Chapter
TWENTY-TWO
I’ll see you when I get back.
Julia’s text was still open on Warren’s phone. After a Christmas of cinnamon rolls and cautious amends with the boys, she’d left the following day to catch her flight to New York. He’d wanted to drive her to the airport, but she’d said she needed to make a stop along the way and would drive herself.
With the exception of Hailey’s continued distance from Julia and his lingering regret over the climb, things had settled down a bit. A short separation would be good for them all, but he couldn’t help wishing Julia had given him the one gift he’d really wanted.
The words. The I love you.
He sat at the table in his workshop, studying the instructions for the half-completed model of a 1/24 scale Hawker Typhoon. He picked up the airplane, examining the frame structure, the cannon fairings, the roof panel.
“Man, you look like shit.”
Warren glanced over the tops of his glasses. Justin, Dave, Peter, and Rick stood in the doorway of his office, looking at him like they couldn’t reconcile their climbing buddy with the man he was now.
He didn’t feel like the same man either, the one who’d spent the past year scaling rock faces and perfecting his scrabbling and icing techniques. The one who could run with a fifty-pound pack and bench press two-hundred pounds.
In addition, he was already missing his girl. Badly.
He straightened and scratched his unshaven jaw. “Feel like shit, too.”
“That’s why you gotta come with us,” Justin said. “No way can you feel sorry for yourself on the mountain.”
Warren shook his head, turning his gaze back to the model. “I told you I quit.”
“Yeah, you quit, you feel like shit,” Dave said. “You think there’s a correlation? Come on, man. Hans and Amelie said it’s a window of perfect conditions. If we don’t leave now, we could miss out. Next week, it might be too late.”
Miss out. Too late.
“There’s a flight out tomorrow night,” Peter said. “If we make it, we can start the acclimatization right away. I’m guessing you haven’t unpacked any of your gear yet, right?”
“This vertigo thing hasn’t gone away.” Warren gestured to his ear. He hadn’t ruled out Julia’s suggestion of acupressure, but there wasn’t enough time to try it before the climb started. “If a spell hits bad, I feel like I can’t even keep my balance on level ground. What the fuck do I do if that happens on the ridge?”
The four younger men exchanged glances.
“We’ll be there,” Dave said.
“No way.” Warren set the airplane down, his insides twisting at the thought of putting his friends in that kind of position. “I won’t risk it.”
They all looked at each other again, as if coming to an unspoken agreement.
“Look, you were the one who was there for Theo the most,” Rick said. “You were at his bedside when he died. You called us with the Matterhorn idea—hell, you’ve been spearheading the whole damned thing. We’ve been training for a year because of you. And we’re not going without you.”
Wariness flickered inside him. “What does that mean?”
“What it means.” Dave spread his hands out. “You’re the boss. You don’t go, we don’t go.”
Warren gave a hollow laugh. “Bastards. Go climb the fucking mountain.”
They shook their heads simultaneously, their expressions grave.
“He won’t submit to blackmail,” said another voice from the great room.
They turned to see Adam coming into the office, his gaze on Warren.
“But if you remind him that throughout his entire life, he’s always finished the game,” Adam said, “and that he’s always been the one to walk before us, the one we all follow, and that he taught us never to believe there are limits to what we can do… just ask Evan… then he’ll realize that there’s nothing he wants to do more than reach the summit of that mountain. And I’ll put money on the fact that he gets there first.”
Warren’s vision blurred. He looked away from his son, out the window to the valley stretching all the way to the sea.
“Boss,” Justin said. “We don’t want to go without you.”
“And we’re not going to let anything happen to you,” Dave said. “Just like you won’t let anything happen to us.”
“That’s what we do, right?” Rick added. “We’re Team Theo.”
Theo. He’d been planning the climb in the midst of chemo. He’d have started training the second he was released from the hospital. If he’d made it.
Warren turned his head to meet his son’s gaze. A current of understanding passed between them. He knew why Adam had always had a pull toward adventure and pushing his limits. He liked reminding himself that he was alive. That he had strength and endurance. That the world was full of challenges waiting to be met.
Warren looked at his model. He might not make it to the summit.
Then again, he just might.