Page 58 of Stay this Christmas
“Keep your core engaged, and try to keep your center of gravity close to the wall.”
I nodded, mentally logging his tips and filing them away as he climbed another foot higher. Focusing extra hard, I tried not to also log the fact his butt was now eye-level, or just how fabulous that butt looked. Friends definitely didn’t stare at each other’s butts.
Didn’t mean I stopped right away.
“If you get tired, or if anything doesn’t feel right, come on back down. This is supposed to be fun.”
To prove how fun it was, he pulled himself into a chin-up position against the wall, his feet hovering in the air. The muscles in his arms and shoulders popped out, his T-shirt suddenly two sizes too small like Captain America trying to keep that helicopter from flying away. Those nerves coiling around my stomach warmed and hummed at the sight.
He pushed himself off the wall, letting go to drop the three feet to the mat.
“Show off.” Not that I minded.
His little wink made that swooping start up again. As if I needed one more thing to be nervous about right now.
He gestured at our section of kid-free wall. “When you’re ready, give it a try.”
I stepped up to the wall, wobbling a little as I moved across the extra-thick mat. Finding two hand holds just above my head, I grabbed on lightly. I toed my foot onto a hold about eighteen inches above the mat, taking deep breaths as I psyched myself up to climb a wall even six-year-olds had mastered. I could do this, too.
I found a second foot hold and hitched myself up, letting my legs do the work like he’d said. Good thing, because if I’d tried to pull myself up by my noodle arms, I wouldn’t get very far tonight.
“That’s the way,” Sam said at my side.
I inched up the wall, Sam offering encouragement and advice from below. Not so much I wanted him to shut up, but enough to keep me going. Even though I hadn’t done anything like this since I was a kid, a little shot of exhilaration rang through me with every foot I gained on that wall. I didn’t scramble up at top speed the way the children around me did, but my slow ascent would get me to the same place eventually. Alternating smiles and grimaces as I searched for holds, I worked higher, my sense of accomplishment bursting at the seams.
When I reached the top of the wall, I turned my head and spotted a girl who must have been around ten hanging out a few feet away from me. She gripped the wall, flashing me her giant, gap-toothed grin. I grinned back. Kind of fun to have a buddy up here.
“Good job, lady!”
Hmm. I appreciated the praise but could have done without thelady.
I looked down for Sam, only to realize his head was roughly level with my feet. So. Not that high of a climb, after all. Still, a start, and a big win for my Life List.
“What do I do now?”
His grin looked about as wide as the little girl’s. “You climb back down.”
I blew out a breath, noting the details of the faux rock in front of me. “Of course I climb back down,” I muttered to myself.
Climbing down took longer than climbing up. The footholds were harder to find since they were below me, and I danced my feet around, searching for purchase as Sam coached me along. Worked a different muscle set, too, and by the time I reached the cushy mat, I’d thoroughly warmed up for the big climb.
Stepping away from the wall, I slicked a hand over my hair, smoothing tendrils that had come loose from my braid. “I think I’m sweating more than I did after kickboxing.”
“Mm hmm.” Sam nodded, seeming weirdly pleased by this. His leisurely once-over cranked up the heat inside me. “How do you feel?”
“I’m ready to try the big wall.”
He grinned, definitely pleased now. “That’s my girl.”
We paused a beat, both of us seeming to snag on that phrase. He looked almost embarrassed by the slip-up, a Sam rarity—nothing ever fazed him. But the awkward little tug around his eyes and his crooked, frozen smile showed a hint of self-consciousness. Maybe I should have called him out on it…but I didn’t quite want to.
“Where do we start?” I said, letting the remark slide. Or letting it stand, I hadn’t quite decided.
His easy smile shone out again. “I’ll show you.”
I followed him to the base of what I could only describe as a ginormous climbing wall. Probably fifty feet tall and twice as long in total, it bent and curved like an origami swan someone had stopped making halfway through. Some sections had overhangs at bizarre angles and oddly-shaped holds for what I assumed were the more advanced courses, but Sam led me to a more or less vertical part of the wall covered in uniform green holds. The bottom of the wall here readBeginner Zero.
Level zero sounded perfect to me.
