Excerpts
From the book…
Rob walked through the heavy double doors of Boulder’s Flatiron Brewpub and was greeted by the familiar sweet smell of brewing beer—he had come home. It seemed a lifetime had gone by since he had been a waiter at the pub. He had waited tables during the evening and climbed every rock face, mountain, and icefall Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah had to offer during the day. Rob was born to climb, and he had gone to Boulder to pursue his passion fresh from high school in Iowa.
As the memories rushed through his mind, he spotted a familiar face—Allison? he thought. Yes! She had been a young freckle-faced tomboy working at the pub as a waitress. Now, eight years later, she had become an athletic, attractive woman.
“Is that you, Rob?” Allison yelled over the din of the Friday night crowd. Allison was now the hostess and immediately pushed through the small throng waiting to be seated. She gave him a huge hug.
“I can’t believe it’s you!” Allison yelled. Rob stepped back, lifted his hands to shoulder height, and looked at his chest. “It’s me,” he said with a big grin on his face.
“Of course it’s you!” She reached for him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Allison, suddenly aware the pub patrons were now staring at them, decided an explanation was necessary. “Don’t you know who this is?” Not waiting for an answer, she blurted, “This is Rob Lockhart—the climber—the one in the movie—you know—the movie that just came out, American Tiger—well this is the guy the movie is about. He’s the guy who did all that gnarly climbing stuff.”
People in the crowd began to recognize the similarities between the handsome man before them, the character in Tiger, and the various photos of Rob scattered around the pub.
“Dude! I can’t believe it! It’s really you!” someone yelled.
Rob laughed. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“Wow! Can I have your autograph?”
“Sure,” Rob said with a big grin. He absolutely loved the attention. The movie had only been out a couple of weeks, and, in addition to his television series, his celebrity status was soaring. Rob loved the interaction with his fans. He signed cocktail napkins thrust at him, and, as word spread throughout the restaurant, more and more people were clamoring for a glimpse of the star. Allison quickly realized that she needed to regain control of the reception area. She caught Rob’s eye, and he smiled back at her.
“Mr. Lockhart, your party has already been seated and is waiting for you,” Allison shouted to be heard.
“Sorry, I’ve got to go,” he said to the crowd as he took Allison’s hand.
“Follow me,” she announced.
As soon as they had disappeared into the pub, Allison stopped. “Where have you been? You have to tell me about Hollywood!”
“Allison, it’s a long story,” Rob began.
“Well, I want to hear it all, you rat. Leaving without telling anyone—how could you? You broke my heart.” Allison and Rob had dated for a short time. She considered Rob her first real love and had been heartbroken when he broke up with her.
“Allison, please, not now.” Rob looked away as he recalled the painful memory. For all of Rob Lockhart’s remarkable skills as a mountain climber, his interpersonal skills ranked him as a newbie. When he broke off the relationship with Allison, he had left a disjointed voice message on her telephone, the gist of which had been some half-believable need for him to “sort out his feelings.”
“All right, but I’m only giving up temporarily since I’ve got to get back to work. Promise you’ll call me?” She looked deep into Rob’s eyes with a faint smile on her lips—hoping that he had come to see her. Rob quickly looked away. He knew that all he had to do was say the word and she would take him back.
“I promise.”
“Okay, are you here to hang out—or what? Do you want to sit at the bar?”
“I’m here to meet Alexa. Is she here?”
Allison’s face flushed. Of course…I should’ve known. A week after Rob broke off their relationship, he had shown up at the pub with the most exotic-looking woman Allison had ever seen—Alexa.
“Alexa? She hasn’t been here in forever, and she shows up tonight—outta the blue. And now you’re here.” Allison took the palm of her hand and gently struck the side of her head to drive the point home. “Duh. I should’ve known you’re here to see her. Yeah, well, she’s here somewhere. Didn’t like where I seated her ’cause she couldn’t smoke her French cigarettes in the pub. Hell, I think the manager finally sat her outside. What a bitch! I’ll never understand what you see in her.”
“You and me both, Allison.” He didn’t bother to tell her that Alexa had dumped him. “I’ll find her. Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Allison gave Rob a peck on the cheek. She turned to leave and then turned back again. “You break all the girls’ hearts, don’t you?”
A pained look crossed Rob’s face. “No, Allison, not all.”
Rob headed toward the rear of the cavernous pub where the deck overlooking the city of Boulder was located. The pub had always attracted a curious mix of Boulder’s finest—aging hippies from the sixties and early seventies, yuppies, Gen Xers, and beautiful people of all ages. Even so, when Rob entered the room, these people took notice.
Rob was running late for his reunion with Alexa. He had spent most of the day at the U.S. Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, where he had given one of his inspirational speeches. He was in his element in front of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team. As a high school student in Iowa, Rob had done something unprecedented by winning the Iowa state high school gymnastics title as top male gymnast four years running. He had been offered scholarships to all the major universities in the country. But by his senior year in high school, all Rob had wanted to do was climb mountains; he had turned down all the offers.
He had given the young women his now-famous admonition of “There’s no mountain you can’t climb!” and how they could use that thought to reach Olympic heights. His enthusiasm and charisma had been electric, and the girls had drunk in every word he said. He had finished his speech with a tumbling run across the gym, which had culminated in a flawlessly executed triple back somersault—a feat no one at the training facility had ever seen accomplished. The girls and trainers had been stunned. There had been dead silence in the gym as Rob had bowed to make-believe judges and waved to an imaginary crowd—as if he had just won Olympic gold. He had then walked to where the girls and trainers were sitting—in stilled amazement. “You see, there is no mountain you can’t climb!” Then he had broken into a huge grin. The girls had mobbed him. Before he had left, they had insisted that he be at the Olympics in Beijing. “I’ll be there with you. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
On the way past the bar he ordered his old favorite, Eldorado Stout. Now that he knew that Alexa was actually at the pub, the thought of leaving crossed his mind—after all, she deserved to be stood up after she had dumped him. Hell, he thought to himself, this could be fun. He no longer was a struggling rock crawler—he was one of the most famous climbers in the world—a celebrity. He would take some delight in making her realize how wrong she had been. Beer in hand, he searched the crowd for her.