Free Wild Heart by Jaci J

field in the logger style obstacle race. Chainsaws in hand, they run around, acting like teenagers, all while everyone laughs, enjoying their antics. Half the guys are tanked, and the others are trying to trip each other and knock one another down.
    It’s dark by the time Zac, Justin, and two other guys make it to the last obstacle. Standing at the base of each of their trees, they get ready.
    Suddenly, I feel sick.
    I’ve seen Zac do this, but that was over ten years ago. He was eighteen and crazy.
    “Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve reached the final climb.” The announcers voice thunders through the speakers and everyone cheers. Everyone but me that is. I’m too busy trying not to puke.
    Silence falls over the crowd as the guys wrap their straps around the trees, chainsaws hanging at their sides.
    Zac stops and turns. Looking over his shoulder, I watch his eyes search for something, or someone, in the crowd. I swallow hard. Those steely blue eyes scan the crowd until they find me. My heart skips a beat or two while locked in his gaze. Smiling softly, I nod. “Good luck,” I mouth. Zac does nothing but nod in return before he turns back around, seemingly satisfied.
    I exhale a lungful of air I didn’t realize I was holding.
    Zac still, after all these years, turns me inside out.
    Boots planted into the side of the log, a gunshot goes off, and the men do their thing.

 
    The look on Emerson’s pretty face is priceless. If I thought she didn’t give a shit about me before, I know differently now. Her eyebrows in her hairline, bottom lip sucked between her teeth, and her hands gripping the stadium railing says it all. She looks sick with worry. Too bad it’s ten years too late.
    My heart beats wildly in my chest and my hands shake. My adrenaline is through the fucking roof. I wish I could say it was from the rush of free climbing a couple hundred feet into the air, but I’d be lying. It’s the set of pretty brown eyes watching my every move like one of them will be my last.
    Shaking out of the ropes, I leave them at the foot of the tree I just scaled in record time and walk off through the crowd of people, politely ignoring their congratulations.
    My heart’s just not in this year’s Play Day. It hasn’t been for a long time now.
    “How the hell do you do that year after year?” Tim asks me, his eyes wide as he falls into step next to me. He’s new, a rookie, and he’s learning. But he’s slow and clumsy. Hopefully, he’ll become a quick learner. If not, he’ll end up dead.
    “I’ve done it at least once a fucking week since I was sixteen.” It’s part of the job. Logging isn’t for everyone. In fact, it ain’t for most. It’s a damn hard job, physically demanding. I spend most of my days now keeping my crew on track and my contracts straight, but a few years ago I was out setting chokers, running the yarder, chasing, and dragging my tired ass up and down the side of the mountain. Hell, I still do it once or twice a week because I’m good at it.
    I lose Tim in the crowd, and I don’t bother looking for him.
    Walking along the stadium’s boardwalk, I look for Nadia and find her sitting a few rows away from my friends, her head down and her fingers tapping away on her phone. She’s ignoring them, which is pretty typical.
    I don’t walk over to her immediately, lingering by the railing.
    “Well, you’re still alive, so that’s good,” Em laughs nervously from behind me before walking around in front of me.
    Wearing a long dress with crazy patterned stripes of every color, and blonde curls all over the place, she looks absolutely stunning. Her red lips are split into a huge, happy smile, and it reminds me of our first kiss, here, at his very event all those years ago.
    “You scared?” My brother taunts from behind us in line, poking at Em.
    “Don’t look down and you’ll be fine, unless it gets stuck, or you fall.”
    I want to punch him but I don’t, knowing it’ll end up in a hitting