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A second later, she fell straight back, landing promptly in Bajwa’s waiting arms.

“Now, you guys give it a try,” he ordered.

“You’ve got me, right?” Cora asked her own partner, Destiny. Destiny assured her that she did, and caught the woman easily. Paul and Ned followed suit, though both of them looked more interested in trust-falling Bajwa right off the bluff.

Karlin’s palms felt sweaty. She was confident Axel would have no trouble catching her weight, but that didn’t mean she was thrilled about having to let him do it.

She’d managed to avoid him for most of the day, and now Bajwa had forced them together. It was maddening. She knew that she had to work with Axel, but that didn’t mean they had to spend every second together. She had enough going on in her head without him poking into her life.

“You got this, Karlin,” Axel was saying behind her. She pressed her eyes shut and stood up straight, forcing herself to take a few deep breaths, but Bajwa spoke again before she worked up the nerve to make the fall.

“Now that you have the basic move down, there’s a twist,” he said. “You knew there had to be a twist, right? I can’t have this be too easy. Otherwise, how are we really going to learn to rely on one another?”

He paused, as though waiting for someone to actually answer. Of course, no one did.

“Anyway,” he continued, “we’re going to have a little competition. The catcher who can step back the furthest and still catch their partner wins.”

Now Karlin’s heart was really racing.

This sounded like an absolute nightmare. Falling a foot with Axel standing right there was bad enough, but this?

“Are you ready for real this time?” Asher asked, positioning himself a couple of feet behind her and extending his arms outward. Despite his compact build, she could see the wiry muscles that covered his arms, and she had to admit, it made her feel a little better.

She nodded, unable to form words as she once again positioned herself to get ready to fall.

She closed her eyes and let herself tip backwards. She didn’t even get the chance to realize she was in the air before Axel caught her.

“Okay,” she said, letting out a breath. “I can do this. It’s not that bad.”

“Heck yeah you can do it!” Axel crowed. “We need to win this thing!”

She made a face. “I mean, do we?”

“Why not? It’s a competition.”

“What does that matter?”

Axel lowered his voice and leaned close enough to her that she felt his warm breath against her ear. “Do you really want to get smoked by a bunch of old people and two women?”

“You do realize I’m a woman myself?” she pointed out, trying to sound more stern than she felt.

“Yeah, but you’re not the one doing the catching. We have an advantage!”

“So you can’t lose to a girl?” she asked, getting in position for another fall. This time, she allowed Axel to step a few inches back. “Are you twelve?”

“You know, my brothers ask me that like once a week,” he said. “It’s not really an effective insult any more. The sting is gone from overuse.”

She let herself fall, and once again, he caught her with seemingly no effort.

“I guess I’ll need to think of some more creative insults.”

“You could,” he agreed. “Or you could just accept that I’m a pretty great guy. Then you wouldn’t need to insult me at all.”

She said nothing, instead getting herself ready as he set up for another fall. She glanced over her shoulder and felt instantly sick. He was much further back now, easily several feet.

This time, she was certain she’d feel the fall. She’d have a split second in mid-air to imagine herself crashing backward onto the hard ground.

Too late. She was already imagining it.

Her legs felt shaky, and suddenly she felt desperate to sit down and have a drink of water. Maybe she could tell Bajwa as much and get out of participating any further. She certainly didn’t care about winning some stupid–

“Karlin, come on!” Axel was calling out to her. He had to speak more loudly than before, as everyone else was shouting encouragement to their own partners. Her throat felt thick.

“I don’t feel good,” she said.

“Okay, so let’s finish, and then you can take a break,” he said without skipping a beat. “Come on.”

“I–I can’t,” she stammered, turning around.

The distance was just as terrifying as it had been a second before.

Some part of her logical mind knew that it was just the ground, but it may as well have been a gaping chasm.

She absolutely did not want to play this stupid game anymore.

“This is stupid. I can’t. I can’t, Axel.

I don’t want to. Just stop. Why are we even doing this! ”

She was sure Bajwa heard her, but she didn’t care. He was insane if he thought this was actually doing anything to build trust. If anything, it had made her trust her boss even less than before.

“Karlin?” Asher asked, his voice gentle. “Can you look at me?”

She didn’t want to do that any more than she wanted to fall into his way-too-far-away waiting arms.

But something within her led her to meet his eyes.

Even though there was a gap between them, she could see the kindness resting within the pools of blue. As much as he made fun of her, joked around constantly, and totally did act like he was twelve, she had hired him for a reason. He was a good man, and she knew it.

“You can trust me,” he said. His voice didn’t hold any of its usual light tone. He sounded dead serious. “I promise. I promise I won’t let you fall. Now turn around.”

Something about his command made her obey. She stood there, squinting in the desert sun, trying to force fresh air into and out of her lungs.

Karlin didn’t trust anybody.

She didn’t trust her parents. She had trusted John for most of her life, but now, after what he’d put her through, she struggled to trust even him completely. And if the God that both John and Axel believed in was even real, she was absolutely certain she didn’t trust Him, either.

So why did this total stranger make her feel so safe?

“Karlin,” Axel called out again from behind her. “Close your eyes. Let go.”

She pressed her eyes shut, blocking out the harsh light. She focused on the sound of the breeze and the call of distant birds. She pushed everything away.

The fear.

The dark memories.

The uncertainty about her future.

And before she could second-guess herself, she fell.

She didn’t open her eyes, even as she felt that moment of weightless terror, and before she knew it, it was over.

He’d caught her.

She could hear everyone cheering as Axel pulled her into his chest. She didn’t push him away as he hugged her, instead allowing herself a couple of seconds to relax in his warmth.

“You did it!” he said, finally pulling back enough that she could look up at him. “Awesome job. I knew you had it in you.”

She caught his eyes for several long seconds, unable to hide the smile that had bubbled out of her.

It was only when she looked around her that she realized how far apart everyone was standing.

They had lost horribly. They had come in dead last, even losing to Paul and Ned, who barely seemed willing to participate at all.

And she suspected that Axel had known that was going to be the case right away.

Yet still, he had pushed her. He had made her keep going until she’d faced down her fear.

She dusted a few flecks of loose sand off her clothes as Bajwa called for them and the rest of the group to gather back together.

She straightened and walked toward her boss, letting Axel fall behind her, like he was nothing more than a patient she’d teamed up with for a silly exercise.

No matter how much he made her want to let her guard down, she still had to focus.

Because tomorrow, the real danger was going to begin.