Gridwall fell from the overhang, landed in the dirt with a grunt.
“Dean said he had a big mouth and a bigger ego.”
“True.” Mitch had to ask. “Did he say anything about me?”
“He said the two of you learned to climb together at…” She frowned, as if trying to remember. “Tahquitz Rock? He also said you’re smart.”
“That’s true, too.” His lack of humility brought a half-smile to her face. “You must be good if Dean climbed with you. He doesn’t waste time with—”
“Ahearn!” Gridwall brushed the dirt off his hands. “Are you going to try, or are you too distracted by the blonde?”
Mitch saw fire in Megs’ eyes, knew she was furious. “Her name is Megs. Why don’t you let her try?”
He knew he was probably putting her on the spot, but the only way for her to earn their respect was to show them that she, too, could master stone.
Her gaze moved from him to the rock and back again, and he saw nervousness in her eyes—and defiance.
Gridwall laughed. “If we can’t do it, there’s no way a little girl can. She’s too short. She doesn’t have our reach or our strength. Asking her to try is just unfair to her.”
“Sure, I’ll give it a shot.” Megs sat in the dirt, changed into her climbing shoes, got to her feet, and strapped on her chalk bag.
Determination on her face,she walked over to the boulder, studied the holds, clearly thinking through the moves in her mind. Then she chalked her fingers and stepped onto the route.
Her first several moves were like everyone else’s. The opening crimp holds carried her up to that undercling crimp off to the right. From there, she shifted her left hand to the crimp high above, adjusted her feet, then used the muscles in her legs to surge upward to the next hold.
Mitch was impressed. She climbed with both athleticism and grace, making it look easy when they all knew it wasn’t.
For a few seconds, she hung there by her fingers, the reach to the next hold far even for a six-foot-tall man. She searched with her feet, found a couple of small holds to support her—and lunged upward once again, her fingers closing on the thin lip of stone on the top edge of the overhang.
This is where they all fell. It was damned hard to hang on to that lip with one hand and reach over the top with the other. There was nothing to hold onto up there, no way to pull one’s self over the top.
Then she did something completely unexpected.
Once again hanging on by her fingertips, she caught one heel on the edge of the overhang and used it to bring herself almost parallel to the ground. Then she shifted her left hand and used her arm as a lever, lifting herself up and over the edge. From there, it was just a bit of fifth-class scramble to the top.
She turned, looked down at them from the boulder, still out of breath, a bright smile on her pretty face. “Hell, boys, it’s not that hard.”
The guys stared up at her, some with open mouths.
Mitch found himself grinning like an idiot.
Megs stopped recordingand set the journal aside, a smile on her face. She hadn’t been familiar with Yosemite, so she hadn’t realized that she was the first person ever to finish that route.
Not the first woman. The firstperson.
The climbing world took note of that first ascent at the exact moment when the sport began to take off. The Yosemite free-climbing revolution had begun, and she’d found herself at the heart of it—thanks to Mitch. Even before they’d gotten together, he’d been there, lifting her up every step of the way.
“Gridwall spent the next week trying to duplicate what I’d done, and when he failed, he started saying I’d succeeded only because I was lighter. I’d forgotten what a jerk he was in the beginning. You put him in his place, remember? ‘Is she lighter, or are you stronger? Make up your mind.’”
It had been one of the most exciting times of her life—and Mitch was part of the reason for that. He was right. Shehadgotten flustered when he’d introduced himself. It had been pure hormones, a physical reaction. He’d been so damned good-looking, his T-shirt stretched across his pecs, a smile on those lips, his brown eyes warm.
“How like you to notice my reaction. You’ve always been able to read people. You knocked me off—”
His body jerked, and he went rigid.
Pulse spiking, Megs jumped to her feet, pressed the call button. “He’s seizing!”
But they must have seen something on their monitors.
