Crashing into Liam

by Marion Myles

  “Here. Hold still. I’ll get it.”

  Keeping a hand on the snow-filled tarp, he carefully pulled the sleeping bag free before spreading one of the blankets over her. Then he lay down beside her, sorted out his own blanket, and pulled the sleeping bag over them.

  The last few nights they’d slept pressed up against one another for warmth, and usually with Liam’s arm draped across her body. Now when he lay close but not touching, she understood he was still upset.

  So was she. At least a little.

  But in the big scheme of things, they were still alive. And since there was no guarantee they’d stay that way for much longer, it didn’t make sense to waste what was left of their time on Earth being at odds with one another.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “I guess. It feels like it was a long day.”

  “I’m not sorry for what I said, but I’m sorry we fought.”

  He sighed. “Me too. You know, I sat on a ledge this afternoon and looked down the mountain and out across all that wilderness. It seemed to go on forever.” He cleared his throat. “I’m scared.”

  “So am I,” she said, shifting toward him. Finding his hand under the blanket, she threaded her fingers through his and held tight. “But we’ve made it this far, so who knows how much farther we can go?”

  “Yeah. You’re right.”

  Liam rolled toward her and let go of her hand. He pulled her snug against him before wrapping his arm around her waist.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  The fire had gone out overnight and when she woke, her feet were cold. Curling her legs toward her body, she lay there listening to Liam quietly humming to himself. She didn’t recognize the melody. Running her tongue along her teeth, she wished for a toothbrush and toothpaste.

  “Do you think we’re going to end up with a mouthful of cavities?” she asked.

  He chuckled. “If we don’t get out of here soon, I’d say that’ll be the least of our worries.”

  “Sure. I get it. Starvation and hypothermia are bad. But I’d like to talk to you the day you’re going in for five fillings, and then we’ll see.” She shuddered. “I hate going to the dentist.”

  She shifted, turning carefully so as not to aggravate any of her injuries. He smiled and reached across, running a fingertip gently along the bridge of her nose. “This is looking better. Is it still sore?”

  “Not so bad now. Can’t really breathe through it though. Your face is pretty much healed already. How is it we fall out of the sky and crash into a mountain, and you walk away with only a couple of scrapes?”

  “Pretty crazy, right? Maybe all my clean living paid off.”

  They lay quietly for a minute. “So,” she said. “We need to make a plan, and I don’t want to fight about it.”

  “We won’t as long as you agree we’re not splitting up.”

  “Okay. As long as you agree that us splitting up is the smarter move.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “We don’t know that, but for the sake of keeping things civil, I’ll agree.”

  “Good enough. Here’s what I think we should do. Today, we walk as far as we can and see how my ankle handles it.”

  “Or we could stay here until your ankle is better.”

  “Right. We could. Do you know how long it takes for a sprained ankle to heal?”

  “Um…five or six days?”

  “Try four to six weeks. It’s not an option.”

  “Except the longer we wait, the better it will be, right?”

  “To a point, but it won’t be all the way better, so I say we get going. If my ankle blows up again, maybe I’ll have to rest every second day. The thing is, however slow, we’ll still be making progress. No one will find us here.” She gestured toward the flap of the tarp. “But every time we get to a new location, there’s another chance at either being discovered or stumbling upon someone.”

  He nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense. And when you need a rest day, I can scout around like I did yesterday. Okay, I’d say we have a plan.”

  Liam picked out a nice, solid branch and using the Swiss Army knife, shaved away the extra pieces until it was a suitable walking stick. Rebecca removed the long johns from her shoulder and with Liam’s help, used them to wrap her left ankle. Taking one of the extra sweatshirts, he made a new sling for her arm.

  It didn’t take long to break camp and pack everything up. The snow had stopped sometime overnight, but the wind had picked up again.

  “Why is it so cold?” Rebecca asked. “I thought it would get warmer as we went down the mountain.”

  “It probably has, but I think we’re into a cold snap. Imagine how bitter it must be up by the crash site.”

  “Okay. Here we go.” She glanced around the small section of the woods they’d been calling home. “Goodbye fallen tree campsite. I hope I never see you again.”

  Liam led the way, and Rebecca hobbled slowly after him. The snow came to above her knees. Each lurch forward was a struggle. She was glad he was in front to point out the fallen branches and rocks and various forest debris.

  Her left leg was practically useless. She could just about balance on it, but there was no way she could use it to push off, so all the power had to come from her right leg and butt. She frequently stopped, resting against the stick, and each time she did, wondered if she’d ever get going again.

  Liam didn’t comment, but she could see the concern in his eyes. During the times she stopped, he walked back and forth, tramping down the snow to make the going easier for her. Even here under the trees, the wind swirled the snow around. When she glanced back, she could see their trail slowly being wiped away as though they’d never been there at all.

  The morning bled into the afternoon and, finally, even though the sun was probably two hours away from setting, she suggested they make camp. Liam was only too happy to comply. He found a level spot between a group of trees and quickly strung up the tarps while Rebecca sat in the snow with her head down and eyes closed.

  “Your palace awaits,” he said, crouching beside her. “Let me help you up.”

  She didn’t protest, simply took his hand and let him pull her upright. He put an arm around her waist and supported her the few feet over to the entrance of the tent. She lay back on the bed while he took off her shoes and socks.

  “Rebecca, this looks bad,” he said.

  “I’m sure it does,” she said, not bothering to open her eyes. “Would you mind getting the ice going?”

  “Already have the tarp loaded up.”

  He packed her lower leg with snow, put two pairs of socks on her other foot and spread the blankets and sleeping bag over her.

  “Thanks. I’ll be okay in a minute. I just need to rest for a sec.”

  When she woke, it was dark. The fire crackled beside her.

  “How’re you doing?” Liam asked.

  “My body aches in places I’d long forgotten about, but I’m okay. How far do you think we came?”

  “I dunno.” He shrugged. “A couple of miles maybe.”

  “Whew. This is going to be painfully slow. I’ll bet you wish you’d agreed to go on ahead while I waited.”

  He leaned toward her until they were eye to eye. “I’ll only leave you if I have to. Right now, I don’t.”

  The intensity in his eyes was overwhelming, and she blinked and leaned back until she was resting on her good arm. “Is it dinner time yet?”

  “I’ve already eaten. Do you want Smarties or a Dove bar?”

  “You know, I think I’m in the mood for a cheeseburger and fries.”

  “Dove bar it is,” he said, handing her one.

  She unwrapped it and took a small bite, letting the chocolate and caramel slowly melt in her mouth. If she was careful, she could make it last for ages. Smarties were even better but somehow less filling.

  “What did you mean yesterday,” Liam asked, picking up some of the spare clothes they used as bedding and arranging them so they lay more sm
oothly, “about no one caring if you die?”

  “Oh…that…I was hoping you’d forgotten.”

  His eyes flicked up to hers. “It’s a hard thing to forget. Why do you think you wouldn’t be missed?”

  She took another small bite and rolled it around in her mouth. “Because,” she said at last, “I don’t have a lot of people in my life.”

  “But…why? Everyone likes you. Cindy, my sister, even Jack in his smarmy way. And you must have some family?”

  She sighed and folded the wrapper over the remaining chocolate, setting it aside. “Family? Nope, don’t have any. Only child and I’m estranged from my father. My mom died last month…no, I guess it’s two months now. That first time on the plane, when you cut your arm, I was flying back from scattering her ashes.”

  “I’m sorry. It couldn’t have helped having to deal with my drunk ass.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Hey, you know something? I don’t think we should ever fly together again. Bad things happen when we get up in the air.”

  He grinned. “Sure seems that way. So…you don’t have any family to speak of…but how come no friends?”

  Her eyes skittered away from his. “We don’t need to talk about this.”

  “Why not? It’s not like we have anything else to do. And besides, I’m interested.”

  Nodding, she stared down at the sleeping bag. “I had a tough childhood and knew the only way to get out of that life was to study like hell. I focused on school and as soon as I could, I got a job and started saving. I had to keep working right through college. Even if I’d wanted to, it didn’t leave a lot of time for socializing. Then my mom got sick…” She trailed off with a shrug.

  “How come you don’t want anyone to get close to you?”

  She shook her head. “I’m done talking about this.”

  “Okay. If you’re too chicken to get real with me, I guess I can let it go. But I want you to know that I’d be destroyed if you were no longer here.”

  He leaned toward her, his face getting closer and closer while her heart went into overdrive. When his hand came up to caress her cheek, and she saw the tenderness in his eyes, her stomach began to jitter.

  She desperately wanted to go with the moment and the emotion—to sink into Liam, take what he offered, and let it soothe her. But her instinctual safety mechanism leaped to attention and rang the warning bells.

  “Why did you start drinking?” she blurted out a second before his lips touched hers.

  He paused, his hand stilling on her face before dropping off. She silently exhaled when he began to draw away.

  “Wow. Talk about spoiling the moment.” He played with his beard, his fingers tugging the scraggly pieces below his chin. “No particular reason. It was there, and I liked it, I guess.”

  “Alcohol is there for me, too, but I don’t usually think about it. I probably only have a glass of wine a few times a week, if that.”

  “I guess I like it more than you do.”

  “That can’t be the only reason,” she pressed.

  He shifted, uncrossing his legs and splaying them out in front of him. “If you’re looking for some sob story about me being abused when I was a kid or whatever, it isn’t there. I had a good childhood. My dad was tough but fair. We didn’t always see eye to eye, but I knew he was in my corner. My mom was great, and you’ve met my sister.”

  “When did it start getting out of control?”

  He locked gazes with her, and she felt as though he was probing…trying to figure something out. Finally, he nodded, and his cheeks puffed out as he exhaled.

  “I was playing a gig at this bar in Pittsburg. It was a really popular place in an old warehouse, and they’d packed in a couple of thousand people. My biggest crowd yet. And a whole lot different than the high school and college party circuit I’d been doing up until then. I freaked out right before I was supposed to go on. Remember, music was something I sorta fell into. It wasn’t as if it’d been my lifelong dream to be a rock star. I didn’t even think I was all that good.”

  He smiled and took a sip from the container of water beside him. Her eyes remained riveted to his face,

  “Anyway,” he continued, “the guy who’d organized the thing went to the bar and got me four shots of Dewar’s. I drank them down, and by the time I hit the stage, I felt like a king. It took away the feeling of being a fraud. Took away the nerves. And it turned playing live into this awesome experience.”

  “Interesting. So the more you toured, the more you drank?”

  “Yeah. At the start, it was a couple of shots to get me on stage. But then the albums sold and the stages got bigger, and the more everyone told me how great I was, the more I felt like I was scamming them. The drinking stopped the voices in my head. The drugs were pretty good at it too.”

  “But surely now you don’t still think you’re a fraud? I mean, Jesus Christ, people love you. Seriously love you. You’ve touched their lives. They’re willing to travel countless miles and stand in the cold or heat or whatever just to see you.”

  He sighed. “It’s weird and hard to explain, but in some ways, it’s worse now. Having so many people focused on one person is unnatural. Plus, the more people love you, the more a whole bunch of others hate you. It’s like there’s this yin-yang thing and certain personalities get off on tearing down anyone who’s super successful.”

  “Maybe you should stop touring.”

  “I’ve thought about it. The only problem is the albums sell better when I tour to support them, and people like Jack and my agent and the musicians and a bunch of others will be out a lot of cash.”

  “But…it’s…you can’t continue doing something that’s literally killing you just to keep your entourage happy.”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head. “The situation is complicated.”

  “Does that mean if we get rescued, you’re going to fall back into the same old same old?”

  “Maybe. I’ll tell you one thing, getting lost in the wilderness gives a person a lot of time to think.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He paused and flashed one of his thousand-watt smiles. “Okay. That’s enough interrogating. Did it at least earn me a kiss?”

  She blinked, and a swash of color raced up her neck. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Really? That’s odd because right now, I think it’s about the only good idea we have going for us. Oh,” He nodded and pointed a finger at her. “I get it. You’re afraid. No one is allowed to get behind your wall, right?”

  “I don’t have a wall,” she said stiffly.

  “Sure you do. Everyone has a wall of some sort. Mine is medium height, solid, and it looks kinda intimidating. But there’re a handrail along the side and some decent footholds. Plus, if you do go to the effort of climbing over, I set out a nice crash landing pad on the other side, so you don’t get hurt when you drop down.”

  He mimed tucking and rolling then flopped back on the sleeping bag with his arms spread wide and a big grin on his face. “It’s actually kind of fun. Yours though, it’s electrified chain link with barbed wire on top. Then there’s a moat with live crocodiles and alligators. And, for those who get that far, they have to scale a granite wall forty feet high to get to your tower. Most don’t get that far. They usually strike out in the water. Those crocodiles are mighty hungry.”

  Shifting up to sitting position, he leaned toward her and put his hands together, opening and closing them to simulate a hungry crocodile. She batted at the pretend mouth.

  “That’s not true.”

  “So hungry. Need food,” Liam said, his voice sounding like a robotic monster. “I eat the flesh of anyone who tries to get close to Rebecca.”

  Looking at the ridiculous snapping jaws and the smug grin on Liam’s face, Rebecca was suddenly furious.

  “Shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. If the most important people in your life let you down over and over again, of course, you wouldn
’t trust anyone. Why should I? It doesn’t make me stupid. Just the opposite. I’d say it’s a healthy response to growing up with an alcoholic father and a mother who put his needs above and beyond those of her own child’s.”

  Her breath came out in harsh gasps, and her face burned with heat. Liam’s expression went blank and then, worse, she saw the pity in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean for…I was only teasing…I’m sorry.”

  Closing her eyes, she slowed her breathing. “No, I’m sorry,” she said. “Forget about it.”

  Rebecca picked up the remainder of the Dove bar and started peeling back the wrapper. Liam was still close, sitting only a few inches away. When she sneaked a glance at him, she saw he was watching her. She gave him a half smile to show she was okay. He returned the smile, bumping it up several notches. The firelight gave his skin a rosy glow, and his eyes shone with emotion.

  She couldn’t tear her gaze away from his face, and deep in her belly, the jitters started up again. Without conscious thought, she dropped the chocolate bar and pushed toward him. Closer, until she saw his surprise melt away. Closer still, when his arm came around her shoulder supporting her. Another inch, with lips almost touching.

  “Here we go,” he whispered. “First kiss.”

  “Shut up,” she said then pressed her mouth against his.

  His lips were warm, and he sighed against her mouth. Lifting his face, he kissed her forehead and each of her cheeks. When he returned to her mouth, she felt the jolt all the way to her toes.

  She couldn’t figure it out. Everything was soft and dreamy, and the kiss was sweet and featherlight, but inside she hummed and twirled and shook like a rocket on a launching pad ready to shoot into space. When he stroked her hair and gently cupped her chin, she didn’t think she’d be able to breathe at all.

  “Please,” she said softly. “I can’t…”

  “Easy now. You’re okay. You’re safe.” He drew back and shifted on the blanket, carefully nestling her against him. “Just take a moment and rest right here.”

  Closing her eyes, she melted into his chest. She loved the way his arms seemed to shelter her and the feel of his heart beating against her back. He played with her hair, his fingers undoing the braid and threading through it, twisting, gently pulling while he quietly sang, “Hush Little Baby.”