Page 144 of Valley Girls
In the gray light under the evergreens, she blinked.
It was a girl. A girl with dirt on her face and a helmet snapped under her chin. She was crouched low, her harness on, her rope tied. Intensity in her eyes and the abyss behind her. The wind whipped her hair across her strong shoulders.
It was her.
“I remember you up there. I kept meaning to draw you, when we were ...” He chewed his lip. “I just never did. After the fall, I couldn’t get this out of my head.”
Tears pricked her eyes. “It’s beautiful. I’ve never ...” She had to steady herself to keep going. “I’ve never seen myself like this.”
He smiled. “You’ve never truly seen yourself, then.”
That undid the tears. She folded the paper and put it in her pocket, head bent. “Thank you,” she said through a scratchy voice and dripping cheeks.
He took a step toward her, hesitant at first, then all at once. His long arms coming around her shoulders as she went to him, and he pulled her close. “I’m sorry for the shitty things I said. How I made you feel. You were right. You were right about everything. My climbing. Everything.”
She buried her face in his chest and wished deeply for this moment to last forever.
He dipped his head, mouth to her temple. “I screwed up something special I didn’t even know I had. Maybe, if there’s a next time, we’ll get it right.”
She chuckled and rolled her eyes, turning her head to lay her cheek against the soft flannel of his shirt.
His gaze flickered to hers. His heartbeat picked up under her ear. The shattered golden leaves of summer whirled in the mountain breeze.
She tipped her chin just enough, rising on her toes to meet his kiss.
Forty Two
A few days later, Rilla sat high up on Washington Column with Caroline, eating an apple in the cold wind, and Caroline tilted her chin and said, “We should climb The Nose.”
Rilla barked a laugh. “You about made me drop my apple.”
“That would have been tragic,” Caroline said. She kicked her legs and looked down. “Anyway, I’m going to try and climb it free. I’d love it if you were part of my team.”
The wind whipped in the silence.
Rilla nibbled on an edge of her apple, trying to figure out what to say. If any one of them could climb it free, it would be Caroline. But how ... ?
“I’ve been working it from the top all summer. I didn’t want to tell anyone about it. Like, make it into a big thing.” She shrugged and leaned back against the granite. “I think I’ve got it. Or at least, I’m going to try. And we leave soon ...”
“You want me?” Rilla asked, still in shock.
Rilla nodded, and tucked her apple core into her bag. “Can I think about it?”
“Sure. I’m doing it Friday.”
“Damn, you really held this close to the chest.”
Caroline shrugged in her reserved sort of way. “I don’t need any voices in my head except for mine. I think I can do this. I couldn’t do it when I first wanted to do it, and it was such a big thing to want. I decided to save every bit of that energy in words to use for the climb. I’m going to need every bit I can get.”
“I’ll do it,” Rilla said. “If you trust me.”
Caroline smiled. “I couldn’t trust a partner more.”
Forty Three
“Backpacking through Europe?” the man said.
“Huh?” Rilla looked over her sip of iced coffee and the bagel she was trying to balance on her carry-on. She blinked at the man in khakis and glasses and a fleece vest. He had white hair and was reading a paper.
