Heartbroken Heights Page 11

  Surprise stiffened Chloe’s arms. “O-oh. That’s… I’m sorry.”

  That didn’t sound like an “I’m sorry for your loss” kind of sorry, so David leaned far enough away from Chloe to look her in the eyes. “For what?”

  “Well… I thought it was me,” Chloe said quietly, her head down, pink-cheeked and embarrassed. “I thought you thought that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Climb, I mean. I’m not exactly in the right shape for that like… like some of your friends.”

  Horror at what David had put Chloe through struck him totally dumb. He floundered like a fish out of water, searching for words as Chloe kept her eyes on the horizon, totally oblivious to his reaction.

  “I thought you didn’t think I could climb because you kept shooting me down, and then Kathleen showed up and she was so strong and beautiful, and you looked so happy spending time with her and climbing together, and I knew I could never do that with you—"

  “Kathleen is my cousin,” David blurted at last, stopping Chloe in her tracks with her mouth open. “She’s my cousin and we’ve known each other for years. I was only happy and having fun climbing with her because you were there. You help me forget the past. You help me remember that sometimes accidents are just accidents and I have to stop letting the past hold me back.”

  David grabbed Chloe’s other hand and pulled her to face him. Unhushed tears gripped her lashes like crystals, and her doe-like eyes were round with nervousness and hope. “I don’t want to date someone who does every single thing that I do, Chloe,” David said softly. “I want to date you because you’re everything I could ever want or need, and you’re perfect just the way you are. And I love you.”

  That wasn’t how David meant to tell Chloe how he had come to feel, but he didn’t care. He just needed Chloe to know it right now so she could see herself how he saw her—a remarkable, passionate woman who had gotten through to David when no one else could.

  That remarkable, passionate woman’s eyes sparkled and she ended the dreaded physical and emotional distance between them with a passionate hug. David rocked back and forth, his face buried in her sweet-smelling hair and his arms locked tightly around her waist.

  This is right. This is how it’s meant to be.

  A long, tender moment passed before Chloe drew back to catch David’s gaze. “I love you too,” she said softly, her eyes searching his face. Whatever they were looking for, they found it, because Chloe leaned back in, this time for a kiss so sweet and soft that David knew it was a promise of more to come.

  Something still held Chloe back, though, and a little worry crept into her brown eyes. “What about Atlanta, though? And the competition after that, and the climbing trip after that?”

  David settled back against the bench and pulled Chloe into his side so she could lean her head on his shoulder. “You make me so, so happy—happier than I ever thought I could be again—but I can tell you’re not happy. With work. With living in Reno. You want to blog, right? So, do it. Blog and travel with me.”

  “What just… quit my job? Pack up and leave?”

  “I think your heart and mind already have,” David chuckled, jostling Chloe until she giggled too.

  “You’re right,” she said when the giggles faded away into the murmuring of the fountain behind them. “I have money saved up. I know how to take decent pictures. I have a good start on my blog, and I can try other kinds of writing too. Maybe I can write articles for travel sites.”

  “There, see?” David hugged Chloe a little tighter and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “You’re not stuck here.”

  “I don’t think I ever was,” Chloe said slowly. “I think—I think I just couldn’t stand the idea of travelling alone after my dad passed.”

  “Well, now you’re not alone. Neither of us is.”

  Chloe’s cheek shifted against his shoulder as she looked up at him through a layer of brunette hair. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Chapter Thirteen: Chloe

  “Are you sure about this?” Chloe asked, clasping her hands together. Her eyes crept up the fifteen-foot-high bouldering wall in one of Reno’s gyms, shifting from hold to hold that David had always dissuaded her from touching.

  Until now. “I’m sure,” David told her firmly. “It’s just bouldering. Short walls, short falls.”

  “I would prefer no falls,” Chloe chuckled nervously. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a climber who had just chalked up his hands giving them a little shake, so she did too. A fine white powder dusted the mat in front of her rental shoes. Oh no, did she still have enough chalk on her hands?

  “No falls, then. Go ahead, try the green one.”

  Deciding that asking for the chalk bag would just be procrastination, Chloe approached the wall gingerly and placed both her hands on the hold with the tag on it, just as David had said.

  “Good,” he told her encouragingly. “Now, get both your feet off the ground and grab the next hold.”

  She did. Her shoes left the thick, cushy mat and her hands gripped the rough plastic. At David’s urging, she reached for the next big handhold. Then, she grabbed the next, and the next, and then-

  “Did I do it?” she asked excitedly, clinging to the last green hold that she could see.

  “You did it!” David clapped from the ground. “Climb partway down, and then jump.”

  More than happy to comply, Chloe did her best to scamper down quickly. Her untrained foot missed a foothold and she squeaked in surprise, but recomposed herself quickly.

  “That was awesome!” she exclaimed when she dropped to the ground. “It’s like… I don’t know. It’s like escaping it all. Even though I know I have to come back down, while I’m on the wall, I have to focus on what to do next, so I kind of forget everything else.”

  “That’s why I love it.”

  Now that Chloe was back on the ground, she could see sheer relief in David’s eyes. “Hey,” she said, grabbing his shoulders and holding him steady. “I’m fine. See? I’m fine. Remember what we said? Short walls only.”

  “You promise? No tall walls?”

  “No tall walls ever,” Chloe promised. This was the third time she had made that promise, but she didn’t care. She would make it as many times as it took David to feel comfortable. “I’ve always been a little scared of heights anyway,” she admitted, “so it works out.”

  “Okay.” David swept Chloe into a kiss, and even though the gym was bustling, Chloe didn’t mind.

  He pointed her to another easy problem, and she repeated the process of placing her hands on the starting hold and getting her feet off the ground before climbing. Again, she completed it on her first try.

  She and David climbed until her arms shook and her fingers refused to close around the holds. “How do you do this for so many hours?” she asked wonderingly, massaging her sore forearms.

  “How does a runner do a marathon?” David shrugged modestly. “I’ve just been doing it for a very long time, that’s all.”

  “Can we go again sometime?”

  “Sure. But no tall walls.”

  “No tall walls.”

  This time, no one was around to witness their parking-lot kiss.

  *****

  “I can’t say I didn’t expect this.” Chloe’s boss raised his eyes from her letter of resignation.

  “You did?” Chloe said, taken aback. “I want to assure you that I delivered only my best work to Sentinel Financial and I—"

  “Chloe, I know,” Elijah said, raising a hand. “I didn’t mean to imply you haven't been doing your job well. I just mean that I know your heart isn’t really in the work. I’m not one of those people who believes you need to love your job to excel,” he said with a smile. “I appreciate the work you do for Sentinel, and I’ll be sorry to see you go.”

  “Thanks, Elijah.” Chloe sent him a little smile in return. “I just think it’s time to give something new a try. Something new, and somewhere new.”

 
“I understand, and I wish you the best of luck.”

  The two shook hands, and Chloe took her leave of his office. She followed the familiar path to her own office, sat in her chair and leaned back, regarding her surroundings. It wasn’t a bad little space, really. It was small, but the windows were large and Chloe had added a touch of her personality to the desk and walls in the form of photos and camping memorabilia. Maybe she would even miss it, just a little.

  The two weeks she had left to spend in that office went by in a flash with David there to hasten along the afternoons and evenings. Chloe spent some time with him every day, and she looked forward to the impending day when she could spend all her time with him. Riding to Atlanta with him to watch him compete in his climbing competition a week before she had handed in her resignation letter had served to give her a taste of what was to come, and for the first time in many long years, thinking about the future excited Chloe.

  I’m… I’m doing it, she realized, thinking back to when she had shouted something very similar after her first-ever rock climb. I’m blogging. I’m planning places to travel. I’m doing photography. I’m doing everything I wanted to do.

  And she owed it all to David. She would have to thank him for that later.

  Right now, though, she had to get through her last two hours of work. She settled down to focus and deliver the best final hours of work she could, but Elijah let himself into her office after only one hour had passed. “I appreciate your commitment to Sentinel Financial, but I think I can afford to give you your last hour off,” he chuckled. “We have a bit of a goodbye party for you downstairs. Come on down when you’ve finished up.”

  Chloe finished her last task, shut down her computer for the last time and grabbed her purse. Before she shut the door behind her, she took one last look around the bare office. She knew she had removed all her things a few days ago, but it wouldn’t hurt to check one more time.

  Chloe walked to the lobby, pausing to look at familiar pieces of art and name plaques on doors. By the time she reached the lobby, she felt quite solemn. Every door she closed on her way there brought her one step closer to the end of this chapter in her life.

  “Surprise!”

  Chloe jumped right out of both her skin and her solemn mood. “Really?” she chuckled, trying to play off her sudden fright and her surprise at how many of her coworkers had gathered to wish her well.

  Janet waved at Chloe from the front desk, pointing down at a big chocolate cake. “Come have a piece of goodbye cake,” the receptionist told her.

  Chloe followed her beckoning hands and looked. The cake literally said “GOODBYE” in big blue icing letters.

  “So, what’s next?” Janet asked as she placed a slice on a paper plate.

  “I don’t know exactly,” Chloe told her as her coworkers came forward for cake as well. “I’m leaving tomorrow morning to go to Los Angeles with my boyfriend, but after that… I don’t know. But I don’t mind not knowing, you know?”

  From the looks on her coworkers’ faces, she could tell they didn’t know. They didn’t understand why Chloe would give up a secure job with good pay for the unknown.

  Chloe smiled at her cake. A couple months ago, she wouldn’t have understood either.

  Fifteen minutes later, the party began to disperse. Chloe hugged some coworkers and shook the hands of others, took the rest of the cake at their insistence and finally made her escape. That had been nice of them, but she had errands to run… and someone else to meet.

  A few hours later, Chloe pulled into one of six parking spots in one of those scenic stop-and-look places. This one wasn’t on any main roads, so tourists didn’t usually come here. It was just Chloe and the man standing at the railing, silhouetted by the setting sun.

  Chloe shut her car door gently so that she wouldn’t disturb the single bird that perched in a nearby tree, singing loudly. “Hey.” She wrapped her arms around David and leaned her head against his arm.

  David answered her greeting with a kiss that made their cars, the bird and the beautiful vista disappear. His fingers slipped down her spine until there was no space left between them and Chloe could feel the echoes of the bird’s song vibrating in her own heart. He kissed her again and again, each touch of his lips to hers as warm as the spring air.

  The song in her heart ended when they broke their last kiss, and Chloe noticed distantly that the bird had flown away too… unless her heart had been the composer all along.

  “How was work?” David asked, rooting them back into the here and now.

  “Good. I didn’t realize how many of my coworkers liked me,” Chloe mused. “Or maybe it was the free cake.”

  “It was definitely you.” David gave her one more kiss, then spun her around. The world dissolved into streaks of orange, red and yellow sunset and green-brown mountains before Chloe came to a safe and secure halt between David and the railing where she could look out over Nevada and feel David holding her securely around the waist.

  “Remember when I almost fell off that cliff?” she asked. “And you saved me?”

  “Can I tell you a secret?”

  “Sure.” A little worried, Chloe tried so hard to glance up at David that her eyes hurt and she had to lower her eyes to the view.

  He hunched his neck like a turtle to whisper in her ear. “I think you would have been just fine even if I hadn’t grabbed you.” His breath stirred the short little hairs at the base of her neck and sent pleasant shivers down her spine.

  “Me too.”

  They chuckled for a moment, then fell silent to admire the view for a moment before David spoke up again. “We’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I know. I pretty much have all my stuff packed,” Chloe assured him.

  “I know. It’ll be cool to meet your mom.”

  “Are you nervous?”

  “To meet your mom?” David chuckled. “Not at all. Are you nervous?”

  “For you to meet my mom? Not at all,” she echoed back to him.

  “No, not that. Are you nervous to leave Reno?”

  “Oh.” Chloe took her time before answering, letting the stretching landscape of Nevada fill her with conviction. “Not at all. I love you, and I know that this is what I want.”

  David’s arms tightened around her waist. “I love you too.”