The Supermodel's Best Friend

by Gretchen Galway

  “Will you please shut up?”

  At that moment Alex’s head appeared, climbing up from below on the trail. He was short of breath and had a bloody streak across one cheek. “I hope I’m not late. I took a detour and had a little tumble. It was steeper than it looked!”

  “You dumbass,” Huntley said, walking over and slapping him on the shoulder. “Trying to ruin my wedding by getting yourself killed?”

  Alex put a hand on his cheek. “It was nothing. Just afraid of missing the ceremony.” He scanned the group and beamed when he noticed Lucy. He strode right to her. “Have I missed anything?”

  “My sister won’t be here, so let’s get it going,” Huntley said.

  Celeste faltered at that news. “It won’t be the same without her—”

  “She’s in London until tomorrow. Please continue.”

  Celeste looked around and seemed to finally absorb the lack of enthusiasm. “Well, she’ll be here in spirit! Everyone link hands.”

  It took a few minutes, but eventually everyone was circling the tree. Miles had Lucy’s right, and Alex had her left. Fawn’s family was next to Miles, and Krista and Betty closed the circle with Fawn and the Sterlings on the other side.

  “New Age bullshit,” said Larry, Fawn’s father, just as Celeste began to sing.

  Alex shushed him and tried to share a disapproving look with Lucy. Lucy was too busy trying to ignore how warm and strong Miles’s big hand felt around hers.

  “My God, I can’t wait to ride that line,” Alex whispered in her ear. “Ten minutes soaring over the redwood canopy. Awesome.”

  Her throat went dry. “Ten minutes?”

  “Maybe more. They’ve got gondolas and platforms strung all over the forest.”

  “It wasn’t on the website,” she said.

  “Huntley made them keep it a secret for the wedding. It’s brand new.”

  So new it probably hadn’t been tested properly. “Wonderful,” she muttered. She craned her neck back, estimating the top of the platform was twenty feet up from where they stood. That was bad enough.

  The path the line took through the trees and over the creek below, however, was an impossible journey into groundless green and blue space.

  Celeste began to sing in a language she didn’t recognize. Somebody was playing drums.

  There was no way the Sterlings would climb up there. Geri had a bad hip, so she wouldn’t even try. Fawn’s dad, Larry, weighed over three hundred pounds; they probably wouldn’t let him ride even if he wanted to. And his wife,Val, never left his side. Krista and Betty would be good sports, and the groomsmen. And Huntley, of course, though he sure was shaping up to be a disappointment in the stand-by-me department.

  Fawn needed visible support. And Lucy was the maid of honor.

  Celeste stopped singing and clapped. The group dropped their hands, most backing away from the tree, and some lined up below the platform. Betty was first. She climbed up right before Krista, who asked if they could go more than once. Huntley assured her they could as long as nobody died.

  While the first volunteers climbed up, Fawn went to talk to her family.

  Alex put his palm on Lucy’s back. “You can go in front of me.” He had a camera around his neck. “This is going to be incredible.”

  “No, please,” she said. “I’d rather you went first.”

  “I don’t mind, really,” Alex said.

  “No, I’d like to wait for Fawn.”

  “If you’re sure…”

  Lucy assured him she was and he left her to climb up the ladder after Huntley.

  After a couple of minutes, Fawn waved at her mother, father, and stepmother as they got into one of the electric cars.

  The Sterlings just stood there, watching. Their flat and unreadable eyes followed Fawn wherever she went.

  Lucy had to participate in the activities and look like she enjoyed them.

  Miles touched her arm. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Just the thought of climbing the ladder made her knees buckle. But she had to, especially now that Miles thought she couldn’t. “Of course.” She walked over to the base of the platform. It cast a dark shadow. The wooden rungs were damp, a little slippery.

  Her body released a panicked dose of adrenaline into her bloodstream. Focusing on the rungs one by one, only the ones she could see, she made her way up slowly.

  Very slowly. Her nerves vibrated.

  Eventually, with her heart hammering against her ribs, she saw flat planks. A railing around the top. Other people.

  She wouldn’t look at the harnesses. How Huntley was getting strapped into one, Alex right behind him.

  Sucking in shallow breaths, she stepped forward. Just another person waiting to go on the fun little ride, no big deal.

  Sweat dripped down her forehead. She tried to focus on the horizon and not the ground below, not the delicate cable stretching out over nothingness. All that open air. Birds gliding beneath them.

  She put her hands on her knees.

  “Lucy?”

  She heard Miles’s voice through a fog, felt the ground tilt.

  “I’ve got her,” Miles said. “Stand back.”

  She realized somebody was lifting her. Her head bumped against a big, steady chest—a wall of fleece.

  Miles.

  She blinked away the stars. “Put me down. I’m fine.”

  “Of course you are. You just need a minute.” He took his time setting her down on the platform.

  She was relieved to sit. More points of contact between her body and solidity. If she closed her eyes she could pretend she was on a deck only a few inches above ground. “Thanks.”

  His hand settled on the back of her head and guided it down between her knees. “Breathe deeply. Slowly.”

  “I’ll be fine. I’m fine.”

  He didn’t say anything, just waited. She drew in more air and waited for the black edges of her vision to recede. When her head felt like it had reattached itself to her neck, she lifted it up slowly and gently pushed his hand away. “Really, I’m fine now.”

  This time he did move back. Just a little. She met his gaze and they stared at each other for a moment, not smiling, not speaking.

  She could look at him forever.

  “Lucy!” Fawn’s head appeared as she climbed up onto the platform. “What is it?”

  “I’m fine. Fine. Just needed to sit down for a minute.”

  Alex strode over wearing a half-attached harness. “I didn’t realize what was happening.”

  Miles held up his hands, palms out. “She needs a minute and some space. So she can climb back down.”

  “But—what’s the matter? Are you hurt?” Alex asked.

  “Lucy, I’m sorry, I didn’t think,” Fawn said.

  Alex squatted down next to Lucy and pointed at the zip line. “You really should just try it once. He’s pretty far now, but can you see Huntley just—there!—can you see him? Look at him soar! He’s got to be two hundred feet in the air. Higher than the redwoods! Just flying—”

  Lucy’s vision went sparkly at the edges.

  “Down you go,” Miles said, gently pushing her head back down.

  “Alex, Miles is right,” Fawn said. “She’s got a… thing. I’ll explain later. You go. They’re ready for you.”

  “Well, okay,” Alex said. “I’ll see you at the bottom.”

  When she was pretty sure he was gone, Lucy asked Miles, “How did you know?”

  “I’ve seen that look before,” he said. “Been that way your whole life?”

  She grunted. “Little bit. Got worse when I was a teenager.”

  “I had this one kid, real tough. Dodging drug dealers in West Oakland didn’t faze him, but he wouldn’t go near a Ferris wheel.”

  She nodded. “They make me tingle in all the wrong places.”

  “I’d like to hear more about that later.”

  “I bet,” she said weakly.

  He patted her on the back. “Sorry. Keep tak
ing deep breaths.”

  She obliged, glad she hadn’t eaten much. No way was she going to watch her best friend dangle around on some dental floss in the sky. “I’d like to get out of here,” she whispered.

  “All right. Can you walk?”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  “I’ll go first and clear the way.”

  She toddled after him, gripping the railing and staring at her hands. Giving up on the zip line did wonders for her composure. She was able to turn around and find the rungs with her feet without another wave of dizziness or nausea. The descent was slow, full of pauses, but she made it.

  She let him help her to the ground at the bottom but was grateful when he released her without comment. He had every right to make fun of her.

  The Sterlings were gone, as were Fawn’s father and stepmother. Geri was looking up with her hands over her eyes, peeking through her fingers. “I can’t watch,” she said.

  “Me neither,” Lucy muttered on her way to the path.

  An unexpected wave of dizziness hit her when she eyed the trail down the hill. Climbing up, the ridge hadn’t seemed so high and steep, but now—

  “This is so annoying,” she said, putting her hands on her knees.

  Miles put an arm around her. “We’ll take the last car.”

  He waved down the staffer with the mustache.

  In a few minutes they were side by side in the little electric car and heading down a paved, narrow path, not nearly as steep as the foot trail. She didn’t risk a look up at the platform, not even when she heard Fawn scream.

  It was a long, dwindling scream. The kind a person might make while they hurtled to certain death.

  “She’s fine. She’s just having fun,” Miles said.

  Lucy always felt ridiculous when she had an episode like this. Her father said her mother had been the same way, and sometimes she let that thought comfort her, that she had this connection to her. A genetic phobia.

  A slow, winding drive later, the car reached the lodge. Groucho—no, Miles called him Shawn—parked in front. “There’s a free wine tasting until six. Would you like to get off here?”

  “No, thanks,” Lucy said. “I just want to go to my cabin.” She was recovered enough to be distracted by the long, muscular thigh pressed against hers. Miles wasn’t intentionally touching her; he was just too big not to. He looked uncomfortable, all hunched over.

  “Ceanothus coming up,” Shawn said, and the cart puttered back onto the path.

  When they reached her cabin, Lucy stepped out onto the ground. Nice ground.

  Miles joined her and sent Shawn on his way. “You should eat,” he said. To her relief, he didn’t try to help her inside, though she was still feeling a little lightheaded as she climbed the stairs and unlocked the door.

  “I just need to lie down.”

  “Want me to get you something from the restaurant? It’s dinnertime.”

  “No, thanks.” She bent over to unlace her boots but Miles got there first, surprisingly quick for such a big man.

  “You don’t want to be leaning over like that just yet.” He slipped off each boot and set them neatly by the door. Her socks were thick but she felt naked having him touch her feet. She took off her jacket and padded over to the bed while he hung it up.

  She sat on the edge. “You don’t have to do that. I usually just throw it over a chair.”

  He lingered by the door. “You really should let me get you something to eat.”

  “The thought of all that white food just makes me feel worse.”

  “Fun gimmick they’ve got going on. Makes me want to order ketchup.”

  “Man, I’d kill for a burger, and not a turkey one.” She lifted her feet up onto the bed and pretended to yawn. Having him around was uncomfortable. What they’d done that afternoon was still too fresh in both their minds.

  “Mendocino is only a few miles but the bike wouldn’t be safe for you just yet.”

  “No, really. I’m fine. You can go.”

  He watched her from the door for a moment, then turned to leave. “All right.”

  “Miles.”

  “Lucy?”

  She stared, not sure what she could say. “About this afternoon…”

  “Sorry about that.”

  “We just want different things. It wouldn’t work,” she said.

  “All right.”

  She couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t look angry, but she felt like she’d hurt him somehow. “Thanks for helping me get back to my cabin.”

  “You’re welcome. Now get some rest. You have an iPod or something you want me to bring to you? No TV here in paradise.”

  “I’m fine.”

  He opened the door and nodded. “Right. Sorry. I’ll get out of your way.”

  When he was gone, Lucy let out a long breath and sank back on the pillows.

  Her mind swam with images and impressions of him. The feel of his lips, the smell of his skin, the gentle patience of his tree top rescue mission.

  Did he have to be so nice on top of all that sexual charisma?

  Damn it, it wasn’t enough. She needed the boring stuff that would last. Long-term compatibility. Mutual goals.

  She couldn’t give up on having a family. All her life she’d wanted that simple thing: two people living together in legally binding, semi-permanent domestic harmony.

  So she wasn’t so special. So she was a walking cliché, maybe like his last girlfriend, wanting to catch any guy before her body gave out.

  But growing up in the upstairs corner of a Berkeley fourplex with her father, without regular meals or a garden or siblings—hell, or even a goldfish—had left a hole inside her. Life was lonely and unreliable when your only family was an antisocial widower with borderline Asperger’s. Dad hid out in his office and left her to deal with everything else, uninterested in most of the real world. No grandparents, no cousins, no mother.

  It was just common sense to seek out another person looking for the same things she was.

  If only Miles…

  She dozed off. When she woke to a knock on the door, the windows were dark. Disoriented, struggling to shake off a deliciously hot dream about Miles kissing her, she put her feet on the floor.

  Another knock. Heart beating a little too fast, she went over to the mirror and patted down her hair before opening the door.

  Alex stood there holding a tray draped with white linen. “I took the liberty of bringing the restaurant to you.”

  She let him in and tried to hide her disappointment. Of course it wasn’t Miles; she’d sent him away. “I forgot. We had a date, didn’t we?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not offended.” He set the tray on the small circular table near the mini-fridge and pulled off the white cloth and white ceramic cover with a flourish. “Tilapia Alfredo. With fresh sourdough and artichoke soup.”

  The smell of the fish made her stomach turn over, but the bread and soup looked all right. “There’s only one plate. Where’s yours?”

  “I hope you don’t mind, but I ate with the Sterlings. After that little ceremony in the woods they looked like they’d enjoy some civilized conversation.”

  “I thought you liked the zip line.”

  “It was incredible. Just inappropriate to the occasion. Anyone would know Rosalind and Huntley Sterling wouldn’t appreciate it.”

  “You know Huntley’s parents?”

  “I made a point of it when I met him in college. His father is quite the altruist, especially as he enters his golden years, and I’ve been very lucky to know him.” Alex pulled out a chair in front of the meal and Lucy felt obligated to sit in it. “I wasn’t likely to meet many billionaires where I grew up.”

  She picked up her fork. “So few of us are.”

  “Indeed.”

  “Please sit. You’re making me nervous.”

  Alex laughed and sat on the edge of the bed near her. “I thought the soup was a little too salty, but it’s all they had. Cute idea, th
ough, all the white.”

  She dipped a corner of bread in the soup and took a bite. “Cute.”

  “I’ve actually developed quite a relationship with Huntley the Second over the years.” He leaned over and plucked a slice of sourdough off her plate. “That’s a nickname a few of us have the pleasure of using. Truth is, I think of him as the father I never had. Even though he’s on the other side of the country, that isn’t a problem when you’ve got unlimited funds and technology at your fingertips.” He chewed off a corner of the bread.

  Lucy nodded and tried to eat while he talked. It was probably good to get something inside her stomach, though she had to shove the tilapia to one side and focus on not breathing in the fishy steam smell. Alex went on about the nonprofit work he’d done over the years and she pushed the food around, trying to look like she was listening. After a few minutes, though, her mind drifted to the scene near the tree and she wondered how Fawn was doing. She hadn’t come back to the cabin.

  I wonder if she survived. He’d tell me if she fell to her death, right?

  “You don’t eat much, do you?”

  She realized she’d been sitting there staring off into space. The plate was still buried under the mounds of white, lumpy rubble that had been her meal. “I’m sorry, I’m just not hungry.”

  “Oh, I don’t mind. Totally makes sense that a petite woman like yourself wouldn’t need to eat very much.”

  “Don’t get the wrong idea. Usually I chow down like a horse. Just not right now.” She stood up, looked at the phone to see if the message light was blinking. It wasn’t. “I wonder if Fawn’s okay. I expected to see her by now.”

  Alex picked up another slice of bread. “She was at the restaurant. I told her I was coming over.” He met her eyes and held them. “She’s probably happy to be with Huntley, anyway.”

  Lucy sat back down at the table. She better be happy, or some pretty blond head is gonna roll. “Good. I didn’t want her to worry about me.”

  “I’m sure she’s not. She told me you’d always had a fear of heights. In fact, I’m surprised you even climbed up to make the attempt, knowing you might, you know—”

  “Puke or faint?”

  He smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. Peer pressure can be tough to resist.”

  “You know, Alex,” she said, getting up, “I think I’ll need to take a raincheck on our date. I’d like to crash for the night so I can”—she paused—“do the sunrise yoga class in the morning.”