Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(29)

Either way, it was a nice distraction.

Colton took a step closer, and she had to tilt her head back to maintain  eye contact. His low timbre rumbled as he assured her, "Yes, darlin'. I  know what I'm doing."

"Oh," she said, suddenly feeling like those winged creatures fluttering  around in her belly just might be Colton-inspired after all. She nodded  as she agreed, "Okay."

He lifted his hands and ran them along all of the straps of the harness,  even the one that ran along her inner thigh. She had to admit that it  wasn't a bad thing having Colton's hands on her. Truth be told, it was  nice. And he didn't look half bad in basketball shorts and a gray  T-shirt. As a matter of fact, he filled both out quite nicely. His chest  was broad, and she could see the lines of his muscles as he moved  around her making sure that all of her equipment was secure.

After readjusting two of the straps, he straightened and announced, "You're all good."

Becca felt a little spark as she looked into his eyes. True, it wasn't  the massive Die-Hard, building-blowing-up explosion she felt when she  looked into Brian's eyes, but it was … nice.

"Thanks," she said, smiling.

Jennifer came over to talk to them about the shot and what they would be  doing, but Becca was having a hard time concentrating on anything the  girl said. Her mind was filled with confusion. She should be happy that  she was feeling something for someone other than Brian. Even if things  didn't go anywhere with Colton, at least this experience was teaching  her that she wouldn't have to be pining away for Brian for years with no  hope of happiness. She might be able to meet someone, to open her heart  to someone, to love someone.

All of those things were good news, but instead of jumping for joy and  doing a little victory dance, all Becca really wanted to do was cry,  which made no sense. But having feelings-even small, insignificant ones  like she'd just felt for Colton-made her feel sad. And that was  irritating.

"Okay, Fairytale Lovers." Lance Sparrow stood in front of the giant  rock-climbing wall they'd all be climbing today. "There are always  obstacles on the road to happily ever after. In today's challenge, you  and your partner will be scaling this wall together. The couple that  reaches the highest point in the shortest time will be safe from this  week's elimination and automatically be continuing on their journey to  find fairytale love. But remember, couples-even if you don't get  immunity, your scores matter. So if all the princes and princesses could  please step to the wall."

Everyone took a few steps forward, and Becca wiped her damp hands on her  leggings. She looked up and saw the bell both she and Colton had to  ring to complete the challenge. Checking down the line, she saw that  Madison and Jax were already fighting. She couldn't hear what they were  saying, but it looked to Becca like Madison did not want to do this  challenge. The chestnut-haired girl kept showing Jax her nails and Becca  overheard the word ‘manicure' several times. It was comical to see the  expression on Jax's face each time she said that word. He didn't just  cringe-it looked like he was going to throw up.

Most of the couples were going over their strategies. Becca could only  hear snippets, but from what she heard, it sounded like the guys were  going to go ahead of the girls and then the girls were going to follow  their grip path. She tried to lean forward to catch a glimpse of Brian  and Brooklyn, but because the mountain that was Jax was standing between  them, she wasn't able to see anything.

"So I'm guessing you've never done this," Colton stated.

"You guess right," Becca confirmed, looking back up to the bell they  were supposed to ring. It looked thousands of feet high. Her stomach was  no longer filled with butterflies. Now it felt like there was hardened  concrete in it.

How was she going to climb with concrete in her stomach?                       
       
           



       

Colton moved between her and the wall. His arm wrapped around her waist  as he dipped his head and spoke in a low voice so that she was the only  one who could hear him. "It's really not that hard. These are the  basics. Don't tense up. Stay close to the wall. Don't try and climb  straight up-move to the side then up. Make sure to use your legs to hold  your weight. Halfway up, your arms will feel like jelly, but your legs  will last longer. If you need to rest, rest. I know that this is a race,  but giving your muscles a break when they need them will help you  perform better overall. Try not to look down and don't overreach. Just  keep your eyes on where you want to go and choose grips that are  comfortable for you."

She shot him a look like he had to be kidding. The only grips that would  be comfortable for her were the ones she could reach with her feet  firmly planted on the ground. But his advice made sense, and at least  she had some kind of a plan instead of just free-styling it.

"You'll see." He nodded with a confidence that, although she felt it was  wildly misplaced, still made her feel slightly better. He grinned. "You  can do this. I know you can."

That makes one of us.

"All right, Fairytale Lovers," Lance Sparrow's voice sounded loudly behind them. "In three, two, one. Climb!"

A horn sounded, and Becca took a deep breath before placing her hand in the orange hold above her head.

Here goes nothin'.

Becca began climbing the wall. She kept the tips Colton had given her  running through her mind on repeat. As soon as she'd made her way  through the list, she'd start it again. Rinse and repeat-that was her  strategy.

Don't tense up.

Stay close to the wall.

Move to the side then up.

Use your legs.

Take rests.

Don't look down.

Don't overreach.

Instead of getting more and more nervous, more and more scared, or more  and more unsure, the higher she got on the wall, she found that the  opposite happened. Confidence built inside of her. She wasn't exactly  sure how high she was, because she wasn't looking down, when she felt  her hands getting really sweaty and she started feeling like she was  going to slip.

"Colton?" She heard the fear in her voice. "My hands are sweaty."

He'd stayed close to her, climbing at her pace, not going ahead of her  like she saw happening with the two couples next to them. She felt his  hand on her back, and she turned to him, her breathing coming in pants.

"Relax. You're fine. I got you," he assured her.

How he managed to hang on with one hand while he rubbed her back when he  had to be at least a foot taller than she was, not to mention close to a  hundred pounds heavier, she had no idea.

"Do you want to try to wipe them on your pants one at a time?" he asked calmly.

She, however, did not respond calmly. "No," she snapped as her body  tensed. Letting go of one of these holds sounded like a horrible,  horrible idea.

"Okay," he said easily. "So let's just hang out for a minute. Pun intended."

Becca felt her lips pull up in an unexpected smile as she nodded her  head slightly and blew a breath out of her mouth before she looked over  at him.

His instructions kept rolling through her head like the ticker tape at the NYSE.

Don't tense up.

Stay close to the wall.

Move to the side then up.

Use your legs.

Take rests.

Don't look down.

Don't overreach.

After a few moments, she was feeling better. She was as relaxed as she  could possibly be while dangling from the side of a rock wall. Breathing  in through her nose and out through her mouth, she nodded.

"Okay. I'm good."

"You sure?" His eyes searched hers.

"Yep."

Becca might be feeling better, but she still wanted to get this over  with as soon as freaking possible. So instead of trying to convince  Colton that she was actually okay, she just pushed off of her toes and  reached for the blue, plastic hold above her head and to the left a  little. Once she grabbed that, she lifted her left knee up high and  stepped on the black hold that was about double the distance she had  been climbing.

Pulling her upper body up, she grabbed another hold then brought her  right knee up, and so on and so on. Before she knew it, she was within  an arm's length of the buzzer. She looked at Colton as they both reached  up and rang it. Then, leaning back so that she was pressing off the  wall in a seated cradle position-like she'd been instructed to do for  descent-she pushed off the wall and swung out. When she was close to the  wall again, she bent her knees and pushed off again. After three  push-offs, she was back, safe, on the concrete floor.                       
       
           



       

Never before in her life had she been so tempted to get on her knees and  kiss the ground beneath her feet. Not even after she got off of planes.  She quickly unhooked the rope that was connected to her harness, not  wanting to be tethered to it one second longer than necessary.