Love Not at First Sight by Sarah Ready

Author:Sarah Ready [Ready, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781954007116
Publisher: W.W. Crown

9

Veronica

I take a deep breath. I’ve done climbing techniques similar to this before. It’s a moderate-width opening. I feel the walls on either side of the crevice. It’s dry, rough-textured and solid.

“I’m going first,” I say.

I feel Sam tense. He’s going to argue with me. I’ve noticed he likes to be in front in case there’s any danger. If someone’s going to fall or have rock collapse on them, he’d rather it be him. I touch his arm and he stills.

“I’ve got this. We don’t know how narrow it’ll get or if it’s stable. I’m smaller. I can have us turn around if it gets too dangerous.”

“Makes sense,” he says, but I can tell he doesn’t like it.

“Have you climbed before?” I ask.

“Indoor walls,” he says. “I’ve been doing them a couple years now.”

I smile and squeeze his arm. “Look at you. When we get out of here, I’m going to take you to my favorite climbs. The Gunks, the Red River Gorge. You’ll love climbing outdoors. We could go up to the Adirondacks, take a tent, sleeping bags…” I stop. “On second thought, when we get out of here, I’d like food, a shower, and a bed. Climbing can wait.”

“I’d love to,” he says.

“The climbing or the shower and the bed?”

“Any of it.”

I reach up and touch his face. I trace his mouth and feel his smile.

Then I pull away and concentrate on the climb, getting us across the pit alive and hopefully to the way out. “We’re going to use counterforce to keep us wedged between the walls. We’ll start with our back flat against the wall on the right side. Put your right hand on the opposite wall, as high as your chest, and put your left hand behind you, lower than your back, and then press against it, out and down. Hard.”

“Got it,” he says.

“Your legs, it depends on your size. I’m probably going to have my right leg bent with my toes pressed into the wall and my left leg bent and my foot flat against the right wall.”

“Makes sense. The counterforce is between your hands and legs on the opposite walls?”

“Exactly. You might have to use your hands and knees, you’re at least half a foot taller than me. But keep your arms on opposite walls. As long as we do that and keep pressing, we should be okay.”

“Alright.”

Before I can move into the crack, he pulls me to him and sets a hard kiss on my mouth. His hands curl around my arms and his grip bites into me. The kiss is fierce and quick.

“For luck,” he says.

I step to the ledge and work myself into the crack. I do just as I planned and within seconds I’m suspended over a forty-four-foot drop. My back presses to the cold hard rock and my hands and feet shove against it and down. I inch myself forward, scraping along the rough rock. It’s solid, I don’t feel any weak spots in the limestone.

“Your turn,” I say.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.