If? Ha. Just last week she’d slipped on perfectly non-slippery asphalt for no reason at all. None. Slipping on a vertical wall was inevitable.
When she was all harnessed in, he looked at her, his smile almost calming her racing heart. “Ready?”
“It’s too late to say no, right?”
“It’s never too late to say no.”
She sighed and looked up. She wasn’t going to back out…even if her brain shouted at her that she was going to die. She worked at a freaking wilderness park. She needed to at least give rock climbing a try. “I’m ready.”
He touched her hips. “Remember, I’ve got you.”
She nodded and turned to the wall. Okay, this time it definitely looked bigger.
Beside her, Buck was already a few feet up. He seemed to be struggling a bit. Though, when she started climbing, Buck was going to look like a freaking professional.
She chalked her hands before reaching for the first hold. She took a step up, then looked behind her to see Noah’s eyes on her gear. Her harness. The rope.
Safe. She was safe. And her rope would catch her if she slipped.
She found an edge for her foot and stepped up again, the click of the rope sliding another reminder that Noah was there, holding her and making sure that she was okay.
She took another step up, then another.
She was doing it. She was actually rock climbing! Yes, the rock bit into her fingers and the muscles in her thighs were already burning, but she was almost halfway up the wall. She was doing a heck of a lot better than she’d expected. She should have asked someone to take a photo so her parents believed her when she told them.
She reached up and found another hold with her left hand.
She was just pulling herself up when Buck grunted beside her.
Addie glanced over to see the rope catch him as he slipped off the rock. She was about to turn back to the wall when someone shouted. Her gaze shot back to Buck to see him drop to the ground, part of the snapped rope falling with him.
Everything narrowed to a single sharp point of disbelief.
The rope had snapped. How was that possible? Wouldherssnap?
She jerked her gaze up, but as she did, her foot skidded and she fell off the wall.
Chaos sounded from below, but she singled out one voice. Noah’s.
“Grab onto the wall, Addison. Quickly!”
Heart thundering, she reached for the wall, getting it with her fingertips before pulling herself toward it. It took a second to find her footing, but as soon as she did, she looked up again—and this time she saw the thinning of her own rope.
Oh, Jesus…it was almost at the snapping point. That hadn’t been like that at the start of the climb.
Her breathing shortened. One wrong step, one slip of the foot and she’d fall, and the rope wouldn’t hold her.
She looked down to see Colt and Flint working on Buck. He’d fallen onto crash pads but he wasn’t moving. Maybe he’d hit them at a bad angle. She had no idea.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
She looked back at the rock and closed her eyes, fear making nausea swell in her belly.
“Addison, don’t move. I’m coming,” Noah called.
She barely heard him. His voice competed with the roaring of blood between her ears.
She tried to focus on her breathing, knowing if she focused too much on whatcouldhappen, her grip on the wall might loosen.
