Heartbroken Heights Read online

  “It’s only gotten popular recently.” David’s words were short, clipped.

  “Sorry,” Chloe apologized, thinking that standing here in the cold while his date gawked at something he did every day might have irritated him. “This one’s super close to my apartment, I guess that’s pretty cool. If you wanted to we could go here sometime and I could give it a try! You’d have to be nice to me though.” She fluttered her eyelashes, although she didn’t think that David would ever be impatient with her.

  “Could be fun.” His voice indicated very clearly that it would not be fun.

  His sudden change in attitude shattered Chloe’s cheerful mood. She shut up, walking along beside him with her hands shoved stiffly into her pockets until the climbing gym was well behind them and they had to stop and wait for the signal to cross the street.

  Chloe cleared her throat, piercing the awkward silence enough to fit a question through. “Do you want to walk through a park on the way back to the car?”

  “Sure. I bet it’s really pretty with this snow.”

  Their conversation took off again and Chloe breathed a sigh of relief, but she couldn’t shake the confusion and anxiety born from David’s coarse words. She had learned something, though. When they passed the climbing gym again on the way to the park, she just gave it a glance across the street and said nothing.

  Asking David for an explanation for his behavior would have to wait for another day—a less perfect day, because Chloe feared she already knew the answer.

  Chapter Eight: David

  David sat on his bed in the guest room of Julian’s house, flipping back and forth between picture filters on his phone. People who met him briefly would all agree that David seemed an unlikely person to spend an undue amount of time on social media, but the people who knew David also knew the opposite was true.

  Well, not exactly, David amended. He spent only the time on social media necessary to keep the sponsorships that let him travel and compete these days. There had been a time when he enjoyed documenting the places he traveled and the people he met and connecting with the climbing community, but in those days most of his pictures had featured two—him and his wife.

  The bed creaked as David let himself go limp. The hand holding the phone thumped to the bed at the same time his head hit the pillow, and he had to contain the mournful gust of air that escaped his lungs or Julian might come knocking to ask what was wrong.

  Why did he do this to himself? He tried not to think about Leanne, especially in the morning. Now he would feel oppressed by a vague sense of loss, frustration and melancholy all day, feelings no one would understand because the accident happened five years ago. David didn’t know how—or want—to explain to those around him that sometimes it felt like five minutes ago. Loss didn’t just fade into the past because there were these pesky little things called memories that could bring it back at a moment’s notice. David treasured those memories, but they saddened him too, and five years of coping hadn’t taught him how to find balance in his emotions.

  He had found something that helped, though—Chloe’s presence. When he spent time with her, his mind had no time to roam around and dig up painful memories. Chloe occupied all his attention with her clever comments and astute observations of the world around her. She had a knack for finding fascinating hole-in-the-wall shops and other nooks and crannies that David would never have noticed without following her footsteps or her pointing fingers, and he constantly found himself eagerly waiting to see where she would lead him next. Like David, Chloe had a love for exploration and discovering the undiscovered. She also liked being outdoors better than visiting any shop, so David didn’t really know what she was doing in a city like Reno. It was a mystery—kind of like the mystery of why David was still in Reno too.

  He had told Chloe that he could train for his competition wherever there was a climbing gym. That was true, but he was also pretty far from where the competition would be held in Atlanta, Georgia. When he drove there from Reno, he would have to cut his trip into two days and make sure he left plenty of time to loosen up before the comp. Jumping straight onto the climbing wall after hours of driving was a bad idea.

  Despite the flaws in David’s logic, Julian never seemed to mind when David extended his stay. In fact, Julian always encouraged David to stay as long as he wanted, stating that he enjoyed having a roommate. David doubted that, but as far as roommates went, David knew he wasn’t a bad one to have around. He spent several hours at the gym each day and as much time again with Chloe, so he was really only around in the evenings. Since Julian’s work schedule could be somewhat variable, David could go days without seeing his friend.

  David dragged himself upright to finish drafting the description for his post. He read and reread the short rows of words, trying to decide if they would sound better this way or that, but he ended up changing nothing before posting.

  This was just one of the millions of reasons David missed being married. He and Leanne did everything together, and he could always turn to her when he needed a second opinion. Now he just went with whatever felt or sounded right. That sounded fine on the surface, but sometimes one opinion wasn’t enough.

  David went to the window and looked out, leaning one shoulder against the corner of the wall. Julian lived in the suburbs away from the main bustle of the city, but he could still see the occasional bundled figure walking from a house or an apartment to the restaurants and shops on the main road. Really, it wasn’t that cold, at least for early February in Reno.

  For a moment, David considered walking somewhere too. He didn’t like to spend all day inside, but this was supposed to be his off day from both climbing and working out and Chloe had let him know that she would be busy all day. If he had known that, he would have tweaked his schedule a bit.

  David tapped his fingernails on the window as a thought surfaced. What was stopping him from still rearranging things? Today was Wednesday, and he could easily move his off day to Friday—a day he knew Chloe would be available in the afternoon—and head to the gym now. Besides, look at what he was doing with this break—a whole lot of nothing. He knew no one in Reno aside from Chloe and Julian, and he had no interest in exploring the city alone. Yes, it was definitely best to go ahead and get in a workout today.

  Steeled and pleased by his new plans for the week, David hunted down his gym bag, checked to make sure his climbing shoes, chalk and brush were inside and left the house, carefully shutting and locking the door behind him.

  Rock climbing could be as social or as solitary as the personality of the climber, and today David felt very solitary. On days like these where David really didn’t want to be bothered, he fished his bluetooth earbuds out of his gym bag, clicked play on one of his three climbing playlists and spent the session in the privacy of music and his own thoughts. Today he was bouldering, not climbing the tall walls, so he didn’t need anyone but himself.

  As it always did, maneuvering his way up the climbing walls with a mixture of strength, technique and concentration helped focus his thoughts and remind him that even though some things in his life might be complicated, the simple act of reaching for the next handhold was not. David knew exactly what he wanted his body to do and while sometimes a move didn’t work the way he expected and he fell off the wall, that was what made rock climbing such a unique sport. Every climb was a puzzle, and the only tool David had to solve them was his body.

  David went to the bathroom to wash the chalk of his hands before heading upstairs to the gym area of the climbing gym. Instead of going straight to the unoccupied pull-up bar, though, he found himself leaning against the railing of the second floor and watching the pairs of climbers take turns climbing the tall walls.

  This, right here—this is what Chloe wanted to try. She wanted to put on one of the gym’s rental harnesses and find out what David’s sport was all about on these holds that hundreds of hands and feet touched every day, suspended by bolts that had stayed in place through hundreds o
f falls. In addition, Chloe wouldn’t even be lead climbing. She would be top roping, which meant she might fall a foot or two at most.

  It didn’t matter to David. Every time he thought about standing on the mat, holding the rope and looking up at Chloe as she climbed, every aspect of his being rebelled and froze in place.

  I can’t be responsible for Chloe’s safety. I can’t be responsible for anyone’s safety. I can’t be trusted. Belaying Julian already strained David’s limits, and he only did that because Julian had a knack for being persistent and stubborn enough to get David to agree to anything. David doubted Chloe would push him like that, but he also didn’t know if he could keep saying no when she begged him to take her climbing.

  David watched a climber hang from a rope by her harness, swinging her legs back and forth as she gazed up at a particularly difficult section of wall to map it out before continuing. Amongst other things, David had thought about telling Chloe the whole story to explain why he didn’t want to take her climbing, but—

  No, bad idea, he told himself firmly. Julian was a great guy and a wonderful friend, but sometimes he tried to do too much for David. Maybe the loss of his wife still haunted him and maybe he did need help dealing with it, but Julian could take things too far. Occasionally, David would catch a calculating glance directed at him from Julian, like he was trying to do the math for the problem of how to “fix” David.

  If David ever got one of those glances from Chloe—well, that might just convince him that he really was broken. David didn’t need to be fixed. He needed to move on, and he couldn’t do that if people kept looking at him like a DIY project. He could take some of that from Julian, but not from Chloe. He didn’t want her to see him that way, and he had no way of knowing how she would react if he told her the truth, so he wouldn’t. He’d keep it to himself and hope that it was true what they say—that time really does heal all wounds.

  He’d also hope that Chloe didn’t push him to take her climbing or get frustrated with his constant excuses or silence on the subject. She had gone a little quiet for a few minutes yesterday when David got short with her.

  He regretted those sharp words immensely. Watching her face drop as he shot down her innocent request hadn’t been one of his proudest moments. He should have found a kinder and smarter way to explain his reticence, but even the thought of watching Chloe climb destroyed his self-control.

  David shrugged. No use in beating himself up over that now. He would just make it up to her whenever they next spent time together, which would hopefully be this Friday. David just needed to make the call to figure out plans.

  David planned to finish his workout, drive back to Julian’s apartment and enjoy a delicious and nutritious dinner of brown rice, veggies and ranch chicken before making that call. He only made it two-thirds of the way through his plan before receiving a call himself, though. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Chloe.

  “Hi Kathleen,” David greeted his cousin, tossing the frozen veggies into the microwave. “What’s up?”

  “Hey Cuz. Right now, not much, but in a couple weeks, hopefully hanging out with you in Reno.”

  David’s eyebrows furrowed. “Either you talked to Julian or you’re a magician.”

  “Would you believe me if I said it was Option B?”

  “Nope.”

  Kathleen laughed. “Well, it was partially Julian and partially social media. I saw your post and I happened to mention it to Julian when I commented on one of his posts, and he said you were staying in Reno until your next comp. How come you didn’t invite me on the trip?”

  Because I don’t want to watch you climb. “I figured you would be working,” he said instead. “Tax season and all that.”

  “Yeah, but I have a lot of leave saved up because you don’t invite me anywhere anymore. When was the last time we climbed together? Two years ago?”

  “I don’t think it’s been that long,” David said reluctantly.

  “It has. So how about the first full weekend of March? I’ll fly in on Friday, we climb Saturday Sunday and I’ll take Monday off and fly home then?” she suggested. “Julian said you’ll be in town still, and he’s fine with me sleeping on the couch and borrowing gear.”

  Kathleen’s voice was bright, excited. She really wanted to fly out and climb with David. If she could see his face right now, she would realize that there was nothing David wanted less. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I’m bouldering right now to get ready for that comp and I know you prefer lead.”

  “Then we’ll boulder one day and lead the other. You’re not getting out of this,” Kathleen warned him. “I really need a vacation right now. I’ve been super busy at work. Besides, I miss my favorite Cuz.”

  “I’m your only cousin,” David pointed out. Neither he nor Kathleen were entirely wrong, but they weren’t exactly right either. David’s father left his mother when he was a kid, and now she lived in Barcelona with David’s aunt and her children, but David and Kathleen had never met those cousins. Kathleen was David’s cousin on his father’s side. She grew up with her father, but for personal reasons she had fallen out of touch with both her parents after moving out of the house on her eighteenth birthday. David and Kathleen bonded over rock climbing and having an absentee father when they used to live within fifteen minutes of each other in Boulder, Colorado.

  “Eh.” Kathleen’s yes-and-no sound summed up David’s thoughts. “You’re still not getting out of this. First Friday of March, got it? I’ll text you flight details.”

  Apart from giving Kathleen a flat-out refusal, David had no clue how to avoid this situation. He opened his mouth to do just that… but an image of Chloe’s big brown eyes staring at him with disappointment and confusion trapped his words in his throat. When was he going to stop disappointing people on account of the past?

  “Perfect,” Kathleen said briskly, taking David’s silence as agreement. “Gotta go. I’ll let you know stuff and things about the trip when I do, okay?”

  “Okay. Bye, Kathleen.” David watched her picture on the screen blink in and out, signifying both the end of the call and David’s good post-exercise mood.

  David shook himself like a wet dog and went back to fixing dinner. If he just focused on the pleasure of seeing Kathleen again after so long, he could get through this. Maybe he could even convince her to boulder both Saturday and Sunday—no ropes involved. Or, even better, David could ask Julian to climb with them so he could belay Kathleen. There were dozens of ways David could make this unfortunate situation better.

  Hopefully, all those ways added together would keep Kathleen safe and David sane long enough to breathe that sigh of relief when his cousin got on her Monday flight back home to Boulder.

  Chapter Nine: Chloe

  For the first time since she got her job at Sentinel Financial, Chloe woke up on a Friday morning feeling refreshed, motivated and happy. She took her time in the shower, fixed a cup of coffee and some breakfast and sat down at her desk with her laptop, determined to finish a blog post she had started the night before.

  Chloe had four folders for blog posts: Ideas, Writing, Editing and Complete. Ever since David had decided to stay in Reno a while longer, there had been more and more traffic amongst the four folders. She had even found a folder of some photos of her family’s travels that she took with a camera her father had bought her for a photography class in school. Inspired, she got out some boxes from her closet that she had never unpacked after moving to Reno, and she found the camera safely ensconced in its case. Maybe it was time to give photography another try, too. It sure beat relying on free-for-use photos off the web or paying for a subscription to a stock photo website.

  But why did Chloe have all this time to work on her blog? After all, it was a Friday morning. She should be getting ready for work right now.

  Normally, yes, that was true. But yesterday Chloe had looked at her schedule, thought about her track record with work and decided to take today off. The last time she took off work
was to go see her mother in Los Angeles for the week leading up to Christmas, and before that she had only taken one day off in about eight months.

  Now she had a reason to use some of her leave. A day with David was worth a couple odd looks from coworkers who would notice on Monday that she didn’t look sick or anything. Not that she had told her boss she was sick, though. She didn’t give him a reason at all, although she could tell he was curious.

  Let him stay that way. Chloe had plenty of leave available to her and she didn’t have to explain why she chose to use a single day of it to take off a warm, pleasant Friday.

  Chloe was happy that she had the day off… no, not happy. Thrilled. She was thrilled that she would get to spend the whole day with David. However, their plans for the day also made her a bit nervous. Since they both loved the outdoors, David had suggested yesterday over the phone that they go for a hike. Fun and relaxing, right? Chloe wasn’t so sure.

  When she and Stacey went hiking in Red Rock Canyon, Chloe had trouble keeping up with her friend’s swift pace. David was in better shape than Stacey and way, way better shape than Chloe. What if she held him back?

  Chloe’s enormous sigh jostled her hand into typing the wrong letter. She had already addressed her concern to the best of her ability. When David suggested a couple locations to hike, Chloe picked the easiest one. For extra excuses to take breaks, she intended to bring along her camera and take some pictures.

  Chloe abandoned her laptop for the moment and stepped onto the balcony off her bedroom. A deep breath of fresh air expanded her chest, and she reveled in the fact that she could take that breath without bitter cold piercing her lungs. It was still chilly enough to wear the jacket David had retrieved for her, but not nearly as cold as it had been the past week or so.

  The past week or so, and before that… wow. Did I really meet David two whole months ago? It sure didn’t feel like two months to Chloe, but the calendar didn’t lie. She had met him at the end of December just after Christmas, and now they were over halfway through February.