by Rebecca Rode
Sofia stared at the ground, cheeks flushed. "She’s going on Wake Up America on Friday morning. Her flight leaves at 9:20 a.m. tomorrow.”
“There’s no way,” Tim said from the corner. “Not when she can’t even walk.”
Micah sat back, eyeing me thoughtfully. I didn't like what I saw in his eyes. “You can't travel,” he finally said. “Even if we figured out a way to carry or drag you, the trail will be completely covered in snow fifteen minutes from now. We could end up wandering in the woods for days." He paused. "I'm sorry to say it, but we'd better stay here until morning and see if they’ll send a rescue team after us.”
I wanted to scream in frustration. My knee twitched, sending raw pain down my leg again. I gritted my teeth against Micah's expression, so full of pity and sorrow. "I suppose I can find a later flight tomorrow."
Micah and Sofia both nodded. They looked concerned, but I felt patronized.
"I know the way back," Tim said. “I have a compass in my backpack. I bet I could make it down the mountain in three hours if I move quickly. I’ll send a team up to fetch you.”
Sofia smiled at him. “You’d do that for us?”
“Of course.”
She rose to her feet. “Then I’m coming too.”
Micah groaned. "Was nobody listening to my 'It's dangerous out there' speech?"
“I’ll be moving fast,” Tim said to Sofia, a hint of color in his cheeks. “You sure you can keep up?”
Sofia bent down to check the bindings on her snowshoes. “My best friend is hurt, and it’s my fault for dragging her out here. You’ll be lucky to keep up with me.” She turned to me. “I’m so sorry, Corie. Can you forgive me?”
“I—You can’t go out there. I’m sure Tim will be fine by himself.” As angry as I was, I couldn’t let her get lost in the storm because of guilt. “I’m serious, all right? Just stay.”
She gave a wry smile. "I have this recurring nightmare of being eaten by bears in caves like this. I think I’ll take my chances with the snow.”
“Funny, because this whole cave thing was your idea.”
She ignored me. “Micah, are you okay staying with her?"
"Uh,” Micah began. “Actually, I’ll go with Tim. You ladies will be safe in here until we get help.”
“And sit around waiting to be saved?” Sofia said. “Fat chance. Corie, you hang in there. I’ll make this right. Promise.”
Tim and Sofia finished with their bindings. Tim straightened his glasses, then removed two flashlights from his pack, tossing one to Micah. Before I could object further, they disappeared out the cave entrance. Then we were alone.
7
I GROANED AND POUNDED THE floor with a fist. "This is just great."
Micah lowered himself to a sitting position and leaned against the wall. “It’s like a movie, actually. An action film where the hero has to fight off an angry bear.”
“Bears are hibernating right now.”
“I wasn’t talking about the furry kind.” He cocked his head as he sat there, cross-legged, and shot me a meaningful look.
I smiled despite myself. “And you wonder why I’m having trouble taking the whole I’ve-grown-up-since-high-school thing seriously.”
“It could be worse. You could be up here alone with Tim."
“He’d spend all night lecturing me about the proper way to climb hills in snowshoes."
“Most likely. He is a decent guy, though. A little awkward, but good." He situated the flashlight on the hard ground, pointing it up at the rock ceiling for light. I hoped the batteries would last a while. "Or you could be here with Coach Durnsley. That woman still scares me."
“She was pretty intense,” I said. “How do you even know her? She only coached the girls’ team.”
His tone was nonchalant. “I watched a practice or two. Ours almost always ended before yours did. Couldn’t help but admire her work ethic. If she’d coached the guys as well, we’d have taken regionals, no question.”
I was too distracted by his first comment to follow much of what he’d said. It sent a little jab into my heart, a reminder that I couldn’t get too comfortable with this man. “You came to watch your girlfriends.”
His face, so easy and relaxed, froze in a look of confusion. He studied me for a moment. “Oh, I see. Those girls on your team. So that’s why you’ve been acting like I’m the devil incarnate.”
I shrugged. “Must be difficult, living a lie like that. Pretending, leading them on so each one felt special. You could say it was incredibly brave or ridiculously stupid, considering they spent two and a half hours together every day after school.”
“I know what it must have looked like,” he said slowly. “But since you’re a captive audience right now, you’re going to hear my side of the story.”
I kept my tone light. “Fair enough.”
“They both asked me to the girls’ choice dance the same day. The same hour, actually. I went to the dance with Emmaline since she asked first, but I took Addy to dinner and a movie the next day so she wouldn’t feel bad. We hung out a few times after that. I wasn’t all that interested in either one, to be honest. But maybe I did send the wrong signals.” He leaned forward, his eyes fixed intently on mine. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit I was a moron. I was seventeen. I didn’t have a clue what love was until I met my fiancée, and you know how that ended. That’s why I came here, to see if I could find that again.”
I blinked, feeling heat creep up my neck. His explanation wasn’t much of an excuse, but at least he’d acknowledged that. And the way he looked at me . . . it set my insides tingling. Was he saying he’d found it?
When I finally spoke, my voice sounded shaky. “You’re here to find The One.”
He grinned sheepishly. “You make it sound so cliché."
“Sofia is like that too. I can’t exactly fault you for being optimistic.”
He leaned against the cave wall, all seriousness now. "I believe in it to a point. The idea of there being one person out there, a single soul mate, is intrinsically flawed. What if that one person lives in New Zealand? Or what if she's at the lodge right now but I never even meet her? What if she’s sixty-four? There are way too many factors involved.”
What if your One thinks you aren't The One for him? What if he throws you away like a wad of chewed gum? He’d hit the bull’s-eye dead center, explaining it like I hadn’t been able to throughout my entire book.
I forced a smile. “I can’t believe you wouldn’t consider a sixty-four-year-old.”
Color stained his cheeks in the low light. “Yeah, we’ll let that subject die.”
Silence settled upon us for a moment, and then I spoke. “I didn’t think you were the devil incarnate. You said it pretty well the other night—it was simply that you were a guy, and I’ve never met a guy I could trust. No offense.”
“Sorry your fiancé did that to you.”
I shook my head. “Not just Rhett. My biological father, my stepfather, my mother's boyfriends. Every man I ever knew growing up.”
He had straightened, watching me intently, but he didn’t speak. His eyes seemed to absorb what little light the cave offered, turning his green eyes a deep gray. That, combined with the stubble on his chin and the memory of the hardness of his shoulders under my arm made me swallow hard before continuing.
“For some reason, my mom never gave up hope that there was one man out there for her. She'd insist she’d found him, then he'd end up being a jerk. Even then she stayed until it got really bad."
"They beat her."
"Not when I could see, but yeah. I left before I turned eighteen, graduated early and went to USC on a scholarship. But whenever I visited home, I knew what was going on. A fractured arm. A puffy, bruised eye. She'd explain it all away, defend him, insist that he was her true love and that he'd come around eventually. She’s never lost hope in finding her one perfect guy.”
“So you grew up guarded and suspicious of men but set it all aside for a man wh
o ultimately betrayed you like all the others.”
I wrapped my arms around myself again. What was it about Micah that possessed me to talk like this? He’d broken down some of the walls around my pain, forcing me to admit things I’d never discussed with another soul. I frantically tried to rebuild them, to steel myself against the truth of his words.
How did a man I barely knew see me so well?
“I wish I could say people in general are trustworthy,” he said, “but they make mistakes. All of us do. Even best friends who think they know what we need and drag us into the mountains during a blizzard. That said, I’m glad I came. I’d hate for you to be up here alone.”
I tried to lift the corners of my mouth, but they wouldn’t cooperate. “Thanks for keeping me safe from all those scary bears.”
“If they come, they’ll regret it. This flashlight and I can be pretty vicious.” He grinned. “I’ve got to admit, I feel dumb that I didn’t see Sofia’s scheme right away. Every time I saw her at the center, she’d casually mention you. She was so excited when I agreed to come. I was a little worried she had a thing for me and I’d have to disappoint her. She’s not exactly my type.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that.
I tore my gaze away from his and focused on the flashlight. I felt Micah’s eyes on me for a moment, and then he adjusted his seat on the rocks. His lips had begun to turn a pale shade of blue.
I slid his coat out from under my knee and held it out to him. “Looks like you need this.”
Micah hesitated, then reached over to take it. He had removed his gloves, revealing large, strong hands. His fingers brushed mine, then closed around the coat sleeve. That familiar jolt hit my system again.
“I would have been fine, but thanks.” A mischievous smile crossed his face. “Holler if you get too cold. I’m no Tim, but I’ve heard it’s smart to huddle together for warmth in an emergency.”
Heat flared inside as I tried to imagine Micah lying next to me, arms holding me in an embrace. Could I ever let him go if he broke his way past my walls? The broken pieces of my heart had just begun to heal properly. I felt like a little girl again.
“I’ll let you know,” I said, my voice shaky. “In the meantime, I’m going to try to get some sleep. It may be a long night.”
There was a flash of something that looked like disappointment in his eyes, but he nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll stay up for a while.”
***
I woke to a hand on my shoulder. “Corie, you all right?”
Pain slammed into my knee as I tried to turn over, and I released a low whimper.
“Don’t move,” Micah said, sitting back. I could see his breath puff in the cold air as he spoke. “I shouldn’t have woken you. It’s just that you were crying out in your sleep.”
Micah’s face was now inches from mine. As the pain began to recede, I stared at him. His eyes were green speckled with brown. He had the remnants of childhood freckles dotting his nose. And his jaw held more stubble than I’d ever seen. I resisted the urge to run my fingers across it like sandpaper, to let my fingers trail up his neck and slide into his hair, twisting it between my fingers.
Strangely, he seemed to be looking at me the same way. His gaze flitted from my eyes to my lips.
“Um, no,” I said, shivering and a little breathless. “I m-mean, my knee hurts now, but as long as I don’t move it’s okay. Must’ve been a nightmare.” I hugged myself, wishing I’d listened to Tim and worn layers underneath. The cold ground had managed to soak through every cell in my body, bringing with it a deep chill. My body had begun to shake violently. It was all I could do to keep my leg still.
I slid my cell phone out of my pocket and clicked it on. Eleven minutes past midnight and only 19 percent left on the battery. Still no reception, of course.
“Glad to hear that.” He didn’t retreat to his corner, though. Instead, he continued to kneel next to me. His hair was tousled in the back where he’d leaned against the cave wall, and his gaze was bleary. I glanced at the flashlight. It had dimmed somewhat.
“You haven’t slept,” I said.
He shook his head. “Couldn’t.”
I pulled myself into sitting position and ran a hand along my hurt leg. The swelling in my knee was pulling the snow-proof fabric tight against the jeans I wore underneath. I’d have to cut them off if it swelled much more.
Micah watched with a frown. “We should probably do something about that knee. When I hurt mine, I had to ice it for days to keep the swelling down.”
“Ice it? In this weather?”
“Nah, but if there’s one thing we have plenty of, it’s snow.” He stood and made his way out of our small circle of light. When he returned a moment later, his gloves were back on and he held an armful of snow. “It’s really coming down out there. I could barely get out.”
He knelt down and packed the snow around my knee. My snow pants kept most of the chill out, but it didn’t take long for the cold to seep through. Surprisingly, it did help a bit with the pain.
Now if only we could keep my knee cold and the rest of my body warm. Except it would be easier to go to Disneyland than find dry wood for a fire right now. I pulled my coat tighter and lay back down on the hard ground. “Thanks. I’ll never complain about a hard mattress again.”
He sat back on his haunches, still hovering over me. “You’re still shivering. Sure you’re doing okay?”
“I’ll live.” Even as the words left my mouth, I realized their irony. The rescue team would arrive any moment now. Wouldn’t they? I couldn’t imagine what would happen if they didn’t.
I looked up at Micah and saw the same worry reflected in his eyes. He watched me with a concern that warmed my insides. For the first time, our situation fully struck me. We had no food or water, and this bone-numbing cold would only get worse before morning. And what about Sofia and Tim? Had they made it down, or were they wandering in the snow? Or worse?
I swallowed hard and broke the silence, trying to contain my shivering. “I w-want to know why you changed your mind about grad school at Berkeley and went home to M-mission Verde instead. I’m sure there’s a story there.”
His mouth twisted into a grim smile, and he seated himself next to me. He was shivering too, I noticed, but he didn’t push the cuddling-for-warmth thing again. “It’s more simple than you think. My grandfather died and left me his house on the outskirts of town. Technically my dad inherited it, but his health isn’t good enough for him to take on all the repairs, and I love that kind of thing.” He paused. “In all honesty, though, school only made me realize how much I missed our small town. I’m not a big city guy. You?”
“Small-town l-life is a nice change after USC,” I admitted. “I like the peaceful quiet, the way everyone knows each other. But if I w-want my c-consulting business to do well, I’ll have to start it up in LA or New York. That’s where the clients are.”
“Makes sense.” His voice sounded troubled. “I think you could have something really amazing in that book of yours. I’m sure people will flock to your business. But I’ve got to say, you don’t seem like a city girl.”
I shrugged. “I’ll learn to l-like city life eventually.”
“Mmm.” He was still thoughtful. “What about your mom?”
“Why do you say that?”
“I can see how much you love her. Seems like it would be hard to leave.”
He had no idea. Leaving Mom behind while I went to school had been extremely difficult. I’d even found a studio apartment nearby and asked her to move closer to me. But she had refused to leave her childhood home. I had visited her at Christmas every year, but it was never the same. After graduation I’d returned to find my room exactly as I’d left it and a mother eager to have her daughter back. It had only taken a few days of that arrangement to realize I needed my own place. As a compromise, I’d found a condo only two miles away and promised to visit often. But even now our conversations were awkward at best.
/> I hadn’t spoken to my mother in weeks. Did she even know I was missing?
“I love her a lot,” I admitted. “She’s just s-so stubborn. She wants to stay in our old house, despite n-no air conditioning and the pipes freezing every January because it holds so many memories for her. I can’t get her to move on.”
“Can’t blame her too much for clinging to the past.” He gave me a meaningful look, then leaned over my knee again. “We should give your knee a break from the cold. How does it feel now?” He removed his hands and brushed the snow away, careful not to touch my leg.
I rolled slowly onto my side, ignoring the rocky ground digging into my hip, and eased the leg down slowly. The pain had definitely subsided. “C-cold. And I know what you’re thinking. S-stubbornness isn’t a bad trait to inherit.”
He sat back in his corner, lips tightening like he was trying not to smile. “I think all of my favorite people in the world are quite stubborn.”
Our eyes met and we stared at each other for a long moment. It had been so long since a man looked at me like that, as if I were something precious. It was years before I managed to tear my gaze away.
“I s-saved someone at work once,” I said, the words stumbling over each other, pushing through my suddenly mushy brain. “A lost hiker. My boss said to let the officials handle it, but I stayed at work and s-searched for the signal late into the night. She said I was being stubborn b-because I wouldn’t go home.”
“But you found the hiker.”
“I found him.” His situation had likely been much like mine right now. “So d-don’t judge me too harshly.”
“That’s a pretty cool story. And I wouldn’t dare judge your level of stubbornness.”
I rolled my eyes, feeling embarrassed and pleased at the same time. I hadn’t felt comfortable enough to ramble on like that for a very long time.
Silence fell, and we watched each other for a long moment.
Finally he spoke. “If it’s all right with you, I’m going to lie down now. Unless you need something.”
I extended my arm under my head and tried to get comfortable, eyeing the ground against the cave wall where he’d spent the night thus far. It was far rockier there than in the center where I sat. No wonder he hadn’t been able to sleep. Somewhere outside, an animal gave a long, mournful howl. Something large and full of teeth, no doubt.