I could still do hard things.
Gran was gone, Damian had betrayed me, and Mom had left yet again, but I was still here. Still climbing.
And though there was part of me that wanted to throttle Noah, I knew he was the only reason I was on this wall, climbing in the first place. He was the reason I’d started paying attention to my own life again. The reason I looked forward to waking up in the morning lately.
It wasn’t that I was living for him, but that he simply made me want to live. To fight. To prove my point. To take a stand when I’d usually defer to someone else’s emotions and take the path of least resistance.
Maybe my life had caught on fire, but that’s where I shined, right at the melting point where I could take the molten remains and reshape them into something beautiful. I wanted to sculpt again. I wanted to bend glass to my will. I wanted another chance to be happy, which led me to glance in Noah’s direction. I wanted…to get down because whoa was I high.
“Okay,” I called to him. “How do I get down?”
“I’ll lower you.”
“You’ll what?” I chanced another look in his direction. Holy shit—this actually was Everest. He looked a million miles away. So much for feeling empowered. I wanted off this thing now.
“I’ll lower you,” he repeated, slowing his words down, as if I’d misunderstood instead of balked.
“And how exactly does that work?” I gripped the handholds tighter, whitening my knuckles.
“Easy,” he said. “You sit back in the harness, then walk your way down the wall as I lower you.”
I blinked a few times, then looked down again. “I’m supposed to just lean back and trust that you won’t drop me on my ass?”
“Exactly.” He grinned shamelessly, and for the first time, I didn’t find it all that charming.
“What if the rope breaks?”
His grin faded. “What if there’s a massive earthquake?”
“Are we expecting one?” My biceps screamed in protest as I held myself there, perched on the damn wall like a lizard.
“Are you expecting me to drop you?” he challenged.
“It would make it easier on you to finish the book,” I argued.
“There’s some truth to that,” he admitted. “And I’m sure the story behind the murder would really drive sales.”
“Noah!” There was nothing funny about this, and yet there he was, teasing me.
“The chances of an earthquake are far more likely than those of me dropping you.” There was an edge to his voice this time, but when I took another look at his face, there was only patience. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Georgia. You have to trust me. I’ve got you.”
“Can’t I just climb down?” It couldn’t be that hard, could it?
“Sure, if that’s what you want to do,” he answered, his voice dropping.
“Yeah,” I whispered to myself. “I’ll just climb down.” Surely it couldn’t be any harder than climbing up here had been, right?
Muscles aching and plagued by tiny, incessant tremors, I lowered my foot to my previous foothold. “See? That wasn’t so bad,” I muttered. The line was tight, offering me support as I moved my hands and then my left foot down.
Then I shrieked, my voice high and loud, as my foot slipped and I fell. It was only a matter of inches before the rope caught my weight, and I hung suspended, parallel with the wall.
“Are you okay?” Noah asked, his voice pitching slightly.
I sucked in a full breath, then another, willing my heartbeat to settle at an acceptable, nondramatic level. The harness dug slightly into the skin just beneath the curve of my butt, but other than that, I was perfectly fine.
“A little embarrassed,” I admitted reluctantly, heat flooding my already flushed cheeks. “But otherwise fine.”
“Do you still want to climb down the rest of the way?” Noah asked without judgment.
I lifted my arms, raised my hands to the holds directly in front of me, cringing as they shook. The truth was, if he was going to drop me, he would have done it by now.
“So I’m just supposed to sit back in the harness?” I asked, silently praying that he wasn’t an I told you so kind of guy.
“Put your feet against the wall,” he ordered.
I lifted them slightly and did as he asked.
“Both hands on the rope.” Another order.
I followed it.
“Good,” he praised. “I’m going to lower you, and I want you to sit back into the harness and walk your way down the wall. Got it?” His voice was strong and steady, just like the man himself. What did it take to ruffle a guy like Noah? Sure, I’d pricked his temper a few times, but even through the most uncomfortable of our arguments, I’d never seen him actually lose it, at least not in the door-slamming, screaming way Damian often did when things hadn’t gone his way.
“Got it,” I called down, offering Noah a shaky smile.
“I don’t want to startle you, so we’ll go on three. Slow and steady.”
I nodded.
“One, two, three,” he counted us off and lowered me enough to fully sit back. “Good job. Now let’s walk you down the wall.”
Slowly, steadily, Noah let the rope out, lowering me down the climbing wall. A few seconds in and it wasn’t half bad. Defying gravity came with a little adrenaline rush, especially when I boldly emulated another climber farther down the wall, taking fun little hops.
As I got closer to the ground, I glanced up at the bell I had just rung. It seemed so high, and yet I’d been there, all the way up at the top.
All because Noah had been determined to earn my trust—and he had.
I was all smiles when my feet met the earth. “That was amazing!” I threw my arms around Noah, and he held me tight, lifting me right back off my feet.
“You were amazing,” he corrected me.
He held me so easily, as if I weighed nothing, and smelled so good it was all I could do to not put my nose to his neck and breathe deep. His scent was a unique combination of the sandalwood and cedar of his cologne mixed with soap and a little sweat. He smelled like a man was supposed to, all without faking it. Damian would have paid thousands of dollars to smell like Noah did effortlessly.
Stop comparing them.
I pulled back slightly, just enough to look in his eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered.
His smile was slow and the sexiest I’d ever seen. “What are you thanking me for?” he asked as his gaze darted to my lips and back. “You’re the one who did all the work.”