“I’m not climbing up there.” I eyed the jagged rock tower overlooking the small creek. I wasn’t against hiking. I rather enjoyed a good walk, but this was a straight up rock-climbing situation, and I was in a dress.
Let’s face it. Even if I wasn’t in a dress, I still didn’t want to climb that.
“I’ll pull you up.” Reeves’ sun-bronzed arm reached out to me. He had the kind of arms that told the truth of his hard work with carved sinewy ripples and stained in scars too deep to heal. It wasn’t his arms that were hard not to stare at, but his prosthetic hand. He hadn’t ever mentioned it. Not that he owed me any explanation, but I wondered what it felt like. Could he even tell if I was holding it? I trusted he knew what he was doing. It didn’t slow him down. Was I allowed to ask about his hand? He must have read my mind because he added, “It’s safe. You aren’t going to break it.”
“It’s quite fine. Thanks anyway, but I’ll pass.” Convinced solid ground was the best place for me, I stood, unmoved. “It’s rather nice down here.”
“I listened to you complain about your boring old bookish fiancé. You claimed you liked to do fun things.” He waved his hand, inviting me over. “Prove it.”
“This isn’t fun.” I steeled my jaw, half serious, and half wanting to flirt. Something about how his eyes glistened back at me brought the butterflies to life in my gut. “It’s reckless.”
“Look at it this way.” He gestured in a teasing manner. “If you die, you don’t have to get married.”
“Well, when you put it that way,” I joked, pretending to hop right in line with him, but then took a step back after he laughed. He was crazy if he thought I would skitter up after him on that thing.
“Come on.” Reeves found a crevice in the rock and pulled himself up.
“No,” I called after him, not adding anything else because I always understood that when faced with life-threatening situations, no is a full sentence. He climbed up another level, smirking as if he was having the best time ever.
“Suit yourself,” he called down. “Stay there and bebored. It’ll be good practice for your marriage.”
I wasn’t what you’d call a competitive person, but his words hit a nerve.One that had been niggling at me for the last few days. I didn’t want to waste my life between stone walls, reading books, not living my life. This might be my last real chance to experience fun. Against my better judgment, I abandoned my good sense, slipped off my heeled sandals, and stepped forward. “You’ll help me?” I called up as I stepped into the crevice.
“Sure, step in the same places I do.” He stalled, waiting for me to catch up. “I climbed this thing a dozen times already. It’s completely safe.”
I wrapped my fingers around a jutting rock and lifted my foot up a level.
“Not that one,” he quickly cautioned. “That one is wobbly.”
Not sure if he was teasing, or being extra careful, I took his advice, and shimmied over an extra rock, I had to stretch way to the side, and it pulled my calf muscle into a deep stretch.This is absurd! If my father saw me do this, he’d blow smoke out of his ears. Which in a way, made it even more fun. My heart ramped up a notch, and I steadied my gaze on Reeves. He was about halfway up, which meant . . . if I fell, I’d also fall about halfway down.
I exhaled through slit lips, raising my foot the smallest level up, as I had gotten relatively good at spotting the little crevices between the rocks to put my feet in. If I looked up, it really wasn’t scary. I could hear Reeves taking heavy measured breaths above me, and in an odd way that made me feel better.
I wasn’t the only one struggling not to die.
“Grab my hand.” Reeves was at the top, reaching his prosthetic back to me. I had no idea how I’d already made it as it hadn’t been more than a couple of minutes, but it felt like an hour. I carefully reached out and wrapped my hand around his prosthetic palm. It scratched against mine, but I was impressed as he pulled me up with one swift, strong motion.
It was a tad windy as I crawled forward and found a nice spot in the center to sit. I was in awe of the view. “I can’t believe I’ve never been up here before,” I said, seeing almost the entire countryside, including my home, from here.
“I can,” Reeve teased, his smile stretching wide across his face, revealing his perfect teeth. “With the way I had to twist your arm, I’m surprised I got you up here now.”
“I’m more of a bottom of the valley, girl,” I mused, while still feeling the heavy beat of my heart in my head. “Is this where you come to hang out?”
“I wouldn’t call it a hang out.” He tottered towards the edge, calling back, “Come on.”
I figured he wanted me to see the view, but he got so close to the edge, his toes were hanging over. “You aren’t going to push me, are you?” I half-joked. Still too nervous to stand, I crawled forward on my hands and knees.
His silvery blue eyes sparked with mischief. “No, we go down together.”
“Excuse me?” I halted, not at all enjoying his tone. I slowly stood but stayed more than an arm’s length away from the edge.
He nodded over the edge, and my gaze followed, finding that it was alongway down to the creek at the bottom. “Oh no!” I backed away after solving his riddle. “I’m not jumping. I’ll climb down the way we came.”
“You said you have six days to have fun.” He extended his open hand out toward me, his eyes glistened daringly at me. “Let’s start now.”
Almost every part of me wanted to back away and go down how I had come, but one tiny part inside betrayed me with the loudest vote. Uttering, “someday you’ll be eighty and looking back at your life, and all your memories. You’ll want to remember the rush of this moment. If I died, well, then that would work out too."
Completely out of character, I took a confirming step forward as I squealed in my mind. Reeve’s lips curled more with each inch I moved. “You can do this,” he urged. “Consider it a puddle of water. Completely harmless.”
