“Is anybody really all right? Are they?”
“I don’t have time for this shit,” I grumbled and gave him a quick pat down, checking for any obvious injuries.
“Everything under control here?”
“As much as it can be. I’ll have to carry Tessa down, but it looks like this kid—”
“Ronnie,” he interjected. “Call me Ronnie, mister rescuer.”
“It looks like Ronnie can walk on his own. So let’s get going.” It was slow at first, the kids too cold and too high to do anything more than amble a few steps at a time like zombies, but with our blood and adrenaline pumping now, Preston and I managed to get back to the camping site in half the time.
“Simona! Kyle!” Those were the names of the two unaccounted-for campers, and none of the other kids had given us any useful information. “Simona! Kyle!” Preston called out to them a few more times while our flashlight beams bounced across the area, looking for disturbances in nature.
“Over here!” The voice was faint but we both heard it and made our way over to Simona. “Over here. I’m over here.”
“Careful, Pres. It’s a drop-off right ahead.” That was bad news, and even worse if what I was starting to suspect was true.
Preston was at the girl’s side, assisting. “Where are you hurt?”
“My wrist. I was trying to help Kyle when he fell over and I think I dislocated my wrist, or whatever, when he slipped out of my grip.”
Shit. He went over the edge. I flashed my light down there, but it was pitch black. “Kyle, you down there?”
“Yeah. I’m down here.”
Which meant one of us—me—was going down. “Preston, I’m dropping down about fifty feet to get the final kid.”
“You sure?”
It was part of the job, and Preston had a fiancée at home. Besides, I’d been hiking and climbing this park since I was a boy. “Yep. It’s an easy up-and-down rescue.”
As long as the kid didn’t freak out, which I wasn’t banking on because they always freaked out. It took a couple minutes to get my rigging set up, but I was down on the next ledge in another minute, introducing myself when the searchlight landed on Kyle’s face.
The kid couldn’t be older than sixteen and here he was, deep in the woods, high and injured. “I’m Nate, search and rescue. You hurt?”
“My pride hurts like hell, but mostly it’s my back. And my wrist, only a little. I can feel my toes, so I think I’m fine.” At my look, he attempted a shrug and winced. “I’m junior S&R.”
Which meant he knew protocol. “Then what in the hell were you doing anywhere near this ledge with drugs in your system?”
He smiled when I came closer to examine him, talking while I checked him over for cuts, bumps, and lacerations. “Simona Caldwell. A riot of red curls and big blue eyes. She kissed me and I was a goner. I took too many steps back until I ran out of ground.”
“And the drugs?”
“We took ’em, but I fell before they kicked in—otherwise, I’d probably be dead.” The smile on his face said he was feeling no pain and probably wouldn’t remember anything by morning.
“All right, Romeo, let’s get you strapped in.” I worked quickly because while the kid might think he’s just fine, the chattering of his teeth said otherwise. “Whatever you do, try to stay calm. I need you to stay calm.”
“Calm as a cucumber, man.”
“Right,” I grunted at his teenage bravado.
“I won’t freak,” he assured me, his tone sounding more sober and serious than it had just seconds ago.
I didn’t buy it, but the temperature dropped with every passing minute so I got us both strapped in and started to climb back up. Just as Kyle started to freak out. “Kyle, chill. Relax.”
“I am relaxed, man, but you gotta hurry up before they get us.”
I didn’t know who they were, but I was pretty sure there no was no one there. “I think the shrooms have officially kicked in, kid.”
“No, seriously man.” His legs kicked out wildly and then his arms joined the party, making us both rock back and forth. On the rope. “They’re coming. Go faster. Go! Go!”
The rope swung too much and I had to pause, hands and fingers trembling under the effort. “Kyle. Relax.” It didn’t matter what I said; he was in the middle of a full-blown freak out. We were gonna fall, and the only thing I could do was minimize re-injuring the kid.
“Dude, the smidgens are coming. They’re coming!” He rocked back and forth, trying to climb away from his invisible enemy when the rope gave out, jarring us down about ten feet. At first. “Dude!”
“Kyle. Relax, dammit!” Before he could insist he was relaxed, again, the rope snapped completely and we fell another twenty or so feet. And I landed on my back with a thud, lying there for about three seconds before everything went black.
Mikki
I didn’t live what most people would call a high-risk lifestyle, which meant a knock on the door in the middle of the night was enough to get my heart racing. The knocks came sharp and short and insistent, and I tried to swallow around the dry lump in my throat as my feet smacked against the cold strip of wood between where the steps ended and the rug began.
The second round of knocking came harder and faster, angry. “Dammit, Mikki, wake up!”
“Bo?” I unlocked the door as fast as my shaking fingers would allow, frowning at the sight of big, bad Bo in pink-and-gray striped pajamas and a Tulip 2k for Kittens tee. “What’s going on?”
“Damn, woman, you sleep like the dead.” She frowned and stepped inside, and then her frown crumpled into a bone-deep worry. And something else. Fear. “Nate’s been in an accident at work.”
“What?” I shook my head because those words just didn’t seem possible. He’s a Hometown Hero. for crying out loud—hero is right in the description. “That can’t be. Are you sure?”
“You think I’d be here if there was some doubt? He was helping some drunk kid and they fell. Far.”
My legs wobbled—only a little, but enough for Bo to notice. “I’m sorry, Bo. You need a ride to the hospital, right? Of course you do.” It took a few seconds of searching for my shoes before I realized that tears were blurring my vision, which was ridiculous. There was no reason to cry; Nate was injured. That was all. “Just a second.”
Bo sighed and grabbed my shoulders. “No, dummy, I’m here to take you to the hospital. You two care about each other, no matter how hard you work at convincing one another the opposite is true.” I opened my mouth to argue, but her next words stopped me cold. “He’s unconscious now, but he was calling your name before he went out.”
He did? “Maybe he said something that sounds like Mikki. But, sure, I’ll come to the hospital with you.” To see for myself that Nate was fine. At least, before I killed him myself with the news that he was about to be a father.
“Thanks,” Bo snorted and I ignored her, quickly locating my shoes and purse before we slid into her truck and made our way to Tulip County Hospital.
Preston and Jase met us on the other side of the automatic doors, looking grim and worried. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure that Nate would be all right. Everyone in the waiting room knew him better than I did, so maybe my confidence was more for my own benefit than his. “Any news?” Bo and Jase fused together automatically, and it was sweet. And a little sickening, given my current predicament.
All eyes turned to Preston, whose golden-boy good looks were marred by dirt smudges, torn fabric, and blond hair that stood up all over his head. “He was conscious when they brought him, and that’s a good thing. But his leg’s definitely broken and we don’t know how bad yet, plus he landed flat on his back and now there’s swelling around his spine.”
“What?” The words fell from my lips unbidden, as anguish tore through me. “Can he walk?”
“Don’t know yet. They’ll be keeping him overnight to check the swelling. And the concussion.”
Jase shook his head, anger rolling off his bo
dy in big steamy waves. “Fucking kid freaked out and now Nate’s hurt. He’s probably pissed.”
Preston let out a sharp laugh. “He was pissed to start with and doing his best to keep the kid calm—I mean, really being more unlike himself than I’d seen him in a good long while. Didn’t help, because the shrooms the kid had taken had just kicked in, and he was screaming about smidgens chasing them.”
Okay, that was kind of funny, even if it was also maddening. Jase let out a laugh, and then Bo, and then we were all laughing because that’s what you did when you were terrified that things were about to change forever, that someone you knew was about to become someone else. It was a tension reliever.
“I’ll go call Rayanne.” Some silent communication went on between Bo and Jase as she spoke. “She’d want to know.”
“She’s still on that cruise in the Mediterranean, Bo. There’s nothing she can do now but worry.” Jase held her hands in his, pleading even though everyone within earshot knew it was a losing argument.
“She’ll never let you forget it if you don’t tell her. I’ll just pass the message through the service instead of calling the ship directly, okay?” Bo patted his chest and walked away before Jase realized he’d been played.
“She’s good.”
He smiled over at me. “Too damn good. Don’t tell her I said that.”
I mimed zipping my lips. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” It was nice to see a man who didn’t mind a strong woman in practice. It was a thing they said in lip service to modern women, but few seemed to really believe it. Jase did, and that took him a bit more in my estimation.
“Now we just have to figure where Nate will stay during his recovery.” It was too soon to think things like that, wasn’t it? “My place is mostly empty, so that’s out of the question, and he’d never be able to get around Bo’s place.”
Poor Nate. Not only would he be out of work for a few weeks, but he would be displaced, as well. That would make him even grumpier than usual, which would make it difficult to tell him my news. Our news. The news. “He can stay with me.”
Maybe it was the way I blurted the words out, but Jase and Preston stared at me like I’d grown another head. “You sure about that? He’s a surly shit on the best of days.”
Like I didn’t know that. “And most of it is directed my way, which makes me the ideal person. He doesn’t intimidate me. And his charm doesn’t work on me.” Not really, anyway. “Besides, I have the space to accommodate him. Unless you and Nina want to put him up?”
Preston hesitated. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no if he needed me.”
Jase smacked his chest. “Thanks, dick.”
Preston frowned and smacked him back. “I said I’d put him up.”
“Reluctantly,” Jase shot back.
“Boys. It’s settled.”
“Thanks,” Jase said, relief thick in his voice.
“But you have to be the one to tell him about it.” Jase groaned and Preston laughed, while I wondered what in the hell I’d just done. Only looking out for the father of your baby who doesn’t know he’s about to be a father yet.
Damn conscience—she never takes a break.
Nate
“Damn, am I happy to be sprung from that place.”
Sliding into Jase’s little-ass car with a broken leg wasn’t the best way to start my first day of freedom from being poked, prodded, and measured every hour on the hour. “Too bad you picked me up in a Barbie car.”
Jase stood outside the passenger door, waiting for me to get my big ass situated. Laughing. “It’s all right Nate, we have all day.” When I glared at him, he had the nerve to laugh outright, bent over and crowing loud enough to draw stares. “All. Day.”
“Asshole,” I grumbled under my breath, still trying to get settled. “I’m getting in the back.”
“If only the doctor hadn’t suggested that exact thing almost an hour ago.” I ignored his sarcasm because on this, he was right. It was my own stubbornness causing me pain and discomfort now. “All settled?”
“Yep,” I grunted, ignoring the searing pain shooting through my leg and the subtle but nonstop pounding in my head.
“All right, then.” He slammed the door much harder than was necessary and jogged around to the driver’s side. “I’m sorry you got hurt, Nate, but try not to take this out on the rest of us.”
“Right.” It was a good reminder, but between the pain and the way that kid, fucking Kyle, had escaped with nothing more than a mild concussion, I was in a surly mood. “How’d you get Bo to let you move in with me for a few weeks?”
“I didn’t.” His gaze slid to mine in the mirror before turning back to the road—a little too eagerly, if you ask me. “There’s no way in hell you can make it up and down those steps, even with my help.”
That was true, and most of Jase’s stuff was either in storage or cluttering up Bo’s place. “The ground around Bo’s place is too unstable for an unstable leg.” I’d kill myself just trying to get a breath of fresh air. This was why I hated injuries. Relying on other people didn’t come easy for me, and feeling like a burden didn’t sit well, either.
“I know that, too, Nate.” He was being vague on purpose and I wasn’t in the mood.
“Then tell me where the hell you’re taking me and do it before we get there, because obviously there’s some big secret I’m not in on.” I knew I sounded like a surly jackass, but I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t slept well in three days, and let’s not forget the pain.
“You’d feel like a real dick if I was taking you to a surprise party, wouldn’t you?”
“Are you?” Because yeah, I would.
“Who can really say about these things?” Before I could tell him what I thought of his attempts to be cute, he turned up the radio and drowned out the sound of my voice. Then, he started singing.
There was no damn surprise party, because there was nothing to celebrate. I had done my job and the kid was only mildly injured, end of story. Which meant Jase was taking me someplace I’d object to. It didn’t take long to realize where we were going, especially when the car turned and the cheerful yellow door came into view. “You have got to be kidding me! How in the hell did you manage this?”
Jase shrugged, doing a shit job of hiding the smile on his stupid face. “She volunteered and after I thought about it, for a good long while, I realized she was right. My place is empty and yours has too many stairs, and Bo’s place has too much wobbly ground.” He shrugged again, doing his best to sell it as he killed the engine. “There was no good reason to turn down her offer. Was there?”
“I walked right into that one.”
Jase barked out a laugh and slid from the car. “You definitely did that. If you have no real objections, this is a solid option and, in case you didn’t hear me the first time, she volunteered.”
Which didn’t make a damn lick of sense. I made a mental note to ask her about it the second we were alone and then turned my focus to blotting out the pain as I made it out of the car and up the small stairs that led to Mikki’s little bungalow. ‘Little’ being the operative word. The place was a damn doll house, and I nearly broke my other leg trying not to mess up her stuff.
“None of it is irreplaceable, Nate.”
I didn’t need to turn around to see the smile on Mikki’s face; I could hear it in her voice. “Then why do you have all these trinkets all over the place.”
“You mean the photos?” Her amusement didn’t sit well with me, but I knew she was trying to dissolve the tension.
But as I looked around, I realized she was right. There were photos everywhere, mostly of her with a younger version of herself and an older woman, all over the world. “A lot of photos.”
Her laughter was pretty. Feminine. “I know, it’s ridiculous, and I keep saying that one of these days I’ll digitize them, but then I’ll have to figure out some other way to surround myself with good memories. You know?”
I nodded, even though I had no idea. “I suppo
se so.”
“Maybe it is sentimental,” she admitted as if she was a mind reader, too. “But I’m all right with that. Those are some of the best memories of my life, traveling with Nonna and Rocky.”
“Rocky?”
“My younger sister and my closest friend.” She shrugged and squeezed past me but she was unsuccessful in avoiding my body, brushing right up against me as she slid between me and the wall. “Anyway, this is your room.” She pushed open the door and stepped inside.
It wasn’t as feminine as I would have thought, decorated in shades of green with gold accents. The bed had a sturdy-looking frame and a lot of damn pillows. The furniture was pine and a little on the feminine side, but not delicate. “Not as girly as I was expecting.”
“I can pull the lace skirt out, if you’d feel more comfortable. The pink carnation bed sheets, too, maybe?”
“Smart ass,” I grumbled at her, but I couldn’t stop the smile her sarcasm produced. “My stuff is already in here.”
“Bo brought it over because she wanted you to be comfortable.” She held her hands up defensively and I realized how I must sound to her.
“I don’t want to put you out.”
Mikki sighed, putting her hands on her hips, and instead of bracing myself, I collapsed on the bed with a groan. “If you don’t want to stay, Nate, don’t. As soon as Jase and Bo are gone, I’ll drop you off in front of your house and you can figure out the rest on your own.” Slowly, she folded her arms over her chest, daring me to take her up on her offer—but wearing a smug smile because she knew I wouldn’t. Couldn’t. “Right. Well, you let me know when you’re ready to go.”
I’m not ashamed to admit that I watched the swing in her hips and the sway of her ass until she was out of sight, then I fell back against the bed with a long sigh. Staying with Mikki couldn’t be a good idea, but I wasn’t as opposed to the idea now that I was here—and apparently already settled in, thanks to Bo. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad having a pretty girl playing nurse to me for a little while.
Misters of Love: A Small Town Romance Boxset Page 10