A tingling sensation came over me and I knew instantly that Ezra had entered the room. Whenever he was near my body tingled. I should’ve known Hayes wasn’t him.

“Hey,” he said softly.

“I’m going down to the beach.” Hayes announced suddenly. “Just yell for me when the grub’s ready.”

He hightailed it out of the kitchen like his ass was on fire. For all I knew maybe he did feel the simmering heat of the flame that burned between Ezra and I.

I didn’t bother to turn around and acknowledge Ezra. I continued on making breakfast, like his presence didn’t affect me at all.

He said nothing as I finished making one of the omelets. I grabbed a stack of plates and slid the omelet out of the skillet onto the top one. I picked up the plate and handed it to him.

“Hungry?” I asked.

I wasn’t mad at him. On the contrary, I was mad at myself for expecting more. I was pathetic.

He grabbed the plate and opened a drawer to grab a fork. He speared a bite and I watched as he raised it to his mouth and chewed, waiting for his reaction.

“Not bad,” he cracked a smile, “in fact, it’s pretty damn good.”

I smiled despite my dour feelings. I set about making the rest and I was sliding the third onto a plate when he spoke again.

“Would you be opposed to going somewhere with me today?”

I arched a brow and set the skillet aside. “Just the two of us?” I wondered.

He nodded, striding over to the sink to wash his plate. “Yeah, just you and me.”

“What do you want to do?” I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest as my suspicions rose.

He shrugged casually and stared at me from across the kitchen island. “I can’t tell you.”

I let out a sigh. Despite not knowing what he had planned, I refused to say no. “When do I need to be ready?”

“After you eat breakfast,” he mused. “And wear something stretchy.”

“Stretchy?” I repeated. What the hell did he have planned? “We better not be biking. That shit makes my vagina hurt, and don’t get me started on guys. Seriously, where does your junk go? It’s one of the many mysteries of the world.”

He snorted. “Sadie, you’re one of a kind. And no, we’re not going biking. Think outside the box a bit more.” He winked and then strode out of the kitchen, leaving me alone to wonder what he was up to.

No matter how much I racked my brain I couldn’t come up with one single idea.

“Ezra,” I whined, looking out the window as he continued to drive farther and farther away, “where are you taking me? If you wanted to kill me and feed my body to the sharks we could’ve done that back at the house.”

He stopped singing along to the radio and chuckled. “Come on, you have to have more faith in me than that.”

“My faith in you sailed away approximately five minutes ago. We’ve been in the car for an hour. I’m going stir crazy.”

“Be patient.”

“Why does my gut tell me I’m not going to like whatever it is you’re up to?”

He grinned and shook his head like I was oh-so-cute. I wondered if he’d still think it was cute when my panic caused me to jump out of a moving vehicle.

Ten minutes later we turned into a parking lot in front of a plain building. I swung my head around wildly, looking for a sign or any sort of clue to the origins of the building.

“High Flyers,” I read. “Please tell me you’re not making me jump out of a plane. I know you did that with Maddox and Emma, but I’m not as brave as Emma,” I admitted.

“No planes.” He assured me and got out of the vehicle.

I hastily followed after him. “Then what is this place?”

“You’ll see.”

I was tempted to run back to the safety of the car, but something told me he’d only chase after me and drag me back.

He opened the glass door to the building and waved me in ahead of him.

We were standing in some sort of lobby. The floors were a beige tile and the walls were a pale yellow.

I rubbed my hands together nervously as he strode over to the counter and spoke with the lady sitting behind it.

She answered him and I saw her point to a doorway.

“This way.” Ezra nodded his head.

I followed him and when I saw what was behind the door I thought I might throw up. “No, no, no, no fucking way am I doing this.”

I darted for the door and he caught me around my waist, dragging me into his body.

“I’m going to die,” I said dramatically. “I will fall to my death.”

“You’ll be fine,” he chuckled, “there’s a net.”

“So, you’re implying that I will fall?”

“Well, you have to get down somehow.”

“I can’t do this.” My stomach rolled, looking up at the sight before me once more.

We were in a training facility of some sort and above us were these things hanging from the ceiling. People held onto the bars and jumped from one to the next. One man hung upside down on one, holding a woman’s hands in his and spun her around. In another corner of the gym long pieces of fabric hung from the ceiling with a woman spinning from one, exactly like we’d seen at the circus.

“Ezra,” I started, throwing in a dramatic gulp for good measure, “this was awesome when we saw it at the circus, but there’s no way in hell you are ever getting me up there.”

“Come on,” his hand landed on my butt and he gave it a small squeeze, “it’ll be fun. It’s something we’ll remember forever.”

I wanted to argue with him that I would remember every single moment we shared together for the rest of my life, but I knew he’d just find another argument for getting me up there.

“If I die you better tell my parents that I love them…and tell my brother that I was the one that broke his BB gun when we were little. He was really mad about that and I blamed the dog.”

Ezra snorted. “Anything else?”

“Not at the moment, but something might come to me before I plummet to my death.”

He shook his head, trying to hold in his laughter and failing miserably. “If you’re falling to your death then I hardly think you can impart any last words.”

I shrugged, rearing my head back to watch as the man swung back and forth gaining momentum before throwing the woman into the air. She easily caught onto one of the metal bar things.

“Then I guess the world will never know my last words of wisdom. ‘Tis a shame. Maybe we should leave before the world has to deal with the burden of such a loss?”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Or maybe you shouldn’t be such a scaredy cat.”

“Scaredy cat?” I wrinkled my nose. “What are we? Five?”

He chuckled. “You’re the one acting like a baby.”

“Ooh,” I mock winced, “that hurts, Ezra.”

“Just calling it like I see it.” He smiled innocently.

“You must be Ezra and Sadie.” A voice sounded behind us.

I turned around hastily and had to rear my head back to see the face of the man standing there. He was so tall that he made Hayes seem short. He had to be at least six-foot-seven.

“That’s us.” Ezra reached out to shake his hand.

The man held his hand out to me next. I placed mine inside his open palm and watched it nearly disappear in his gigantic grasp.

“I’m Oscar. I’ll be your instructor today.”

I glanced over my shoulder once more and gulped.

“Don’t be scared,” Oscar said, drawing my attention back to him, “it’s not as scary as it looks.”

“I don’t believe you,” I muttered.

He chuckled, amused by my words. “You’ll change your mind once you get up there.”

“Why?” I asked, curiously.

He shrugged and a look of contemplation stole over his face. “Because,” he replied, “when you’re up there…it feels a lot like freedom.”

I sighed and lifted my hands in the air. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

“Are you sure?” Ezra questioned. He might’ve been pushing me to do this, but he’d never make me do anything I absolutely didn’t want to do.