The B Girls by Cari Cole Page B

get
down there without a rope."
    "It's not that bad," Mae said. She paced
several yards in either direction before stopping and pointing. "There's a
trail right here."
    Lucy and Jane looked where Mae was pointing.
    Calling the narrow, ill-defined gap in the trees
and brush a trail was giving it way too much credit. It did seem to meander in
the general direction they wanted to go, but the terrain still looked
dangerously steep.
    Jane rolled her eyes. "Maybe a rabbit would
call that a trail. I call it an invitation to disaster."
    "We have to at least try," Mae said.
"I'll go first." She was looking a little pale, but before Jane or
Lucy could object, Mae took one sidestep over the edge.
    "See," she said, "you just have to
take it slow," she lifted her second foot, "an----OH!"
    Her foot slipped out from under her and she started
sliding down the hill on her side.
    "Shit," Jane said.
    "Double shit," Lucy said.
    They stared for the several long seconds it took
Mae to slide to a halt in an awkward sprawl on top of a laurel bush two thirds
of the way down.
    "Are you okay?" Lucy called down. Just
how guilty would she feel if Mae had something broken?
    Mae managed a weak wave but it looked like she was
having trouble catching her breath.
    Seeing her in distress made Lucy wince. "We
have to get down there." She tried to act confident, but she figured they
were all going to break their damn fool necks.
    Jane nodded. "Let's go." She followed Mae
over the edge.
    "Be careful. You don't want to wind up on top
of her." Lucy stepped off the road. What was a broken neck between
friends? Besides, they deserved whatever they got for not being better
prepared. Of course, getting better prepared would have taken precious time.
Time that Belle might not have.
    It wasn't possible to walk down the hill, it was
too steep. It required a combination of sliding, crawling and sidestepping, but
they finally made it down to Mae's side.
    She was struggling to get her limbs back in the
right places so she could sit up. Jane gave her a hand and she managed to
flounder her way upright.
    "Guess I should have been a little more
careful." She reached up to brush leaves and dirt from her hair. "At
least we're almost down the first hill."
    "You've got to be--"
    "Are you sure you're not hurt?" Lucy
overrode Jane.
    "Just a few scratches and a bruised dignity. I
got a little dizzy looking down the hill. I'll be ready to go on in a
minute."
    Jane looked at the two of them as if they'd lost
their minds. "You two do realize one of us will probably wind up with
something broken?"
    "I'm willing to take the chance," Mae
said. "No more taking the easy way out. Giving up at the first bump in the
road."
    Jane snapped the nails of her thumb and ring finger
together, an impatient, annoying habit she fell into when she was nervous or angry.
"This might be the most insane stunt I've been a part of since the
unfortunate testing of the no nudity rule on Panama City Beach my Junior year
of college."
    She stopped clicking her nails and smacked herself
in the forehead. "Oh wait, how could I forget, Saturday night when I was
old enough to know better, I got tattooed."
    Lucy watched as Jane's expression changed from
sarcastic to stunned surprise. "What?"
    Jane blinked and shook her head.
"Epiphany."
    "About?" Lucy prompted.
    "I'm such a shit sometimes."
    "And your point?" Mae said.
    "No, I mean I hate to admit it but sometimes I
feel a little smug about the fact that I never turned into a soccer mom. No
Junior League. No ALTA, tennis. I convinced myself I was different. Braver,
more independent. Now I realize I just fell into a trap of a different kind.
I'm my own stereotype. The hard-charging, driven real estate woman complete
with two hundred dollar haircut, expensive suits and dramatic make-up. And
let's not forget the manicure. I'm just as boxed in as every other woman I
know. Or at least I was until I left the reservation with you two."
    "Glad to be of help," Lucy said.
"But I think