Page 79 of Valley Girls
“Sore,” she said. “I don’t think I even have energy to shower.”
He chuckled, gaze dropping in a distracting way. “What did you guys do?”
“El Cap Tree,” she said over a mouthful.
“You weren’t overplaying this,” Caroline said to him as she ate.
“I told you,” Walker’s voice lightly sang. “You didn’t want to believe me.”
Rilla wasn’t sure what they meant, but it seemed to be good, and she’d never felt more at home, despite being an outsider. The food went down easily, warming her belly. Her limbs stiffened and filled with sleepy lead.
They stayed there—in camp chairs propped up in a world carefully constructed of light. Shifting gold into fuchsia pinks, and deepening nearly fluorescent purple alpenglow, the sunset wove into the rocks and the water. The sky was sugar. The sheer cliffs rising up on all sides were veined granite polished into mirrors. Light gushed, frothing in iridescent foam on the Merced.
Every time she glanced at Walker, his blue eyes reflected the ephemeral joy she felt, sitting on that picnic table bench. Everyone sat around, laughing and talking. Rilla’s eyes burned and she eventually pushed off the table and said her thanks.
“I’ll walk you back,” Walker said.
Even in her exhaustion, Rilla felt the surge of adrenaline as his long body fell into rhythm beside hers and the people they left behind hollered suggestively.
He rolled his eyes and flicked them off.
She laughed.
“Martinez would kill me if her little sister died on the walk back,” he hollered over his shoulder.
Rilla groaned, tripping over the rocks in the dark. “It is possible I might die. I am so sore and tired.”
“That happens.” He reached over and grasped the back of her neck, giving it a squeeze like he was massaging her muscles, before awkwardly dropping his hand and pulling away.
Her eyes widened in the dark and tried to find something innocuous to say. “Busy day for you?”
“Not really. I wasn’t involved in the river thing.” He laughed. “I mean. I rescued bear cubs from the river, one in each hand.”
“With no shirt, right? And an axe or some shit, like a deodorant commercial.”
“Oh, we’re past deodorant commercial. More like body spray level.” He tossed his head like he was whipping back his hair in an imaginary wind.
She laughed, then cried. “Don’t make me laugh, my stomach muscles hurt. Everything hurts.”
“Poor baby,” Walker murmured mockingly, knocking the edge of his shoulder into hers.
“Ow.” She slapped at his stomach.
He grabbed her wrist and for a blissful second, they were entangled before he shook her off, laughing. “How did it go though, really?”
“Other than climbing with the most intimidating climber possible, you mean?”
“Caroline is nice.”
“Yeah, because she’s your sister.”
“If I was answering about my sister, I wouldnotsay that.” He snorted, still holding her wrist. “She was impressed. You did good. Does it feel good?”
Every beat of her heart pumped blood into that sliver of skin under his warm, roughened fingers. “It feels so good,” she said.
They walked under the spreading, lichen covered black oaks, the darkness sweet and warm and the wind tinged with a faint hint of smoke. His skin glowed in the dark and she closed her eyes, walking beside him with her wrist still held between his fingers, a little awkwardly like he was almost holding her hand but hadn’t committed to it.
Her head pulsed with the feeling of this moment.
