Broken Lion (25 page)

“But they were violent.” Was he still talking about Universal Studios or not?

No time to think. Keep attacking.
I scowled, “You try growing up with no parents and no mansion and no money and let’s see how nice you turn out.”

He couldn’t argue with that and he didn’t.

I wasn’t waiting for him to think of a counter argument. “Back to the subject of Daniel and karate class. It would be a mistake to pull him out. If you do, I will make it clear to Daniel that it was your idea. See how you like being the bad guy for a change.”

Another Frown Clown frown from Donald. “Fine. Keep Daniel in the felon’s class—” I rolled my eyes at his use of the word felon. “—but I don’t want Daniel around Lion outside of class. Do you understand, Brigid?”

“So now you’re telling me who I can and can’t be friends with?”

“If the person in question is a bad influence on our son, I will.”

“Oh really. Then I hope you don’t have any female friends I might not approve of.”

“Why is that, Brigid?” His tone was slightly menacing.

“Because, Donald, if they don’t meet my requirements, then I will most certainly be telling you not to be friends with them.”

His face soured. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, I would,” I growled. “So, tell me, Donald. Do you have any women friends I should know about?”

“That’s none of your business.”

I laughed. “Please, Donald. Don’t be so blatantly hypocritical.”

“What?”

“We are not going to have a double standard. If you want to run background checks on the people in my life, I will need to run background checks on the people in yours. So you either tell me who you’re associating with, or I will hire a private investigator to follow you and find out for me.” The nice thing about being a doctor was I did have money for such things, but I immediately regretted saying it. I didn’t like to threaten anyone and I was provoking Donald and I knew it. I didn’t want to escalate things. I wanted to defuse them. The glory of getting divorced was it meant you didn’t have to fight with your spouse unless you chose to. I chose not to.

“Now wait a second, Brigid.” He was angry.

I heaved a sigh. “Forget I said that. I’m not going to hire anyone. And I won’t tell you who your friends can or can’t be. But you won’t tell me who my friends can be either. Agreed?” Being mature was usually the most effective solution to any argument.

He grimaced. “You’ve changed, Brigid. For the worse. You were never this disagreeable.”

“Of course I’ve changed, Donald. You divorced me. Did you think you’d get everything your way afterward? Forget I said that. I’m doing my best to work with you here. When it comes to Daniel, what’s best for Daniel comes first. Not what you want and not what I want. But no man is going to tell me how to live my life, especially not my ex-husband.”

Donald had nothing to say to that.

Finally.

Chapter 28

BRIGID

“This is better than Disneyland?” Daniel asked doubtfully.

“I was wondering the same thing,” I chuckled.

Lion laughed. “Trust me, guys. Yosemite is one of the coolest places on earth. And it’s practically in our backyard. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be asking me why you didn’t go camping here sooner.”

I had never been camping before. Neither had Daniel. I had told Lion as much when he suggested it. He’d said that was the perfect reason for us all to go. Since he had been camping and we hadn’t, I told him he’d have to figure everything out. True to his word, he showed up at my condo this morning before the sun came up with a car full of camping gear. Daniel and I had piled into his Range Rover, still half asleep.

Five hours later and here we were, driving into Yosemite Valley. The view was breathtaking. Tall majestic mountains climbed up on either side of the valley. Lush green trees in every direction stood tall. So different from the strip mall and asphalt vibe of Los Angeles.

“Where’s all the smog?” I joked. “The sky is absolutely blue.”

“Clean air and high altitude will do that,” Lion said, satisfied.

With the windows rolled down, the fresh scent of the outdoors was intoxicating. “I could get used to this.”

We slowed to a stop at a stop sign on the narrow road and Lion looked at me, that adorable grin on his face. “Me too.”

I knew he was talking about more than the clean air.

“Me three,” Daniel giggled from the backseat.

We parked in the lot for Camp 4, which Lion explained was the heart of the rock climbing world back in the day. Campers and climbers still came here every year to scale the infamous El Capitan, Half Dome, Glacier Point, Church Bowl, Knob Hill, and so many others. They also came to tackle any of the hundreds of bouldering “problems” as they were called.

“What is bouldering again?” Daniel asked.

“That’s when you climb on big boulders without ropes,” Lion said.

“Are we going to be doing that?”

I said, “Not without ropes, we aren’t.”

“Don’t worry, Brigid. We won’t do anything dangerous.”

After we parked, we got in line at the campground kiosk to register with the ranger. We lucked out and got one of the last available campsites for the day. Lion suggested we set up camp before we did anything else, so we carried all the gear from his Range Rover to the campsite. Other people were already set up, or in the process of setting up.

Lion unpacked a dome tent and started assembling the pieces. He got Daniel involved with the process. I watched while Lion showed him how it all went together.

“Are we all sleeping in that little thing?” I asked.

“Nah. This is my tent. I brought another one for you guys.” He held up the red vinyl bag. He and Daniel set that one up too.

“Do I get my own tent too?” Daniel asked.

Lion smiled at him. “You and your mom are sharing this one, Dan the Man.”

He groaned. “Do I have to sleep in the girls tent?”

“You wanna trade, bud? I’ll sleep in the girls tent with your mom, you can sleep alone in the guys tent?” Lion winked at me.

Daniel and I both blurted, “No!”

Lion laughed. “Sounds like you two are bunking together.”

“But Mom is so boring!”

“I’m not boring!”

Lion chuckled. “Your mom is gonna feel all alone if you make her sleep by herself. Maybe you oughta plan on sleeping with her to protect her.”

“From what?”

“From any bears that might attack during the night.”

Daniel brightened at the idea. “Bears?”

Was Lion kidding?

Lion nodded seriously. “Yup. There are black bears all over the park. That’s why we have to put all our food and toiletries in these metal food lockers.” Lion pointed. The lockers were brown painted steel boxes set into the ground and placed all over the campground in rows.

“Bears!” I gasped. “You didn’t say anything about bears. Are we going to be safe in these flimsy tents?”

Lion winked at me, “If Daniel protects you, you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know…” I said, worried.

“Relax, Brigid. The only thing the bears want to eat is our food. They don’t want to eat you. The lions on the other hand…” He smirked at me.

“There are lions here?” Daniel gasped, excited. “Where?! I want to see one!”

I smirked back at Lion. “Why don’t you explain it to him.”

“I was joking, bud. I’m the only lion here.”

Daniel grimaced, “That’s boring.”

I sneered at Lion. “Did you hear that? Lions are boring.”

“I wasn’t the one who made the rules.” He gave me a long look.

For a second I thought he was pouting about our “friends only” agreement, but his playful grin was proof he took it all in stride.

After everything was set up, we had a quick snack. Daniel was antsy to watch the climbers who were on the big boulder in the middle of Camp 4. Lion said it was the Columbia Boulder, which had the world’s most famous bouldering problem, a route called Midnight Lightning. The start was marked by a white painted lightning bolt near the bottom of one corner of the big granite rock.

“I wanna do that!” Daniel said while watching some climbers, both men and women, work their way up the rock like it was nothing. “Those guys look like Spider-Man!”

“Pretty much,” Lion said.

It was true. To get past the overhanging ledge ten feet off the ground, the climbers all did variations on a difficult move that looked a lot like a Spider-Man pose with legs spread wide.

“I don’t know, Daniel. It looks pretty hard.” Unlike the climbing gym Lion took us to in Burbank, there were no colorful handholds and no belaying rope. In fact, I couldn’t see any handholds at all. Unless you considered a ripple in the rock a handhold.

“Lion, can you do it?” Daniel asked a few minutes later when the other climbers were all resting.

“We’ll find out,” he grinned and sat down, unzipping a small knapsack and pulling out rock climbing shoes. A minute later, he stood at the base of the boulder.

Earlier, the climbers who’d managed to complete the route finished in a few minutes. It wasn’t a long climb. They made it look easy. Those who hadn’t finished usually dropped off while attempting the overhang, landing on a big foam pad placed in the dirt below. I knew Lion was a good climber, but I wasn’t sure how good, especially with his torn ACL.

“Can you do it with your brace on?” I asked.

“I should probably take it off.” He unstrapped it then belted a chalk bag around his waist and went to work. The first attempt, he dropped to the mat after only making it halfway. When he landed, he rolled dramatically right off the landing pad and into the dirt.

“Are you okay?” I rushed up.

“Yeah. Just rolled out of the landing to protect my knee.” He didn’t look entirely sure.

“Is this really a good idea?”

He grinned. “You doctoring me?”

“No. I’m being a concerned friend.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” His attitude was exactly what I expected. Times like this made me worry about how he would handle the crushing disappointment that was the reality of rehab for professional athletes. Would he over do it in an attempt to make the process go faster and damage the tendon graft? Or would he accept it for what it was and take his time? I didn’t want to think about it.

Lion tried the boulder again. When he got close to the overhang, I held my breath, hoping he wouldn’t slip and fall again. If he did, he might not be able to land on his good knee. If he wasn’t careful, he could easily land on his head. From ten feet up, such a fall could kill a man or at the very least break his neck and cripple him for life. Lion was clearly unconcerned about falling. As he extended his legs and pulled himself up to the next hold while leaning backward, his arms bulged and started to shake. He was going to lose his grip and fall.

Every muscle in my body was locked tight with fear. I wasn’t even breathing. One of Lion’s hands suddenly slipped. I gasped. Slowly, he got his fingers back on the hold. At that moment, I swore to myself: if the fall didn’t kill him, I would the second he was back safely on the ground.

Lion shifted his bodyweight in a dramatic swing and did his own version of the Spider-Man move, both legs outspread, toes gripping the rock face. He shifted one of his hands to the next higher handhold and hooked one leg over the top of the granite overhang, then used his torso to lever an arm up to the final hold. He grabbed it and pulled himself all the way over, easily finishing the route.

I finally released my breath.

The climbers on the ground all clapped and cheered when he smiled down at them. A few whistled. They’d seen him take off his brace.

Lion climbed down off the rock and gave a bow, which got a laugh from everyone. Thankfully, he put his brace back on.

Daniel wanted to climb too, so Lion took us to some nearby boulders that were easy enough for everybody.

“I brought something for you guys,” Lion said. He unzipped his pack and pulled out two new pairs of climbing shoes. “These are the same style and sizes you use at the gym. I even got you guys your own chalk bags.”

“You shouldn’t have,” I smiled.

“Yes he should!” Daniel grinned.

We put our shoes on and belted our chalk bags and climbed until our hands were tired and raw from the granite, which was much more abrasive than the climbing gym. It didn’t take long for me and not much longer for Daniel to be done. Lion had stamina to spare, but that was always the case with him.

After, we went hiking and saw many of the sights in the Valley, including the majestic Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in the park at over 2,400 feet. The Lower Falls were framed by redwoods. The view from the approach made me think of a tree lined cathedral. The crowd of visitors added a touristy feel to Mother Nature’s church.

“This is so beautiful,” I marveled.

“Yeah it is,” Lion said.
That voice
. He stared at me.

“The falls are that way.” I pointed.

Daniel was busy scampering around on the dry boulders near a bunch of people taking pictures of the crashing white water in the distance, so he was occupied. I looked around, scanning the faces of the various visitors surrounding us. I didn’t recognize anyone. We were hours away from LA. It seemed unlikely any of these people could possibly recognize either of us.

I leaned against Lion’s side.

He stiffened, surprised. “What are you doing, friend?” He said it with amusement.

“Just hugging my friend.” I stood to his side, my arms wrapped around his waist. I nuzzled my cheek against his hard pectoral muscle. “How is your knee doing from all the hiking?”

“Not bad. The brace is helping. It’ll probably be a little swollen later, but it’s nothing I can’t ice out when we get back home.”

I wasn’t going to lecture him about it. “This place is incredible, Lion. Thank you so much for suggesting this trip.”

He grinned. “What are friends for?” His eyes glowed with the reflections of the bright sun off the rocks at the base of the falls.

I closed my eyes and inhaled, taking in his scent. He rarely wore cologne, our trip to Naked Sensations being the rare exception. But his natural smell was always intoxicating. I felt myself quiver as my heart started to pound and my blood raced. I wanted this man so badly I could barely stand it.