Page 44 of A Winter Wedding Adventure (Adventure Weddings #2)

‘I’ll be right there! I promise!’ Kira knocked on Toni’s desk as she hustled in the direction of the changing rooms.

‘Class starts in three minutes! Everyone’s arrived,’ Toni said, her voice raised in alarm.

‘Three minutes is plenty,’ she called, jogging backwards for a moment to reassure Toni. ‘Send any complaints to Reshma. All that wedding business is keeping me from my real work.’

The head of I Do Destinations emerged from the meeting room behind Toni’s desk. ‘Have a good class, Kira. Thanks for ironing out those details with me. I wish you weren’t too busy to help with the Elba wedding.’

‘What can I say? Everyone wants me,’ she joked. The irony was almost unbearable. She bolted for the changing rooms, whipping on her vest top and lightweight trousers.

If she kept making jokes, they might finally stop treating her as though she’d had her heart broken. And she could mourn those last bits of her heart in private, staring at Mattia’s Instagram feed with the duet from Don Carlo playing in her earbuds.

God, her pining had got so bad, she’d started appreciating opera .

Still hopping as she slipped into her rubber climbing shoes and smoothed the Velcro, she greeted the group of four beginners who were staring up at the wall in awe.

‘Right, hi everyone. I’m your instructor, Kira. We just need to start with some safety st—’ Her voice gave out.

Even if he weren’t in the process of turning around, she would have recognised those shoulders, the soft hands, clenching and unclenching with nerves, the black curls she’d run her fingers through every chance she’d got.

He was wearing grey yoga trousers and a sleeveless workout top that highlighted all the dips and protrusions of bone and muscle in his torso. His shoulders were hunched – as usual. Offstage Mattia.

Mattia . In her gym. In her class .

He lifted his gaze to hers and her breath deserted her. That spark in his eyes. The way he seemed to hug her with just a look – the hug she’d spent five weeks longing for.

‘What are you doing here?’ It wasn’t the smoothest greeting, but Kira was all out of politeness and rational thought. Her brain had kicked into fight-or-flight and with a job to do, ‘flight’ was a little difficult.

He inclined his head, the movement reminding her of secret looks across the table. ‘I heard that learning to climb is good for confidence.’

That had not been the answer she’d expected, although she didn’t know what she’d thought he would say. Certainly not, I missed you like the sun in winter and I had to see you.

‘I signed up last week,’ he continued with a grimace. ‘I thought you’d see. I didn’t mean for—’ He couldn’t seem to finish his sentence.

She shot a look back at Toni, who’d paused her banter with Reshma to gape at the scene playing out on the mats. She gave a confused shrug and Kira realised she probably hadn’t remembered Mattia’s name after one conversation.

No, flight was not an option, at least not yet. She was too curious.

The other three beginners in the class looked at her expectantly; she should have got started five minutes ago.

There was only one way forward for now. She had ninety minutes to get through before she could grab a fistful of his soft shirt and demand he explain himself.

Or kiss him. Or get the hell out of here.

Ninety minutes would be long enough to plan a convincing escape.

Her heart hammering wildly, she swallowed the lump in her throat and tried again. ‘We start with safety, with rules and rope handling.’

* * *

Che cazzo, he’d ambushed her. His expectations of this venture had already been low, but now? She wouldn’t want to listen to a word he said – right when he was discovering how stupid he’d been to leave this alone for all these weeks.

The instant he’d seen her, the same heat, the potent recognition of a person who meant something – everything – to him had assailed him. He didn’t want to be without her, even if it meant pivoting to friendship, which wouldn’t be easy, and learning to climb a terrifying wall .

While they were fiddling with harnesses, she approached and asked in a low voice, ‘Do you really want to learn to climb?’, her tone doubtful. ‘You don’t have anything to prove to me.’

He wanted to dispute the statement, but she was at work and he was starting to realise how awkward the situation was. He’d thought it was a perfect idea when it had occurred to him: the opportunity to spend low-pressure, non-confrontational time together.

‘Um, yes,’ he began, glancing at the wall with a gulp, ‘although it wasn’t my only reason for coming here.’

A muscle moved in her jaw, the lines of her face so familiar, it hurt. He wanted to touch her badly, but she looked ready to kill him – figuratively, with those blunt words that showed she cared.

But when she opened her mouth, it wasn’t to shoot him down – not quite. ‘Next time, book a private lesson!’ she hissed.

He blushed to the tips of his ears, which only made her roll her eyes.

But even that response was more than he’d expected from her.

Did she mean it? Would she be okay to spend time with him and see where things went?

Hope surged and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it down if she kept saying sweet things like private lessons .

‘I’m happy to see you,’ he tried.

‘Don’t talk to me until the end of the class,’ she snapped in response, ‘for their sake.’ She gestured wildly to the other three. ‘They didn’t sign up for a…’

‘An overture?’ he suggested, hoping the word was sufficiently vague not to scare her.

‘Just get your butt up the wall or I’ll give you an overture.’

I love you .

Oops, those words had popped far too soon into his mind. That wasn’t what he had come to say. He didn’t want to send her off in a fit of terror. But the sentence lodged rather comfortably in his chest.

Half an hour later, after the safety tutorials and some warm-ups on the mat that reminded him of early-morning yoga, the sensations in his chest were less comfortable as he faced what he was about to do.

Of course they were a long way from attempting the gravity-defying overhangs on the other side of the gym.

They stood near the straight vertical wall with plenty of grips.

But shit, it was still so high up, he struggled to estimate.

Fifteen metres? Twenty? It was death metres high, that much was certain.

In his eagerness, he’d volunteered to go first but was now realising what a foolish thing he’d agreed to do. The only consolation was that Kira herself would belay him to demonstrate for the others.

‘Partner check,’ she called out loudly enough for the others to hear. ‘Before climbing, always make sure that the belay device is the correct way up with the carabiner locked. Check that your partner’s harness is tight above the hips and snug around the thighs.’

She tugged at her own harness, then slipped her fingers through the waistband of his, making him suck in his stomach. She stilled, snatching her hand back.

‘You don’t need to actually touch it,’ she added, her voice wavering. ‘Just check with your… you know. Eyes.’ She blinked, staring at his harness, although it didn’t really look like a partner check she was performing.

The safety device wasn’t sexy, with loops around the thighs and an awkward shape at the groin, but Kira looked natural in hers. She was so comfortable in her own body. And her quick hands on the ropes were so capable, he could have swooned.

‘Check the tie-in knot,’ she continued, giving the rope a yank so he stumbled in her direction.

He threw a hand out for balance and it landed on her hip.

Wow, that felt good. It took him a little longer than was appropriate to remove it again and he hoped these other clients weren’t easily offended, because he was screwing things up badly for Kira in his bumbling attempt to show her she was important to him.

‘And up you go,’ she said firmly.

He knew that was her version of a pep talk: get on with it . It cut through the fog of obsessive thinking and anxiety that would otherwise have crowded his consciousness.

She’d already explained that the yellow grips were the easiest, but they could use any colours at first, so he grasped the plastic lumps at head height, tested his toes against one of the lower holds and pushed up the first two feet.

‘Keep your hips close to the wall,’ Kira reminded him. ‘Use those yoga muscles.’

The thought that she might be appreciating his yoga muscles provided extra motivation. He didn’t look up or down, tried to clear his mind of everything except the muted echo of other climbers in the hall and Kira’s voice, speaking to the others in the class.

‘Focus on the placement of your feet, not your hands. Once you’ve got more conditioning, hands can do more, but you don’t want to injure your fingers at this stage.’

The rope wobbled in front of his face, but he appreciated the reminder that Kira was down there making sure he wouldn’t fall.

The next grips were within reach, so he stretched and pushed.

It wasn’t climbing; it was a puzzle for his hands and feet and brain that added a light strain on his muscles as time ticked by.

His knuckles began to ache and his knees were wobbly, but he didn’t stop to think. The next grips were in his sights and Kira was watching him. Maybe she didn’t care what he thought of climbing, but he was?—

A foot away from the ceiling. Christ, he was at the top! His head spun and all the strength in his legs gave out as realisation hit him.

‘Porca puttana!’ His voice was choked. He lost his grip on the wall and fumbled for the rope, his foot sliding off the grip and leaving him hanging, limbs flailing. The harness dug in and he grunted at the discomfort.

Kira’s calm voice reached his ears from a long way below. ‘You see what he did there? He lost focus. It’s obviously not too difficult to get yourself up the wall with simple grips, right?’

He snorted, but they probably couldn’t hear him.

‘The difficult part is convincing yourself you’re safe and talking down the panicking animal brain that thinks you’ve put yourself in danger.’ Only the tiniest hitch of her breath betrayed that she was taking his whole weight in her harness right now.

The longer he hung suspended, the less it was his animal brain in control and the more his embarrassment cortex took over.

‘Can I come down now?’

‘Do you remember what you’re supposed to do?’ she called up, definitely some amusement in her tone.

He took a deep breath. ‘Sit in the harness, feet on the wall.’ He had to give the wall a bit of a shove to get back into position, but he found some grip with his shoes and when Kira let him down a metre, he managed to plant his feet and walk stiltedly down – all while stubbornly looking up. Down made him too dizzy.

By the time his feet reached the mat, his entire body was the consistency of crema pasticceria and he was shaking violently. Squeezing his eyes shut, he leaned heavily against the wall and waited for the adrenaline to subside.

‘Fuck,’ he whimpered with a choking laugh.

He sensed her next to him before he felt anything and when he wrenched his eyes open, she was staring up at him with a light in her eyes that gave his spine more substance.

‘You did great.’

That melted him into a puddle at her feet – at least his sloppy smile made him feel as though that were the case. ‘Thanks.’

‘For an absolute beginner,’ she added. ‘But for the man who hurt himself trying to grab an icicle, you really smashed it.’

He grinned at her. ‘I’ve come a long way.’

Her smile faded and she regarded him thoughtfully – with a hint of wariness, but she wasn’t about to bolt. ‘You have.’

‘Can I… talk to you after this?’

She nodded and said his favourite word to hear from her mouth, so softly, another person might not have heard it. ‘Okay, opera boy.’