Chapter 3

Chapter Three

ELIJAH SAT IN THE FRONT ROW, but couldn't resist leaning forward when Ty came out for his first attempt. He was every inch a climber, from his lanky limbs to the muscle corded on his forearms to the chalk speckled all over his clothing. His tight curls of brown hair bounced as he loped across the mats. He beamed at the crowd, completely at home before a screaming throng of onlookers.

Elijah had stood in that exact spot many times himself, but he'd never looked so at-ease. For him, the crowd was a necessary evil. He never quite adjusted to having so many eyes on him while he climbed. Every time, he had to swallow down a flutter of stage fright.

Getting the signal from the judges to turn and face the climb usually made things better. Elijah would zero in on the task before him, tuning out the noise until nothing but his own excited breathing disturbed him. His palms would sweat in anticipation of grabbing the holds. His chest would flutter. And then everything would go calm and quiet and still, and he would know it was go-time.

From the look of things, that was exactly what Ty was experiencing right now. All his buoyant charm stilled as he faced the climb. The calm that settled over him sent a chill down Elijah's spine. That kind of focus was something Elijah would have thought required more experience and maturity.

"Fuck," Elijah breathed as Ty took that first leap on the climb.

If he seemed mature and experienced standing still, he was even moreso in motion. Every other climber had needed multiple tries before they stuck that first dynamic jump. But Ty simply sized it up and leapt. Even when his legs flailed out beneath him, there was no doubt he was in complete control.

Ty eventually fell off the climb, but it didn't make his first attempt any less impressive. Elijah half-expected him to get right back on the wall, but instead Ty lingered on the mats, studying the climb, shaking out the pump in his arms. He glanced at the clock at one point and Elijah realized he was intentionally letting it run down. That strategy was risky as hell on a climb that started with a dyno, yet Ty looked so calm he might as well have been warming up on a V1, one of the lowest grades possible.

Who is this guy?

Elijah really must have been absent from the competitive scene for a while to miss a kid like this coming up through the ranks. Or maybe he wasn't such a kid after all. Something in his manner lent him a maturity that Haru and Imani were still growing into. Still, he couldn't have been older than twenty-five, and likely less than that. Yet here he was serenely appraising a tough final climb and banking on resting until the last moment.

And it worked. The next time Ty attacked the climb, he danced up it, every motion so smooth, so easy that it was like he'd climbed this particular problem a dozen times instead of just twice.

Had Elijah ever in his career been that strong? He must have been, but it seemed impossible from where he stood now, down among the spectators instead of up on that stage.

"He's pretty incredible, huh?" Jane said, elbowing him.

Elijah had to dig to find his voice. His throat was dry from his mouth hanging open for so long. "Yeah," he managed. "Yeah, he's good."

"They think he'll go to the Olympics in a few years," Jane said.

Of course he would. He was incredible. Barring some massive injury or something, Ty was clearly hitting his peak.

Elijah couldn't entirely snuff out the jealousy that simmered in his gut. When he was competing, the Olympics weren't even a thought. Climbing simply wasn't an Olympic sport. It only got added recently, way too late for Elijah to be a serious competitor.

But not Ty. Ty wasn't just standing on the top of that podium here in Vail today. He was at the top of his sport, and from what Jane said, he was poised to stay there.

Some of the cheering calmed. Spectators were filtering out. Fewer were interested in award ceremonies than the actual climbing. Elijah nudged Jane's shoulder.

"Let's get out of here," he said. "I'm hungry."

He wasn't. Not with his stomach in knots after watching that performance. But hanging around was far worse than forcing down some food.

Jane might have agreed, but Haru and Imani found them before they could slip away. Haru had had a good showing, but hadn't made it into the finals. That didn't seem to temper his enthusiasm for the competition at all. He started rapid-fire reliving climbs he hadn't even touched the moment he rejoined Jane and Elijah.

Elijah did his best to nod along, but all the while he was counting down the seconds until he could slip out of the stadium. He deserved a medal himself just for making it all the way to the end of the comp without bolting. Every moment sitting here as a spectator rather than a competitor had scratched against Elijah's skin like an especially sharp boulder. It didn't help that the wound of being a washed up old climber was still fresh and raw. The last time Elijah competed was only a few years ago, and he'd performed horribly. That was the moment he'd called it quits, slinking away as a failure. Sometimes he wished he'd retired even earlier; at least could have gone out with some dignity intact.

Finally, Haru ran out of steam. It looked like Elijah was going to get to escape. But the moment he turned to do so, a pair of rapidly widening brown eyes met his. Elijah was frozen, held captive by eyes like warm earth on a sunny day.

Ty recovered first and lobbed his victory bouquet into the audience. Elijah had no idea where it landed, too busy collecting the scattered fragments of his thoughts. Why had the guy looked at him that way? Did Ty recognize him? Sure, Elijah had been a known name around the scene once, but the way Ty had looked at him … it was like he was some sort of legend. Like Jane or something.

Elijah shook himself. That was just self-pitying vanity and wounded pride talking. There was no way any of these young hotshots would look at him as anything but an old man.

Except that wasn't how Haru and Imani and Sparrow saw him. None of them treated him any differently than they'd treat someone their own age. As Jane had pointed out to him, it was only in Elijah's head that the community sought to exclude him for his age nowadays.

He very nearly convinced himself that the whole incident was just in his imagination. Then an interview with the winner of the competition appeared on the big screens at the far ends of the stage.

"That was an incredible showing today," the interviewer said. "How are you feeling?"

Ty's smile was even more brilliant blown up to fit a huge screen. "It's always an awesome feeling to win. That was a really fun comp."

"Yeah, it looked like it. And that last problem. You took a big risk there. Were you just that confident that you only needed one more attempt?"

"Not at all," Ty said. "I thought it was probably my best chance, but I knew it was super high risk too."

Why was Elijah even watching this? None of his friends were ushering him along, however. They seemed just as interested in the interview as Elijah, even though Ty's answers were more or less the stock things you heard after every comp.

Finally, the interviewer started to wrap it up. "Well, it was awesome seeing you, as always. You always put on a great show. Any last thoughts for us?"

Did Ty hesitate a beat or did Elijah imagine that?

"No, just that, well…" Ty said. "I just want to say that this is really, like, a dream for me. I've been climbing since I was a kid, and I've always looked up to guys like Elijah Reed. So it's just incredible to be here on a stage he was on so many times trying to do what he did, you know? "

Anything else the interviewer or Ty might have said next blurred into static. The arena went fuzzy around Elijah. He knew Jane and the others were looking at him, but he was still reeling from the shock of hearing his own name come out of that young man's mouth.

"Did he just say your name?" Imani said.

Elijah was still too numb to respond. If Imani had heard it too, then it had to be real. Right?

He didn't get an opportunity to check. The interview concluded while Elijah was still piecing together his scattered thoughts. Climbers and setters and coaches were mingling on and near the stage, while the crowd mostly filtered out of the arena.

Jane patted him on the shoulder to drag Elijah out of his own head. "Go say hi."

"What? Are you nuts? No way am I doing that."

"Why not? You'll make his whole day."

"Because," Elijah said, but when he searched for a coherent excuse, he floundered for words.

Jane leveled a knowing look at him and pushed at his shoulder. Elijah was still scrambling for an out when his feet started moving with a will of their own.

The stage wasn't that large, meaning it was only a few steps from where he'd been watching the competition to where the athletes were gathering up their shoes and chalk. Ty stood among most of the other competitors, excitedly talking about the climbs. It was nice to see that even as these competitions got more serious, that spirit of camaraderie that Elijah recalled from his own days lingered.

Someone nudged Ty with their elbow. He turned. And Elijah met that brilliant smile and those sun-soaked eyes for the first time.

It was like stepping out of a shadow. Everything about Ty had a warmth to it, from his brown eyes and skin to the tight curls spilling to his shoulders. He stood taller than Elijah, but not by much, though Elijah easily outweighed him. From this distance, the lean muscle corded down his arms was like rope wrapping from his shoulders to his fingers. He beamed at Elijah, flashing dazzlingly white teeth, his whole face lighting with a joy Elijah nearly shied away from.

"Holy shit," Ty said. "You're Elijah Reed."

Elijah's stomach lurched. He did not deserve a greeting like that from a guy this young and strong. How was Ty the one standing here awe-struck and not the reverse?

Elijah was supposed to say something cool and inspirational now, something that made him sound like a slogan for a climbing gym or an athlete on a cereal box. But all he managed was, "Uh, yeah. Hey."

"Hey," Ty said. His smile somehow stretched a little more, until it filled Elijah's vision entirely. No one should have been allowed to be this talented and this beautiful at the same time.

You can't think that , Elijah chided himself. You've got like ten years on him.

"I heard you, um, mention me," Elijah said, "in your interview. So I thought I should say hi."

"I knew that was you in the front row," Ty said. "I spotted you during the awards ceremony but I was, like, no, there's no way Elijah Reed is sitting there watching me climb. Damn. This is so cool!"

Elijah wasn't sure if the flutter in his stomach was a rush of pride or a shame so all-consuming that he wanted to melt into the ground and disappear. Perhaps a bit of both, with the way it left him queasy and unsteady.

Just say something nice and normal and leave , he told himself.

"You had a great comp today," Elijah said. "That last climb — that was really ballsy to rest that long. But you nailed it. Super impressive."

Elijah was going to go blind if Ty kept finding new ways to smile at him.

"You think so?" Ty said. "I knew my coach was probably freaking out, but I was so pumped from qualies and everything. It seemed like my best shot."

It was all-too-easy to slip into climbing talk with Ty. Soon, Elijah was reliving that final climb like he'd been the one leaping after dynos and scrambling up to razor-thin holds high on the wall. He didn't even realize how long they chatted until the arena grew strangely empty around them and someone came up to pat Ty on the shoulder.

"Hey, man, you coming to dinner?" the newcomer said, shooting Elijah a look.

"Oh shoot," Ty said. "The team. We were all going to grab something together tonight." Ty's warm brown eyes slid toward Elijah. "Man, but I'm having so much fun chatting with you."

The quiet that fell made Elijah want to shift his feet. Or hide. Or both, maybe. Surely the newcomer could feel it as well. He gave Ty another pat on the shoulder and said, "Just text us or something," then left.

Elijah wasn't sure if he was more relieved or scared. "Do you need to go be with your team?" he said.

"Technically, I guess, but they're not gonna care if I want to do my own thing," Ty said.

"Really?" Elijah had to confess, he wasn't that clear on how climbing teams worked these days. In his time, they weren't such a formal and structured thing. American climbers in Elijah's day simply weren't getting trained and sponsored and supported the way they were today.

"I, uh," Ty started. Now he was the one shifting his feet. Was he nervous? But why? Elijah was nothing but a washed up old man compared to this guy.

Even standing slightly taller than Elijah, Ty seemed to glance up at him through thick eyelashes the next time he spoke.

"I really would love to keep talking with you," Ty said. "I mean, if you want to. I didn't actually think I'd get to meet you like this. I meant what I said in that interview. You're basically the reason I started climbing."

This was getting to be way too much. Elijah's stomach did so many flips he wasn't sure how he kept from hurling right there on Ty's feet. He went still, mind whirling over the possibilities. It was just a chat, right? Climbers loved talking climbing. Totally normal. But the way Ty was looking at him… No, that was crazy.

Right?

Everyone in the scene knew Elijah was gay. It had been a big deal once. Thankfully, it wasn't as much of a thing these days. More and more climbers were coming out, and it wasn't surprising anyone. It had always been a sport that attracted queer folks, perhaps because it was a little bit off the beaten path and full of hippies and outdoorsy types already. No one really made a fuss about it, at least in Elijah's experience.

But if Ty knew all that and was still looking at Elijah that way…

Elijah wanted to slap himself. That was a crazy thought. Even if Ty was queer, why would he look at a guy probably a decade older than him like that? There were plenty of hot young climbers his own age. Hell, he probably trained with guys way better suited to him, and way more attractive, than some thirty-something already past his prime.

"Get dinner with me," Ty said, punching through Elijah's frantic thoughts.

"What?" Elijah blinked, recalling where he was. How long had he stood there silently?

"Please," Ty said. "I'd love to get dinner with you instead of the whole team. This might be my only shot. I promise I won't be a weird fanboy about it. I just can't believe I'm actually standing here talking climbing with Elijah Reed. I'm not ready for it to end."

I'm not either.

The urge to slap himself rose all over again. But Ty was watching him with such eager expectation, such bright-eyed hope. One dinner wouldn't hurt, right? If Jane was standing next to him right now, she'd tell him it was good for him to nurture young talent. Elijah still loved the sport. It hurt just as much to avoid it as to sit through comps he wasn't good enough for anymore. But maybe helping out the next generation could patch over that lingering pain.

God help him, but he could feel the "yes" forming on his lips before it even emerged. Ty's smile was blinding.

"Give me your number," Ty said. "I need a shower, but then I'll text you. I know this place right around here. It's pretty good."

Elijah nodded and typed his information into Ty's phone with numb, trembling fingers. Their hands brushed as Elijah passed the phone back, and Elijah nearly startled from the electric shock. He had to be imagining the way Ty lingered, the way he didn't pull back, the way he left his fingers against Elijah's just a beat longer than strictly necessary. Yet when Elijah looked up from those calloused, chalk-covered hands, he found Ty twisting his mouth as he tried to hold back some expression. It was strange given how exuberantly emotive he'd been to this point. Yet there it was, Ty smiling, but not quite the same way as before. He wore a twisting, flickering kind of grin, one he was clearly reining in as hard as he could.

When it broke free, Ty chewed at his bottom lip, struggling for control. Elijah thought his heart might explode out of his chest.

I'm going straight to hell for this.

"I'll see you later, Elijah," Ty said. His voice was quieter, lower. He caressed every syllable of "Elijah" like he was rolling the name around on his tongue.

Elijah had to swallow before he could speak. "Yeah," he managed.

The smile twisted yet again. Ty chuckled to himself, then spun on his heel and hurried away, a tall, graceful, slim figure loping off toward the back of the stage.

Elijah watched him go and attempted to remember how to breathe.