“Climbing.”
“Climb on.”
It wasn’t an easy pitch, but Mitch threw everything he had into it, knowing she was watching. His performance anxiety cleared as he got into the flow, and he found himself transfixed by the challenge and amazed again at her skill. But he was a foot taller than she was, so he climbed it a bit differently, dynoing through the crux move to the roof, then catching his heel and pulling himself onto the ledge beside her.
“I knew we could do it!” She threw her arms around him.
He drew her close, the adrenaline of the climb mixed with pheromone in his blood. It was the first time he’d held her like this, and, oh, she felt sweet in his arms, the scents of sunshine and pine in her hair. And he knew that he’d remember this moment for the rest of his life.
They fixed protection then hydrated and shared trail mix, their legs dangling over the side, Yosemite Valley a thousand feet below them.
“Look.” Mitch pointed to a peregrine falcon that soared below them. “We’re higher than the birds. Watch it dive!”
She smiled, seeming more relaxed now than he’d ever seen her. “It would be nice to have wings.”
He had to ask. “How did you get into climbing?”
“I’m from a small town not far from Pueblo, Colorado. God, I hate that place. But we did have a climbing wall in our gym at my high school. It wasn’t much, and the routes never changed. But I learned the basics—how to tie into a harness, how to belay, how to rappel. My PE teacher had a hard time getting me to come down.”
Mitch laughed, an image of a younger Megs refusing to climb down coming to his mind. “I bet he did.”
She told him how her teacher had noticed her ability and talked to some friends who were part of the climbing scene in Boulder. They’d taken her out on weekends, reluctantly at first. Then, when they’d seen how much she loved it and how quickly she learned, she’d become a climbing partner and not just some kid who was tagging along.
“By the end of the year, I was climbing the hard stuff in Eldorado Canyon. That’s where I met Dean. How about you?”
“I’m from Colorado, too.”
“Really? That’s crazy!”
“I was born in a little town called Scarlet Springs. It’s barely a blip on the map, but I love it. My parents moved to Stanford the year I started high school. Growing up in the mountains, I saw climbers all the time. I guess it was just natural that I’d want to try it out. A friend taught me to rappel, and I was hooked.”
After that, the conversation drifted from treating sunburns to favorite hiking snacks to the climbing gear they wished someone would invent. Through it all, Mitch could barely take his gaze off her face.
By the time they started their long descent, rappelling pitch by pitch, Mitch had fallen for her—hard. He’d never expected to meet a woman who loved climbing as much as he did, who lived to be in the mountains. Not only that, she was damned good.
When their feet were back on the ground, a cheer went up, and they found the dirtbags waiting for them, Gridwall looking envious, Dean with a big grin on his face.
“What are you naming it?” Dean asked.
Megs looked to Mitch. “I hadn’t thought about that.”
“That honor should go to you. You spotted the line.”
Megs nibbled her lower lip, her brow bent as she pondered the possibilities. Then her face lit up. “How about ‘Free Spirit.’”
Mitch couldn’t think of any phrase that fit Megs more.
God, he wanted to kiss her. “That’s perfect.”
Megs satfor a moment in silence, savoring the memory of that day. She’d spent three years dreaming of putting up a first ascent on El Capitan. When she’d stood on the Mammoth Terraces, the valley stretched out below her, Mitch beside her, she’d felt triumphant. The high had been incredible—better than when she’d summitted Everest or free climbed The Nose.
And, oh, she remembered that first hug, too—the hard press of his body, the warm scent of his skin, strong arms surrounding her. For the first time in her life, she’d felt more than a teenage girl’s crush. She’d felt desire.
That day had changed everything.
“Remember what happened when we got back?”
A photographer had been waiting for them in Camp 4. Sent by a newspaper to get photos of the new rock climbing fad, he’d had his lens focused on El Cap and had seen Megs standing on the Terraces, arms raised. He'd taken a few photos of her and then asked around to find out if anyone knew who she was.
