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“Totally,” Oliver agrees.

“Don’t you two gang up on me.”

He winks at me and takes my hand. “Come on, I’ll watch out for you.”

Oliver means it. While the instructor, Andre, a tall guy with dark hair and a deep tan, explains the course, Oliver moves among us, checking that everyone is in their harnesses properly and that all of the safety ropes are secured.

Speaking of which, I should be doing my own safety checks.

“You okay, Em?” I say, catching her at a moment when she’s a bit apart from Fred. Her hair is pulled back by a light blue headband, and her makeup is light. She looks like she did when we were in high school, fresh-faced and vulnerable.

“I’m good.”

“And earlier? The stuff about the money?”

“We talked it out,” Emma says.

“Hey, you can tell me.”

She turns to me with a remote look in her eyes. “Tell you what, El? That someone wants to kill me or scare me out of marrying Fred and I just learned that he’s been lying to me?”

“I’m sorry, I—”

“I know you mean well, okay? But you don’t have to solve this.”

“You asked me to look into it.”

“That was before. I don’t want to know anything more. I know enough.”

“This isn’t my fault.”

She catches my hand. “I’m not blaming you. But you can leave it now. Tyler’s left and Fred’s happy and I’m happy, too.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

She hugs me, then walks to Fred and kisses him, maybe for emphasis, maybe just because she’s in love and it’s her wedding day and it’s easier to concentrate on the task ahead than the wind whipping through the trees and the undercurrents pulling against the group.

Andre finishes his instructions, and we get separated into groups of four—Fred, Emma, Harper, and Connor in one; me, Oliver, David, and Allison in another. Inspector Tucci, Simone, and Shawna get lumped in with a member of the crew. I feel a moment of sympathy for Simone as Inspector Tucci starts rattling off statistics about how many people have a fear of heights and how the top of the ropes course is the same height as the LeaningTower of Pisa.62Then we flip a coin for who is going first, and it’s tails, we lose.

“I’m not sure I can do this,” I say to Oliver as I look up above me. The first platform is very high—not Leaning Tower of Pisa high, that’s ridiculous, but high enough.

Oliver checks his harness again. “So, don’t.”

“What? No pep talk? No ‘you can do this’?”

“I’m not a greeting card.”

Allison laughs. She’s dressed in a black Lycra bodysuit, and if they are looking to cast the next Catwoman, she’s in for sure. “Come on, El. It will be good to build the team.”

“What team?”

“When in Rome, Part II.”

I’m about to say something I’ll probably regret when I realize Allison’s joking. “Ha, right. Good one.”

“You’re a little stress case today, aren’t you?”