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“This must be Oberon encouraging me to push through my comfort zone,” she said resigning herself.
“He would do that?” Gage asked, looking surprised.
“Everything here is by design,” she told him. “Everything.”
“He knows you’re afraid of heights?” Gage asked.
She thought back to the week she had spent at the Center, wondering if she had offered that info at any point.
“He probably extrapolated it from the activities I chose to partake in and the ones I didn’t,” she realized out loud.
“Why would he want to scare you now?” Gage asked, a furrow appearing on his perfect brow.
She pushed down the wild impulse that told her to kiss it away.
“He wants us to bond,” she said. “He wants you to help me get across the bridge.”
The bridge creaked, as if in agreement, and they both turned back to it.
This time, Naomi tried to focus on the other side of the bridge, where the path picked up again. She could see the cool, modern-looking house where their dinner was probably waiting. Warm light glowed in all the windows.
“It’s not that far,” she ventured.
Athena, who had reached the end of the bridge long before, barked once, as if to remind them they had places to be.
“I guess she wants her dinner, too,” Naomi joked weakly.
“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Gage told her, his voice calm and slow. “Try to keep your focus on the other side of the bridge.”
She nodded once and stepped forward, willing herself not to think about anything but her destination, where her dinner awaited.
When you get there, you get more than dinner.
Fear and desire swirled in her belly, making her feel almost dizzy, and she hadn’t set one foot on the bridge yet.
“Where do you want me?” Gage asked her, his steady voice an anchor in her sea of emotion.
“Behind me, maybe?” she suggested. “And Athena in front.”
“We can definitely do that,” he told her. “Athena, let’s go.”
The dog trotted casually out onto the bridge as if she spent half her life precariously standing over a mountain-height chasm.
Naomi took a deep breath and followed.
Don’t look down, don’t look at the grate.
She fixed her eyes on the far end of the bridge and the warm, yellow light in the windows of the house.
Her shoes clanked on the metal, and she nearly looked down, but managed to stay focused.
She could feel the breeze even here on the edge of the bridge. She would probably feel it coming up from underneath too once they were out in the middle.
“You okay?” Gage asked from behind her.
“Fine,” she managed.
His feet hit the bridge, and she felt it sway slightly as it took his weight.
