Chapter 10
‘Are we going to go find a wall somewhere for one final climb before you throw your life away?’
Rhys listened with detachment as Laurie spoke to Andreas. He held his Nikon loosely in both hands, occasionally framing a shot of the guests marvelling at the rocky gorge, cut by the stream tumbling down from the high mountains.
It had briefly crossed his mind that he could bring up his plans for after the wedding while they were strolling casually through the forest. He didn’t have any other ideas for how to broach the subject.
His friends were not like his mother. They would understand the appeal of escaping for a longer period – maybe even for good. They’d probably be jealous.
But he remained silent. Perhaps he’d be able to just slip out of the country unnoticed.
The outing to the waterfalls reminded him of the wedding in winter: the photo shoot inside a glacier. He didn’t mind photographing people when they were just another element of the composition, framed in wild landscape.
At the ice cave, Ginny had directed the bride and groom to smile, or look at each other, unconsciously providing the exact service he’d needed from her – a service she’d offered to provide again at the lake, but he’d been too strung out to accept.
Carelessly stripping off in front of her hadn’t helped normalise their relationship.
He was trying not to think about that, although it was difficult when her high ponytail kept drawing his gaze. She was walking in front of him, speaking to Kira – when she wasn’t eavesdropping on the conversation behind her. She was upset about something. He was trying not to wonder about that.
He was supposed to be staying away from her, although it wasn’t working all that well today.
He hadn’t been able to resist snapping a photo of her speaking to Cillian.
The way she’d tilted her head to listen to him had triggered his professional instincts for a compelling photo.
There was something about the quality of the light that afternoon in the overcast conditions.
Laurie clapped Andreas on the shoulder. ‘We don’t want to waste a trip to the Alps. I bet you have a favourite spot to climb. Or do you want to keep it a secret, in case the tourists find out about it?’
Up ahead, Ginny’s footsteps stalled and she shot a glance over her shoulder.
‘We’ve got time on Thursday,’ Andreas answered. ‘But we might have to stay at the climbing park, rather than anywhere more remote. It’s not really the occasion for an expedition.’
This time, Ginny’s response was a huff with a jerk of her shoulders.
‘Will you put your camera down and come along?’
‘Hmm?’ Rhys dragged his attention back to Laurie and the conversation he was actually part of. ‘Oh, sure. Or I can bring the camera and capture your last moments of freedom.’
‘We’ll see if we can get Kira away from the wedding nonsense to come along too,’ Laurie said.
‘Maybe Ginny would like to try a climb on a real rock, after her lessons at the gym,’ Rhys suggested before he’d thought through how strange that sounded, coming from him. No one else knew he’d quietly noticed her progress over the past six months – and no one else needed to know.
The way Andreas turned to him with his brow lifted confirmed his fears. ‘I think Ginny will be busy with the wedding nonsense.’
Rhys glanced over to find her shoulders around her earlobes now. It seemed odd to him that Laurie and Andreas didn’t notice she was listening.
‘I wasn’t thinking about an easy top-rope route,’ Laurie commented drily. ‘I don’t think she’s ready for lead climbing.’
She probably wasn’t, but Rhys still wanted to see what she’d make of a real wall of rock. Another photo he’d love to take. Maybe if he sat her down and took photos from all angles, he’d be able to work out why he felt the constant need to study her.
‘It will depend on the weather, anyway,’ Andreas continued. ‘Could go either way.’
The rest of the group had stopped at a viewing platform to admire the first waterfall, gushing out of a narrow ravine. The air was damp with spray, creating shimmering rainbows, and Rhys raised his camera, adjusting the settings to capture the refracting light.
Thinking of Ginny again, he snapped a few shots of the guests, including the small girl he understood was Sophie’s niece.
She turned to the camera and scrunched up her face as she held her hands in the tiny droplets of water.
Rhys smiled as he shot that one, looking up when he felt eyes on him. He wasn’t surprised it was Ginny.
Apparently this awareness of each other went both ways now. He cursed himself for whatever he’d done to cause that and she looked away when he met her gaze.
The path followed the edge of the ravine to the second waterfall, where the stream tumbled over a cliff, falling farther than the first, the water churning white over the rocks.
With the natural framing of trees in shades of green and yellow and glimpses of the silver sky, taking a compelling photo took no effort at all and he composed shots from several angles, with wedding guests and without.
As they set off for the third waterfall, he fell into step beside Kira. He couldn’t hold out long before asking, ‘Is Ginny upset about something?’ He snapped his mouth closed, suddenly worried Ginny had told Kira what had happened by the lake yesterday evening.
Kira didn’t seem to read anything into his question. ‘I don’t really know. She’s putting a lot of pressure on herself. It might as well be her own wedding,’ she said with a wry chuckle.
Rhys forced a matching laugh, but his stomach dipped, remembering the way Ginny had spoken about her stagnant love life at the pub before she’d discovered who she was talking to.
‘She’s just taking everything a little too personally. Maybe it’s because she hasn’t been out with anyone in two months. I never should have suggested she take a break from dating,’ Kira groaned.
Footsteps sounded behind him and Ginny brushed past, pausing to lean close to Kira. ‘I heard that.’
Kira shrugged. ‘I’d say it to your face too. Maybe you need to get laid!’ she called after her friend.
Ginny turned back. ‘Might I remind you of our younger guests?’
‘I can see our younger guests are holding you back from saying what you want to say to me,’ Kira teased her.
‘And a particular hand gesture I’d give you,’ Ginny quipped. Kira laughed and Ginny peered up at Rhys. ‘Why didn’t you ask me what’s wrong?’
He took a breath and opened his mouth, but none of the many reasons for that could be said in front of Kira. Because you saw me naked. Because talking to you is like scrambling my synapses. Because you think I don’t like you and it’s better that way.
The longer he held his silence, the more she deflated. ‘I thought you might have worked it out,’ she muttered.
‘Hmm?’
Her scowl sharpened the lines of her lips. ‘The wedding is a waste of time, is it? “Nonsense” was the word I believe you used. You’d all rather be climbing and celebrating Andreas’s last moments of freedom. I’m not chaining anyone to the pews!’
‘Don’t listen to Laurie,’ he mumbled.
‘You agree with him though, don’t you? Apparently I’m the only one who cares about celebrating the miracle of love and family and… lasting happiness.’
‘Ginny,’ he said, when nothing else seemed the right thing to say.
He rarely used people’s names – a habit he’d formed during the times when he couldn’t trust himself to recognise his conversation partner – but when she was next to him, her name seemed to fall from his lips without him quite intending it.
‘Was there more to that sentence?’
‘No.’
‘No?’
His heart pounded as his gaze landed on her mouth and he frantically racked his brain for something to say that wasn’t to do with how much he liked looking at her – and listening to her.
‘You know, it’s immensely frustrating,’ she began, crossing her arms and staring out at the billowing droplets from the nearby waterfall.
‘You say so little, as though you’re inviting me to misunderstand you, then I fill in the silence compulsively, so you know a lot more about me than is fair.
I know I sometimes talk too much, but you… talk too little!’
He couldn’t disagree with her, but it would surprise her to know how much he considered saying to her before wisely deciding against it. ‘I don’t think I have anything to say that would interest you.’
She straightened, even more indignant. He knew who would win if they went head-to-head in an honest conversation. ‘You might be surprised by what interests me.’
The hair on his nape stood on end as he grabbed a firm hold of himself, insisting she didn’t mean that he interested her.
He pointed over her shoulder and then raised his camera. ‘The waterfall is beautiful.’
They’d fallen behind the rest of the group and he stepped onto the wooden bridge alone, not waiting to see if she’d follow, because he knew she would.
‘Do you always reach for your camera when you’re avoiding real-life conversations?’
‘Well, I definitely reach for my camera when I see something beautiful.’
He couldn’t help it. He glanced at Ginny, where she was stepping onto the bridge, her head tipped in curiosity as she peered into the ravine. He saw the moment that her breath caught.
Walking to the railing, she leaned out, lifting her face into the minute droplets of spray flung out of the raging waterfall until her cheeks glistened and her hair glowed silver with moisture.
With her face turned mostly away, the line of her jaw was almost familiar, the curve of her ear, with the glinting earrings.
He raised his camera.