“Do I have to jump to get down? Like Gilly did?”
“No, of course not. You just climb back down the same way you went up, nice and slow.”
His eyes locked onto mine. “Trina, I don’t think I have enough magic to make it. I’m just gonna stay here.” He looked ready to cry.
I bit my lip and looked around. Slade was deep in conversation with three employees now, one of them apparently a manager, based on the shiny gold nametag and blustering voice. Slade had a tight grip on Gillian’s hand, though she wriggled next to him, anxious for the next adventure.
All of the harnesses were occupied, and the employees were too busy arguing with Slade to notice me.
I took a deep breath and moved closer to the wall. It wasn’t that high, since it was for the youngest kids. And besides, if I fell, Slade would catch me, right? Like he’d joked in the car? I choked out a nervous laugh and reached out to grab a handhold. Keeping my eyes on Max, I climbed slowly.
“I’m coming, Max,” I told him.
“Do you have enough magic?” he called down to me.
He had a point.
“Hurry up, Trina.” Max’s voice was choked with tears. “I’m running out of magic.”
“Almost there, buddy.” I didn’t dare look down. I seriously doubted that Slade could catch me if I did fall; I weighed a lot more than Gillian.
I heard a commotion beneath me—voices yelling at me to come down immediately. Except for one voice urging me to keep climbing. Slade.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Max said, tears now spilling down his face. “Those guys look mad.”
I took one last giant step, praying my sweaty fingers wouldn’t lose their grip on the fake plastic rock handholds jutting out of the wall. I balanced next to Max and took a breath. I held out my arm toward him.
“Go ahead, Max. You just need one good sniff for enough magic to get back down to Gilly.”
“Do not let go of the handholds!” a voice boomed at me. “You’re not in a harness!”
No kidding! I wanted to shout back, but instead I focused on Max, who was on the verge of a complete meltdown.
“You can do it, Max! Trina, you’re a rock star!” I recognized that voice. Every nerve in my body tingled at the sound of it.
Max leaned over and sniffed my wrist. A tear plopped from his face onto my arm. His eyes met mine, and I forced a grin. “Let’s do this, kiddo.”
He blinked at me, but didn’t reply.
“Trina. You can do this.” Slade’s voice was calm and clear over the cacophony echoing off the walls and in my mind. “One step at a time. Go slow. Don’t look down.”
Of course I wouldn’t look down. But then I did. The wall might as well have been one hundred feet high to someone as scared of heights as I was. I took a shuddering breath and forced myself to smile at Max.
“Go Max! Go Trina!” Gilly sounded like she was at a football game. Knowing her, she was doing her cheerleader moves, complete with cartwheels.
“Maybe you need more magic,” Max’s voice trembled.
I looked into his beautiful brown eyes. “We’ve got enough magic inside us. It’s time to go down, Max.”
He bit his lip. “You sure I have enough?”
I nodded. “Positive. I’ll stay next to you the whole way.”
I moved down one foothold and Max followed me.
“If the kid lets go of the wall, we can just lower him down in the harness!” That must be the manager.
“No,” Max whispered, shaking his head violently. “I’m going with you. I’m not letting go of the wall.”
“No!” I yelled, without looking down. “We’re coming.”
I heard Slade’s raised voice, no doubt arguing with the manager, but I tuned it out to focus on Max.
“Trina and Max go down and down,” I sang softly, to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus.”
“I hate that song,” Max complained, but he took another step with me.
“Trina and Max go down and down,” I sang again, moving to another foothold. This time he sang with me, his voice coming in soft breaths.
It took another dozen verses of the song, but we made it. The manager unhooked Max from the harness while Gillian danced around him yelling, “Yay Max! Yay Max!” They high-fived each other, and an enormous grin spread across Max’s face.
I sagged against Slade, who’d appeared next to me the second I hit the ground.
“That was awesome,” Slade said, as his arm wrapped around my shoulders. I was shaking so badly I couldn’t pull away. As I leaned into him, his familiar scent tickled my nose.
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The beefy manager glared at Slade and me. “You’ve broken at least ten rules.”
“Is that all?” Slade asked, his arm tightening around me. “We were going for twenty.”
“Out!” the manager boomed, pointing toward the door.
Slade laughed and pulled me closer. “We’re leaving already. Besides, this place obviously isn’t challenging enough for these girls.”
The manager glowered at us as we walked away. Gillian and Max skipped ahead of us, laughing. Slade kept his arm around my shoulders, so now I couldn’t tell if I was shaking from residual climbing wall freak-out or because of his touch.
Once outside under the bright sun, he finally stopped holding me.
“You two,” Slade commanded the kids. “Go sit on that bench. Now. Or else no ice cream.” I’d never heard him sound so stern, but he bit back a smile as the pair ran for the bench.
I desperately wanted to sniff my wrist again but didn’t dare.
“You sure you’re all right?” he finally asked. “You were shaking like crazy.”
Embarrassed, I stared down at my sandals.
“Trina?”
Ugh. Why did his voice have to go all soft and…and…
“Maybe we should call it a day,” he said. “I could take you home and—”
My head snapped up. “No.” The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was so pathetic that I couldn’t recover from a quick trip up a climbing wall.
He raised an eyebrow. “You sure?”
I nodded.
“I think we all deserve some ice cream,” he announced loudly, and the kids whooped in response.
Slade and I sat under a shade tree in a park, eating popsicles. Max and Gilly chased each other around a nearby playground.
“I’ve never been kicked out of anywhere before,” I told Slade.
He smirked at me. “Of course you haven’t.”
“Is that an insult?” I tried to look offended.
He tilted his head and his smirk widened into a grin. “Not an insult. Just a fact.”
I needed to focus his attention away from me.
“Look.” I pointed at Max, who’d scrambled up the ladder of a very tall slide.
Slade watched Max with a satisfied smile. “He learns fast.” He shot me a glance. “He didn’t even ask you for more magic.”
I felt myself blush. “I gave him enough to last all day.”
Slade laughed, then stretched out in the grass, shading his eyes from the sun. “So what was that magic secret you two had going on, anyway?”
I was so distracted by all six foot whatever of him sprawled out like a beautiful, lazy cat that I didn’t respond.
“So you’re keeping it a secret?” he prompted, turning on his side to look at me with those glittering topaz eyes.
I plucked a few strands of grass to braid. “It’s not really a secret. It’s just…”
“Just what?”
I concentrated on the grass, because I knew if I met his gaze, I wouldn’t be able to form a coherent reply. “You’ll think it’s silly.”
“No I won’t. If it got Max to climb that wall today, it’s not silly.”
I sighed deeply and finally looked at him. He already thought I was a Bird Brain. What did it matter if he added wacko to my nickname?
“It’s lavender oil,” I said quietly. “It’s supposed to relieve stress. Some people use it to help them sleep. I use it when I’m nervous.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Use it how? Do you drink it?”