“How?”

“Do you trust me?”

•••

My body is shaking, my nerves crackling. Sweat pours down my face. I feel like I’m on a beach in a storm and lightning might strike any second.

“Next!” a worker says, and I step forward. Cords and clips dangle off the harness tightly strapped around my body.

I can do this. I can do this.

The zip line employee helps me up onto the wooden platform attached to a tree. I look down into the vast canyon below me filled with pointy rocks and trees.

“I can’t do this.”

“Getting up here is the worst part,” the worker replies. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”

I believe him. Regardless that he’s willing to take big risks, Jeremiah would never put me in danger. I let out a deep breath. The worker hooks me to a trolley, tells me to sit down in my harness, and pushes me off the platform.

Wait. He pushed me off the platform!

I scream, holding on to my rope tight. Wind smacks my face. I soar over the canyon. Fear ices my body and my heart leaps to light speed.

“Slow down, slow down!” the guy waiting on the other platform yells. I press the lower line, and I jerk to a stop right in front of the tree trunk.

“Holy shit,” I blurt as the guy reaches out and pulls me from the air onto the platform.

“You did good,” the worker says with a bright grin, hooking my rope to the tree so I don’t fall into the canyon I just crossed. I gasp when I look down. “We’re over three hundred feet high and the line you just zipped is three hundred and fifty feet long. It’s our most challenging obstacle.”

“Why in the world would you make us do the hardest line first?”

“It’s all easy peasy from here on out.” The worker fist-bumps me.

I zip three more lines, each one leaving me shakier than the last. I like the feeling of stress bleeding away when I’m back on solid ground. Not sure I could do this on a daily basis, though.

After the final line, I trudge up the hill to a smiling Jeremiah. I’m at a total loss for words, overwhelmed by the experience I just had—placing all my trust in some ropes and people I don’t know. We stand in silence as he helps me remove my gear. With his good arm, he unsnaps my harness, letting it fall to the deck. Careful to mind his sling, I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him until my heart begins to slow. He massages warm circles onto my lower back.

“Well?” he finally asks.

“That was nuts.” I touch fingers to my neck to feel my out-of-control pulse.

“Did you feel the adrenaline?” he asks.

I nod. Right now I could lift a car if I had to. “I can see why you’re into it.”

He unsnaps my helmet, then looks at me with mischievous glittering eyes. His lips meet mine, and he slips his good hand behind my neck. “I never knew what an adrenaline rush really was until we met. When I first saw you? That was the day all my running finally paid off—because you were on the trails. You make me feel three times the rush of skydiving or bungee jumping…I felt the biggest rush of my life when you said you love me.”

I hop up on tiptoes, bury my hands in his crazy hair, and capture his lips with mine. My stomach leaps into my throat.

When we finally stop kissing each other, he holds me close. “So how about some lunch?”

I draw tiny circles on his chest with my fingertips. “Vanessa is still in Knoxville visiting her boyfriend…how about we go back to my room?”

His eyebrows pop up when he realizes what I’m offering. “You’re sure?”

I answer with a kiss that leaves us both breathless.

Marathon Training Schedule~Brown’s Race Co.

Name Annie Winters

Saturday

Distance

Notes

April 20

3 miles

I’m really doing this! Finish time 34:00

April 27

5 miles

Stupid Running Backwords Boy!!

May 4

6 miles

Blister from HELL

May 11

5 miles

Ran downtown Nashville

May 18

7 miles

Tripped on rock. Fell on my butt

May 25

8 miles

Came in 5 min. quicker than usual!

June 1

10 miles

Let’s just pretend this day never happened…

June 8

9 miles

Evil suicide sprint things. Ran w/ Liza. Got sick.

June 15

7 miles

Skipped Saturday’s run…had to make it up Sunday.

June 22

8 miles

Stomach hurt again. Matt said eat granola instead of oatmeal.