Page 30 of Fire Dancer
I hid a grin. This was exactly the kind of local knowledge I’d hoped to tap into. And the fact that thelocalwas Pippa was icing on the cake.
A hundred yards down the rough track, we came to a steep gully, and I stopped again.
“You want me to go down this?”
That was the thing about being with Pippa. It came with joy, heartache, and massive leaps of faith.
She patted the doorframe. “This is a Jeep, you know.”
Ah, just like old times, with her daring me and me taking the bait every time.
I put the Jeep in four-wheel-drive mode and eased over the edge, thrilled and a little scared — which also fit everything I did with Pippa. Including falling in love.
My hands tightened over the steering wheel as we careened down what felt like a vertical drop. Pippa whooped in glee.
Then,splash!We hit the puddle at the bottom, ground over a couple of rocks, and rounded a turn on a steep incline with no hint of what lay ahead.
“You sure about this?” I hollered over the creak of the chassis and grind of the engine.
Her hands were thrust up against the dashboard, but her smile was a mile wide. “Trust me, baby. Trust me.”
Ninety-nine out of a hundred times, Pippa was right. It was that leftoveroneI was wary of… But, whew. The moment werounded the blind corner, the Jeep track was no lumpier or steeper than any of the popular trails around town. The only difference was, we had it all to ourselves.
“My aunt used to take us to an old cliff dwelling up here,” Pippa explained.
I’d never met the aunt, but I had the feeling she was a lot like Pippa. Coming all the way out here with three little girls… I tipped an imaginary hat to the woman.
“So, it winds around for a while…” Pippa narrated the route for the next fifteen minutes, pointing in the jerky way the vehicle’s movement dictated. “If you went down that way, you’d come to a dead end. An hour’s walk brings you to the cliff dwelling…”
An hour. The aunt’s idea of a good time, I figured. No wonder Pippa had a thirst for adventure.
“And if you took that track, you’d have to be real careful, because it got washed out, and you’re likely to roll most of the way down.” Pippa pointed left casually.
I hugged the right side of the trail and continued climbing. Hairpin after hairpin, with gravel grinding under the tires and scrub oak scratching the sides of the Jeep.
“Now turn left…” Pippa pointed.
I stared. Maybe on a mountain bike. There wasn’t enough space for a Jeep.
“Oh, come on,” she goaded. “You wanted a lookout point, right?”
“I also want to make it back to town alive.”
Pippa chuckled, smacking my knee. “That’s a good one.”
Little, er — neutrons? Protons? Something very small but packed with a ton of energy — zipped through my body, and my wolf side sighed.
My mate…
I abandoned my last scrap of good sense and revved onto that side track. It was narrow and bumpy as hell, but Pippa was right. We could get through.
Which brought me one step closer to hitting that one out of a hundred times Pippa was wrong. I made a mental note.
“Is there a place to turn around?”
She shook her head, not at all perturbed. “You have to back out.” She narrowed her eyes at my double take. “I can drive if you want.”
I clutched the gear stick possessively. Pippa drove the way she did everything else: leap, then look.