by Stacy Borel
The puppy was vigorously running around the room, tossing toys in the air and making them squeak.
I thought about how to best answer him. “Yes, I enjoyed it. At first, I was terrified. I’d never been inside a car that could go that fast. Turner ended up going around once, showing me that he had complete control of the vehicle. I know he wanted to push it to the limits, but I wasn’t having it. He even asked if I wanted to drive it!”
I closed my eyes and remembered how the wind whipped around me and everything breezed by so fast I couldn’t make out shapes. What I remembered most though, was the way Turner looked at me, letting me know he had me. I knew when his blue eyes met mine, he was going to keep me safe. He didn’t even have to say anything to me, I just knew.
Camden chuckled. “Turner always was the one to push the boundaries.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we were kids he was always the first one on the roller coasters, or jumping off the roof of the house onto something. I thought Mom and Dad were going to give him up for adoption or give him away on a street corner.”
I tilted my head to the side, more curious than before. “So he’s a bit of an adrenaline junky?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
A worker popped her head in. “How’s it going?”
“He’s amazing!” Keegan clamored.
“He’s a sweet boy. Would you guys like to see any other dogs?”
Keegan and Camden looked at each other. “There was a female we saw, but it seems like Cam really likes this little guy,” Keegan told her.
The worker beamed. “Well, if you’d like, I can start processing his paperwork while you speak to one of our adoption agents and they can give you all of his info.”
“That would be great, thanks,” Camden agreed. He was holding the puppy on a leash, and I could tell this was the little fella they were going to go home with today.
When the worker closed the door, Keegan turned back toward me. “Okay, so now what? Are you two going to go out on another date?”
“I agreed to a second date. I just don’t know where he’s taking me.”
“How exciting,” she shrilled.
“Calm down, Keegan. It’s just a damn date. Not like they are walking down the aisle,” Camden scolded.
She slapped his arm. “Shut up.”
I shook my head. “Definitely no weddings for me. This girl has vowed to live the life of singlehood.”
“Why?” Camden asked, completely contradicting what he just said to Keegan a moment ago.
I stared at him. “Because I’m not interested. You become so invested in someone, giving your full self over to another person, and then what? What happens when they die? What would you do? How do you go on? I’m sorry, but I’d rather not go there.”
Keegan looked sad. “Didn’t know you felt that way.”
“It’s called self-preservation. I don’t knock anyone who gets married and has a family and all that, but it’s just not for me. I decided this a long time ago.”
Technically, it wasn’t that long ago. Around the time of my parents death I made a vow to myself that that if I didn’t give my emotions to another, I’d spare them the grief and agony if something ever happened to me and vice versa. I didn’t care that most people didn’t get it. In fact, it’s why I rarely ever spoke about it. Everyone who has met me since my parent’s accident just thinks I’m some indifferent cold hearted bitch or a lesbian. When the reality is, I’m neither.
“Oh, can we change the subject for a minute?” I asked. Refusing to actually keep talking about my date and love life.
“Sure, what’s up?” Keegan replied.
We were being led out of the puppy play room and Camden was greeted by one of the adoption agents. They were currently going over the puppy’s records, while Keegan and I sat back and chatted.
“You sure did miss some action the other night.”
“Oh yeah? What happened?”
“We got a mother in that was a severe addict. Any drug you could think of, it was in her system. She was so awful—belligerent, yelling, and the worst part, she didn’t care about the son she’d just given birth to. I’m hoping in all the years I’m a nurse, that’s the worst that I see.”
Keegan’s eyes were wide. “I heard about that one. Didn’t know you were the delivering nurse. When was this?”
“My shift right after the wedding.”
“How’s the baby?”
I paused. “Actually, I don’t know. I had planned on stopping in to check on him yesterday, but was beat after I clocked out. I think I’ll head into the NICU tomorrow before I go in. He was such a little guy. Hoping he’s a fighter.”
She rubbed my arm. “No doubt. And it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t on that day. Lord knows I would have throttled that woman.”
“Oh, it took everything in me to not grab her by her face and say, ‘wake the hell up, your baby needs you.’ Of course I didn’t and went and blew off some steam in the stair well. Speaking of, someone really needs to put a dart board in there. Sure would help when I’m catching a breather.”
She giggled. “Definitely.”
“Hey, baby, I need you to come over here and sign some papers,” Camden called for her.
Awe, puppy time for the happy couple. I took a step back and let her go be with her husband. Heading to the cat room, I sat down as the little purring furballs surrounded me. Sighing I thought to myself. Ah, yes, destined to forever be a cat lady. I didn’t know if that made me happy, or sad. Either way, it’s how it was going to be.
***
Turner
Sitting in my office on the fourth floor of the hospital, I was staring out my wall of windows instead of doing the paperwork that I was desperately behind on. This was ludicrous. It had been almost two weeks since I’d taken Annabelle out on our first date, and I had yet to plan our next one. Things in the operating room had been hectic, and I barely had any time to myself, let alone trying to schedule something. I felt terrible. Even worse, I had a fucking hell of a time concentrating on anything that didn’t have to do with her.
The one time I’d managed to pick up the phone, her line had just started ringing when I had been called out to an emergency surgery. I’ve been frustrated. So frustrated, that one day not too long ago, I found myself down on her floor, outside the nursery window, peeping in on her like some creeper. I’d watched as she tenderly gave a newborn its first bath. There were other nurses in the room, and a couple had taken notice of me, but thankfully none of them tipped her off that I was around. I watched her for a couple minutes and decided it was best to leave. I’d considered poking my head in to see how she was doing since we hadn’t spoken, but it didn’t seem like the time or the place to do it. Women got all weird being around babies, and I swear it was like you could hear their ovaries exploding when they saw, heard, or smelled a newborn. I didn’t want any part of that. Instead, I went back to my office, called her cell phone, and left her a message apologizing for being MIA for so long. I’d consider myself lucky if she actually called me back.
I was relentlessly clicking my pen when my cell on my desk buzzed. I sighed. Whoever was calling was going to get the not so pleasant side to me. I was not in the mood to shoot the shit or talk. Picking it up, I looked at the screen and stopped in my tracks. It was her. Jesus, she was the last person I was expecting to hear from.
“Hello, Annabelle.”
“Hi,” she responded.
“You must’ve got my message?”
“I did,” she stated matter of fact.
I twisted back and forth. “Good. I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I tried calling a while ago, but timing didn’t work out to well.”
“Apology accepted. Everything okay up there?”
“Yeah, just busier than normal. Kids are busting their asses at football practice and coming in left and right with injuries. Regardless, I have a day off on Friday. You working?”
“I�
��m pretty sure I’m off, let me check.”
She was rustling through some papers, when she finally came back on the line and said, “I’m free.”
I smiled. “Okay, I was thinking we could do something a little more active this time. You down?”
“Turner,” she said with a tone that dared me to not push her limits again. Too bad, Princess, it’s happening.
“No race cars or tracks this time, I promise. Just light walking, and fresh air.”
She stayed quiet for longer than I’d hoped. I was about to ask her if she was still there when she responded, “No race cars?”
Annabelle’s sweet voice caused things to stir under my scrubs. “Cross my heart.”
“All right. When will you be by to get me?”
I thought about it. “I’ll be by around eight in the morning. And again, dress casual.”
“Sounds good.”
“See you soon, Annabelle.” My voice was deeper than before.
Her breathing was a little heavier. “Bye, Turner.”
“Bye.”
I hit “End” on my phone and set it on my desk. It was most definitely wrong that I led her to believe that this was going to be a docile outing. But I didn’t care. On this date, she was going to have plenty of time to talk to me and tell me more about herself. I also didn’t mention that she wasn’t going to be able to get too far away from me either if conversation got to be too much for her. Come to think of it, she may hate me by the end of Friday, but at least I will have spent the time with her that I was in need of. Now, it was time to make a couple of calls and get this shit set up.
Chapter Six
Annabelle
TURNER HAD PICKED ME UP almost an hour ago and we’d been driving west for quite some time. I had no clue where he was taking me, but we were definitely headed into the mountains. I did my very best to hide my discomfort with the twists and turns and being this high up. Turner didn’t know that my parents had died on a windy mountain road, and I didn’t plan on telling him either. He made a turn into a national forest preserve and drove back a couple of miles. When he parked, I looked around. All my eyes could see were pine trees, and a creek that ran next to a paved trail. There were no signs indicating what he had planned for us. I started to wonder if it really was going to be a low key date and maybe he knew of a spot that we would walk to and sit and talk. Oh God, talking. Just as scary as riding in a race car.
“You ready?”
“Mhmm.” I stated, “I have never been here before.”
He smiled a dazzling grin at me. “I haven’t either. Let’s go.”
He hadn’t been here before? Then how in the world did he know where he was taking me? I’d assumed he was taking me on a hike or walk. Maybe a friend or one of his brothers told him about this place and he was going to see if we could find it together. I didn’t wait for him to help me out of his Jeep. Yes, this time he picked me up in a two-door, Jeep Wrangler. It was lifted and had massive tires on it. He helped me up into it when he picked me up. Getting out of it, there was nothing graceful about it. You simply fell out. When he got to my side, he chuckled.
“You all right there?”
I stood straight. “I’m good.”
He took my hand with no hesitation and led me to the trail. Turner had a back pack with him and I wondered what was in it.
“You have some sort of weapons in there you plan on massacring my body with and burying me out in these woods?”
He burst out with a full bellied laugh. “No, but that was creative, I’ll give you that one.”
I slowed to give a small bow.
“I have some snacks and a couple water bottles in case we get hungry,” he answered seriously.
“Gotcha.”
“So any clue where we are going?”
“Not a single one.”
“Perfect.”
He wanted me in the dark. This trail we were walking on was beautiful. Wild flowers lined the edges of the path and the water running through the creek bed was so serene it made me want to sit and stick my feet in it. We walked around a corner and a wooden sign was off to the left with a couple arrows pointing in different directions. Up ahead, the pavement split in different ways. As we approached the split, we took the path that made my stomach drop. It was titled, “The Gulch Zip Line.”
What. The. Fuck.
“Turner, what are you having us do?”
He was kind of pulling me along now. “It’ll be fun. Trust me.”
Trust. That was a huge word that, frankly, was tossed around and definitely not given freely by me. You had to earn it. There was a building that looked like a forest ranger cabin a few yards in front of us. You’d never even know this place was here unless you knew where to look. Literally, our whole drive, not one sign mentioned zip lining. The log building was small and square, but when we went inside, there were a couple televisions that lined the walls with images of groups wearing safety gear, posing for the cameras and having fun. Turner released my hand and went to the counter.
“Hi, we’re here for a private guide. Reservation under Turner Brooks,” he told the person sitting behind the counter.
“Yes, sir. We were expecting you.” She pulled a couple papers from a plastic organizer in front of her. “I just need you both to fill out these forms and sign the waiver on the back. We can get you all set up after that.”
Turner shifted to look at me. I stepped up beside him and looked at the stuff I was supposed to fill out. Most of it was standard information. The one that made me pause, was the paper that basically said they assumed no responsibility if death or injury occurred while on the course. So, was I supposed to just sign my life away?
“Uh, ma’am?” I asked.
“Yes?” She smiled like nothing about these things was odd.
I tapped the paper with my pen. “This one right here. Umm, can I ask how often, if something does happen, does one get hurt while doing this?”
She shook her head. “Oh, it’s just a basic form. But I can tell you, in the two years that I’ve worked here, we’ve only had one accident, and that wasn’t even because the person was on the course. They hadn’t taken their meds and went into diabetic shock from low sugar levels.”
Did she not realize this was still not reassuring to me?
“Okay, but what kind of things could happen while doing this?”
Her head tilted to the side, and she was totally perplexed by my question. “Well, I suppose anything. Accidents do happen, but I assure you, the whole course is safe. One of our guides goes through it first thing in the morning checking the lines and making sure that everything is tightly bolted to the trees. It really is very safe. Just try to relax and have some fun. Almost everyone that comes through here is nervous in some way, shape, or form. You’ve got this.”
Her pep talk sucked. I just wanted to clip her onto one of the lines in the trees and fling her down it while I yelled profanities about her crazy ass.
Turner remained quiet while I had my freak out with the poor worker. I was surprised he didn’t jump in and try to settle my frazzled nerves. Honestly, it was probably for the best. She was a stranger to me and I wouldn’t lash out at a stranger. If he had tried to speak to me, I would have punched him in the arm. Not that the big guy would have even felt it.
I went ahead and signed the papers, even though I truly wanted nothing more than to take off running back in the direction we’d just came. After I passed them back, we were instructed to go into a side room where helmets, straps, and all sorts of other contraptions were hanging from the walls. A male worker, named Joe, helped fit us into the proper gear. He explained to us what the straps were for, and how we were going to sit in the harnesses when we got to the first platform. I slipped my helmet on my head and I could feel heat creeping up my cheeks. I’m sure I looked ridiculous. But when I glanced at Turner, he winked at me. A couple little flutters went through me and I looked down at the ground. I saw his feet come into my line of vision and
a finger tipped my chin up, forcing me to look at him. He stood too close. And why in the hell did he look so good with such a dumb hard hat?
“I see your thoughts flying across you face. You’re beautiful.”
The crystal blue of his eyes and the heartfelt tone in his voice, I had no choice but to listen.
“Thank you. You’re sweet.”
He leaned in and spoke into my ear, “And you are even sweeter. Seriously, you smell like cotton candy every time I’m near you and I’m beginning to wonder if you taste like it too.”
He stepped back from me and directed his attention to Joe. Okeydokey, now how was I supposed to respond to that? My heart took a hiatus for a solid ten seconds, while my underwear felt entirely too damp. There I was nervous about this rope course, but the man who stood next to me caused reactions inside me that I’d never felt before. He was more dangerous than I had given him credit.
Swallowing hard, I pushed my thoughts aside and followed Joe and Turner out to the path behind the building. There was a white van that, I guess, we were supposed to get in to. We drove up a mountain side that seemed like a straight shot up from where we’d just come from. I was going over every possible thing that could cause me to fall to my death including who would take care of my poor Chaz if I died?
Once at the top of the starting tower, Turner stepped out to the main platform and I followed behind him. I know he wanted to grab my hand, but was likely picking up on my vibes that I wasn’t really in the mood to be touched. I needed some space so I could breathe through this. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I had to make that first step off to free fall. If that’s what you’d even call it.
We walked over to an extended wooden platform where a wire cable hung across the top of a forest. Okay that was a seriously long drop. This was crazy. Turner was crazy. I was crazy. I’d rather be in a race car right about now hauling ass around the track, not getting ready to fling myself off this platform and expect these wires to hold my happy ass long enough until I’m on the other side.
“So, let’s go over a couple of things,” Joe said, in a serious tone. “The other guide is already here, and she is down on the other end waiting to meet you both after your first jump. I want you to hold the wire in the back, never in the front. You hold it up front, you could lose a finger. At the end down there, you’ll see a block. It will help slow you down so you don’t go speeding into poor Serenity.” He chuckled at his own joke. “She’s sturdy, but I think she’d move before she lets y’all run her over.”