She heard a soft grunt from his footage and then suddenly the river was getting closer at a dizzying rate. She heard him yell in exuberance, but she didn’t see him hit the water. She slapped her hands over her eyes so she didn’t have to watch. She knew he’d survived the ordeal—he was sitting right beside her. But that didn’t stop her from cringing when she heard the splash, the sound of a cord recoiling, and then more excited shouts from the man she barely knew.
“You missed the best part,” Logan said with a soft chuckle. “I didn’t get hurt.”
“But you could have!” She still hadn’t removed her hands from her eyes.
“I could get hurt standing in the middle of an open field.”
“True,” she said, “but the odds of that happening are a lot less.”
“You can’t live your life by the odds, lamb. Besides, bungee jumping isn’t all that dangerous. Do you want to see something really dangerous?” he asked, tugging at her wrist.
“I’d rather not,” she said.
“Ah, come on. You already know I didn’t die.”
She lowered her hands and looked up at him. He really did seem to be excited about this stuff. Maybe she was overreacting. She glanced down at his video screen, and stretched before the camera was a spectacular view of a cerulean blue ocean. A waterfall spilled from the ground beneath the shot, water thundering over rocks on its way to the sea.
“I’m not going down that way,” yelled a voice on the recording. Steve’s face came into view as the camera turned in his direction.
“Then why in the hell did you climb up here?” Logan said onscreen. Toni couldn’t see him, but he sounded close.
“Up is my thing. Down is yours,” Steve said.
“How do you record the footage?” Toni asked, leaning closer to the screen for clues.
“I’m wearing a headcam. Maybe you’d like to borrow it while you’re following the band around. It would free up your hands for taking notes on napkins.”
He laughed—and she knew he was laughing at her—but a headcam was a wonderful idea. Why hadn’t she thought of it?
Toni gripped his wrist excitedly. “Could I really borrow it?”
“Sure. Now you have to watch.” He nodded toward his screen.
“You’re not really going to jump, are you?” Steve asked on the video.
“No fear,” Logan yelled, and suddenly the waterfall was the only thing in sight and seemed to slow until it stood still. Or maybe it was just falling at the same rate as the man who’d just jumped off the cliff. There was a brief glimpse of the craggy rocks sending water spraying toward the camera, then the rapidly approaching surface of the water below. Toni didn’t see the rest—she covered her eyes again—but over the rumble of the falls she could hear Logan yelling exuberantly.
“What a rush,” Logan said beside her. “I need to do that one again.”
There was a tremendous splash and gurgling sounds as water closed in around him. Toni didn’t uncover her eyes until she heard the distinctive sound of him surfacing and taking a deep breath.
“Fuck yeah, that was awesome!” he yelled on the video as the camera, with its view now partially blocked by water droplets, panned far, far, far up the waterfall and cliff face. “Come on, Steve. Get your ass down here!”
“You’re insane!” Toni heard Steve yell from a great distance. His voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of the waterfall. “I’m insane!” And then there was a loud whoop as Steve launched himself over the cliff.
Toni covered her eyes again. Yes, she knew that Steve hadn’t died that day either, but holy shit, he was almost as fearless as the man beside her. And here she was practically afraid of her own shadow.
She heard Steve screaming in terror all the way down, heard his entry splash. When he surfaced, he coughed several times and then yelled at Logan, “That fucking hurt like hell!”
Logan just laughed. “If I told you it hurt, you never would have jumped. But it was fun, right?”
“Spectacular,” Steve said.
Logan shut off the video. “You can uncover your eyes now,” he said into her ear. His tone revealed his amusement at her terror.
“You could have died!” And she did uncover her eyes. So she could slap him on the chest.
“But I didn’t.”
“Jeez, I must bore you to tears,” she whispered, not sure she actually wanted to voice that thought aloud.