| |
“Do you like the way I walk?” – Cathy Timberlake
“Poetry in motion.” – Philip Shayne
“I learned when I was a baby, been walking for years.” – Cathy Timberlake
THAT TOUCH OF MINK
Leo
Take the photos? Was she fucking kidding me? My hands were shaking so hard right now, there was no way I could hold my camera steady. I couldn’t breathe.
North had gotten on his radio as soon as the two of us realized exactly what she and Shane were setting up to do. But no matter how many orders he barked into that radio to make sure his team was prepared, we couldn’t do anything but watch in horror and pray Izzy didn’t fall.
“Dammit, Leo,” Izzy yelled at me. “Take some pictures. I’m not standing up here because I enjoy it. Don’t make me have done this for no reason.”
I was so frozen with terror, I couldn’t do anything except follow her orders, although I yelled at her the entire time I did it. “I’m taking photos now, you crazy woman. I will never forgive you for scaring me like this. And the moment I tell you I got the shot, I want you to sit your ass back down.”
For a moment, she just glared at me, and then she threw her head back and laughed. “I love you, Leo. Goddamn, I didn’t expect this to feel so amazing.” Her smile shone, and she truly looked like she could take on the entire world right now. She looked...empowered and radiant.
Somehow I couldn’t help but admire her even more for it.
“She’s crazy,” North muttered.
“Agreed. But damn, she makes crazy look gorgeous.”
And I caught it all on my camera. The snow had stopped on our ascent, but now huge fluffy flakes dropped out of the sky again. They coated Izzy like little fairy lights, sparking her innate beauty and vibrant personality even higher. Suddenly, I could see why Shane and she had wanted to do this stunt. These photos were the exact look we’d been trying to achieve all morning.
They were the heart of our campaign.
“I got it, Iz. These photos are perfect. Now, get your ass back on the seat.”
She laughed out loud. “You got it, Leo.” The danger had seemed to make her giddy, and her laughter lit me up inside. I just shook my head. Only Isolde Collins could do a stunt like this and come out of it more excited than relieved it was over. Knowing her, we’d get down to the bottom, and she’d want to do it all over again.
But just as she went to sit back down, something shifted somewhere else on the ski lift line, jerking the entire row of chairs.
Izzy screamed, and her body seemed to slip off the chair in slow motion.
Shane grabbed for her, missing her waist, but he scrambled and grabbed hold of her forearm.
Something in her body popped loud enough that I could hear it from my chair. The sound sent a shudder of dread through me.
And then Izzy screamed again, louder this time, the sound wrenching out of her chest like her arm had ripped from her body.
I reached for her. But of course, I couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as she dangled thirty feet above the ground. Only Shane’s grip on her saved her.
Then Shane slid.
“Shane,” North yelled. “Anchor yourself. Now!”
Shane looked around frantically to assess his situation. Right now he held Izzy with both hands, but she was about to pull them both off the chairlift.
Izzy kicked her legs in the air, her panic driving her to find some sort of hold. “Iz,” I yelled at her. “You need to stop moving. You’re going to pull Shane down with you.”
Her breath hitched out in little panicked sobs. “O...okay.”
“You keep her calm while I try to get them safe,” North whispered.
I nodded.
“You’re going to be fine, sweetheart.” I winced, but went on with my first instinct, and prayed to whatever god there was out there that this was a promise I could keep. “Just hang in there.”
Izzy stilled. “Did you honestly just make a pun?” Her voice shook with pain and adrenaline. “I’m about to plunge to my death...” she took a hitching little breath, “and lose my entire arm in the process and you’re making puns?”
I couldn’t breathe, but I had to keep talking to her, keeping her calm. “If your best friend can’t joke with you when you’re in a life or death situation, then who can?”
“Leo?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“It’s still a long way to the bottom.” She stared behind me as tears flowed freely down her face.
I couldn’t see how much farther we had to go since I was still sitting backward on the lift. I could have turned around and looked, but I needed her to stay focused.
“We’re going to be there before you know it. Focus on me, okay? You know you want to look at my handsome face right now.”
Her eyes met mine and the emotion I saw there about cracked me open.
“You are the best thing in the world to look at,” she said, and it sounded more earnest than anything she’d ever said to me before. “Can I get this out of the way before it’s too late?”
“It’s never going to be too late, but what did you want to say?” My heart pounded in my throat. It hadn’t taken us this long to get to the top. Why was it taking so long to get down?
“You were right. I should have listened to you.”
I nodded with a bitter laugh. “Right now, I really, really hate that I was.”
“Me too.”
And then she slammed her eyes shut and whimpered as Shane tugged on her wrenched arm. While I’d been distracting her, North had gotten Shane repositioned so that he straddled the seat and was better anchored to pull her up. He had his legs wrapped around the bottom of the seat so he was free to use his core and both arms to grab hold of Izzy and yank her back onto the seat.
The hold on my chest let loose when she was finally seated again, but I didn’t have time for anything else. North touched my arm. “We’re almost ready to get off.”
That was my cue to get turned around so I would be face forward again in the chair when we got to the base. Something I had zero desire to do after watching Izzy’s aerial acrobatics, but I wanted to stay on this fucking lift even less.
I took a deep breath and swung around, surprised at just how close we were to the bottom of the lift where an entire team of ski patrol and the rest of our crew all waited.
Like North had warned, the chair jerked to a halt when ours hit the circle around the area at the base. I heard Izzy hiss in pain behind us and swung around to check on her.
Her complexion had grown scarily pale, and lines of pain bracketed her mouth. She met my concerned gaze, even though Shane leaned over her, holding her as still as he could. But in this moment, she appeared to only have eyes for me. I was her security, and right now I needed to be the one to take care of her. She counted on me for that.
But as soon as we cleared our chair, the ski lift patrol shuffled me out of the way as they moved a stretcher closer, ready to take Izzy away.
Ava rushed up to me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Izzy’s the one who’s hurt.” I didn’t know what had happened to her arm when Shane grabbed it. The memory of the sound of her body popping echoed in my brain. At best it was sprained, but it could easily be broken or worse, need surgery for shredded tendons and ligaments in her rotator cuff. The fact of the matter was, humans were not made to dangle by a single arm. She’d definitely done damage, and it was possible that she’d been hurt in other places too. He had jerked her hard.
I shivered, just imagining what would have happened if Shane hadn’t grabbed her. Whatever was wrong right now was so much better that what could have happened.
In my ruminations, I’d missed the chair lift moving again.
And then suddenly Izzy’s chair was there. She tried to stand, but the ski patrol wasn’t allowing that. After also shuffling Shane out of the way, they lifted her from the chair. All I could see was a sea of red, but it wasn’t the right shade, as at least six ski patrol members surrounded her.
I could breathe again. Izzy was on the ground and no longer in danger of plunging to her death.
It was quiet as they gave instructions to Izzy and did a quick examination of her. No one outside those attending her said a single word. The silence sent another chill through me. What if she had other injuries we couldn’t see? She could be bleeding internally. She’d taken a hard jolt with her entire body. Anything could be wrong.
She didn’t fight them when they wanted to load her onto the stretcher. That right there was a testament to how injured she was. I just prayed her injuries weren’t serious.
I followed along as they carried her stretcher to the waiting ambulance, planning to go to the hospital with her. Shane obviously had the same idea.
“I only have room for one of you guys on the bus,” the paramedic said as we both tried to follow her in.
We eyed one another warily, neither one willing to step aside for the other.
Izzy met my gaze. Tears had tracked through her makeup, but she’d never looked more ethereal. “Leo, let Shane come. I need you to take care of everything with the crew and the photos. Don’t lose today’s snow.”
I wanted to argue, especially since we’d just lost our model. But she twined her uninjured hand with Shane’s as he climbed into the ambulance beside her.
She’d made her choice.
I’d have to live with it.
She wanted Shane.
Not me.
I resisted the urge to howl in pain.