Page 14

Ropes and helmets did not say simple in her book.

“Yesterday, reading at the coffee shop, it was clearly for me.” She swallowed, nerves tightening her throat and making it hard to speak.

“Probably.” Beside her, Luke was a giant solid wall of calm. “But I enjoyed it.”

“Really?”

He nodded and glanced up at the wall. “Are you saying today is about me?”

“I mean, duh. You’re the climber.”

“Sure.” He slotted his hands into his joggers. Black, they fit snugly over his backside, and his tree trunk thighs. “But maybe you’ll enjoy this, too.”

Laughter spluttered out of her. “Oh no. If you think there’s even the remotest chance I will enjoy hanging precariously from a rope, desperately clutching at the rock with my fingernails, you don’t know me at all.”

“There is no precarious. No desperate. You’ll be in a harness.”

“As if that makes it all okay.” Logically she knew he was right, it wouldn’t matter if she lost her footing, she wouldn’t fall. But she wasn’t sure her brain could work logically when it was . . . “How high is the wall?”

“Around forty feet.” He gave her a surprisingly gentle look. “You won’t be alone. I’ll be your partner. I’ll guide the ropes.” He smiled. “And unlike skateboarding, this is something I’m good at.”

“Okay.” She sucked in a deep breath. “So all I have to do is trust you.”

His mouth lifted at one corner. “Yes. That’s all you have to do.”

“Hey, this isn’t funny. My life will literally be in your hands.” Though as hands went, they were the most capable she’d seen.

He sighed and pushed those hands onto his hips. “See the kids scampering up the wall next to ours? Do they look scared?”

She huffed. “Maybe they have a better instructor. More fun, less imposing and grumpy.”

He gave her a level look. “Or maybe they just stopped thinking about how scary it looked and got on with it. You know your brother wasn’t this wussy.”

“You came with Colin?”

“Of course. He wasn’t as good as me.” Another slight lift of the corner of his mouth. “But he enjoyed it.”

She glowered at him. “I don’t know why you’re looking so smug. You’re bound to be okay at it. You do it for a living.”

“I was an instructor at an outdoor wilderness center. The rock climbing I do for fun.”

She was so busy getting her head round the fact he did this for fun, she nearly missed the first part of his sentence. “Was?”

He didn’t look at her. “I left to spend time with Colin. Like you did.”

“The hospital gave me extended leave. Unpaid, but I go back to my old job after Christmas.” She had an uncomfortable thought. “You gave up your job?”

He gave one of his indifferent shrugs. “They wouldn’t give me time off.”

She heard what he’d left unsaid. Colin was a friend. Not family, at least not in the eyes of employment law.

He’d put his friend before his career, before everything else, to make sure his last few weeks on this earth were as good as they could be. Gratitude swamped her. “Thank you.”

He snapped his head round to look at her. “What for?”

She glanced over at the climbing wall and watched a grin split the face of the guy, about her brother’s age, who’d made it to the top. “I wanted to surround Colin in bubble wrap and take care of him. You quit your job to . . .” Her voice cracked and she waved at the wall. “Give him some last adventures.”

“I hardly need thanking for that.” He looked down at his feet, his expression tight, almost harsh.