Run to You (22 page)

The other two teams were still hard at work building bridges, but neither of them had laid anything across the water yet.

“Here I go.” Mandy stepped onto the log. She bounced lightly to test its strength, and then, with one end of the rope in her right hand and her arms out for balance, she started across.

Gabby watched, one hand pressed against her mouth, as Mandy inched her way across the log. Halfway there, it rolled a few inches beneath her, and Mandy landed in the stream with a splash. Laughing, she sloshed back to where she'd started. “Shit, this water is cold.”

Gabby giggled as she remembered her dunk near this very spot when she'd been on fire with yellow jacket venom. “It's okay. No one else is even near starting across yet.”

In fact, both other teams were watching with interest to see if the balance beam approach worked. Mandy started back out, and step by step, she crossed her way to the other side. They all yelled with excitement when she stepped onto dry land.

“Good so far,” Mandy called. She tied her end of the rope around a sturdy tree, then Emma pulled it tight and tied it around a tree on the starting side.

“So who's next?” Emma asked.

“I'll go.” Gabby took a deep breath, grabbed the guide rope, and stepped onto the log. The rope had a bit more give than she would have preferred, but it still did a good job of steadying her, and she made her way slowly and carefully to the other side without a single misstep.

Carly crossed next, and finally Emma, who took a tumble and had to start over. By the time Team Flower Power had crossed the stream, the camouflage team was laying their bridge over it, and a fourth team had arrived at the stream to begin building. A couple of volunteers rushed in behind them to begin disassembling Flower Power's balance beam to make room for new teams to build.

Gabby, Emma, Mandy, and Carly raced on. For the moment, they were in first place, and that completely boggled Gabby's mind. But she also knew some of the hardest stuff still lay ahead. They jogged along a path through the woods headed for the ropes course, and her stomach grew heavier with each step.

They completed a few more obstacles along the way, and the camouflage team was back on their heels. It consisted of three athletic men and three equally fit women, and they were fast. Much faster than Team Flower Power.

But Flower Power was first on the ropes course, and therefore they got a head start on the first obstacle. The whole team had to complete each obstacle before they could move on. And up first were the tires, which, while tricky, weren't really all that terrifying.

Gabby was never more than a few feet off the ground, but she had to navigate from tire to tire all the way to the end without touching the ground. The tires swung and spun until she was dizzy. But by steadying each other, working slowly and carefully, the team made their way across.

Gabby had been doing as Ethan suggested, focusing on one obstacle at a time, and she'd been doing great. She was actually having fun, and they were
still
in first place!

They raced across the field, and
boom
, they were at the climbing wall, and just like that, her stomach dropped out through her feet. It was tall, so very tall. Ten feet, Ethan had told her. Straight up solid wood, and working together, they'd have to get everyone over it. On the backside, she knew, there was a ledge about two feet down so that the first person over the top could balance to reach back down and help their teammates.

On the other side of the field, she saw Ethan by the pond. He looked so official in his blue Off-the-Grid T-shirt and gray board shorts, ready to jump in and save anyone who might fall into the pond and need saving. It might even be Gabby herself, because she could totally see herself falling off the hand trolley halfway across.

But first, she had to get her butt over this wall. And then she had to conquer the rope bridge.
Oh God.
Her head spun.

“All right, girls. Are we ready?” Emma stood looking up at the wall.

“Ready,” Mandy answered. “You're lightest, so maybe Gabby and I can boost you up, and then you can help from the top? Once I'm up, I can help pull up whoever's last.”

Emma nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

The camouflage team arrived, and the men quickly started boosting the women up and over the wall. Not wanting to be left behind, Gabby and Mandy braced together and boosted Emma as high as they could go.

“I think I've got it.” Emma grasped the top of the wall, reaching up with her right leg. Mandy braced beneath her, letting Emma put her left foot on Mandy's shoulder to get the leverage she needed to swing up and straddle the top of the wall. “Woohoo!”

Gabby smiled. Across the field, she saw Ethan flashing them a thumbs-up.

“Who's next?” Emma called down from the top.

“I'll go.” Carly stepped up, and Gabby and Mandy repeated the process to boost her up, with the added help of Emma from above. Carly swung up and over and, with Emma's help, dropped safely to the ground on the other side.

The camouflage team cheered as their last team member dropped down on the other side. Emma shrugged from the top of the wall. “It's okay. We might catch back up, but honestly I never set out to win the race, and we're only the first five teams out of almost twenty anyway. But we're the only all-girl team so, just by crossing the finish line, we're winning.”

“Damn straight.” Mandy looked at Gabby. “I'm going to go up next, because Emma and I have the most upper body strength, so we can help to pull you up and over. Okay?”

Gabby nodded. The red-shirted team had arrived now, and another team she didn't recognize. A group from the eight fifteen wave. So much for any idea of coming in first. She didn't know if Emma was sincere about just wanting to complete the course, but for Gabby, it would truly be a win of epic proportions simply to cross the finish line.

Gabby braced her hands together and, as Mandy stepped into them, boosted upward with all her strength. Emma grabbed Mandy from above, and between the three of them, Mandy easily swung up onto the top of the wall.

“Ready?” she called down to Gabby.

“Yes.” Gabby looked up at them, both reaching toward her. How in the world was this going to work? The wall loomed impossibly tall in front of her. Mandy and Emma's hands were just out of reach, much as her courage seemed always to be.

Her heart hammered, and her knees shook.

“Jump as high as you can. We'll grab your hands and pull, then kind of scramble with your feet until you can get one of your legs over. Okay?”

Gabby nodded. So
not
okay, but terrified or not, she was doing this. And by the time she zipped past Ethan on that hand trolley, she was going to be the strong, confident woman he already thought she was. She was going to scale this wall and leave her fears behind.

Determined, she took a deep breath and prepared to jump.

“Fancy seeing you here,” Brad said from beside her, and Gabby jumped, but not up toward her team. Away from him. Then she cursed herself for still being jumpy at just the sound of his voice.

She watched as his teammate boosted him up. He grabbed the top of the wall, flipped her the bird, and disappeared over the other side.

“Bastard,” she muttered.

“Who was that jerk?” Emma asked from the top of the wall, eyes narrowed.

“An ex,” Gabby said. “And I'm ready.”

“Okay, we'll count you down, then jump as high as you can,” Emma said. “Three, two, one…jump!”

Gabby jumped, hands outstretched. Her fingernails scraped over wood, and she scrambled but missed her teammates' hands, landing back on the ground.

“No worries. Again. Three, two, one.”

She jumped. This time warm hands closed around her wrists, and she was hauled upward. Only after her fingers closed over the top of the wall did she realize her eyes were closed. She forced them open and dragged in a ragged breath. She was dangling from the top of the wall, Mandy's hand still gripping her right wrist.

“Now swing your legs,” Mandy said.

Gabby tried to swing her legs, but they felt like lead weights, and her hands were starting to tire—she was never going to do this.

“You can do it,” Emma said encouragingly. “Let go with your left hand and grab my hand, okay? I'll give you a boost.”

But suddenly she didn't want Emma's help. Or Mandy's. Or anyone's. She'd been leaning on others, letting people help her out of a jam her whole life. Today she was going to do this, and she was going to do it on her own.

She kicked out with her right leg, reaching for the top of the wall.

“Grab my hand!” Emma called from above.

“Your fingers are starting to slip,” Mandy said. “Grab Emma's hand. We'll get you up and over.”

No.
She was going to do this on her own, dammit. Her pride depended on it. She shook Mandy's hand loose from her right wrist. Her fingers burned, and as Mandy had pointed out, they were starting to slip. Desperate, she scrambled with her right leg again, but no dice.

“What are you doing, Gabby?” Mandy called. “Let us help get you over the wall.”

“We're here for you,” Emma said. “Grab my hand.”

Gabby closed her eyes and put all her strength into one final swing. She kicked out with her left leg and swung high with her right. Her foot grazed the top of the wall, but her poor fingers chose that moment to give out. Her nails scored wood as she clawed wildly for a handhold, but she was free-falling.

Her stomach somersaulted as her worst fear came true. She plummeted to the ground. Her left ankle struck first, buckling beneath her. She crumpled into an awkward heap as her breath left her lungs in a whoosh.

“Gabby! Gabby, are you okay?” Emma's voice reached her from somewhere very far away.

White-hot pain radiated up through her left leg, and then everything faded to black.

Ethan stood by the pond, watching to see Gabby come over the top of the climbing wall. He'd been so fucking proud when he saw her team arrive first at the wall. They'd since been overtaken by several other teams, but they were still doing great, and he had full confidence she was going to conquer everything today.

This race was going to catapult her past all the fear and insecurity that had been holding her back. She'd finally realize how amazing she was, how strong and capable. And he was going to be here to see it.

Then someone screamed. Emma dropped from the climbing wall and started waving frantically in his direction. From the sidelines, two medics rushed toward the other side of the wall. The side where Gabby still was.

Ethan's chest constricted as he ran full-out across the field. He rounded the wall and found Gabby on the ground with the medics at her side, already surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. He crouched beside her. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“My ankle.” She gripped his hand, grimacing.

One of the medics felt along her spine, then asked her to move her head up and down and side to side. “Still no pain in your neck or back?”

Gabby shook her head. “Just my ankle. I landed full force on it, and it rolled under me.”

“We'll get a brace on the ankle and get you over to the ambulance to finish checking you out,” the medic said.

Ethan glanced down and saw that her left ankle was already swelling. “It's okay, sweetheart. Your ankle will heal.”

Gabby nodded. Someone had pressed a wet cloth to her forehead, reminding him of the day they met, when he'd done the same for her after she was attacked by yellow jackets.

“You don't have good luck out here on my property, do you?” He laughed quietly as he gathered her in his arms and held her close.

“What I get for trying to climb over a wall,” she muttered, pressing her face against his chest.

“Why didn't you grab my hand?” Emma said, crouching down beside them. “You scared the crap out of me!”

“I was trying to do it on my own.” Gabby grimaced. “Now I've ruined it for all of you.”

“Don't worry about it,” Emma said. “We're just glad you're okay.”

“Oh my goodness. What's happened?”

Ethan looked up to see Helen Arkin and Lorraine Hanaford rushing toward them. Fucking great. The Town Council showed up not to see all the amazing moments that had been made so far this morning, not the first team who ought to be crossing the finish line any moment now, but poor Gabby lying prone and injured on the ground.

“She fell and injured her ankle,” he told them. “The medics are taking good care of her.”

Helen looked up at the wall behind them, even now being climbed by three other teams. “Well, I can see how. My goodness!”

The medics finished bracing Gabby's ankle. “We're going to take you to the ambulance now, ma'am.”

She looked up at Ethan, fear and humiliation in her eyes.

“I'll carry you.” He stood with Gabby in his arms and carried her to the edge of the field, where the ambulance was parked. He set her gently on the cot inside. “I wish I could stay with you, but I've got to get back to my post.”

“You get back to the pond, Ethan. I've got this.” Gram pushed her way through the throng of people to take her place by Gabby's side. Gabby smiled weakly.

Relief loosened in his chest. “Okay. Thanks, Gram.”

Ethan turned toward the pond. People were just starting to zip across it on the hand trolley. Cheers and whoops celebrated the first team crossing the finish line. Despite Gabby's injury, overall the day was going really well. The turnout was great, more than he'd expected. They'd surpassed the one hundred participants they'd hoped for, ending at one fifteen. They'd even had to add an eight forty-five wave of racers to accommodate the last-minute arrivals.

He was halfway across the field when he saw someone drop from the hand trolley into the pond, landing with a splash. He started to run, just in case. Seconds later, he heard screams.