Without stopping to overthink it, she pulled a now-worried Suzy up to the sign advertising parasailing before it hit her. “I didn’t bring any money!” Maybe it was divine intervention, but she didn’t want to stop now. She had been determined to see this through without letting her fears win.
Suzy looked at her disappointed expression before cursing under her breath. In a move that made the young man taking the money gawk, Suzy stuck a hand into her swimsuit top and pulled out some bills. “I know I’m going to regret this, but if you’re all set to go for it, then I’ve got your back.” The poor guy seemed to struggle not to swallow his tongue as he took the hundred-dollar bill from Suzy’s outstretched hand. When he was finally able to get it together enough to return her change, he motioned for one of the thankfully older men on the beach to help them into the boat.
One man drove the boat while the other hooked them in their harnesses and then helped them onto the flight deck. The man handling the equipment explained that they would be launched and retrieved using a hydraulic winch. Ava was relieved to know that they wouldn’t suddenly catapult into the water. When the winch started to launch them into the air, she felt her stomach drop to her feet. “Oh my God, why did I let you talk me into this?” she screamed over at Suzy.
“What! I was happy to stay on the ground! I told you that we’d take baby steps today. That meant walk around and think about doing this shit, but not actually do it!” Suddenly, they both looked down, realizing that the boat was now only a small speck in the distance. “Oh, holy fuck-a-moly! Remember what I said about pissing my pants? Well, it may just happen this time!”
For Ava, that was all it took. Hearing Suzy curse and toss out threats along with the adrenaline rush of doing something so completely crazy was enough to make her snap. Instead of the panic that she would normally feel, though, she started laughing. Tears rolled down her face, and she could barely breathe, but she only laughed harder. She had well and truly lost her mind this time, but in a good way. She threw her hands up into the air and started to squeal between bouts of mad laughter. “Ahhh, yayyy!” she screamed over and over. After a few minutes, she noticed someone echoing her crazy yells and turned to see Suzy doing something similar. They looked at each other, grinning like idiots.
“Girl, you are crazy!” Suzy gasped out. “Everyone within a five-mile radius can probably hear us, but who in the hell cares? This is the bomb!”
When the guy below hoisted them in, he was grinning at them, trying hard to suppress his own laughter. “Sounds like you ladies had a good time.”
Instead of shying away and waiting for Suzy to answer, Ava gave him a thumbs-up. “It was off-the-charts! We’ll definitely be back, right, Suzy?”
Suzy gave a small thumbs-up in return before slumping back against the boat seat. “Ur—yeah, I’m afraid we will.”
After that, they took a leisurely walk on the beach, laughing over how crazy they had sounded before heading back toward Suzy’s house. Ava had expected to see Mac there and was disappointed when Gray said that he had already left.
At Suzy’s insistence, she left her swimsuit on but borrowed a T-shirt to throw on over it. It did seem crazy to put her work clothes back on after being on the beach. It wasn’t exactly sexy lingerie, but still she hoped that Mac would like it.
* * *
Mac paced back and forth across his entryway, waiting for Ava to arrive. When he’d shown up at Gray’s house earlier, the other man casually mentioned that his wife and Ava were parasailing down on the beach and would be back in a few hours. Parasailing? Holy shit! Mac’s concentration had gone out the window after that. He was only half listening to Gray’s questions about an alarm system upgrade as he imagined the woman he loved breaking her neck and drowning in the freaking Atlantic Ocean. It had taken everything he had not to leave Gray standing there while he marched down the beach and threw Ava over his shoulder. He thought he deserved a fucking medal for having that much self-control.