And the Townsends were my nuts. Maybe I needed to reword my analogy, too? Then again, I loved nuts, so being left with a variety of them because everyone preferred the boring, normal ones was perfect for me.
I’d also decided not to stop my bucket list. I was now about to turn twenty-two, and my twenty-first year had definitely been full of life changes, but I didn’t want to quit experiencing things I wouldn’t normally.
Which was why Levi had arranged for me to go bungee jumping at The Sierra Nevada Mountains Bridge, a railway bridge that ran between the mountains next to Lake Tahoe. I’d been pumped until we’d gotten to the area where you jumped off, and then the nerves had set in.
Giving myself a pep talk had worked, and then I’d looked down at the hundred foot drop. Needless to say, I wasn’t ok right now.
Massaging my shoulders, Levi murmured, “You don’t have to do this, Lottie. We can find one of those kids adventure parks, or go to one of those places where you stand in a big tube and they blow a lot of air to lift you up.”
“Ok, Charlotte,” Craig the jump guy yelled. “You’re next.”
With a whimper, I walked over to him and stepped into the harness.
“Do you remember what we went through in the safety briefing?” Darnell, the other bungee guy asked.
Nodding at him, I closed my eyes and thought of my happy place. On the ground. On firm ground with concrete boots on my feet. Not standing roughly one hundred feet above the water with a piece of string around my torso, some elastic around my ankles, and a GoPro being attached to me.
“Step up to the edge, Charlotte,” Craig instructed while Darnell checked all the clasps on the equipment that I’d just been strapped into.
Maybe he should do that before I stepped closer to the drop?
When he was happy, he gave a thumbs up and grinned at me. “Are you ready?”
Fuck no! “Yes.”
“Lottie,” Levi called, making me jump.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw him on one knee holding out a small box with something shining in it.
I’m not sure if it was the nerves of the jump or the shock of what I saw, but I tripped and went flailing off the edge of the bridge, screaming my ass off the whole way.
I was still screaming as I hurtled to my death, when I blinked my eyes open for a brief second and saw a crowd of people waving at me out of the corner of my vision, but my life was about to end and I was going at such a fast pace that I’d never know who was saying goodbye to me.
As the water rushed up at me, I closed my eyes and felt a second of heartbreak that I’d never get to marry Levi and wear the ring he’d picked for me.
Just as I was taking my last breath, I hit the end of the elastic and string – or the very safe and professional harnesses, but I wouldn’t look at them like that until at least a week later – and my internal organs felt like they’d shifted into my breasts. Then I was shooting back up again, then falling, continuing on like that until I finally stopped completely.
That was the first time I fully opened my eyes all the way and saw how far away from the water I was. Facing it, it didn’t seem like that far, but when I saw the photos afterwards there had been a distance of at least ten feet.
Hearing cheering to my right, I turned my head and saw all the Townsends – all of them – standing cheering and clapping. Well, aside from Levi who had somehow joined them and was standing next to his parents, Elijah, and his grandmother, all of them looking like they were about to drop dead.
The GoPro thankfully recorded everything I’d missed, including the expression on my face when I saw Levi and tripped off the edge, so I got to see it. Some of the family had also recorded or photographed it as well, so I had those to add to it, too.
Which was just as well – because I was never doing it again. Ever!
The one part I wanted to relive a million times over, though, was Levi scooping me up when I got closer to him and putting the ring on my finger without saying a word.
Regardless of the fact that I was still shaky, I burst out laughing. “Is that your idea of a proposal?”
Scowling up at the bridge and then back down at me, he shook his head seriously. “A proposal involves asking if you’re marrying me, and that means you can say no, so I’m not asking. You will marry me, and you’re never doing anything that fucking stupid again.”