“You guys ready to give it a try?” she asked.
When they left the counter, Matt and Julia had been bouncing with excitement. Luke, as usual, had been glowering. Yet somehow, during her talk, everything had changed. Julia’s eyes had grown round as saucers, and Matt, whom Kelsey had expected to jump right up on the wall, hung back.
“Can we, um, watch for a little while first?” Matt asked.
“If you want,” Kelsey said. She pointed to a line of tape on the floor about four feet from the wall. “You can’t go past that line without me, okay? I don’t want you getting underneath any of the other climbers.”
Matt and Julia nodded solemnly, and then Julia elbowed Matt. “Let’s watch him,” she said, pointing to a man inching his way up a simulated crack between two walls.
“We’ll be back in a few,” Matt told Kelsey, his chest puffed out in an attempt to look unconcerned. Kelsey hid a smile. While she wanted Matt to enjoy his day of climbing, she wasn’t sure it was an entirely bad thing for him to have a moment of doubt before he jumped in.
She waited until the two were out of earshot before she turned to Luke. After a morning of negative comments, she suspected she knew what he’d say. Still, she asked, “How about you? Do you want to give it a try?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
Kelsey raised her eyebrows in surprise. Of the three kids, she’d never imagined Luke would approach the wall first. “Great,” she breathed, trying to sound enthusiastic, rather than shocked.
He stepped forward with his usual air of disinterest, but something had changed. He rose experimentally on his toes, stretched up his arms a few times, and bit his lip in concentration. That was when Kelsey got her first inkling of hope. The idea of climbing was very different from the experience of it. She’d seen more than a few cocky men turned to nervous wrecks by the prospect of actually getting on the wall, and she’d seen people who claimed to be completely uncoordinated and unathletic shine on their first trip up.
Luke wore a faded white T-shirt that did nothing to hide his skinny arms and torso, and baggy shorts that ended somewhere around his knees. His mix of bravado and vulnerability caught Kelsey, as it often did when she wasn’t being completely annoyed by him, with an uncanny emotional force. He stopped and stared up at the wall, his eyes narrowed. Just as Kelsey was about to ask if he was okay, he reached up and pulled himself to the first set of holds. And then, when he placed his arms above his head and moved higher, something remarkable happened.
Luke Bencher started to smile.
It was an unexpected, fragile thing, that smile. It twisted the corners of his mouth in a way that suggested he wasn’t entirely comfortable making the gesture, but couldn’t quite help himself. Apart from a few times when Ross had made him laugh, she wasn’t sure she could recall seeing his face move in precisely that way before. The beauty of it staggered her.
He moved with surprising grace, easily making it to the top of the wall with a few quick moves, and then coming back down without a moment of hesitation. Kelsey’s mouth dropped open. She forced herself to look unsurprised. “Hey,” she said casually, “that looked good. Why don’t you try that one?” She pointed at another spot, about ten feet away.
Luke barely looked at her before moving into position. This climb was harder, and he had to stop and think a few times, shifting his feet and feeling above his head for the right hold. But again he moved confidently, never looking down or showing any hint of fear, the same unexpected quirk to his lips. Kelsey positioned herself to the side so she could see his face. His eyes were intense but clear. Sparkling.
He got to the top, climbed down, and then moved a few feet away, to try another route. This time, he got stuck halfway, paused, and reached out for a hold above his head. His fingers slipped and he fell several feet, landing on his bottom on the mound of soft mats.
Kelsey hurried over to his side, but he simply stood up as if nothing had happened, brushed off his backside, and approached the same climb. She had just opened her mouth to ask him if he was okay when an unexpected voice came from behind her.
“Nice work, son. This time, try moving your feet before you go for that hold. Might make a difference.”
Kelsey tensed. The bubble that had formed around them popped. Without looking, Luke gave a quick nod and started back up the wall. The man who had spoken came to stand next to her. He was a few inches taller than she was, with sandy brown hair cut short. The skin around his eyes was a shade lighter than the rest of his face, as if he’d spent a lot of time in the sun wearing goggles, or wide-lensed sunglasses. Deep wrinkles radiated from the corners of his dark-brown eyes.