Playing the Player(43)

“I’m coming, Max,” I told him.

“Do you have enough magic?” he called down to me.

He had a point.

“Hurry up, Trina.” Max’s voice was choked with tears. “I’m running out of magic.”

“Almost there, buddy.” I didn’t dare look down. I seriously doubted that Slade could catch me if I did fall; I weighed a lot more than Gillian.

I heard a commotion beneath me—voices yelling at me to come down immediately. Except for one voice urging me to keep climbing. Slade.

“I think we’re in trouble,” Max said, tears now spilling down his face. “Those guys look mad.”

I took one last giant step, praying my sweaty fingers wouldn’t lose their grip on the fake plastic rock handholds jutting out of the wall. I balanced next to Max and took a breath. I held out my arm toward him.

“Go ahead, Max. You just need one good sniff for enough magic to get back down to Gilly.”

“Do not let go of the handholds!” a voice boomed at me. “You’re not in a harness!”

No kidding! I wanted to shout back, but instead I focused on Max, who was on the verge of a complete meltdown.

“You can do it, Max! Trina, you’re a rock star!” I recognized that voice. Every nerve in my body tingled at the sound of it.

Max leaned over and sniffed my wrist. A tear plopped from his face onto my arm. His eyes met mine, and I forced a grin. “Let’s do this, kiddo.”

He blinked at me, but didn’t reply.

“Trina. You can do this.” Slade’s voice was calm and clear over the cacophony echoing off the walls and in my mind. “One step at a time. Go slow. Don’t look down.”

Of course I wouldn’t look down. But then I did. The wall might as well have been one hundred feet high to someone as scared of heights as I was. I took a shuddering breath and forced myself to smile at Max.

“Go Max! Go Trina!” Gilly sounded like she was at a football game. Knowing her, she was doing her cheerleader moves, complete with cartwheels.

“Maybe you need more magic,” Max’s voice trembled.

I looked into his beautiful brown eyes. “We’ve got enough magic inside us. It’s time to go down, Max.”

He bit his lip. “You sure I have enough?”

I nodded. “Positive. I’ll stay next to you the whole way.”

I moved down one foothold and Max followed me.

“If the kid lets go of the wall, we can just lower him down in the harness!” That must be the manager.

“No,” Max whispered, shaking his head violently. “I’m going with you. I’m not letting go of the wall.”

“No!” I yelled, without looking down. “We’re coming.”

I heard Slade’s raised voice, no doubt arguing with the manager, but I tuned it out to focus on Max.

“Trina and Max go down and down,” I sang softly, to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus.”

“I hate that song,” Max complained, but he took another step with me.

“Trina and Max go down and down,” I sang again, moving to another foothold. This time he sang with me, his voice coming in soft breaths.

It took another dozen verses of the song, but we made it. The manager unhooked Max from the harness while Gillian danced around him yelling, “Yay Max! Yay Max!” They high-fived each other, and an enormous grin spread across Max’s face.

I sagged against Slade, who’d appeared next to me the second I hit the ground.

“That was awesome,” Slade said, as his arm wrapped around my shoulders. I was shaking so badly I couldn’t pull away. As I leaned into him, his familiar scent tickled my nose.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” The beefy manager glared at Slade and me. “You’ve broken at least ten rules.”

“Is that all?” Slade asked, his arm tightening around me. “We were going for twenty.”

“Out!” the manager boomed, pointing toward the door.

Slade laughed and pulled me closer. “We’re leaving already. Besides, this place obviously isn’t challenging enough for these girls.”

The manager glowered at us as we walked away. Gillian and Max skipped ahead of us, laughing. Slade kept his arm around my shoulders, so now I couldn’t tell if I was shaking from residual climbing wall freak-out or because of his touch.

Once outside under the bright sun, he finally stopped holding me.

“You two,” Slade commanded the kids. “Go sit on that bench. Now. Or else no ice cream.” I’d never heard him sound so stern, but he bit back a smile as the pair ran for the bench.

I desperately wanted to sniff my wrist again but didn’t dare.