Page 49 of Valley Girls
Oh, glory be. Walker was shirtless. Again.
Call it Yosemite magic, call it her own mind-clouding hormones, but it didn’t even feel douchey—and it should have. A soaking wet, navy bandana was tied around his head, grimy hair curling off his neck. The clothing he did wear—dirty canvas pants and pack with rope, empty water bottles, and a bouncing helmet—made him look sort of homeless. Rilla kept her chin lifted, so she wouldn’t accidentally start counting his muscles and begin to drool. “Uh ... Hello,” she said. Honestly, she’d expected him to ignore her. “You heading out?” she asked, thinking he might be heading to a climb.
“Coming home. I am supposed to be on a wall, but we had to bail. There’s a big storm coming and we were going slower than I thought.”
“Really?” She eyed the expansive blue sky and frowned. It’d been sunny nearly every day she’d been here. She’d almost forgotten about rain.
“I gotta drop this off, and then I’m going to get some hot food. I’m starved.”
“Cool.” She turned around and threw the garbage bag into the bin. He was still standing there when she dropped the lid. He looked at her expectantly. The silence an awkward beat.
Was he inviting her along?
She took a tentative step that let her follow or bail, depending on his face.
“You hungry?” he asked.
“Starving. What were you guys climbing?” She fell into step beside him, blood singing so hard it made her fingertips tingle.
“We were on Tangerine Trip. It’s usually pretty easy. A little wet. With a storm coming ...” He shook his head. “We bailed.”
“Pretty easy, and a little wet?” She snorted. “I mean, that’s whatthey allsay about me.”
Walker busted out in a laugh so booming, her face instantly flushed. Her comment had been more nervous tic than funny. The old Rilla coming out. But if he was laughing, she was going with it. Especially with the way his skin tightened over his stomach muscles.
“Oh isthatwhat they call you?” he asked.
“Tangerine Trip is a little long for a nickname when my given is so short. They call me TT for short.”
He laughed.
Her brain wasn’t even working. “You’re laughing too much,” she said, hitting his arm. Becauseoh my god. If she couldn’t lick his arm from elbow to shoulder, she might as well take her chance to touch it. “I didn’t know you had a sense of humor.”
He gave her this look likeof coursehe had a sense of humor.
She rolled her eyes.Okay.She swallowed and steadied herself. Pulled it together. She felt weirdly drunk.
“You climbing today?” he asked.
“Yep. I’m meeting Petra and Adeena later.” She flexed her fingers, feeling the ache in the tendons. “We’ve been working our way through the slabs.”
“They got you leading yet?”
Rilla shook her head. “Not really. Petra’s shown me how to place gear, but I haven’t led anything.”
“I’ll teach you to lead,” he said, just shyly enough to make her pulse skyrocket. “If you’ll ever go climbing with me again.”
“That’s a hardno,” she said quickly—though it wasn’t because it was ano,but because somehow thenogave her power, and she couldn’t resist holding on to it for as long as possible.
“Are you going to make me grovel?”
She shrugged. “Why do you care?”
“I need to redeem myself! The last thing I wanted to do was make you hate climbing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t give yourself too much credit there.”
“So, you’ll go climbing with me again?”
