Josh sighed. Somewhere very close by, a bird chirped.
“Did you hear that?” April asked.
“What?”
“A bird. A pigeon must have gotten in here.”
The bird chirped again.
“That?”
“Yeah.”
Josh laughed and pointed to a speaker on the wall. “Have you noticed that a stream and crickets have gotten in here, too?”
“Don’t tell me the air in here is damp on purpose.”
“I wouldn’t put it past Vera.”
“She doesn’t miss anything, does she?”
“Never. Vic would have loved all of this,” Josh said. “It’s too bad he couldn’t be here to see it.”
Gabby was over at the doors to the ballroom. She waved at them to join her in the lobby.
“That was quick,” Josh said. “We better drink up.”
They chugged their drinks as they walked. The delicious martini was no problem at all to swallow down fast.
Gabby introduced Josh and April to the other people in the receiving line, who included the superintendent of Yosemite National Park, the director of High Sierra Search and Rescue, and a U.S. senator who was championing the cause. Vera joined them, looking as royal as Queen Elizabeth in her frosty blue gown. She gave Josh a gentle squeeze, and then April.
“You two make a magnificent couple,” Vera whispered before releasing her.
Vera took her place at the head of the line next to Josh. “It’s nice to have some young faces here with all of us old codgers. Joshua, there are at least two dozen guests who have personally told me they are dying to meet you.”
The Walkabout crew passed through the line early on.
“You look amazing, April,” Madigan said, with a hug that lingered a little too long. “I’m sorry we’re having you work tonight.” There was the faint smell of tequila on his breath.
Theo wolf whistled and gave her a high five. “You clean up nice, Hollywood. Hey, do you know if the drinks are free tonight?”
She nodded.
“Score!”
Once the Walkabout crew was safely inside the ballroom, April drifted closer to Josh, until her bare shoulder was grazing the smooth fabric of his tuxedo. She stayed anchored to him through the blur of smiles and handshakes in a stream of perhaps three hundred people, each of whom Gabby announced by name as they arrived. If they didn’t have a title of doctor or congressman, then their last name was recognizable. There were even some San Francisco–based movie stars and one Academy Award–winning director who passed through the line.
The receiving line disbanded just before dinner. Josh took her arm properly, and they reentered the ballroom like guests.
The head table was in the center of the room. April scanned for the Walkabout crew, finding them at the far end, in seats that faced the wall. She and Josh would have relative privacy. Not that anything was going to happen in the middle of the ballroom, while sitting at a table with the film’s benefactor and a bunch of millionaires.
The speeches began after the last of six delicious dinner courses. The lights dimmed, and the fabric of the artificial sky glowed with sunset oranges and yellows. The waiters made rounds to light the candles in the lanterns on all the tables, and the sound effects changed to peaceful nighttime Yosemite noises, like the gentle crackle of a campfire.
Josh leaned over to April. “Do you hear that? I think the ballroom’s burning down,” he whispered. “And this place might be infested with crickets.”
“Not funny,” she said.
Wisely, Vera’s staff had not included any bone-chilling branch snaps or wild animal howls on the soundtrack for the gala.
The early speeches were short ones from search-and-rescue stakeholders who showed a lot of slides April would have rather not seen: images from the harrowing rescues and bar charts of injuries and deaths in Yosemite. Climbing-related accidents led in both categories.
The superintendent’s speech was next, which was Josh’s cue to go to the front. He downed the rest of his beer.
“Wish me luck,” he whispered. She felt for his hand and squeezed it.
He pushed her fingers open and laced his between them. Time slowed and flowed by in milliseconds as his eyes burned into hers.
Josh slipped away to wait his turn at the side of the stage, stepping into the spotlight as the applause from the superintendent receded. A complete transformation had taken place. Gone was the guy who grimaced at video cameras and hated talking to anyone who didn’t rock climb. In his place was a man who could easily be the son of one of the VIP guests, standing tall and confident on the stage in his custom-tailored tuxedo.
Somehow, Josh was as comfortable speaking to the crowd as he was talking to his climbing buddies around the campfire. His voice was calm and deliberate. He was hardly looking at the pages in the binder in front of him, and he definitely wasn’t looking at the teleprompter, where Gabby had loaded his speech just to be safe.
It was the first time in real life April could blatantly stare at him. She watched his every gesture, every shift in expression. She listened to the words she had read on his laptop come alive in his familiar but amplified voice.
Suddenly, the words were ones she knew had not been in either of the versions of the speech she had read. Josh’s eyes cut directly to her.
“I climb because there’s nothing else in this world where you can so fully live in the moment and be completely at peace. Especially in a place like Yosemite. It’s magical to be up among the formations, to be at their level and at the same time dwarfed by their immensity.”
His eyes were raw and vulnerable as he continued to look in her direction. It was the million-dollar question no reporter had ever wrangled out of him. The question she herself had been pushing to get: Why do you do it?
“All the continents have been discovered, the West has been won, the wilderness has been mapped. To climb new routes is to explore a final frontier, and it’s one of the few things left in this world where your survival is based solely on your skill. It’s deeply satisfying. Climbing an old route a different way is also a new frontier. It’s a new frontier of skill. An evolution of what is physically possible.”
Climbing wasn’t something Josh did. It was who he was. She understood this because it had been the same way for her dad and aerobatics.
Josh returned to his written speech with a story about HSSR rescuing one of his climbing friends last year. He finished to uproarious cheers.
When he finally made his way back to the table, April threw her arms around him. “That was fantastic!”
He squeezed her hard, the damp skin on his face a giveaway that the speech hadn’t been as easy as he’d made it seem.
The waiters delivered dessert and coffee as Vera took the podium. Vera was an amazing public speaker, and she was unabashed in encouraging the guests to take both monetary and political action to keep HSSR funded permanently. She walked off the stage to a standing ovation as the sunset overhead cooled into a starlit night sky. The waiters delivered more candlelit lanterns to the tables.
When the stage lights came back on, there was a band in place, ready to play. It was Jackal Legs, a bluegrass band that had hit the mainstream top twenty a few years back.
“What do you say we take a spin?” Josh asked.
Dance? With Josh? They were in public. Did she dare?
She glanced over at the Walkabout table, where the guys’ chairs were facing the back wall again, and it looked like someone had just delivered a round of drinks.
“Okay,” she said.
She followed Josh through the tables to the dance floor and kept nudging him onward until they were at the farthest point from the Walkabout table. There were a lot of couples dancing, making the floor fairly crowded. They should be safe from any notice by Vera or the Walkabout crew.
Josh set one hand loosely on her back and swept her into a casual, peppy step that matched the song exactly.
“Another hidden
talent, Josh Knox?” she asked as they turned in a circle.
“One of many.”
“How’d you learn?”
“My mom.” He grinned. “Where’d you learn?”
“My dad.”
“I thought you were going to have to stand on my feet.”
“I thought I was going to have to lead.”
When the song ended, Josh clamped her lower back and dipped her almost all the way to the floor. Her cheeks were hot when he pulled her back up, and her ribs were straining against the dress.
The lights above them dimmed, and a mirror ball flung prisms of white across the sea of couples. A slow song was about to come on. This would definitely be too much if anyone caught them. It was too dark to see the Walkabout table, and for all she knew, Danny and his wife, Michelle, were out on the dance floor with them right now.
Josh seemed to sense her hesitation, because his face was serious and his eyes concerned. She let him take her left hand, and he gathered her in close with his right.
The song was one she’d never heard, soft and melodic, with Celtic undertones. The rest of the world, the couples all around them, faded away. She no longer cared who saw them.
April rested her cheek on the breast of Josh’s fine tuxedo. He twisted their clasped hands inward until her hand rested against his chest. Beneath it, his heart beat rapidly.
She was completely surrounded by a man with whom she was entirely consumed. How could she ever go back to a world where she couldn’t be with him like this all the time?
Her body screamed in protest as the song slowed and faded.
“Do you want to get some air?” Josh whispered.
She nodded, following him blindly along the perimeter of the ballroom and through the open French doors onto the balcony. The night was warm, and city lights and car motors replaced the twinkling stars and chirping crickets. He took her hand and led her to the corner, where a sculpted cypress in a massive planter hid them from view.
Josh turned to face her. Her ears buzzed, and her body trembled.
He reached forward, brushing her bangs to the side with the backs of his fingers. Although he was smiling slightly, his eyes were infused with melancholy. She leaned into his hand and stepped closer. Everything was happening fast, but also in slow motion. Her face tipped up as his head lowered. Her whole body was in a free fall.
Their lips touched and melted together like warm butter. It was not like embarking on something new, rather, returning to what always should have been. This was Josh. Hunky, enigmatic Josh. For the moment, her Josh.
His lips stretched into a smile, and he pulled her tightly against him. The sensation of falling hit her again.
Then, without warning, Josh’s body went stiff. She pulled back and followed his eyes toward the ballroom.
Madigan had just stepped through the doors.
Chapter Seventeen
Madigan stood in front of her. He was disheveled, and his eyes were bloodshot. Her chest was still heaving from kissing Josh.
“I’ll see you back inside,” Josh whispered, then drifted away.
What had Madigan seen?
She glanced back at the corner, where it was completely black. From the doors, he would have been too far to see anything, but even so, the mere fact of them being tucked away in that corner together was suspicious.
“You didn’t have to dance with him,” Madigan said.
Her shoulders relaxed. If he was bringing up dancing, then surely he hadn’t seen the more serious offense.
His eyes locked on her boldly, which was something she wasn’t used to from him.
“It’s beyond what we would have expected of you tonight,” he said, his words slurring a little. If he wasn’t drunk, he was well on his way to it.
“It’s okay. I didn’t mind. I like dancing.”
His eyes softened, and he looked more like himself. “Still. I never liked that Danny asked you to do this. Josh is talent. And there is a line.”
A lump of guilt formed in her throat.
He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and thumped it sloppily against the heel of his hand.
“I didn’t know you smoked,” she said.
“I don’t. Usually.”
He offered her one. She shook her head.
Madigan swayed as he focused on lighting the cigarette. He and Theo getting a head start on the drinking this afternoon had been a really bad idea.
“You look really nice tonight,” he said. “You do always, but tonight…”
There was longing in his eyes. Josh had been dead-on.
“We should get back inside,” she said.
He took a long draw of his cigarette. “I’m sorry, April. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s fine. You’ve had a lot to drink. I know that.”
She put her hand on his shoulder and guided him toward the door.
“Wait,” he said.
“We should get back.” She nudged him forward.
When they reached the Walkabout table, Danny and Michelle were still congratulating Josh on his speech. Madigan collapsed into his chair and grabbed a nearly full pint of beer, which sloshed all over his rental tux.
“You need to cut him off,” she whispered to Theo.
“Fine by me,” Theo said, snatching Madigan’s beer and taking a gulp.
By one a.m., couples were drifting toward the lobby, picking up Vera’s Yosemite-themed gift bags on the way out. April had hoped that she and Josh would be able to steal away together, but the late hour and the alcohol had brought out the amateur climber in every middle-aged man in attendance. There was a line of them at the Walkabout table, waiting to ask which climbing gym in San Francisco was the best, what Josh’s favorite brand of cam was, and if he was really going to climb the Sorcerer without a rope.
When the line of men finally petered out and Michelle put on her wrap, April’s hope of escape rose again.
“Where are we going next?” Michelle asked. “Better be somewhere with dancing.”
No way. April threw a frown to Josh.
“I’m actually pretty tired,” he said. “I was going to head up and—”
“Josh!” a man yelled, slapping him on the back. It was the tan, fit, white-mustached CEO of Esplanade.
“Barrett! We’re going out. Join us,” Michelle said.
“Good thinking,” Barrett said. “Let’s do it.”
“I was just saying I’m pretty tired—” Josh started.
“Oh, please,” Barrett said. “You, tired?”
April trailed behind the group with Josh. She couldn’t bear to go with them. It would make her too sad to be around him in a group, while she watched the only minutes they would ever have to be alone together drain away.
“I have a headache, guys,” she said when they got to the lobby’s rotating front door. “I’m going to head up to my room.”
Michelle gave a disappointed groan.
“Oh, come on, April,” Madigan slurred. “Come with us.”
“He really shouldn’t drink anymore,” April said to Theo.
“I agree with Madigan,” Theo said. “You need to come.”
“Sorry. My head.” She turned toward the elevators, hoping that Josh could find an excuse to sneak back to the hotel later.
“I’m actually going to bail, too,” Josh said.
No! That was too obvious.
“I don’t think so, bud,” Barrett said. “You owe me a beer from last night, remember?”
April glanced back. Barrett was steering him through the rotating door. Josh looked over his shoulder, his eyes searching for her. She walked calmly to the elevator, trying to hold her composure until she was safely inside. But once there, she wasn’t alone.
“Hey, you were the one with Josh Knox tonight?” said an older man in a half-undone tux. “He’s an amazing climber.”
Correct. She had been the one with Josh Knox, but she wasn’t with him any longer. She nodded to the man, keeping her eye
s forward as she swallowed back tears. Would she see Josh again tonight, or was this the end of it forever?
At the door to her room, she fumbled with her clutch and then dropped the key card. She scooped it off the floor and impatiently slid it in and out of the reader, getting a series of red lights. Her frustration mounted. Finally, the light turned green and the lock rolled off. She pushed into the room.
This couldn’t be it with Josh. Surely he would come to her room as soon as he could get away. But how long would that be? A couple of drinks? It was already so late, and they were driving back to Yosemite in the morning.
Danny’s wife was a stay-at-home mom with their two kids and probably never got out like this. Between her and Barrett, they’d probably keep Josh hostage all night.
April desperately wanted him to show up at her room, but for the sake of her pride, she couldn’t expect it. Besides, he didn’t know her room number. Or her cell phone number.
She slithered out of the beautiful dress and changed into her purple pajama boxer shorts and a polka-dotted tank top, both things her mom had mailed to Yosemite with the dress.
In the bathroom, she pulled the pins out of her hair and it flowed down to her shoulders in deep waves. She washed off the makeup and then brushed her teeth and spread gloss on her lips, just in case.
She flopped onto her bed. The air puffed out of the down comforter, and then refilled, floating up around her body. It would be great to talk to someone right now, but who did she know who would be awake at this hour and not in a crazy-loud bar or in the middle of a hookup?
Staring at the ceiling, she told herself that she had been blessed with a chance to cool down and think things over. Her chance to stop a messy situation with serious implications before it happened.
There was a light rap on her door, and her heart leaped. Who cared about any of that? This was her night.
She walked to the door and peeked though the peephole. Her heart plummeted. It was Madigan.
She cracked the door. “Hey, Madigan. What’s up?”
“I just—had to make sure— Are you okay?” He was swaying badly, like he was going to come crashing down at any second. She pulled the door open, ready to catch him.
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