I growled at him and went back to ripping apart my closet. He fixed himself a cup of coffee and came to stand in the doorway and watch me struggle to finish packing.
Tilting his mug toward my already full suitcase, he said, “You know we’re only going to be gone one night, right?”
I glared at him. It was so easy for guys. He had on a pair of sweats and a fitted T-shirt. Which, by the way, fit really nice. “I don’t know what to pack.”
He smirked. “The little shorts you wore to climb the rock wall were a hit.”
My hands went to my hips. “I thought you said those were too revealing?”
Reed scratched at the scruff on his chin, which—by the way—I really freaking loved. “Let me ask you something. It’s Saturday, so I’m not technically your boss, correct?”
“No, the weekends aren’t part of my workweek. What are you getting at?”
“And we’re friends, right? Friends are protective of each other. That’s normal, right?”
“Spit it out, Eastwood . . .”
“Well, your hot pants were revealing because of the way your ass looked in them. Not necessarily because you shouldn’t wear shorts to climb. In fact, if you asked a professional climber, they’d tell you to wear tight clothes and even tight little shorts like you wore. But as your friend, not a man, I should tell you that you have a great ass, so if you don’t want men that are underneath you checking it out, you might want to wear something a little baggier.”
My brows arched. “So you didn’t notice my ass as a man. Only as a friend, then?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “That’s right.”
“Will you be climbing behind me today?”
“That’s the way it works, yes. The more experienced climber generally takes the rear. That way I can look forward and still guide you on where to grab. And if I fall, I won’t be hitting into you.”
It was difficult to contain my smirk. He’d just helped me decide what to wear. “That’s helpful. Be right back. Going to change.”
In the bottom drawer of my dresser was a bright-purple yoga outfit that I’d bought last year but never worn. I’d loved it in the dimly lit store, but when I got home, I realized it not only fit like a second skin but also had a shimmery sheen to it. Not to mention that it exposed my entire midriff and showed off a lot of cleavage for workout gear. I’d deemed it too sexy to wear to work out and tucked it away. But since Reed was only a friend and not a man this weekend, I was certain he wouldn’t notice. I stifled a giggle after I put it on and checked myself out in the mirror. The hot-pink shorts from my rock-wall climb looked demure compared with this getup.
Walking back to the living room, I did my best to act nonchalant. Reed was sipping his coffee and checking out the framed pictures on my wall. He did a double take when he got a load of my outfit.
“You’re wearing that?”
“Yes. Do you like it?” I did a girly twirl to show off that it was just as tight from the back as the front. “It’s a little tight, but you said that’s what the experts would recommend. And since you’ll be behind me all day, I figured it’s only my friend looking up at my ass in tight pants all day—not a man.”I hadn’t given any real thought to what Reed’s day would be like, rock climbing with a first-timer. I guess I just pictured us both climbing Mount Everest today, rather than the reality of learning to climb outdoors. Since the group he’d signed us up for were all beginners, we’d spent all morning learning basic climbing techniques such as rappelling and belaying. We broke for lunch without anyone scaling more than five feet up during practice.
“I feel terrible. You’re stuck listening to all this training when you could be doing actual climbing.” The tour company we were with had brought bag lunches for everyone, and Reed and I went to sit on a big flat rock away from the group to eat.
“That’s okay. I haven’t climbed in a while. It’s a sport in which you definitely want to err on the side of caution, so the refresher course can’t hurt.”
I unwrapped a ham-and-cheese sandwich. Reed had picked turkey, and his looked really good, too. “Do you like ham? Wanna go half-half?”
“Sure.”
I took the biggest bite. “Oh my God. Is this the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted, or am I just famished?”
Reed smiled. “Outdoor climbing makes you really hungry. I can be inside climbing a rock wall for hours and never get hungry. Yet if I do one climb out here, I’m starving. Must be the fresh air and added exhilaration of not having bolted synthetic rocks to grab on to.”