Hot Pursuit

Chapter One From Taylor's Book of Rules: Be prepared. Always pack antacids and an eyelash curler. Taylor looked south to the distant sprawl of San Francisco. Why had she ever decided to take up rock climbing, especially when it involved hugging a granite slab two hundred feet above the ground? The simple answer came first: She was preparing for a new book. Authors did crazy things when they were testing a new story, desperate to chisel out the reality of a new character. But the truest answer was subtle and far more unsettling. You did dangerous things when your life changed and you lost every anchor you'd taken for granted while you were growing up. When you found out your childhood was a lie. Taylor wiped sweat off her top lip and sighted up the cliff. Four feet to the next ledge. She took a breath and crouch-walked up the angled slab, ignoring the pain in her arms and shoulders. "Watch your moves below that next bolt." Her climbing instructor, a buff twenty-something from Santa Barbara, stood below and uncoiled rope as she called out orders. "You won't have much of a foothold, so stay balanced and dig in hard with your sole." "Got it, Candace." Taylor was glad for the warning when her foot began to slip. Panting, she leaned away from the rock to restore traction, then pulled herself to the next hold, yanked up the slack on her rope, and caught a loop in her teeth before clipping into the bolt. Cold wind snapped across her damp face. She tried to remember exactly what Candace had been discussing. Right. Help with a cheating boyfriend. "If he's cheating, forget him, Candace." "I can't just walk away. I need to know what's happening to us and why. Harris has been pretty stressed lately because he's working a lot of overtime at his lab on some gonzo project he has to oversee personally. But we always worked things out before." Her voice wavered. "Now he's different. It's almost like he had a personality transplant." "People change," Taylor called as she tractioned up the steep rock face. "These things happen, Candace." "Not like this. And I can't stop thinking about him, Taylor. Everything used to be so wonderful," she said wistfully. Taylor thought longingly about the thermos of Starbucks Caramel Macchiato out in her car. Don't look down. Don't think of anything but the rock. Yeah, right. She stretched out a kink in her shoulder. "So what turned your friend Harris into Frankenstein all of a sudden?" "That's just it--I don't know. None of it makes sense." The gusting wind toyed with Candace's voice, making the words drift and fade. "One day he said he wanted the whole deal--life with me, a big house, and a mortgage. He swore he was going to leave his wife, father my children, start being responsible. All that heavy stuff." Taylor turned her head to look at Candace. "You didn't tell me that Harris was married!" "He was up front about that, Taylor. He never lied about her. He explained to me how they've been having all these problems over the last year. He's been making plans to tell her about us." Yech. Taylor got ready for her next move, trying hard not to hate Candace for thinking this was an easy route for Taylor's first outdoor climb. They had met several months before, when Taylor had noticed her neighbor carrying climbing equipment onto the elevator in their apartment building. Immediately plot ideas had begun to stir. After writing a dozen books, Taylor knew a story kernel when she saw it. The two women had become friends over coffee and croissants at a local bakery, where Taylor grilled Candace about every detail of climbing. As the book's plot took final shape, Taylor realized she would havSkye, Christina is the author of 'Hot Pursuit' with ISBN 9780440237594 and ISBN 0440237599.