Side Trip(29)

Joy held her breath. Her heart pulsed in her throat. What if the cord snapped? What if he died? She clasped her hands in prayer. Please don’t die. She couldn’t witness someone lose their life, not again. And Dylan was kind of growing on her.

“Lean forward and drop,” Griff explained, repeating what they’d gone over in the parking lot. “Don’t fight the cord, let it do its work. We’ll reel you in. Give us the word and we’ll count you down.”

Dylan pushed out a breath. He forced out another. “Go!”

“Three . . . two . . . one!”

Dylan tipped forward and let go; then he was gone. Joy rushed to the rail and peered over. She heard a loud whoop echo off the sides of the ravine and saw Dylan give them a fist pump as he swung upside down. Joy sagged against the rail. Tears scalded her eyes. He was alive, thank God.

In less than a minute they were reeling Dylan up, and moments later helping him over the side. The entire jump took less than four minutes.

“That was amazing,” Dylan shouted. A large grin split his handsomely rugged face. As soon as the guys got him out of the harness, he grabbed up Joy and swung her around. “Best. Feeling. Ever!”

She squealed, releasing nerves and tension as much as sharing in his excitement.

“You’re up, Joy,” Griff announced.

She gasped. “Oh my God.”

Matt clipped on the bungee, a giant umbilical cord. Her lifeline to . . . life.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. I’m really doing this?”

“You bet,” Dylan said. “You got this.”

“I got this,” she parroted. All logical thinking escaped through the back door of her brain.

He clapped her shoulder.

Matt tried to assist her up the side. Her foot slipped, and her palms were too wet. She couldn’t get a decent grasp on the rail. Memories flickered. Headlights flared. Tires squealed. Metal crumpled. “I can’t do this,” she said, backing away from the rail. She started breathing erratically, recalling the last time she’d felt a free-falling sensation in the pit of her stomach. She wanted to cry.

“Do you want to jump?” Griff asked.

“Yes,” she said, and then shook her head.

“Well, which is it?”

“I want to jump, but I can’t . . .” She wiped her soaked hands on her exercise pants.

“Superman,” Ben announced.

“What?”

Ben gestured to Matt and Dylan, and before Joy could understand what was happening, they had her up in the air like a bodysurfer at a rock concert but facedown.

“Put your arms out,” Matt instructed.

It hit Joy what they intended to do with her.

“Hell no!”

“You’re Superman. Put your arms out,” Griff said with force.

Joy thrust out her arms. “Supergirl,” she corrected.

Dylan laughed. “Damn straight.”

“Give us the word, Joy. Guys can’t hold you all day.”

Shit, shit, shit.

The horizon spun. Her stomach rolled. She squeezed her eyes shut.

She counted down in her head.

Three . . . two . . . one.

For Judy.

“G—go!”

They hurled her over the side. She soared. She flew. She dived. She screamed the whole way down until the cord fully extended and yanked her back up, then down, and up, and down, until she was just hanging upside down several hundred feet above the Colorado River, gently spinning.

She stopped screaming and started crying. Tears and snot dripped up her forehead. The jump had been insane and scary as hell.

“I didn’t die! I didn’t die!”

Joy gently bobbled and arched her back to look past her feet. The guys were reeling her in. She cleaned her face with her shirt and cry-laughed. She’d gone over the edge and survived. Nobody got hurt. No one had died.

But the best part of all? The fall had been exhilarating. She’d had fun and she’d taken a risk. Only this time, everyone lived to tell about it. She didn’t have anything to feel guilty about. Maybe she could do spontaneous without hives, take some risks like she used to.

Ben and Matt helped her over the rail. They couldn’t get her out of the gear fast enough. She launched herself at Dylan, wrapping her arms and legs around him, octopus-like. “I can’t believe you threw me off a bridge!” She laughed, and he spun her around. Then he gently let her down.

“Well? What did you think?” he asked.

“That was amazing! Truly.” She bounced on her toes and shook her arms. She couldn’t stand still. She was jacked up.

“Didn’t I tell you it would be?”

“Best side trip ever.”

Dylan smiled proudly.

Griff returned the wallet and keys he’d been holding for them. Dylan slipped Griff some Ben Franklins. They exchanged goodbyes and Joy ran to her car. She could hear Dylan on her heels. When they reached the car, she tossed him the keys. She was buzzing, so high on adrenaline that she knew she wouldn’t be able to focus on the road. She wanted him to drive fast, and she wanted to eat. Hamburger, shake, fries, and a whole freaking apple pie. She was starving.





CHAPTER 11





BEFORE


Dylan

Marble Canyon, Arizona, to Albuquerque, New Mexico