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CHAPTER ONE

Ivy

“Here comes the bride,” the group of women shout as they drunkenly approach. “Who wants a ride? Five bucks to get inside, our slutty little bride.”

“Oh god,” I mutter when I see them cracking up.

The bride in the middle has an old antique dress on that’s more yellow than white, and that’s not even counting the spray paint all over it. Tramp is written across her stomach in blue spray paint and her hair is a mess with leaves all tangled up in it and a tiara that’s somehow on backwards.

“A bachelorette party,” my older brother Julian says with a shiver. “What have you done?”

I grin and smack his big shoulder. “A booking is a booking. Be nice or I’ll tell them you’re the stripper.”

His eyes widen and I laugh.

“Hello, ladies,” I say with a smile when they arrive. Only one, the slouched girl with the short blonde hair, looks too drunk to partake. The others seem okay. It is only eleven in the morning, so they haven’t gone overboard yet.

“What’s this?” the bride asks when she sees the giant Angel Arc Bridge behind me with the bungee cord strapped to it. “We’re going bungee jumping?”

“Oh yeah,” the girl with the dark hair and tattoo sleeves says as she wraps her arm around the bride’s neck.

“I thought we were going to the spa,” the bride says, going pale.

“That’s what happens when you let Reagan pick the activity,” the one with the brown hair and short silver skirt says.

“I don’t want to go bungee jumping,” the bride says, swallowing hard.

The drunk girl babbles something incoherently—“dats wat baaluubalb saed sheshterday.” And then she sits down, looking like the whole world is spinning.

“She can’t jump,” I say, pointing to her. “The rest of you, let’s sign some waivers.”

I get them to fill out the forms as Julian readies the equipment.

We’re co-owners of the company, Greene Mountain Bungee, and I usually handle the clients and booking part of it, and my older brother Julian handles the actual jumping part. We make a good team.

“Alright,” I whisper to myself as I quickly memorize their names. Misty is the bride, Reagan is the tattooed sister who booked with me last week, Daisy is the drunk girl, and the one in the silver skirt who keeps checking out my brother is Talia. The other three girls are still filling out their forms.

“Are you ladies ready?” Julian asks.

Talia shamelessly looks him up and down. “I’m ready to grab some thick rope.”

They all giggle.

The protective little sister part of me begins to wake up since my brother is married with a kid, but Julian just laughs it off and gives me a look like it’s not bothering him. I know he’s a handsome guy and I’ve seen how women react when he’s around. Plus, it’s a bachelorette party, so it’s all in good fun, so I let them tease him, although I am keeping my eye on Talia, the flirty girl in the silver skirt.

“Who’s first?” Julian asks with a grin. One of the women audibly sighs when he runs his hand through his hair. Sometimes I forget that he’s a big, handsome, muscular man until I see other women ogling him. To me, he’s just my big brother who used to steal my tablet and hold me down while he tickled my feet until I nearly peed myself.

“Strap me up, big boy,” Talia says, stepping forward. But then she sees how high the bridge is and that cool confidence evaporates.

Our rented spot is on a giant arched bridge wedged between two mountains. Underneath is a raging river. This steel bridge was built a long time ago when trains used to pass over it, but the train tracks haven’t been used since before I was born, so it’s just us now and the occasional hikers passing by.

I was one of those hikers five years ago when it hit me that this would be the perfect place for a bungee jump. I got Julian on board and we set the whole thing up from scratch. I’m so proud of it.

People come from hours away to jump off our bridge and we’re often ranked in the top five on many of the lists ranking the best bungee jumping locations in the country. Once, we were number one.

It’s a beautiful spot, and even more beautiful now that it’s fall. We’re in the sweet spot where the majority of leaves have changed and most of them are still on the trees. The mountains are just an ocean of red, gold, brown, and yellow. It’s stunning.

But these girls aren’t looking at any of it.