The rapid succession of Lark’s camera broke the spell, and Tabitha spun toward her photographer. Her mouth gaped in irritated shock as Lark grinned mischievously at Tabitha’s scowl then down at her screen. “These are so good. The camera loves you, babe.”
“Tabitha,” Beck whined.
“What?”
“I said ‘take’, like, five times, and now I’m dead. I fell and decked and maybe took out a nearby belayer in the process, which means her climber’s done for too. It’s a massacre,” she complained with bored exaggeration.
“I was distracted," Tabitha explained, trying to ignore the drop in her stomach and her suddenly dry mouth. More for her own comfort than Beck's she continued, "No one's going to get hurt—"
“It's a real possibility while climbing. Jeez I thought you knew what you were doing.”
Tabitha pulled up slack with a bit more force than was necessary and grumbled to herself about the clusterfuck of a morning. Despite her irritation, she knew Beck was right. Her attention had been all over the place since the moment she’d run into Zac at the bar last night. Instead of shaking it off like an adult, she’d been flustered and acting out of character. She had to get back on track. Immediately. Or someone would get hurt.
“You’re right.” She appeased her partner. “I should be taking this more seriously. You have my full concentration.”
“Fabulous.” Beck nodded and began drawing out more rope. “Does that mean you’re going to answer my questions about Zac?”
“No.”
“Pretty please?”
Tabitha shot a death glare at the young woman, who promptly zipped her lips.
Following another hour of practice and a quick lunch break, the group was finally able to get their feet off the ground.
“Next we are going to practice falling properly,” Frankie called out to the semi-circle around her.
“Uhhh,” one of the women warbled with her hand raised.
“Yes, Charlotte?”
“Shouldn’t we trynotto fall?”
“When you’re doing the actual climbing bit, yes. But before we let you loose, you need to learn how to bail safely. You can’t always control if you fall, but you can set yourself up to be in the safest scenario possible if you do fall. Does that help?”
“Sure.” Charlotte sounded about as confident about falling on purpose as Tabitha felt about spending the entire week with her ex.
Frankie and Zac set each other up, donned helmets, performed safety double checks, all while giving verbal confirmation of the process. After a few demonstrative set-ups and falls, they split the group in half to practice. Tabitha practically shoved into Frankie’s group. She knew she’d have to spend time with Zac at some point, but if she could keep it to a minimum that would be the best scenario.
Around mid-afternoon, the guides gathered the class together.
“Who’s ready to lead?” Zac asked. A few hands shot into the air while a couple tentatively peeked above the group. “Partner up and find your spot.”
Tabitha hadn’t noticed Beck creep up beside her until the young woman wrapped her arms around Tabitha’s waist. “Dibbs,” she shouted, squeezing with ferocity. “Will you be my buddy again? I can’t wait to see you in action.”
“I’d like that,” Tabitha chuckled, absorbing some of her climbing partner’s enthusiasm. She recalled the early years—especially when she used to compete—when climbing was exciting and filled her with the same level of joy. Lately the zest for the activity was lacking. She enjoyed connecting with the ladies at the gym each week, but doing the same routes over and over quickly got stale. She used to get such a rush from climbing outdoors . . . of course that was before.
“Change of plans, ladies,” Zac called out. “Charlotte is going to sit this one out, so we are going to mix the groups up a bit. Tabby—er—Tabitha and Beck, would either of you partner up with Nevaeh? You two are the most experienced, and I want someone strong with her.”
“Who will the other person climb with?” Tabitha asked.
“Me,” Zac said, lips curling into a cocky grin.
“I’ll take Nevaeh!” Beck shouted unreasonably loudly before Tabitha could register Zac’s words. She turned back to her abandoned partner as she skipped away. “Have fu-un.”
“Well, damn,” Zac crooned, smooth and rich as molten dark chocolate. “Looks like it’s finally you and me.”
Chapter ten