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“Look at her. If she were a guy, I wouldn’t stand a chance.” Then he shook his head. “Of course, if she were a guy I wouldn’t be in this mess.” He blew out a breath through his lips. “I’m afraid I can’t win this one. Can I?”
Emily shrugged and gave him a sad smile. “Doubtful. Whoever wins my sister is going to have to work a lot longer than one or two days. You really never stood much of a chance. Don’t take it personally.”
Charlie was hanging by her hands. Shaking, she pulled herself upward with both hands before letting go with one hand and lunging for the next hold. When she missed it, she fell back onto the belay and signaled to descend.
Josh approached as she unwound the rope from her harness. “You almost had it. Are you too tired to try again?”
She held up a trembling arm in answer. “No. Your turn. Let’s see what you can do.” She watched as he prepared for the climb, eyeing the route from below.
“Got any advice?” he asked.
Surprised, she regarded him from the corner of her eye, trying to decide if he was sincere. “Go up on the left and then move to the right side before you start under the ledge. I watched Steven do this one. You have to reach out and hang from those two mini-jugs. And then the red one looks good from there, but it’s a sloper. See it? So you need to grab that yellow one instead. It’s a crimper. From there you’ve got to use your arms to pull up and get your foot on the nib on the edge.”
“Good luck, Josh!” said a feminine voice behind her. Charlie looked over her shoulder at the two blonds who had come back to watch him climb. Charlie bit back a chuckle when Josh’s expression turned to annoyance. He ignored the girls, and attacked the climb. She was pleased when he followed her advice to a T. Soon he reached the point where Charlie had fallen. He hesitated, and for a moment she thought he was going to let go. She eyed him suspiciously. His muscles weren’t even shaking yet. Then he adopted a determined expression, and pulled himself up before reaching to grab the yellow crimper. For a moment he had to hang from two fingers as he grabbed the next hold. He’d passed her up, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t help rooting for him—that’s what climbers did.
Charlie took a moment to admire the muscles flexing on his arms and back as he climbed. His foot found the hold on the corner, and he was effectively past the under-hang. Now his muscles were fatigued, and his whole body trembled as he continued the climb. He lunged for the top and fell back in relief. He rappelled down, while the blond girls clapped and cheered for him. Charlie moved back to join the others on the bench, leaving Josh to his fans. She almost laughed when he sought her out over the heads of the two girls who were giving animated praise to their hero.
“You lost,” said Emily. “What do you owe him?”
“I’m paying for his climbing. I’ll live with the ribbing—you can call it a date.”
“Okay, but you know I won’t let you live it down, right?”
“I can handle it. I’m going to pay, and then I’m ready to go.”
“Really? It’s early and it’s your last night in New York.”
Charlie looked over to where Josh was still attempting to extricate himself from the girls. “You can stay with Spencer, and I’ll go back and visit with Mom and Steven. When you come home, we’ll have hot chocolate chip cookies and milk.”
She stood up and dug in her purse for some money, which she handed to her sister. “Would you mind paying for me so I can slip out now?”
Emily screwed her lips sideways. “If that’s what you want, Sister.”
Josh watched Charlie as the two girls continued to ply him with questions. “Yeah, sure,” he answered absently.
“Cool. We’ll wait while you change clothes,” said the taller girl.
“Uhmm, what? What are you waiting for?”
“For you to change so we can go to the Lookout Club,” she answered, obviously frustrated at repeating herself.
“Oh. No. Sorry, I can’t. Excuse me.” He pushed past the girls, rushing to the bench.
“Where’s Charlie?”
“She left this to pay for your cli
mbing and took off.” Emily held up a handful of money and pointed toward the exit with her eyes.
Josh saw Charlie disappearing through the door without a backward glance. He couldn’t believe it—she wasn’t even going to wait around to say goodbye. He couldn’t understand why it bothered him so much, but it did. It made him furious.
He ran toward the door and burst outside, spying Charlie as she moved to the limousine. She slid inside, but he caught the door before she could close it. Without a thought, he climbed into the back and sat beside her.
Her eyes were wide. Was that guilt? Remorse for running out on him?
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I’ve come to collect. I won, fair and square.”
