Laurie made a completely incoherent, possibly terrified sound, and Briana laughed. "So not a cliff camper, then."
"I—you're kidding, right? How do you even camp on something that wide?"
"With a tent you nail into place. I've got the hooks and everything set up permanently up there. And on the narrower ones, you use something called a portaledge that lets you create a sleeping space on a vertical wall. I—" Briana broke off, looking up at Laurie's horrified expression, and cackled. "I'll spare you the details. Anyway, it's absolutely not for the casual climber, but it's my idea of fun."
"My idea of fun might be keeping my feet firmly planted on the ground, after all. I don't think I could handle it."
"I don't usually do the really extreme kind where I spend a week on a climbing wall or anything," Briana offered. "I tend to come on and off the mountain a lot. But then…"
"You're a goat," Laurie said dryly.
"Yeah. I'm a goat." She stood up so she could steal a kiss, and promised, "I won't make you do cliff camping. In fact, I almost certainly won'tletyou climb that rock face."
"My masculine dignity would be offended if my testicles were not crawling into my body to hide at the sheer terrifying idea of it all."
Briana burst out laughing, and kissed Laurie again before sitting back down. "I like you."
"I'm glad," Laurie said more quietly as he sat beside her.
For a moment she was silent, looking out over the view, with the green depths of trees swallowed into shadows from the overhead sunlight, and the bright busy world moving along beneath them. It felt surprisingly right to be up here with Laurie, sharing her day and her life with him. "Yeah, me too. Even if a week ago I was determined not to."
"It's been averybusy week."
Briana exhaled noisily. "It sure has been. Has the insurance company made any decisions? No, probably not. Even if they moved fast, it's only Monday morning." She shot a glance toward the overhead sun. "Monday afternoon."
"I think it'll be weeks. Probably months. Maybe longer."
"Next year's Faire can't wait for longer!"
"I know that, but I'm not sure it's possible to make an insurance company move fast on anything. It's not like they enjoy paying out."
"Hah! Yeah, true enough. I guess we'll have to figure it out. And I guess we should go back into town." Even Briana knew she didn't sound enthusiastic about the prospect, and Laurie tilted his head at her.
"You said you camped out here a lot during Faire?"
"I usually head up the mountain as soon as the day is over, yeah." Briana made duck lips, thinking about that, and Laurie made a face in return.
"In part because you were avoiding me."
"Well, yes. But also because I love being out here, and it's light late so I can climb safely even after Faire." She had spent a lot of time in the past justifying staying away from Laurie in part so it wouldn't interfere with her summer camping and climbing. She hadn't yet thought through how she might have to adjust those usual summer plans now that she was on speaking terms with him.
You are onruttingterms with him,her goat informed her a bit severely.
Briana inhaled a laugh and nearly choked on her own saliva.We're also speaking!
Her goat gave the strong impression of chewing through a hunk of plate armor while eyeing her, and Briana coughed on another laugh. Laurie sprang up to help, though he also clearly wasn't sure what 'help' would be in this case. Briana flailed her hands in the air and shook her head, trying to reassure him. It didn't look like it worked, really, but after a few seconds she got her breathing and swallowing mechanisms working in the right order and wheezing, "Goat."
"Is it mouthy? My bear is mostly pretty chill."
"It's…opinionated," Briana managed, then cleared her throat so she could speak without rasping. "Not particularly forgiving. So kind of like me."
"Hey! Be kind to my mate!"
"I don't think I'm being mean to her," Briana said, amused now. "I've known her a lot longer than you have. I promise she's opinionated and not particularly forgiving. It's all veryPride & Prejudicein here."
"But even they came around," Laurie said with a smile. "And so did you."
"For much the same reasons Elizabeth did, though I've got to say, your turnaround was a lot faster than Darcy's."
