Chapter 3
Three
Her actual companion wasn’t the friendly, easy-going guy she’d flirted with at the lake.
Beckett’s blue-gray eyes had chilled to flint since inventory.
Sarah couldn’t blame him. Nobody appreciated being lied to, and when it came down to it, he was the one responsible for the safety of both his staff and the campers those staff members would be working with. He had every right to be pissed.
Sarah didn’t hesitate to order a beer. She figured she’d need it to get through this mess and explain it in such a way that Taryn still had a job to come back to.
They remained silent, studying the menu, until the waitress returned.
In honor of Dean, she ordered a cheeseburger.
Once the waitress left, Sarah tipped her longneck back for a healthy swig, then wrapped her hands around the bottle, as if it were some kind of anchor. “I did not lie on my application.”
“Really?” Beckett’s sarcasm thudded on the table between them like a stone.
Sarah held in a wince. How to get through this without throwing Taryn under the bus? “The truth is, it wasn’t my application.” She lifted her gaze to meet his and found him staring, his own beer halfway to his mouth.
“How’s that?”
Truth, she decided, insofar as possible. “I’m not Taryn Meadows.”
“You’re—” Evidently deciding he needed alcohol for the rest of this story, he drank deep. “Then who the hell are you?”
“Sarah. Her identical twin sister.”
Beckett only blinked. “You’re shitting me.”
“Nope.” To prove it, she pulled out her phone and found a recent picture of the pair of them. Taryn was a little leaner, definitely tanner, but otherwise, only someone who knew them could easily tell them apart.
He studied the picture for a long time, then turned that penetrating gaze on her. She wanted to squirm, but held still. He handed the phone back.
“Okay, so that’s one part of the mystery solved. Now you want to tell me exactly why you’re impersonating your sister?”
“Because she asked me to.” Even as the words fell from her lips, she realized how lame they sounded.
His brows winged up. “This is a thing y’all do for each other on a regular basis? Having some fun, screwing with people?”
“No. Well, not since we were about twelve, anyway. And this one time in college when she forgot to renew her driver’s license.” Shut up. You’re not helping your case.
“So why now?”
Why indeed?
To buy herself some time to think, Sarah took another pull on her beer. “She’s caught in a difficult situation in the job she’s leaving, one she’s obliged to try and accommodate because of an even more difficult situation in her personal life.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
Sarah told him the story of Jax and the untenable position Taryn was stuck in. Their food came somewhere in the middle of the tale, so they ate while she talked and he listened. Other than muttering a few choice curses about Taryn’s ex, Beckett stayed quiet until she’d finished.
“That sucks for her, it really does. Why didn’t she just call up Heather or Michael and talk to them about it?”
Sarah opened her mouth, closed it again. Because that would have been the responsible, adulting thing to do. “I didn’t ask. She came to me for help.” Because that’s what they did. Taryn fucked up, and Sarah helped her fix it.
“But you could’ve said ‘no.’” His tone implied she should have.
“I told myself the same thing. Right up until I said ‘yes.’ The thing is, I can never say ‘no’ to bailing Taryn out.” She had a lifetime of history testifying to that fact.
“Why not?”
“I’m the oldest.”
Beckett gave her a bland stare. “By how much?”
“Fifteen minutes, but sometimes it feels like fifteen years. I’m the responsible one who has her shit together.
Kind of goes with the territory.” Sarah realized that made her sister sound like a flake.
“Not that Taryn is irresponsible. When it comes to safety for climbing or rafting or any of the other things she does, she’s serious as a heart attack.
It’s the money management and, I guess you’d say, interpersonal stuff, where she has trouble. ”
He swiped his last French fry through ketchup and pointed it at her. “And yet you, with your shit together, are here doing certification training for something you’re not qualified for?”
Now she did wince. “The only part I’m not qualified for is the rock climbing.
And I have actually done some climbs that weren’t in the gym.
Taryn’s taken me a few times, but since I started grad school, there hasn’t been time.
Look, she knows the handbook backward and forward.
She’s certified in first aid, CPR, and a whole laundry list of other things you probably saw on her application.
She absolutely is qualified to deal with the rock climbing, and she’ll be back in plenty of time to prove it.
We’re supposed to meet in Briarsted to swap out a couple days before the certification test at the end of orientation. ”
Beckett’s eyes narrowed. “So you’re asking what, exactly?”
“I’m asking you not to blow the whistle.”
“You’re asking me to lie.” The hard tone told her she’d lost this battle, but she made one last effort.
“I’m asking you to wait. She needs this job. More, she desperately wants this job, and she’ll be great at it. And if, for whatever reason, she doesn’t pass the certification tests, then whatever the consequences are, they’re on her. I’m just asking you to give her a chance.”
Shoving the plate away, he sat back and studied her, finally shaking his head. “I won’t lie to Michael. I won’t pretend the person I’m working with is qualified, when she’s not.”
Sarah’s hope withered. This was what failure felt like.
Utterly wretched. It was why she didn’t take risks in her own life.
Why she always strove to be the best at everything she did.
On top of all that, she hadn’t realized exactly how much she’d wished she had a partner in crime.
Or a partner at all. After being half of a duo most of her life, she and Taryn had been on opposite paths for the past several years, and she missed being half of a whole.
But it really had been too much to ask for someone else to participate in their crazy.
She blew out a breath. “I understand. I had no right to ask you to cover for her. For us. I’ll find the Tullys when we get back to camp and explain. ”
“No, you won’t. You’re going back to camp, and we’re going back to that equipment shed. And I’m not letting you leave it until you can name everything in there, piece-by-piece. Then tomorrow morning, you’ll be up with the sun to start all over again.”
She stared at him. “Excuse me?”
“I won’t lie. But I’ll get you certification-ready myself.”
For a long moment she simply sat in stunned silence. He was offering to certify her. To go above and beyond to help her, help Taryn. “Why would you do that?”
“Much as I disagree with what you’re doing, I appreciate the motivation behind it.
I get what it means for somebody to give you a chance when the odds are stacked against you.
Add to that, I like you.” His mouth snapped shut after the admission, a little like slamming the barn door after the horses had gotten out.
He liked her. The confession caused a flutter in her chest and a bloom of heat in her cheeks.
It was foolish, silly, girlish reaction.
One she hadn’t felt since… She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been flattered and flustered at a guy’s interest. Add to that, he truly was serving himself up to be her hero.
It was a potent cocktail, one Sarah didn’t know what to do with.
As soon as her sister showed up, she was going back to New York.
Nothing between them could really go anywhere.
But the fact of the matter was, she liked him, too. A helluva lot.
“Thank you. Truly. My sister and I will both owe you.”
Beckett waved that way. “Not worried about that. Now finish your burger. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Beckett was going to regret this. What the hell was he thinking, promising to certify an almost totally green climber so she could pass as someone more experienced? Irritation—with himself, with the situation, with her—made his movements jerky as he unlocked the equipment shed and let them inside.
You weren’t thinking with your big boy brain.
Which was also ridiculous. She’d be gone in less than two weeks. Before the certification test, she’d said. Where did he think this was gonna go? Hadn’t he said he was bored with casual hookups?
He blamed Michael and Heather and their absurdly infectious happiness.
He blamed this place. Most of all, he blamed the fact that he couldn’t bet against the underdog.
He’d been one too often in his life, so he had sympathy for the real Taryn.
And a helluva lot of respect for the sister who was willing to put herself out there trying to help her.
“Sit,” he ordered.
She did, without complaint, waiting as he gathered up gear.
That ready acceptance of whatever he was gonna dish out had his temper cooling.
She was a woman who did what needed to be done.
Period. And he found that way too appealing.
Maybe because he understood the need to do the hard thing, regardless of personal consequences.
He had a feeling Sarah knew a lot more about consequences than her sister did.
By the time he sat across from her at the work bench, he was calmer. “I’m not going to ask you what you already know. I’ll teach you as I’d teach any novice.”
“Okay.”
He slipped into instructor mode, repeating the lecture he’d given so often to beginner classes in the past. He went over components, explained their purpose, showed how each worked together.
Through it all, Sarah listened, intent. And when he asked her to repeat the details back, she did, without error.
“You’re a good student.”