? What did it feel like?”
Her smile reached all the way up to her eyes. “It was crazy. Like nothing else existed. Fear swallowed me whole, just like Gigi said it would, and then thereyouwere, and you looked so happy…” She pressed her lips to his and then all that giddiness disappeared and her expression turned serious. “We have to do it again. I lost my grip.”
