Page 12 of Valley Girls
He sighed, the rope pulling tighter. “Okay, West Virginia.”
The wind had died and she seemed to be sweating everywhere. She’d gone far enough. Tied the knot. Did the belaying thing—sort of. Climbed. She could be done now. “Let me down.”
“You’re barely off the ground.” His impatience was obvious now.
“I want down.”
“You can do this.” His tone grasped for enthusiasm. “You wanted to do this.”
She pulled herself closer to the wall and looked awkwardly through her legs. “Yeah, I did it. Now I’m done.”
“You can go farther. Come on.” His sigh pulled on the rope. “I don’t want to come back out and do this again because you didn’t finish.”
Her face flooded with heat. “If I want to do it again, I’ll find someone else,” she snapped.
That shut him up. “What’s wrong with me?”
Only that he was an asshole. “I don’t want to do this.” She was shouting now, but she was still high above him and her fingers felt slippery on the granite. “I’m done. Let me down.”
“So, come down,” he yelled back.
Oh.She took her foot off and tried to find where last she stepped from.
“No, not like that. Sit back in the harness and hold the rope.”
She swallowed and tried. Closing her eyes, she saw herself go back and let go of the wall.And fall into nothing.“Nope.” She screeched, eyes flying open. “Nope. Nope. Nope.”
“I have you,” he said.
“You are not as helpful as you think.”
“Come on, just relax, take a deep breath, and trust me. I got you.” The rope cinched even tighter. A cord strung between them. But it wasn’t enough. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders. “I’m going to try to climb down.”
“Don’t do that. Just trust me. Feel me?” He tugged the rope and it yanked her harness tighter around her, digging into the tendons of her inner thighs.
She fixed her gaze to her hands.Let go. Let go. Let go.They didn’t let go. “I can’t,” she wailed.
“You can,” he bellowed.
“You’re wrong.”
“I am not fucking wrong.”
Ugh. He was no help. She had to get down. And pretend he wasn’t even there.
Looking around at her feet, Rilla spotted the last little cleft she’d stood on and reached her foot down. The whole thing felt precarious, like if she tried to crouch or move down she might fall. This had been the worst idea. People who did this clearly had no other problems in life and needed to experience human misery. Rilla’s toe couldn’t find the cleft and she couldn’t risk pulling away any farther to look for it. She was going to die or be stuck there forever.
Yanking herself back up to where she was safe, she dropped her forehead to the granite and started to cry, fingers cramping from holding so tight to the wall.
When someone touched her, she screamed.
“Calm down,” Walker said soothingly. “I got you.” He showed her the Grigri, locked off and holding them both.
“Don’t tell me to calm down when I’m stuck twenty feet off the ground,” she snarled.
“That’s definitely the time youshouldbe calm.” He looked down. “You ready to come down now?”
“Shut up.”
