But with Gabe...just looking at his thigh turned her on. She wasn’t even sure she cared that he might be throwing her a bone. She’d take that bone. She’d take it good.
Veronica glanced at her phone. “We’d better go. We’ve only got about thirty minutes before we should head down. Are you ready?”
“I think I can handle it.”
The trail widened as it looped through a high meadow, and Gabe could walk next to her now. The tufts of dried grass left after winter were pierced by green shoots, and a few tiny yellow flowers dusted the field. Almost all of the aspen were brightening up with green, though a few still shivered with fuzzy seeds.
“So you’ve never been up here for a climb?” she asked.
“No, there’s only one decent rock-climbing area close to town. The rock in this area is too brittle. Not ideal to have chunks falling out when you’re trying to anchor. All the decent climbing spots are a good hour out, and that doesn’t include the time you might need to hike in.”
“So it takes a full day?”
“Well, it depends how early you want to get up. During the summer, it pays to head out before dawn. The main rock faces are swarming with tourists.”
Veronica remembered hearing that complaint when she was growing up here. How difficult it was to get space for climbing or skiing or camping once the season started, but she’d never paid much attention.
At the top of the meadow, the trail cut into the aspen. Veronica heard the rushing of fast water ahead and smiled. “The creek is still high,” she said. “We’re lucky. This time last year it was a trickle.”
She hurried to get to the creek. It always looked like a postcard to her, the way the water danced and foamed over the jagged stones, dropping down in dozens of little waterfalls as it made its way down the mountain. The last of the sunlight glinted off still pools, and the shadows of shaking aspen leaves chased dark spots over the light.
“I love it here,” she said.
“It’s beautiful. But I think I should’ve brought rope.”
“Nah, the log is fine. Just don’t fall in.” She winked and jumped up onto the thick trunk of the dead pine tree that had been here for a decade.
The smooth surface of the wood was slightly damp, but earlier in the spring it had been icy in spots, so this was a piece of cake. She rushed the fifteen feet across and jumped off on the other side. She turned around to see if Gabe was following, only to find him landing on the ground inches from her.
“I’m going to take you climbing,” he said, smiling down at her.
“No, you’re not.”
“You weren’t the least bit nervous about that. You’re a natural.”
“You’re insane,” she said, laughing as she followed the trail along the creek. It got steep again, but this time she hardly noticed. This part of the hike was magical. The switchbacks wound through the trees, so it looked as if you were walking into dead ends of dark ponderosa pines, but then the trail would turn sharply and head into spring-green towers of aspens.
She turned to grin at Gabe behind her. “Isn’t it amazing? I mean, it’s not Yellowstone or Jenny Lake, but it’s right in our backyard.”
“It is amazing,” he said. “Thanks for showing me. It’s the perfect place to run after work. No one could be tense after this.”
“Is it a stressful job? I know Lauren hates preschool hour.”
“It’s not that. Kids are fine. It’s just a little weird to be brought in to change things, you know? Especially because I’m male, and all the female librarians here have more experience than I do, but I have to come in and say, ‘This is what you’re doing wrong.’ It’s shitty on the face of it, but it’s what I was hired to do.”
“I can put in a good word with Lauren, if you like.”
“It’s no problem. Lauren is great, actually. If I didn’t have her on my side, I’d probably beg you for help. I wouldn’t want to fuck with Lauren.”
“She is pretty badass,” Veronica agreed. Both of her girls’-night-out companions were really badass, actually. “Have you met Isabelle yet? She’s an artist. She comes into the library sometimes for reference materials when she’s working.”
“I don’t think so.”
“She’s good friends with Lauren. A brunette. She’s usually got paint in her hair?”
“No, I definitely haven’t met her.”
“Anyway, she was a federal fugitive for a while.”