Page 67 of Valley Girls
“It gets under your skin, doesn’t it?” he asked.
She ducked her head and clambered over the rocks to stand under the awning of black oaks beside him. “I’ve just never seen anything that big.”
“That’s what all the girls say,” he said.
“Ugh ...” She wrinkled her nose and slapped his arm. “Gross.”
He leaned on a tree trunk and looked down at her over his shoulder, a devilish grin twisted on his mouth. “You walked straight into it. I couldn’t resist.”
“I just ...” She bit her lip and looked into the gaze that was teasing her. Adeena and Petra were real climbers with lives that had never crossed hers until now. Caroline was otherworldly, even if she was Walker’s sister. Walker was from southern Ohio. He wasn’t Caroline and admitted it readily. He knew of a Rilla back home, she was sure. All she wanted was for someone who knew her to say she could do it. Walker felt as close as she could get.
“You want to climb it,” he said, as if it was the most obvious thing.
She nodded, expression pleading for him not to laugh.
“You’re not going to get there top-roping the bunny crag with Dee and Petra.”
“I know,” she said. “But I can’t ask for anything more.”
He looked confused. “Why not?”
Because she was already getting more than she deserved. Because who would want to waste time on a person who wasn’t very good? On a person who ruined everything. Who was terrible to her only sister. A person who sucked at everything. Especially at climbing. She sighed and put her hands in her pockets. “How did you get here anyway?”
He dragged his hand through his hair and gave a half growl, half yawn like an overgrown mangy cat. Finally, he answered, “I started volunteering for my local fire department when I was fourteen. And climbing with Caroline in Kentucky. I came out here with her.”
Rilla held up her hand. “Wait.”
He stopped.
“Why’d you guys leave Ohio?”
He folded his lips and looked up at the cliff. For a long moment, he didn’t speak. “I don’t really talk about it,” he finally said. “My mom died the year before. There were six of us and my dad just had too much going on. Caroline left, and I went with her, to get out of his hair. She’s in a different universe than I am as a climber, but we were always really close and ...” He sniffed.
“Do you still talk to him? Your dad?”
“Oh yeah. And my younger siblings. It was all good. Just ... time. I wasn’t as focused as I am now. We had a lot of bills and like, seventeen-year-old me ate a lot. I still eat a lot.”
“I’m sorry about your mom.”
He nodded, cheeks sunken like he was biting them. “Anyway, my first summer out here, I met your sister and she was the ranger working with the SAR team and got me kind of interested in that path. After that, we moved to Colorado and I finished the number of climbs I needed to get my AMG mountain guide certification while Caroline was training there, did some swift water classes and certifications that would help, and applied for a position on the SAR team.”
He didn’t look at her through the whole thing.
“Well.” She sat up straighter and crossed her arms. “I also am very accomplished.” She paused for dramatic effect. “I once did cocaine and it made me go to sleep. So, you see, I’m really special too.” It was a one-time thing. And stayed that way.
He couldn’t seem to settle on an expression. “Thatisspecial,” he said.
“I’m a winner.” She meant for it come out peppy, like a cheerleader on that cocaine that put her to sleep, but it ended up a little more desperate and high-pitched. She wanted to crawl under a rock and die.
Mercifully, he moved on. “Petra mentioned you were really great on Snake Dike. That you’re talented.”
She had? Was Petra just saying that? “I don’t know?” She shrugged, uncomfortable under the compliment. He didn’t know she’d climbed in front of Caroline anddropped the rope.
Walker nodded. “Yeah, that’s why it’s so impressive. You don’t know.” His radio chattered. “Thea’s looking for you,” he said, touching the bulge of the radio on his hip under his jacket. “She said to go home and wait for her.”
She nodded. “I fucked that up too.”
“Sisters are hard,” he said.
