A power problem was a rookie mistake. There was no way it could have happened with a company like Walkabout. And Josh, he wore a harness and rock-climbing shoes, but he didn’t have a rope. And his belay partner, Lars, wasn’t with him. So how did he get up here?
She was so disoriented.
“The charger shorted or something last night. They ran out of power halfway up. It’s not anyone’s fault, but Danny’s pretty mad.”
April checked the light on her radio. Still green. No power problems on her end. But then, she had charged her batteries before dinner last night so that she’d be ready for her early start.
The midday sun was directly behind Josh. The rays fanning out from the sides of his body were almost as bright as the sun itself. She squinted. “How did you—?”
“I hopped over to an easier route and finished it out,” he said.
She frowned. He had free soloed it.
“I’m not in the habit of backing off climbs. I don’t want to jinx myself.”
She relived the drop of her stomach when she peeked over the edge of the cliff. He’d climbed that without a rope.
“It’s a five-seven,” he said. “Barely. Besides, if I hadn’t come up here, think how long you’d have been stuck before you realized something was wrong.”
“Madigan would have come up and gotten me. Or they would have radioed once they had power again.”
“They’re probably not even off the rock yet.”
She looked down and wiped a stray line of dust off her calf. Even though the debacle wasn’t her fault, Josh had still caught her sleeping on the job. Her previous fury toward him was replaced with shame.
What was she supposed to do next? Would Danny still expect footage? Seeing as her equipment was working, she didn’t think she could return to camp empty-handed.
“So. What do you normally do when you finish a climb?” she asked.
Josh frowned. “Oh. I see. We’re going to have an interview.”
She shouldn’t have brought it up. She should just be happy he came up to tell her what had happened. Now he was going to think she was an ungrateful opportunist.
“This isn’t an interview. I was just wondering what you usually do after a climb.” So you can get on with whatever that is, and I can film you doing it.
“Hypothetically?” he asked.
He was still standing in front of her, close enough that she was completely covered by his shadow. Anywhere else, the distance would have been fine, but here, with the full expanse of Yosemite all around them and the wide bluebird sky overhead, it was claustrophobic.
“Yes, hypothetically,” she answered.
He hooked his thumbs through the side loops in his climbing harness and his frown lifted. “Well, if there was a lake on top, I’d go for a swim.”
Was he serious? Josh swimming in the pristine lake on this gorgeous plateau would be amazing footage.
“Are you going to swim in this lake?” she asked.
“Why not?”
“It will be freezing!”
“Sure, but wouldn’t you rather take a dip in this pristine lake than in the moldy campground showers?”
“Me? I’m not going in the lake.”
He looked pointedly at the sweat trails through the dust on her legs and the dried blood from the cut on her thigh.
“You go ahead,” she said. “I’ll film.”
He snorted. “You’ll film?”
“Yeah.” Danny would be so impressed if she came back with a shot of Josh swimming in the lake.
“Let me get this straight,” he said. “You want to stand here warm and dry while I go splash around in the lake like a fool? A big scene of triumphant release here in nature’s bounty?”
A little splashing wouldn’t be a bad thing, from a visual perspective. “Look at it this way. I’ll film you now, and then when we repeat your climb, you won’t have to do anything at the top.”
“The route I’ll be doing isn’t easy, you know. After I climb it for real, I’m going to want to rinse off in the lake anyway.”
She started to stand, and he reached down to help her. His warm, callused hand was immensely powerful, and he lifted her easily to her feet.
This was getting weird. First he had joked around with her, then he had a conversation like a normal person, and now he was being a gentleman. She didn’t know why Josh was entertaining the discussion about filming him in the lake, but she wasn’t about to question it.
She released his hand and brushed herself off. Now they were even closer, making all the skin exposed by her jog top buzz. Crossing her arms, she took a little step back. “Come on. You won’t even know I’m here.”
His eyes shifted, and he seemed to be considering it.
She wasn’t going to let this one go. If she had to, she’d pretend to leave, then sneak back and film him in secret. “Please?”
“Okay, here’s the deal. You can film me splashing around in the world’s most scenic bathtub if you go in afterward. And no wading in. You have to jump straight in, just like I’m going to do.”
“I am not going to get in the lake.”
“Take it or leave it.” He sat down on a nearby rock and yanked off his climbing shoes.
“That’s completely unfair.”
Josh winked. “It’s part of the experience, you know.”
“I’m not here to have an experience,” she said. “I’m here to record your experience.”
He laughed. “Deal still stands, though.”
She eyed the cold glimmer of the lake and the snow along the top of the cliff above it. The water would be more than freezing, especially for someone who thought the ocean water in L.A. was too cold. But the footage of him jumping into that perfect, reflected panorama would be priceless, and she wasn’t sure she’d have another chance to get it.
“Okay,” she said. “Deal.”
He put his climbing shoes next to her pack. “What do you want me to do?”
“Whatever you would do if you were the only one here.”
He pulled his shirt over his head. “First of all, I wouldn’t be stopping at this.”
She blushed. So did he.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It was just too perfect not to say.”
Her eyes were like a magnet to his torso. She had admired his body in films and magazines, but that was nothing to prepare her for seeing him shirtless right in front of her in real life. The muscles of his chest, back, and shoulders were perfectly developed, within the lanky profile of an ultramarathoner. Everything about him screamed athlete.
April grabbed the camera. “Where are you going in?”
He pointed to a downed tree that hung over the water like a diving board with branches. This was going to be awesome. As he started down the slope to the lake, she worked on positioning the camera. “Don’t be so fast,” she called. “I need you to do the shirt thing again.”
“You mean, like put it back on and take it back off?”
“Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Are we making a climbing film or porn movie?”
“It’s not a climbing film. It’s a film about climbing.”
“Still, it’s a little Striptease, don’t you think?”
“Yes, but it tells the full story of the scene. We need it.”
He scowled, but in a teasing way.
“Come on,” she said. “I have to jump in the lake for this. You have to make it worth it for me.”
He sighed and then put his shirt back on. She directed him where to stand and told him to face the lake. When he was ready, she began recording. Through the eyepiece, she watched him pull off his shirt. His back was as magnificent as his chest.
He untied the chalk bag cord around his waist and then unbuckled his harness and slid it off, just like it was a pair of pants. He was right about there being a Striptease quality to this, but it was only because his body was so sexy.
Josh walked to the d
owned tree’s tangled roots. The tree angled across the water, directly into her right-hand vanishing point. The lake’s reflection of the cliffs and waterfall above was as clear as a photograph. It was shaping up to be an absolutely perfect scene.
She silently cheered for Josh as he climbed around the roots and onto the trunk. If he could just make it into the lake without turning around and looking at the camera, the footage would be priceless.
He walked easily down the log. Soon, he was over the water, and the narrowing log was teetering. The farther he went, the more it wobbled, but he didn’t seem to notice. When the log began to dip under his weight, he turned to face the water.
April drew in a breath and held it.
Josh leaped into the water with his arms high and outstretched. Perfect!
He disappeared into the crystal-clear reflection, a geyser of white water springing from his entry point. She panned in on the perfect bull’s-eye of waves rippling outward. In the background, the log was still reverberating from his jump.
Josh resurfaced in the epicenter of the ripples, gasping for air. He gave a whoop that echoed off the cliffs, and then swam toward the shore at a perfect diagonal through her shot as she zoomed back out.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
She brought the shot to a close as he rose out of the water and stepped onto the narrow ribbon of gravel beach.
“Your turn,” he called up to her. He was dripping wet and beaming.
He wiped his feet on a patch of moss and then toweled off with his discarded shirt. “I hope it was worth it.”
“Oh, believe me, it was,” she replied.
She started to power down the camera but changed her mind when she recalled Danny’s advice about catching accidental gems. Instead, she waited for Josh to settle down on the moss and then zoomed in on him as he tipped his head upside down and dried his wet hair with his shirt.
She lowered the resolution, and then started recording just before she walked down to the lake to accept her fate. She stopped at Josh’s patch of moss to take off her shoes.
“Are you really going to make me do this?” she asked.
“Of course,” he said.
He looked so relaxed there on the moss, lounging back on his elbows with his legs outstretched. It was so unlike the Josh she had previously known.
She walked barefoot along the beach, the gravel between her toes smooth and cold—a chilling foretaste of the lake to come. Using the tree’s ancient, twisted roots to climb up onto the trunk, she was surprised to discover it was significantly more unstable than Josh had made it look.
She spread her toes for better grip on the smooth, weathered wood, and then took her first, cautious step. The log vibrated in response. She looked back at Josh, who was still on the moss, now sitting with his legs bent and his arms draped across them.
“You’re really going to make me do this?” she yelled.
“It’s not getting any warmer,” he called back.
April inched forward heel to toe, but no matter how gradually she shifted her weight, the log trembled beneath her. From above, the water was as clear as glass and the bottom of the lake was like a giant’s bag of marbles. A school of tiny silver fish darted out from the shadow of the tree. A few steps later, there was a drop-off and the water went deep and dark. At least she wouldn’t end up with a smashed skull if the log bucked her off unexpectedly.
The thought of falling messed with her balance. She dropped to a squat and gripped the wood. The log was really shaking now.
She wasn’t nearly as far out as Josh had gone, but there was no way she’d be able to make it farther unless she scooted on her butt. Which she wasn’t going to do, not with Josh watching. Very carefully she stood and faced the lake.
“You sure?” she yelled.
“I’m sure,” he yelled back.
She stared down at the water. It glistened like it was licking its chops to swallow her up. She wasn’t afraid of water, but having grown up in the desert, she didn’t have experience jumping into anything other than safe, heated swimming pools. It only made it worse that Josh was there, stretching every moment of hesitation into an eternity. She just needed to get it over with.
She took a huge breath, plugged her nose, and leaped from the log.
Even before the falling sensation hit her, liquid nitrogen coated her skin and pressed into every pore. Her lungs collapsed as she catapulted down. Lower, lower, and lower she sank into the lake. Her mind screamed at her to start kicking, but she couldn’t pass the signal along to her legs.
Finally, she hit equilibrium and stopped sinking. Her legs found their power, and then she was rocketing upward.
She broke through the surface, but her chest was too tight to take a breath, leaving her to suffocate in the mind-blowing cold. It was instinct alone that kept her head above water and her limbs swimming for shore.
Finally, her breath came in a panicked gasp. As she swam, the cold gave way to absolute, complete numbness, and with it, her breaths slowed and deepened. Only at that point did she notice Josh, who was standing at the shore, clapping and cheering.
She smiled and ice water dripped into the still-warm corners of her mouth. Her stroke was controlled now, and she could feel the ever-so-slight warming of the water as she neared the shore. A few strokes later, her foot brushed against a rock on the bottom. She stood up in the shoulder-deep water. It was warm. Almost.
“It’s not so bad,” she yelled to Josh.
She reached underwater to scrub the grime off her ankles and feet, and then yanked the elastic band out of her hair. She shook her hair free, then ducked below the surface and swam a few lengths with her hair flowing behind her. When she surfaced again, the water was waist-deep. Even though it felt warmer, her teeth were chattering.
Her feet were numb and clumsy on the uneven, slippery rocks as she waded toward the shore. She rose out of the water, her jog top gripping her waist and her shorts sucking against her thighs.
“Better than a campground shower?” Josh was now reseated on the moss.
“Definitely,” she said as she dropped down next to him and brushed her dripping bangs out of her eyes. “But I’m just going to get filthy again on the way down.”
“How’d you get up?” he asked.
“The climber’s trail.”
“Kind of a bitch, huh?”
“That’s an understatement.”
“There’s a different way. It’s a lot longer, but it keeps you off those chossy slopes.”
Anything. She would do anything to never step foot on that climber’s trail again. She lay back onto the soft moss, which had a little spring in it, making it feel a lot like Theo’s bouldering pad.
Josh was still being nice. Personable. Normal. She didn’t know why he’d decided to be real around her, but she was too relaxed at the moment to develop any conspiracy theories about it.
Overhead, the sun was bright and dazzling. She shielded her eyes with her forearm and watched the puffy clouds against the blue sky, feeling utterly and completely free.
She closed her eyes and marveled at the absence of noise. No cars, no TV, no radio, no footsteps from the apartment above, no voices, no airplanes, no wind. Even the thundering of the huge waterfall on the cliff was perfectly silent at this distance. The only thing she could hear was Josh’s soft, rhythmic breathing.
Before she went in the lake, she had been tired and frazzled. Now she felt like she was at a day spa. The moss wicked the water off her skin while the sun above warmed her arms, legs, and face. She could lie in this sweet nirvana all day.
She was so relaxed that when she opened her eyes and drew in the beauty overhead, she wasn’t sure if she’d been asleep, not that she cared if she had. She wanted this feeling to last forever and ever.
Josh said something, but it took her a minute to comprehend because she had forgotten he was there.
“What?” she asked.
“I guess we should talk about the gala,” he said. “I hear you’v
e been assigned to babysit.”
The bliss that filled her deflated a little, anticipating the awkwardness of talking about it. She looked to the sky and squeezed the water from the ends of her hair. “Well, it was either me or Theo, right?”
“I know. I’m glad it wasn’t Theo.” He smiled.
She rolled to the side and propped her head on her arm. He was less than two feet away. How embarrassing—she must have been so disoriented after the cold water that she’d plopped down way too close to him.
“Theo owes me big-time,” she said.
“I’m not that bad, am I?”
The closeness amplified the bare skin factor, especially now because they were down to two pairs of shorts and one jog top between the two of them.
“You answered all my questions last week with yes or no,” she said. “Dinner conversation is going to be a real pleasure.”
She’d meant to be lighthearted, but judging from his silence, he’d heard the truth in her words. Great. Now he would go back to being awful.
He started to reply but hesitated and then swallowed. “I know I’m hard to interview. I’m sorry.”
This was certainly unexpected. She avoided looking at his face, afraid that she’d find it stony with sarcasm. “I was just giving you a hard time.”
“Still, maybe next time I should take some of your pointers.”
She looked at him then. He was sincere. His eyes—more green now than brown—were so beautiful.
She had to be careful around this Josh. Without his ugly armor of hostility, it would be easy to forget her place, especially at the moment as they lay together on this soft bed of moss in a vast storybook landscape. But he was talent and she was crew, and she could never forget that. Crew-talent relationships were taboo, and she would be fired for it. Besides, until an hour ago, this guy had been nothing but a jerk to her.
She sat up and crossed her legs to break the feeling of intimacy. “Did you say you knew a better way out of here?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. I’ll tell you what. If you get me out of here without getting dirty, I’ll give you more pointers before your next interview.”
Still lying on his side, he looked at her. “Hmm…” He made of big show of scrunching his face and scratching his head in thought.
Lessons In Gravity Page 7