He was quiet for several seconds before asking, “Did you ever think you could take a cruise by yourself? Or sing karaoke on stage in front of a room full of strangers?”
“No, but that’s not the same thing.”
“Except it is.” He stepped a bit closer. With his lifejacket and helmet dangling from one hand, he used the other to palm the side of her face in a loving caress. “You’re stronger and more daring than you give yourself credit for. And if you need proof of that, all you have to do is look at us.”
“Us?”
His blue gaze softened, his voice lowering so only she could hear. “You ever think you’d spend two incredible nights letting some strange man make you scream?”
Garrett’s words sent a rush of heat crawling up her neck.
“You’re not all that strange.” A lame attempt to add humor to the situation.
One side of his kissable mouth curved. “Avery, you can do this.” He spoke with a confidence she didn’t feel.
She glanced over at the ladder and back to him. Opening her mouth—to say what, she wasn’t sure—she closed it, saying nothing.
“Tell you what,” Garrett spoke again. “If you truly don’t want to do this, we’ll turn around, and walk back the way we came. We’ll just meet up with the group down at the dune buggies.”
The offer made Avery’s heart swell. “You’d do that?”
“As opposed to forcing you to do something you don’t want to do?” He shot her an incredulous look. “Hell, yes.”
His answer was instant and sincere. And it made her realize what she had to do.
“No.” Straightening her spine, Avery took a step back and slid her lifejacket on. “I can do this.” She buckled the preserver in place and secured the helmet to her head with its chin strap.
“Are you sure?” Garrett frowned. “I seriously don’t mind if we—”
“I’m good.” She looked up at him. “Besides, you said you’d be right there with me, right?”
He tipped his chin in a single nod. “I’ll go down the ladder first. Be right behind you the entire way.”
“Okay, then.” Avery blew out a breath. “Let’s do this.”
With one final glance from those crystal blue eyes, he promised, “I won’t let you fall.”
And he didn’t.
Having the patience of a saint, Garrett moved down the ladder slowly, keeping the pace she’d set for herself.
Rung by terrifying rung.
Sweat covered her palms and Avery’s knees shook with the magnitude of a category five earthquake. But she didn’t stop.
Finally reaching the bottom rung, she stepped down to join Garrett on the small wooden platform overlooking the river. Together, with her hand in his, they jumped the remaining five feet into the water.
Avery beamed as she bobbed up and down with the lifejacket’s support. “I did it!"
“Yes, you did.” Garrett pulled her close. In front of the others, he kissed her gently and said, “I’m proud of you.”
She smiled wide. “I’m proud of me, too.”
For most, that one, small feat wouldn’t even register as a blip on their accomplishment scale. But for Avery, it almost felt like a defining moment.
The river was freezing, but she was having too much fun to care. Over the next hour and a half, she and Garrett—along with the others in the group—followed their guides as they made their way through the water to seven natural waterfalls on their way back to the base of the mountain.
As it turned out, the waterfalls were really natural waterslides. Decades of the river’s constant flow had smoothed and shaped the rocks, making it possible for a person to slide down them with ease, and then continue on with the river’s path.