Her Mountain Man by Cindi Myers Page B

“People think climbing is all about the physical challenges, operating in thin air, steep slopes, unpredictable terrain and bad weather. But the real obstacles in climbing are the mental ones.”
    “Such as?”
    He broke a cracker in half and contemplated the pieces. “There’s a point in every climb when you want to quit. You’re tired, everything hurts, your body is sick from not having enough oxygen. Maybe the food is getting to you, or the constant wind, or the stink of your own body from not having bathed in a week. You reach a point where you want to throw all your gear over the side of a cliff and go home.”
    “So why don’t you?” she asked. “Why put yourself through all that?”
    “Different people find different reasons. It could be a desire for fame, or the craving to see what the world looks like at the top, or wanting to beat out a competitor.”
    “Yes, but what drives you?” she asked.
    He tossed the broken cracker aside. “I’m stubborn. I just hate to give up. I won’t quit.”
    Sierra didn’t try to hide her disappointment. “So climbing mountains is all about stubbornness? All that suffering and effort just so you can say you didn’t quit?”
    He laughed. “Hey, I never said I was deep. Every climber has something that gets them to the top. For me, it’s obstinance.”
    She shook her head. “There has to be more to it than that. What made you so stubborn?”
    “I can’t help you there.” He ate a cracker.
    She tried another tack. “How did you end up working for George Gantry?”
    “I asked him for a job. Begged, really.”
    “Why George?”
    “Because he was one of the best climbers active at the time. And because he had been your father’s partner.”
    Her father again. “It always comes back to my dad with you, doesn’t it?”
    “The climbing community isn’t that large,” Paul said. “At that time he’d only been dead a couple of years, so his influence was still felt. Most of his records were still intact. I’d made up my mind to be the best and if the best climber wasn’t alive to teach me, I’d have to learn from the people he’d taught.”
    “You never met my father, so how is it he’s exerted such a huge influence on your life?”
    Paul shrugged. “There are some people we connect with, for whatever reason. Why does one person become mentor for another? Why are some people lifelong enemies? Why do two people fall in love?” He shoved his half-empty plate aside. “What do you think your father would think about the two of us meeting?”
    “I don’t know what my father would think,” she said. “I don’t even know what I think.” Her feelings about Paul were too mixed up with her feelings about her father. Being with Paul forced her to think more about her dad than she had in years, but Paul himself occupied another large portion of her thoughts. Her attraction to him was both inconvenient and unsettling.

    P AUL STOOD AND BEGAN clearing the table, wishing for a way to clear the air between them. He hadn’t thought his question about her father’s thoughts on the two of them meeting was a particularly tough one, but the way Sierra clamped her mouth shut it was clear she hadn’t liked it. Because she didn’t think her father would approve? “Can I get you anything?” he asked. “I could make tea or coffee.”
    “I want you to sit down and answer my questions,” she said. “I promise I won’t bite.”
    “Wouldn’t matter if you did. I’ve been inoculated for every disease known to man.” Every one for which there was a vaccine, anyway.
    He finished clearing the table, then sat opposite her. “Okay, fire away,” he said.
    “Tell me about your childhood. Where did you grow up?”
    “Texas. I was born in Dallas, but I went to junior high and high school in Houston.”
    “Any brothers and sisters?”
    “No. I’m an only child.”
    “When did you first become interested in mountain climbing?”
    “When I saw that documentary I