Page 67 of Nothing But Air

Maybe full tilt wasn’t always a crash.

Maybe sometimes it was just the only way to really fly.

Eight

One nod from Eden, and Teague would follow her off a cliff.

Metaphorically speaking.

Although, given what he did for a living, maybe literally too.

He couldn’t stop thinking about last night. That barely there tilt of her chin from her table three rows back. Anyone else would’ve missed it. But he’d been watching for it. Hoping for it. And when it came—when she’d looked at him with those pale-blue eyes and acknowledged what he was saying without running?—

Everything had changed.

Now he lengthened his stride down the trail, gravel crunching under each step. They’d left at first light and had barely stopped for more than water. The goal was one climb today, but at this pace? Maybe two.

Each team had five planned climbs over the next three days, then a hike back out on the fourth—unless they found the Roosevelt cache before that. Teague was determined to do it in three.

Not to beat Kyle.

Okay, partly to beat Kyle.

But mostly because there was something he needed to say to Eden. Something that required more than a nod across the room. Something he didn’t want Xander and Marcus present for.

“Can we stop for a break?” Marcus’s labored breathing came from a few feet back.

Teague paused at a large flat boulder. “Grab water but don’t sit. You’ll cramp.”

Marcus dropped his pack, revealing a large sweat stain across his back. His normally neat brown hair stuck out in every direction.

Okay. Maybe pushing a little hard.

Teague glanced at Xander, then Eden. Both had water bottles tipped back, but neither looked winded—Xander’s tall frame unbothered by the pace, Eden’s blonde braid still neat despite the heat. The morning sun caught wisps of pale blonde framing her face.

“See something interesting, Hamilton?” Eden’s voice carried that edge of amusement he was growing dangerously addicted to.

“Just checking on my team. Enjoying the canyon’s beauty.”

“You’re not looking at the canyon.”

“I have excellent peripheral vision.”

“Uh-huh.” She took another sip of water.

Xander glanced between them. “Should I…give you two a minute?”

“No,” they said in unison.

Xander’s eyebrows rose. “Right.”

Focus, Hamilton.

Teague pulled out his topo map and spread it across the boulder. A creek babbled somewhere to the left. Juniper and sage scented the air—that distinctive canyon smell that had become as familiar as breathing.

“We’re about a quarter mile from our first climb.” He traced the route with one finger, then pointed to the wall rising in the distance. “See that dark spot about two hundred feet up? That’s the cave. This path leads us about a fourth of the way up the side. Then we’ll break it into three fifty-foot pitches.”

Marcus studied the wall like it might bite him. Eden pulled trail mix from her pack and started passing it around.