Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia #2) (14 page)

We headed to the Liberty Bell next.

Tickets weren’t necessary so we strolled straight on through the gates.

I gazed at the bell for a few minutes in awe and read the plaque located in front of it that explained its history.

“’Proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof,’” I read off of the plaque in a whisper. I looked up at Trace and said, “Those words must have meant so much to them at that time.”

He didn’t hear a word I said though, he was still staring at the bell. He tilted his head from side to side. “You know, I thought it would be bigger.”

I laughed. “It looks plenty big to me.”

“That’s because,” he hugged me to his front, “you’re small…like a little doll.”

I snorted. “Thanks,” I said sarcastically. “You sure know how to make a girl feel good about herself.”

“What? It’s true,” his lips brushed against the top of my head, “you’re short and tiny. You do have a nice chest and ass though. I especially love your ass,” he reached down and grabbed it.

“Trace!” I squealed, darting away from him. “There are
people
here,” I looked around at the different families. One husband and wife was staring at us with a look of contempt. I half expected them to pull out a Bible and throw it at us.

“What? It’s true!” He raised his hands in surrender grinning like an idiot.

“You are impossible,” I growled over my shoulder, striding towards the exit. “You need a muzzle and a leash.”

“I didn’t know you were so kinky,” he chuckled behind me. When I turned around to glare at him his laugh turned into a fake cough. “You know,” he shoved his hands into his pockets, “I wasn’t quite done back there.”

“Then go back,” I shooed him away with my hand. “I’ll be here.”

He narrowed his eyes and before I knew what was happening he scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “Trace!” I shrieked as my stomach dropped out from under me. “Put me down!” I beat at his back but he was completely unfazed. People were staring and heat infused my cheeks…or maybe my face only felt so hot since all the blood was currently rushing to my head.

He didn’t put me down until he was standing in front of the Liberty Bell again, and even then he held on tightly to me. Before I could run away, he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of us.

He chuckled at the screen. “I’m sending this one to my mom.” He was already typing madly on his phone.

“Let me see,” I stood on my tiptoes to peer at his phone. When I saw the picture I gasped. “Don’t you dare send that to your mom!”

“Too late,” he grinned boyishly, shoving the phone in his pocket.

“I’m glaring at you in the picture like I want to kick you…or worse.”

“Exactly, she’ll think it’s hilarious. Give her about five minutes and I’m sure she’ll call me and ask what I did to you,” he laughed.

“Yeah, right—” I was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing.

He pulled it out and smirked at the caller ID. “Told you,” he showed me the name lighting up the screen. “Hey mom,” he answered. “Why do you assume I did something? Oh, really? I only picked her up and carried her back to the bell so I could get a picture.” He was quiet for a moment and then said, “I am being a very good boy, mom,” he grinned at me. “Love you, too. Bye.” He hung up his phone and smiled. “That went better than I thought it would.”

“And how did you think it would go?” I asked, walking out of the gate once more. I found a bench and sat down.

“I figured she’d chew me out for at least thirty minutes. But I guess by now she knows I am who I am and there’s no changing me,” he took the spot on the bench beside me.

“If I’ve figured that out in the three years since I’ve met you, then I think your mom is bound to have figured it out in twenty-five,” I snickered, tapping my shoes against the ground in a random beat.

“
Almost
twenty-five,” he amended. “Don’t go making me older than I am, woman.”

“Whatever,” I laughed, “and it’s not like twenty-five is old.”

“Easy for you to say,” his nose wrinkled as he tried to pretend to be mad.

I rolled my eyes. “Trace, you’ll be forty and still acting like you’re fifteen.”

“True,” he laughed. “I don’t see the point in acting my age. I want to have fun,” he shrugged, “so I do.”

No longer irritated with him I took his hand in mine. I frowned down at his reddened knuckles. “Trace,” I breathed, “you hurt your hand.” I looked up at him with worry in my eyes as he snatched his hand from my grasp.

“It’s nothing,” he mumbled, looking at a spot over my head.

“It looks like it hurts,” I grabbed his hand again, inspecting it. “Why didn’t you tell me you hurt yourself?”

He forced a smile. “It’s not a big deal. I didn’t realize I punched the guy
that
hard,” he mumbled under his breath.

“You don’t need to act so macho all the time,” I scolded him, running my finger lightly over his injured knuckles. “I’m not going to love you any less.”

“Honestly,” he smiled, “I didn’t even notice it until you pointed it out. I was too concerned about you.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed thickly as he played with a piece of my hair. That was the kind of person Trace was, though. He was always concerned about everyone else, not about himself.

I opened my eyes and found him staring curiously at me. “What?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he whispered, shaking his head. Standing, he reached for my hands and hauled me up. “Let’s get out of here.”

I woke with a start as the car jerked to a stop. I turned groggy eyes Trace’s way. “What’s going on? Why are we stopping?”

“Just something I want us to do,” he grinned mischievously, unbuckling his seatbelt.

I yawned, rubbing my eyes. I glanced at the clock as I massaged the back of my neck. I’d been asleep about an hour. It was one in the afternoon and the sun shined through the windows.

I looked around at the bridge we were parked on and at the group of people up ahead in—was that a harness?

“What. The. Hell?” I gasped, scrambling out of the car just as one of the guys from the group jumped off the freakin’ bridge. His cries of joy echoed around us. I wanted to scream in terror. I peered over the bridge railing as the guy was released from the cord and dropped into the water. “I-I-I-no way,” I shook my head, putting the puzzle pieces together. Trace would’ve only stopped if he wanted us to do this. I wasn’t afraid of heights, but if Trace thought I was going to jump off a bridge, he had another thing coming for him.

“Adventures, remember?” Trace grinned crookedly, pinching my hip.

“Adventures, yes. Falling to my death? No.”

“It’ll be fun,” he coaxed, looking at me with wide green eyes. “We’ll do it together. You fall, I fall. Always.”

“Don’t try to sweet talk me,” I pushed his shoulder. “It’s not going to work.”

“Oh, it’ll work,” he skated a finger over my collarbone. “Just give it a second. My powers of persuasion are too much for you to resist.”

I looked over my shoulder at the group of people on the bridge. Most of them were men but there were a few women too.

I’d never thought about bungee jumping before…but it could be fun…maybe…if I didn’t throw up from fear.

“Fine,” I met his gaze once more, “but we’re doing it together. There’s no way I’m jumping by myself.”

He grabbed my cheeks and lowered his head, kissing me passionately. He pulled away, breathing heavily and rested his forehead against mine. “I love my little spitfire.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I groaned, “let’s get this over with before I change my mind.”

“You got it,” he grinned, kissing me quickly, and striding towards the group. “Hi, I’m Trace,” he held his hand out to shake the man’s hand that seemed to be in charge. “This is my fiancé, Olivia.” My heart did a little happy dance at that. “Are you Marcus?”

“That’s me,” the man smiled. He was probably in his thirties, tall and lanky, with black hair and kind brown eyes. “You ready to jump?” He addressed me, not Trace.

I nodded, hoping I didn’t look like a big eyed frightened rabbit.

The guy clapped me on the shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared, that makes the fall even better.”

He meant his words to be comforting, but they weren’t.

“Mhmm,” I mumbled, letting him guide me over the equipment scattered around. A few cars passed us, completely oblivious to the jumpers. I figured this was a regular occurrence around here. Wherever ‘here’ was. Marcus helped me into the gear, explaining what each piece was for to calm my nerves, while another guy helped Trace. “How did you know about this?” I asked him.

His green eyes met mine and a slow smile spread across his face. “There was a sign a few miles back, and I thought, why the hell not.”

“Lovely,” I groaned.

“You’ll be fine,” Marcus assured me. “It’s not scary. People spend too much time worrying about what it’s going to be like, instead of enjoying the moment. When you fall,” his eyes got a faraway look in them, “for a moment it’s like you’re free…nothing can stop you.”

I looked across at Trace with a frown. Was this dude high or something?

“I know I probably sound crazy,” now he was apparently a mind reader, “but wait and see.”

After we were both in our harness we hopped over the bridge railing and they hooked us together. Marcus double-checked everything, and his thoroughness managed to make me feel a bit better.

“Whenever you’re ready just…fall,” he stepped away from us with a smile.

I looked up into Trace’s eyes as my body shook from fear.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, “I’m right here.” He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close.

I pressed my face against his chest and closed my eyes.

“Let’s do this,” I said with more confidence than I possessed.

“One, two,” he counted and before he said three, we were falling.

A scream tore through my chest and the shrill sound of it probably busted Trace’s eardrum, but he simply laughed in elation.

My stomach was in my throat but Marcus was right. I felt like I was flying. Like nothing could touch me or stop me. In that moment, we were invincible.

My eyes had opened and I looked down at the water shining below us, if I reached my hand out my fingers would graze the top of it, but I was too scared to let go of Trace.

The cord rebounded and we went flying up in the air again. I held on tight to him, burying my face in his shirt to muffle my screams.

Eventually the cord settled and we swung back and forth slowly.

“Ready?” Marcus yelled down at us.

Trace must have given him a thumbs up—or maybe he said something and I was still in shock and couldn’t hear him—regardless, we fell into the icy water.

I hadn’t expected the water to be
that
cold and came up sputtering. My teeth clattered together as I looked around for Trace. He surfaced in front of me, shaking his hair out of his face.

“It’s freezing,” I said unnecessarily as we swam to shore. Somehow, when they’d released us from the bungee cord we’d come undone from each other. “And now we’re in wet clothes.”

I stretched out on the shore, taking a moment to let the hot sun shine against me.

“Yeah,” he shook his head like a dog, sending water droplets everywhere, “I didn’t think about that part.”

“Obviously,” I wrapped my arms around my chest as a shiver rocked my body.

“Come on,” he hauled me up, “they have towels up there.”

He located a path that led back up to the bridge and took my hand to keep me from slipping.

We rounded the corner and the group faced us with wide smiles.

“How was it?” Marcus asked, appearing with two towels. Bless him.

“Awesome,” Trace grinned, drying his hair with the towel. Guys had it so much easier. It wasn’t fair.

“Spectacular,” I admitted reluctantly, accepting the towel from his outstretched hand. “I’m sorry if I hurt your ears,” I laughed, looking up at Trace.

“I’ll live,” he winked, removing his shirt and drying his chest. I’m pretty sure I heard one of the girls gasp.

I dried my arms with the towel and wrapped it around my shoulders for a bit of warmth. I had an elastic on my wrist and used it to secure my wet hair in a messy bun.

I found a spot to sit down in the sun and Trace joined me, stretching out his legs, and kicking off his boots.

“Still want to kill me?” He asked.

I giggled, unable to answer him. A stubborn piece of hair was sticking straight up on top of his head. I reached up, smoothing it down, before answering him.

“No,” I smiled at him. “I’m glad you made me do that.”

His grin widened. “Can I get that in writing?”

“Quit it,” I punched his arm lightly. “You know,” I looked down at my shriveled fingers, “it’s fun to do stuff that most people are afraid to do. I like that you push me to try new things and to not be so…scared.”

“That’s my job,” he grinned crookedly. “What’s life without a little excitement?”

“Boring,” I answered unnecessarily.