“Not if you don’t want to,” Boone said. “I’m just pointing out you’re the only one who’ll fit.”
I took a step in the direction of the big fireplace, but Shane cut me off.
“No way.”
I placed a hand on his chest. “Let me look.”
“Uh uh.” His gaze shifted menacingly to Boone. “No way you’re sending our girl up there. It’s too dangerous.”
Our girl? The words made my stomach lurch. But somehow… in a good way.
“It’s only a chimney,” said Boone. “She could wedge herself against the walls the whole way, pull down whatever snow was in there until she reaches the open air.”
Shane laughed. “Not sure how they do things over at Alpha Rho,” he said, drawing out the last two words snidely, “but over at Delta Lambda Mu we don’t send girls up chimneys to get stuck… or worse.”
Boone yawned as if bored. “Ever been trapped by an avalanche and in danger of freezing to death over at the DLM house?”
Neither of the other guys said anything.
“Then maybe you should both shut up and let her decide.”
All the alpha posturing was getting to be a bit too much. If left alone, I wondered how long it would take to come to blows.
“Everyone stop it.”
I pushed past Shane and crawled onto the hearth. Craning my neck inside, I could only see a few feet up the long, dark shaft. It was definitely climbable, though. In fact, it looked easy.
“What if there’s ice up there?” Jeremy put forth.
Boone pulled out a very large, long-handled screwdriver. “She chips it away.”
“And if she’s afraid of heights?”
Once again, everyone was looking at me. It was already more male attention than I’d received in the entirety of my first two years at school.
“I’m not afraid heights,” I said. “Now give me that thing.”
Boone handed over the tool, handle-first, and I took it. Our eyes locked for a brief moment; my green against his chestnut brown. I saw approval there. An appreciation that somehow told me my stock with him had just gone up.
“Go slow,” he told me. “It’s going to be pitch black. Take your time. Feel around.”
Shane went to protest again, but I shushed him with an outstretched hand.
“Be back in a few minutes,” I said, shrugging out of Shane’s jacket. Then, taking a deep breath, I climbed into the firebox.
The darkness I expected. The bitter cold I did not. It was like a freezer in the tiny vertical corridor, way more so than the icy hotel. For a brief moment I felt claustrophobic again, as I had in the snow-shelter. But I choked it back.
I tucked the screwdriver blade-first down my shirt, securing it between my breasts. It wasn’t exactly my first choice of places, but I had nowhere else to put it. Then I pulled myself up.
This is nuts!
Yes, it definitely was. But I was doing it anyway. Partially so we could finally get a fire going, and partially because the guys expected me to. So far they’d taken very good care of me, and now it was my turn. I wanted to be useful. I wanted to be—
“YOU OKAY?”
Shane’s voice, calling up from below.
“YES!”