Safeword: Mayday by Candace Blevins
Chapter 11
The view from Signal Point has been called The Grand Canyon of the East, or sometimes the Little Grand Canyon. The big difference is that there are trees in Tennessee — lots and lots of green. As Heather, Kyle, and Marcus walked from the parking area to the Signal Point overlook, Heather was once again awed by the view, and she breathed in the beauty of nature. It didn’t matter that she’d seen it hundreds of times; this lofty spot high over the Tennessee River would always speak to her soul.
However, Kyle was silently freaking out at the height, focusing all his attention on the ground directly beneath his feet, and doing his best to ignore the view. Marcus was so busy observing Heather and Kyle that he damn near missed the beautiful vista, but Heather decided someone was going to enjoy it with her, so she pulled Marcus to the stone railing and insisted he take in the scenery with her. She jumped up to sit on the three-foot-tall stone wall that acted as a rail, and flipped her feet around so she was facing the right way. She heard Kyle’s intake of breath and realized that from his vantage point fifteen feet behind her, he probably thought there was a drop off on the other side of the wall, not realizing it was set back from the edge of the cliff.
“Kyle, I promised I would stay away from the edge, and I am. I’m sorry I scared you, but there isn’t a drop off here. I’m going to turn around and get down, then I want to walk you far enough so you can see what I’m talking about — okay?”
“I’m fine back here. I’ll take your word for it. I’m sorry I’m being such a wuss.”
She sighed. They should find something else to do. Heather understood Marcus wanted to push Kyle, but she just wanted to spend an enjoyable day with the two men. “No need to apologize, and you aren’t being a wuss. Maybe we can find something else to do — is there somewhere else you’d rather run?”
“No. We’re here and we’re doing this. I’m going to go back on the lawn area and stretch, then we can get started on the run.”
* * * *
Heather took the lead — the theory being that she was more familiar with the trail, and with trail running in general, so they could follow her. Once they got past the first couple of hundred yards, the next several miles of the trail were mostly in the woods and nowhere near the edge, so Kyle was fine. They stopped at Rainbow Lake for a breather, and to take a look at the lake. Kyle drew her into his arms, and Marcus stepped away from them. Heather didn’t want Marcus to feel like a third wheel, but she didn’t know what to do about it. She allowed Kyle to fold her into his arms for a short time, then drew away from him, holding his hand while they walked across the footbridge to Marcus.
Heather had planned to ask him if he was ready to keep going, but he spoke before she had a chance. “When you’re running, it’s like you go into a Zen trance — you become the trail. I’m nineteen inches taller than you, and I’m having a hard time keeping up while running at the pace of a mere human. Your feet land in great places; your body is perfectly balanced. It’s like a dance that’s been choreographed. You’re beautiful when you run.”
Kyle had wrapped his arms around her from behind, and his chest vibrated behind her. “She’s amazing, isn’t she? It’s like the more challenging it is, the more she gets into it. The harder she pushes her body, the better it works for her.”
Heather wasn’t sure what to say. “Guys, it’s just trail running. If you need me to slow down some, I can. I figure I’ll have to slow down in the areas the trail gets near the edge, so we may as well get a good workout during this section, when we don’t see any of the view.”
Kyle stepped around her and pulled Marcus into a hug, and Marcus’s arms immediately went around Kyle, embracing him right back.
“Thanks, Marcus. Thanks for seeing her. I love her and I see it, but sometimes I think I’m the only one who sees her for how special she is.”
Marcus released one arm from Kyle and reached towards Heather, and she went to them. She wasn’t sure how it happened, but somehow she was being held by both men. It felt good, but it also made her a little uncomfortable to be doing it where someone might walk up on them. “Okay guys, this is great and all, but maybe we can get done with the mushy stuff and run the rest of the trail?”
Marcus looked up the hill they were about to climb with doubt. “You may have to wait for us at the top of this one. I like to think I’m in good shape, but the combination of the hills and the uneven terrain — I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to keep up with you at this pace.”
She looked at Kyle. “How are you doing?”
He grinned. “I’m used to keeping up with you now. The first couple of times we went running I was in the shape Marcus is in though — I thought I was in good shape until I went out in the woods with you.”
She looked back at Marcus. “I’ll back off a little going up the hills. You need to let me know if you need to take a break, or if I need to slow down more. Injuries happen when you push too hard — it’s your responsibility to tell me you’re tired before you reach that point. Got it?”
“Got it.” And he took off up the hill.
* * * *
By the time they reached Edward’s Point, Heather was exhilarated, but Kyle was a bundle of nerves. The trail was near the edge of a drop off in places towards the end, and he hadn’t dealt well with it at all. Most of the time, Heather put either herself or Marcus between Kyle and the edge, but at a few points they’d needed to travel single file, and he’d held his breath while he moved from tree to tree. Luckily, there were trees for him to hold onto, otherwise Heather wasn’t sure he’d have been able to do it.
One year, she’d camped out at Edward’s Point on the Fourth of July, and had watched the fireworks over the city from above. The professional fireworks downtown had looked like little miniature roman candles going off. The other fireworks around town just looked like fireflies. She wondered if she’d ever be able to camp out here with Kyle.
When they arrived at the Point, Kyle walked straight to the tree line, fifteen yards away from the stone edge, and leaned against a tree. Heather went to the rocks and stretched out in the sunshine on her back, soaking in the chill of the stone under her and the heat of the sun beating down. Marcus stood for a moment, observing, and then went to the edge and sat with his feet hanging over the cliff’s edge.
Kyle’s face ghosted to white, but he didn’t say anything.
Heather was surprised they had the spot to themselves — a myriad of trails led to Edwards Point from other places, and between the hikers, the mountain bikers, and the four wheelers, it was usually a pretty active place.
No sooner did she think the thought than she heard the sounds of mountain bikes headed their way. She waited until they got close and she heard a bike drop and footsteps walking her way before she shielded her eyes from the sun to see how many people there were and whether they looked friendly or not. One of the men looked familiar, and she sat up to get a better look.
* * * *
Kyle heard the bikes, but was focused on Marcus, sitting with his legs over the edge of the cliff. If he leaned forward, he’d die.
He was so focused on Marcus’s imminent death, he jumped and nearly had a panic attack when Heather squealed, “Eric!” and then jumped up and ran towards the woods.
The blond man she was running towards said, “Nitro!” seconds before he caught her in midair and swung her up into a bear hug.
He put her down and said, “Long time no see, what’ve you’ve been up to?”
Heather shrugged, “This and that.” She looked behind him at the other men with him and asked, “Where’s Kendra?”
“She’s more of a night owl — you won’t see her out and about much during the day. This is my uncle, Ranger, and I think you know Jim Bob over there. We decided it was a good day for just us guys to have some fun. My uncle is still getting the hang of this mountain bike thing, but he’s doing okay. We did the t-wall this morning before the sun heated things up too badly, and now we’re trying to show him some tricks on the bikes. He’s new to town, and I’m showing him around, illustrating why I’ve chosen to make Chattanooga my base. Hey, why don’t you show him what you can do?” He motioned towards his bike.” You know, let him see that even a girl can do this? Really give him some incentive to try some tricks of his own?”
“Even a girl? Even a girl?”
Heather swept her leg at the man’s feet, and he ended up on his back on the dirt, though Kyle noted she reached for his hands as he went down so he didn’t hit too hard. He grinned up at her as she stepped one foot over him and looked down to talk. “I’ll show you what a girl can do. If I remember correctly, I won the challenge at Castle Rock last year, leaving you in the dust.”
Marcus had moved to stand beside Kyle, and he chuckled. “First time I’ve seen you on your back to someone, Eric.”
Marcus knew this man, too?
The man Heather had called Eric glanced at Marcus before turning back to Heather, his eyes more focused now. Sharp. Almost disbelieving. “You’re here with Marcus? As a friend? Or… more?”
Heather ignored the question and offered her hand to Eric. He accepted it and let her help him up.
Eric looked from Marcus and Kyle back to Heather again, and Heather finally told him, “Kyle, Marcus, and I did a trail run, and now we’re enjoying the point. If you want me to do some tricks on your bike, you’ll need to adjust the seat and handlebars for me. If you don’t want to move them around, that’s fine, but I can’t ride it like it is.”
“Not a problem. My spots are marked, so it’s easy enough to get it back where I want it. Adjust away and then let’s see what you’ve got. Oh, but first....”
Eric grabbed her, spun her towards him, and then dropped her to the ground while he followed her, so they ended up with Heather flat on her back, and Eric lying mostly to the side of her, but pinning her in a wrestling move, so she was stuck.
Kyle instinctively moved forward to help her, but Marcus grabbed his arm and held him back. He put his mouth near Kyle’s ear and muttered, “They’re friends. This is horseplay. She’s fine.”
Heather laughed and told Eric, “Touché, do you need someone to count it out, so I’m officially pinned?”
Eric rolled away from her. “Nope. Go show Ranger what you can do on a bike.”
Kyle stayed in place, but he didn’t relax — he didn’t like the other man putting hands on her like that.
Heather stood without help, quickly made the adjustments, and then rode around easy for a few minutes, getting the feel of the bike. The rest of the group followed her away from the edge and into the woods to a place open enough to maneuver through some tricks — it was an old dirt track, wide enough for a four-wheel drive vehicle, and the tracks to prove it, but Kyle also saw marks that told him the quad riders likely used it as well.
She was in a spot where three wider roads and four narrow trails came together, one of them clearly a dirt-bike trail. The entire area was full of ruts, chert, and rock, and it looked like a horrible place to play around on a dirt bike, but within moments after her warm-up, Kyle saw the moment Heather lost herself in the challenge of the tricks and forgot about her audience. She bounced, twirled, spun, and even went airborne a few times in a bizarre dance of human and bicycle.
However, several minutes into it, her front wheel caught in a rut and she flew away from the bike in a wide arc — a forward flip over the handlebars that had Kyle’s stomach in his throat.
He was on the way to her before she landed, and he noted she tried to roll when she hit the ground, but she didn’t have enough room and slammed into a large tree.
It knocked the breath out of her, and she sat up, fighting to breathe. Kyle kneeled beside her. “You’re okay. Relax and let your body breathe for you. It will happen. You’re okay.”
When she finally sucked air in and was breathing, Marcus was there as well, on her other side, his hand at the back of her arm — touching without holding her. Kyle adjusted his touch so his hand was on the side of her leg instead of one on her hip and another on her shoulder. She didn’t like to feel boxed in under the best of circumstances, and he didn’t want to make this worse.
“Don’t move,” Marcus ordered, and there was no mistaking it for a request. “What hurts?”
“I have to move a little to see what I’ve done.” She said it as a joke, but her tone was clearly exasperated. “Guys, this is not my first fall. Back off. Give me some space.”
Her shin was bleeding from the many rocks stuck into her skin in multiple places. Damn. Kyle touched the skin around the abrasions to look at blood flow, careful he didn’t hurt her worse.