“I have no doubt you believe that,” Ammon said. “But I’m never going to agree with you.” She gave him a glacial scowl before turning her attention to Ellie, effectively ending their argument. He picked up his fork again and shoved some food into his mouth.
Freddy glowed with delight. He loved conflict in all forms. “I thought you and Audrey would hit it off,” he whispered. “But you two fighting is way more entertaining.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t plan to talk to her again.”
Ammon ate another forkful of food, trying to keep his eyes from wandering over to her. That was the shortest crush he’d ever had.
Chapter 3
After helping stack the chairs and put the tables away, Audrey and Ellie left the church and started their walk back to Windy Corner. The sun was a tiny sliver behind the mountains to the west, and the clouds in the sky were painted peach. Audrey walked around a puddle in the parking lot, still grinding her teeth in irritation. She really needed to learn how not to let arrogant men like Ammon get to her.
“Just to be clear,” she said to Ellie, “Ammon started it, right?”
“Um . . .”
Audrey leveled Ellie with a sharp look, and Ellie laughed. “I was trying to be nice,” Audrey continued. “Although ob-gyns are usually not my favorite people, especially male ones, I was willing to get to know him before making assumptions.”
“Uh-huh,” Ellie said.
“He’s the one who stereotyped me.”
“He did,” Ellie agreed. “And don’t forget his mansplaining.”
“Exactly. Thank you.” Audrey felt absolved and decided she didn’t need to talk or think about Ammon Parker again.
A block later, they reached the gate to Windy Corner. Audrey typed in the code, and they went into the complex. Once inside their apartment, Audrey went to her room to change out of her dress and into pajamas. Then she needed to check if any of her patients had tried to contact her during the social. She was tied to her phone more firmly than a teenaged Instagrammer was.
Good. No missed calls or text messages. But she did have a message waiting for her in the Mountain Collective app. Tell me about yourself. What makes you pure in heart? BelayingonofHands had written.
That was a broad question, and Audrey wasn’t sure what kind of answer he was looking for. What did he consider pure-in-heartedness? And what a weird phrase to use. She went to his profile to see what she could figure out about him. Aside from the profile picture of him as a tiny climber, all of his pictures were distance shots of climbs. That didn’t give her the type of information she was hoping for, except it did reveal he was more into the actual climb than what he looked like while climbing.
Some people climbed for the journey or the challenge of the route, others for the view from the top. And some climbed and snapped endless selfies along the way to show off how cool they were. The climb was about themselves and not the thing they were trying to conquer. Audrey climbed for the view. BelayingonofHands, if his pictures were any indication, climbed for the challenge. She could respect that. This guy probably didn’t have an Ammon Parker–sized ego.
She clicked back over to his profile picture. While he might not be a self-absorbed climber, he could still be a creeper. The internet wasn’t necessarily the safest place to meet people. Until she had a better sense of who this guy was and what he was all about, Audrey knew she needed to be careful about what she revealed to him so he couldn’t become a stalker.
She tapped the message icon to reply. I’m not sure what I should tell you. Can I really trust someone I randomly met online?
His reply came immediately. Who’s to say you’re not a predator?
Exactly, she typed back. And since this is all so dicey, I think you should just give me the coordinates to Craggletooth Rock so we can both go on our merry way.
BelayingonofHands: Nice try.
Audrey: Then, I want to keep this anonymous. I don’t want you to know my name, where I live, or what I do for work. Basically anything that could lead you to me in real life.
BelayingonofHands: That’s fair. Anonymous, then. For both of us.
Audrey: So how do you plan to figure out if I’m worthy enough to climb Craggletooth Rock?
BelayingonofHands: I’ll think of something.
Weirdo, Audrey thought. She clicked her phone’s screen off and wandered out to the living room. Ellie sat on the couch scrolling through options on Netflix.
Audrey settled onto the couch beside her. “Should we finish our movie marathon?”
“You queue it up and I’ll make the popcorn.” Ellie handed her the remote.
***
Audrey shuffled to bed at one in the morning, the last words of Casablanca ringing in her ears. Ellie had fallen asleep halfway through the movie, the third in their classic movie marathon. But Audrey had forced herself to stay awake. Every time she saw the movie, she ached for the star-crossed lovers. She wanted something that real in her life, even though it would probably hurt her in the end. A girl could be a strong, independent woman and a hopeless romantic at the same time, right? She didn’t need a man in her life—she had a satisfying career and good friends—but she wanted someone to share her life with.
Audrey brushed her teeth—her makeup would have to be a disaster she’d deal with later—then stumbled to her room. In her hand, her phone chirped. She couldn’t stop the groan from coming out. If it was a patient going into labor, Audrey would probably cry. She knew better than to stay up late given her on-call lifestyle, but sometimes she just needed to veg.
She saw it was a notification from BelayingonofHands. What was this guy doing messaging her in the middle of the night?
I need to know you’re the type of person who won’t post the coordinates to the route all over the internet if I tell them to you. The best way to do that is to test your character. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to ask you some questions about the type of person you are and maybe even give you a few character-determining tasks to perform. Once it’s clear you’re a good person who can keep a secret, I’ll give you the coordinates. Does this sound reasonable?
Audrey reread the words. She couldn’t decide if she was being manipulated or if he was earnest in his request. She leaned back on her headboard. It was possible she’d one day stumble upon the route like other climbers had. Was she willing to wait for luck to lead her there? She plugged her phone in to charge. She would play his game, but there was no need for him to know how eager she was. She’d get back to him after she slept.
Chapter 4
Only after Ammon hit Send did he realize he probably shouldn’t have messaged Bellinghamster at one o’clock in the morning. Only creepy guys messaged women in the middle of the night. Hopefully the message didn’t wake her up and she’d find it at a reasonable hour and not notice the time stamp.