Page 57 of Stay this Christmas
“Harper. You could never.” I knew her family almost as well as I knew mine. Even if she’d had to quit that PT program and switch gears, her family would have rallied around her and provided a soft landing so she could bounce back.
Her thin little smile didn’t look convinced. “Anyway. Ididgraduate, and I passed the exams on the first try. I came back to Magnolia Ridge, got the job at Fiesta Village, and just…haven’t figured out how to turn it off, I guess.”
“Looks to me like you’re figuring it out.”
She turned fully to me, her eyes squinting their skepticism. She wanted me to spell it out? No problem.
“First, you absolutely crushed yoga night. Easy peasy.”
She laughed at the silly phrase, her shoulders loosening as the tension that had wound through her a minute ago slipped away.
“Then you kicked my butt at the MMA studio. Excellent work there, by the way.”
Her mouth twisted, fighting more laughter, but she nodded, accepting my praise.
“Now you’re going to kick this rock wall’s butt. Honestly, you don’t kick butt often enough, Harps. You should give yourself more opportunities to dominate.”
“Well. I’ll see what I can do, Samuel.”
She grinned in spite of her haughty tone. Then, like something out of a dream, her hand shifted in mine so our fingers interlaced. Driving down the highway at sixty miles an hour, the moment seemed to catch and freeze. My days mostly zoomed by so fast, I could barely pay attention to everything that sped past me, conversations and experiences blurring together, butthis momentslowed down so I could savor it. I tried not to let myself smile, because I knew it would give my fool heart away, but I couldn’t help it.
The rest of the way to the climbing gym, I looked like I’d just summited my personal best mountain and could only sit back and take in the glorious views.
EIGHTEEN
harper
People scaledthe wall in front of me, their little hands and feet scrambling over holds, screeching with glee when they got to the top, and screeching just as loudly when they leapt off halfway up and tumbled onto the thick mat below.
To be clear, nobody climbing looked over twelve years old.
Sure, a bunch of parents stood around helping or coaching, but all the figures on the wall here or on the giant wall in the next room were hobbit-sized.
“Better or worse than the MMA crowd?” Sam asked at my side.
I bit my lip, watching as one kid hung by a single hand, his toes dangling several feet above the ground, until he finally dropped to the mat and somersaulted, giggling the whole time. “Draw.”
“When they told me it was beginner’s night, I figured there would be a few more adults in the mix. The upside is, no shortage of climbing shoes in your size.”
He held out a pair of blue shoes that looked more like heavy-duty ballet slippers than anything else. As soon as we got here, he’d done a quick demo for the gym manager to prove he knew what he was doing on the big climbing wall. I guess the gym had to make sure Sam wasn’t going to do anything dangerous, but seeing him belay the volunteer climber had fired up skittery nerves in my stomach.
Really, they’d been there ever since he’d held my hand on the drive down. He’d soothed me the way I’d soothed him a few nights ago—a simple touch, really. But not simple at all. My stomach had swooped so low, I wasn’t sure it would ever go back to its regular position.
And then, I’d gone and laced my fingers with his. I couldn’t tell you why.
Okay, total lie. I’d known exactly why. My stomach had been full of swoops, my heart all fluttery like it was trying to grow wings, and my brain scrubbed of everything except Sam’s voice.“Harper. You could never.”How was I supposed to resist that kind of sweet support?
We’d stayed like that straight up until he had to maneuver through Austin traffic. I’d relinquished his hand for safety’s sake, but it’d been a hard call: make it to the climbing gym in one piece, or keep learning every last callus on his palm?
But now, I faced learning to rock climb with kids who obviously had zero fear of falling, and no sense that anyone around them might think leaping six feet down from the bouldering wall could be a bad idea.
I slipped on the super-tight shoes and joined Sam where he’d claimed a small section of wall. Thankfully, this part only reached about ten feet high and didn’t have any overhangs or tricky gaps between hand holds. It did, however, have a huge sign blaringBeginnerpasted across the top.
I gazed at the wall, trying to plot a course up the knobby plastic holds.
“This wall is pretty basic, but it will give you a good idea of what the beginner top-rope climb will be like.” Sam toed one foot onto a hold and boosted himself up before grabbing two hand holds just above his eye level. “You want your legs to do most of the work. Always lead with your feet.”
He demonstrated by finding another foothold and extending his leg before moving his hands to their next holds.
