‘Pleased to make your acquaintance, Alice.’ Zac took a step toward me and I lost sight of him. ‘Ready when you are,’ he said from directly beneath me, where he was no doubt getting an eyeful of my knickers.
I lowered my voice, not wanting Charlie to hear me. ‘Seriously, Zac, I don’t think I can—’
‘Yes you can,’ he said, cutting me off.
‘But—’
‘Listen, you’ve already done the hard part and if you can do all those fancy acrobatics then you can do this, no sweat.’
Unable to share his confidence, I simply had to face facts. One way or another, I was going to fall so it was more a case of fall now and hope Zac caught me, or fall later and hope I didn’t break anything when I hit the dirt. Neither option appealed but the one with the hot guy had the distinct advantage.
‘You’d better not be messing me about or I will hunt you down and I will make your life a living hell. Capiche?’ I added with extra fierceness to leave Zac in no uncertain terms of his imminent future if he were to screw up. Except he laughed.
Oh man, his rippling laughter had the same effect as his smile. Times an hundred—no—a million. Electricity zipped along my veins with the force of a lightning bolt and I feared not only for the branch but the whole damn tree. I’d seen pictures of trees destroyed in a thunderstorm and this mighty oak didn’t stand a chance.
‘I capiche, Alice,’ he said once he’d stopped laughing at me. ‘Now get on with it so I can finally prove how big and strong I am, because I’ve gotta say, you’re hurting my pride here.’
Now it was my turn to laugh. Carefully.
‘Plus there’s a little guy down here who looks like he really needs you,’ continued Zac.
The thought of Charlie sobered me up all right. I nodded and sucked in a deep breath, then puffed out my cheeks before exhaling sharply. ‘OK.’
‘Relax, I’m right here.’ Zac practically cooed at me but it worked. His tone released enough of the paralysing tension to let me untangle my aching limbs.
‘Three. Two. One…’ I clamped my eyes tight shut and…nothing.
‘You can do it.’ The sincerity in his voice wrapped itself around me like a comfort blanket and lulled me into relaxing my vice-like grip even further. ‘Just let go, I promise I will catch you.’
I believed him.
In what amounted to a few minutes at most, Zac had achieved what few other people could ever hope for and had won my trust. Too shocked by the revelation, I forgot all about clinging onto the branch. My grip faltered for no more than a split second before my reflexes kicked in to override my brain but a split second was all it took for gravity to lynch me.
Again.
My stomach fled and abandoned me. It took refuge in the tree so that I was left with nothing but an empty, hollow feeling in my gut as I fell for what felt like an eternity. More than long enough to convince myself I was indeed the most stupid idiot that ever lived for putting my trust in a stranger. My inner berating got cut short when two strong arms caught me and broke my fall.
In reality I knew I could only have been falling for a second, two at most, but it proved ample time for panic to set in. The scream I’d been trying to stifle mutated into a single sob and burst free of my tightly pressed lips. Desperate for something to latch onto, I locked my arms around Zac’s neck and buried my head into his chest.
‘It’s OK, Alice. I’ve got you.’ Zac cradled me against his torso and spoke softly next to my ear. ‘You can open your eyes now.’
The rational side of me knew he was right but the less rational side of me wanted to dwell on the fairy-tale image I’d built up of Zac a little while longer. He’d made quite the first impression on me but I didn’t know if it had been real, not when it could easily have been skewed by the unorthodox angle I’d seen him from, so I went for the mature option of shaking my head.
At the sound of his throaty chuckle, my eyelids ignored my wishes and flew open anyway. I found myself staring into his eyes. Neither brown nor gold, they were a mixture of both and looked uncannily like my favourite tiger’s-eye bracelet. His warm gaze smiled down at me and filled me with the weirdest sensation that I was still falling. If my arms weren’t already clamped around his neck, they soon would have been; it was all I could do to stifle another squeal.
‘Thanks,’ I said, trying to cover up the bizarre noise I’d made instead. ‘Good catch.’
‘You’re welcome.’
I knew I ought to say something but my mind came up blank. Aware that I was staring like a moron, I dropped my gaze and stared at Zac’s chest instead. A rather fine chest barely concealed by a tight blue running shirt which was punctuated with darker patches of sweat to form the shape of a triangle. A runner as well as a swimmer, then? My dashing hero truly was fit in every sense of the word.
Zac adjusted the position of his hands, signalling that he was getting ready to put me down. ‘I er… I think the little guy might like a word. Or something.’
‘Really?’ It was the ‘or something’ that captured my attention so I turned my head to look at Charlie. He looked fine to me. ‘Are you OK, Charlie Bear?’
‘I’m hungry,’ he replied, but then he did some sort of cross-kneed jig which must have been what Zac had seen.
‘No problem.’ I groaned inwardly and unclasped my hands from around Zac’s neck, then tapped him on the shoulder.
‘And I really, really need a wee.’
You don’t say, Charlie.
Zac set me carefully on my feet and I darted towards Charlie the moment I’d regained my balance. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Zac put his hands on his hips. ‘OK. Now that you’re both sorted, I’d best be off then.’
‘No!’ The word came out of my mouth like a gunshot and I froze to the spot. Wings flapped furiously overhead, the poor birds startled from their tree yet again. ‘Sorry,’ I said, addressing nobody in particular. ‘I didn’t mean to shout.’
Charlie whimpered but from the contorted, almost pained expression on his face, it had nothing to do with my shouting and everything to do with his bladder. I sprang into action again and snatched up his hand, then led him over to the tree before dropping to my knees.
‘There’s no time to get to the toilet, Charlie,’ I said, yanking his trousers and pants down. ‘You’re going to have to wee against the tree; do you think you can do that?’ The grin that spread across his face gave me all the answer I needed. Rather than watch Charlie watering the grass, I looked across to the spot where Zac had been standing. My pulse stuttered to see him still there.
‘What can I say,’ he said, ‘it’s one of the best perks of being a boy.’
‘Do boys ever grow up?’
‘Not if they can help it.’ Zac launched a lop-sided grin at me not unlike the one Charlie had worn.
‘I’ve finished.’ Charlie interrupted my train of thought before I could come up with a witty retort.
‘Good boy.’ I reached for the clothes around his ankles to pull them back up but searing heat flared in my hands. The sharp breath I sucked in made a loud hissing sound that carried all the way over to Zac.
‘Are you OK?’ he called over to me, his voice laced with concern.