“You know she thinks you’ll give in at the last minute? She said as much to the Potluck Patrol.” That was the name we’d given to the trio of town gossips who were the first to show up on your doorstep to welcome you, console you, or celebrate your achievements with various potluck offerings.
“I can’t worry about what my mom thinks or I’ll actually lose my mind.”
“Well, how about a different mom?” Ry offered. “Mine’s having a barbecue next weekend and she’s demanding your famous sweet potato salad, along with your presence.”
I had to smile as my head nodded automatically. Betty Kemp was the mother I always wanted. At five-foot-nothing and weighing a buck oh five, she was bossier than any CEO or drill sergeant. “I’ll be there.”
“Maybe I ought to have Ma share her secrets with Sabrina.”
“Do it and I’ll put super glue in your shampoo.”
Ry frowned and raked a hand through his thick brown wavy hair — his pride and joy. “You fight dirty.”
“Don’t you forget it,” I confirmed, aiming the tongs his way.
“Like I could,” he said, raising a dramatic hand to his side. “I still have the scars to prove it.”
“First of all, we were twelve. And you lost your balance.”
His lips twitched; he knew it was true. “That’s revisionist history and you know it. You totally pushed me.”
“I tried to save your dumb ass!” I’d nearly fallen from that same tree in my effort to keep Ry from dropping about twenty feet to his death. Luckily, he’d only ended up with a badly broken arm. “And, if I recall, that cast got you a date with Mary Sue Markham.”
Ry smiled broadly, his gaze wistful. “Yeah, that was a damn good three weeks. One more and I’d have gotten some boob action.”
I pulled open the doors that led to my pride and joy — the teak deck I’d spent a full month building, sanding, and staining. “If you want, I can break your arm again and you can get another three weeks with Mary Sue. I hear she’s between husbands right now.”
Ry shuddered as he pulled open the lid of the grill and started it up. “No thanks. She’s way too fertile, and I can’t see myself with Mary Sue in sickness and in health and all that crap.”
“And the ladies say romance is dead,” I teased. He flipped me off and grabbed the steaks, tossing them on the hot grill. “Can’t imagine why they’re not flocking to you.”
“Yeah? You’re rich, buddy, and they’re not flocking to you, either.”
“Thank goodness for that.” The last thing I needed was a repeat of college and the subsequent year of law school, with eager coeds looking to land a rich husband. It was exhausting, fending them off and trying to figure out if a girl was into me for me or just for the money I would inherit a few years after graduation. “When I’m ready, I’ll find a girl.”
Ry smirked, closing the lid on the grill as he popped open his beer and took a long slug. “Or maybe, she’ll find you.”
“In this town full of women I’ve known since birth? Unlikely.”
“Famous last words, my friend. Famous last words.”
Nina
By ten o’clock, all the little campers were counted — twice — and snug in little sleeping bags decorated with unicorns, princesses, and in Bailey’s case, the cosmos.
The night was still and quiet, save for the occasional sound of little giggles from the older girls who hadn’t yet tired themselves out. I could hear it all from my spot by the smoking campfire, which had been extinguished earlier but still emanated heat, allowing me to snuggle into my own sleeping bag and stare up at the gorgeous dark sky.
For a while, the velvet indigo expanse was clear and bright, with stars winking at me from high above. But after a few moments, thick clouds started rolling in, and a crack of thunder sounded. Close. Too close to mean anything good. Even though the tents were all waterproof, tension and worry crept under my skin.
“Nothing to worry about,” I assured myself as lightning illuminated the sky. The storm was close, and it was moving in fast.
A fat drop of rain fell right between my eyes and I sat up, glancing quickly around the campsite to see if everything looked the way it should. My anxiety ratcheted up a notch as the raindrops started to fall — slow and fat at first, but by the time I had rolled up my sleeping bag, the rain was coming down like thousands of tiny razor blades, pelting my skin through the thin t-shirt I’d somehow thought would be the ideal nightwear. “Shit!”
“Nina, what are you doing out here?”
I looked over my shoulder at Max, who’d emerged from her tent with a worried expression on her face. “I was star-gazing, until the clouds rolled in.”
She nodded absently, scanning the campsite. “We’ll need to do another count, make sure none of the girls decided to go exploring in the night.”
“Okay. You count left to right and I’ll count right to left, make sure our numbers match up?”
Max was worried, it was written all over her face and her demeanor. “Okay. See you in a bit.” I watched her walk away, shoulders slumped against the pounding rain as her feet moved at a steady clip.
It took us a couple of minutes to count the campers, peeking carefully inside each tent so as not to wake or worry them. But when I reached the far left side of our campsite, I’d counted one missing girl.
It was my worst fear. I’d just moved to this town, and now I’d lost a kid.
In the damn woods. During a thunderstorm.
“Nina, we’re a camper short!” Max’s voice sounded panicked.
“I know.” I sighed and wiped the rain off my face. “Bailey’s missing.”
Max hugged herself tight around her middle, anxiety and fear radiating off her. “It’s not just that — there’s a flash flood warning and we’re less than a mile from the Red Clay Basin.” At my blank look, she clarified, “It means we’ll be standing in a big ass river if we don’t get out of here fast.”
Shit. Before I could even ask what to do next, the sky opened up and began dumping gallons and gallons of water on top of everything in sight. “You get all the other moms to help pack up the girls. I’ll see if I can find Bailey.”
The little girl was out there on her own and no matter how smart she was, her fifty-pound frame would not be able to withstand the rush of water that was headed our way.
“Wait!” Max’s frantic voice stopped me in my tracks, and I turned to face her. “You can’t go out there alone, Nina. It’s dangerous.”
“Imagine how much worse it is for a scared little girl, Max. Someone has to go after her, and I’m the only one who doesn’t have anyone else depending on me.”
It was a sad fact, but it was a fact. My last living relative had died more than a decade ago, and in that time, I hadn’t formed any lasting connections. There was no one out there who might miss me if I didn’t come back.
“That’s bullshit and you know it.” I recognized Max’s angry voice.
“Let’s argue about it if I come back, yeah?” Before she could say anything else to discourage or dissuade me, I pulled out my flashlight and took off in the direction of the basin, knowing there was plenty of foliage and wildlife to draw a little explorer to that exact spot.
As I ventured further away from camp, the night seemed to grow darker and I pushed down the fear and panic that threatened to overwhelm me. There was no time to be afraid. “Bailey? Can you hear me?” I closed my eyes and held my breath, hoping to hear a small cry or a child’s yell over the rain, or at least through it.
Nothing.
I pushed deeper into the darkness, into the thickest part of the forest where the key to Bailey’s badges would be. “Bailey!” I strained to listen to a reply, but instead, I heard a loud, unidentifiable crack followed by fuzzy white noise. No, not white noise — water. Lots and lots of water. “Bailey!”
The further I walked the higher the water became, until it was ankle deep. I trudged ahead, calling out the little girl’s name at the top of my lungs
until I came upon an open space surrounded by rocks. Boulders, really. Then, I heard something. “Help! Somebody help me, please.”
“Bailey! Bailey, can you hear me?”
It was too dark to see anything at all; the clouds were too thick for the moonlight to peek through. “Bailey!” I screamed again.
The water rose faster and faster. Too fast.
“Help!” Bailey’s voice was closer now. I searched the area with my flashlight. “Right here! Help, I’m right here!”
The ray of light allowed me to catch a brief flash of a waving arm in the distance, but all the water made my movements slow and sluggish.
The dirt had become a thick mud that felt more like quicksand, and every step was an effort. “I see you, Bailey, keep talking!”
“Nina! I’m scared!”
“Me too, kid. But we’ve gotta be brave, okay?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the earth dropped from beneath my feet and I slid under the water. I struggled to find the ground, and after several tries, I knew it was pointless. Kicking my legs behind me, I pushed back above the surface and sucked in a gulp of air. “Bailey?”
“Are you okay, Nina?” Her voice was closer but somewhere to my left, and I had to change direction through the thick, muddy water.
“So far, so good, kid.” It took me a few minutes, but I finally located Bailey, thanks to her flickering flashlight in one hand. With her other hand, she was holding onto something I couldn’t quite see. When I made it over to her, Bailey’s little face broke into a wide grin.
“Nina! I’m so happy to see you!”
I snorted as I tried to wrap my arm around whatever she was using to anchor herself, but failed. “Given the circumstances, I’m sure you are.”
Reaching out again, I banged my knuckles against something hard and unyielding. Stone.
Her laugh turned into a cough, and she started spitting up some water that made me worry. “I’m scared, Nina.”
“I know, I am, too. Fear isn’t gonna help us right now, though, so I need you to push it down.”
“How do I do that?” The flashlight fell from her hand and I caught it before it hit the water.
I struggled to grab onto the top of the big ass boulder Bailey clung to. Instead, my hand caught on a pointy edge, and I bit back a wince of pain as it dug into my palm. “Just keep telling yourself that your strength is stronger than your fear.”
Bailey squeezed her eyes shut and repeated the words over and over in a soft whisper, then snapped them back open and stared at me as she asked hoarsely, “Are we going to die, Nina?”
Jeez, kids sure got right to the quick, didn’t they? “No, I don’t think so,” I told her honestly, even though I didn’t feel completely sure about it myself. “But we have to believe we will, because I’m not sure either of us has the muscle to hold onto this rock forever.”
Her giggle sounded sweet and musical to my ears, and I had a sudden thought that if it was the last sound I ever heard, that wouldn’t be so bad. “You said we were strong.”
“We are. Mentally strong, but physically, I think the water and this rock might have us beat.” Even as the words fell from my lips, Bailey began to slip.
“Nina!”
My arm shot out to grab the girl, and we both fell to the water as my hand wrapped around the fabric of her night shirt. “Nina, I—”
“Hold on to me and don’t let go. No matter what, okay?”
Bailey nodded, her green eyes wide and terrified. “Okay.”
“All right.” I sucked in several deep breaths and let them out slowly, mustering up all the energy I could find to climb back up the rock with an additional fifty pounds on my back. It was slow going, and my muscles screamed their misery at the fire burning with every move.
My breaths huffed out of me with more force than someone of my age and weight should require, but finally, that rocky point dug into the center of my palm and I hung on with everything I had. “You all right back there, kid?”
“Yeah, I-I-I think so.”
“Good.” I held onto the rock as hard as I could while the rain pelted us from all sides and thunder cracked overhead. My heart raced with the speed of a stallion and my arms trembled from exhaustion, but I kept my grip. Bailey was counting on me.
“Do you have a boyfriend, Nina?”
“Nope.”
“I don’t, either,” she said sullenly.
“You’re too young for a boyfriend.”
She giggled. “That’s what my mom says. too. But you’re not too young.”
Ouch. “No, I’m not too young but I’m… difficult.” It was a word that had been used to describe me on more than one occasion, even by my Uncle Rudy who I knew loved me dearly. “I’m sure I’ll find one.”
Eventually. I didn’t really believe it, but there was no point in sharing that with a little heart that had yet to be broken beyond repair.
The sound of more water rushing broke through the steady noise of rain bouncing off rocks and trees, and my grip tightened. Moments later, we were both swept away by the flood.
Preston
“You’re really not interested in any of them women roaming around town in hopes of becoming Mrs. Preston Worthington?” Nate’s eyes showed as much shock as his voice held when I shook my head.
“Not even a little bit. If I have to spend the next fifty years with a woman, I’d rather it be one that I can stand being around. At least.”
Truthfully, though, I hoped for more than that. Love, affection, attraction, and maybe even genuine like. “Feel free to attend in my absence.”
Nate shook his head firmly. “No thanks. High maintenance women are not my thing.”
“Yeah, we’re all taking bets on whether or not you have a woman tucked away in the park some place.” With his short-cropped red hair and a matching beard, Nate looked every bit the lone mountain man he portrayed himself to be. He hadn’t dated anyone seriously in the four years we’d worked together for the NPS.
His chuckle was loud and booming, and he even threw in a knee smack for good measure. “If you find her, let me know. Hell, I’d love a woman who was just as happy being out in nature as she was at a dinner party or a football game.”
“You attend football games?” This was Texas, after all, and football was king, but I’d never seen Nate at a single game.
“Not yet, but I could.”
We shared a laugh, but the crackle of the radio interrupted with a call and we were both instantly on high alert. Nate picked up the phone that automatically connected to the dispatch officer, his expression growing darker by the second. “Team two responding.”
“What’s up?” In unison, we rose quickly to our feet, grabbing our S&R bags and heading out to the green and gold truck.
“Tulip’s Troops are caught out in the rain and there’s a flash flood crashing through the basin at the south end of the park,” he relayed. “Two campers are missing and that’s all we got. Let’s go.”
It took us less than ten minutes to get to the site, where we found ankle deep water that was quickly rising. Maxine Nash ran up to me, a little girl quick on her heels. “Oh, thank god you’re here, you have to find them!”
I put my hands on her shoulders to make sure her panicked eyes locked with mine. “I need you to calm down and tell me what you know.”
Max sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and let it out. When she opened them again, she spoke like the no-nonsense woman she’d proven to be over the years. “When the first drop of rain fell, Nina and I did a bed check to count all the girls. One was missing — Bailey.” Tears welled in her eyes and she put her fist to her mouth in distress. “I shouldn’t have let her go off on her own, dammit.”
“Probably not,” Nate agreed matter-of-factly, shrugging indifferently when I glared at him.
“I didn’t want her to, but she insisted, saying no one was waiting at home for her, which is total bullshit. But…” Tears began to drip down her cheeks. “I could
have gone with her but I thought of Callie and I just… couldn’t.” She held the little girl — who I now assumed was Callie — close and something like sympathy crept under my skin. Now wasn’t the time.
“It’s fine; just tell us where she went, Max.”
She pointed in the direction of the basin and I groaned as Callie stepped forward and tugged on my rain jacket. “Bailey is trying to get her wildlife badge, so I think she went to the small lake where there are deer and stuff for animals to eat and drink.”
I dropped down on my haunches and covered her small shoulder with one hand. “Thanks, Callie. That’s a big help.” Standing back up, I turned to Max. “Now, you both need to get on the bus where it’s warm and dry. The driver will move you away from the flooding and we’ll follow with the other two when we find them.”
I made sure to say ‘when,’ not ‘if’ — it seemed like Nina meant a lot to these women. I didn’t know much about her, other than that she was a relatively new waitress at the Black Thumb.
“This could get messy,” Nate admitted, striding up next to me as we watched Max and her daughter jog to the bus.
“Stupid woman shouldn’t be trying to be a hero.” I hoped she wouldn’t lose her life and the kid’s, but there was no time to worry about that. We had to find her in the pouring rain, flash flooding, and absolute blackness.
“You’d expect a woman to leave a little girl alone to possibly drown? Even you’re smarter than that.” Nate clapped me on the back with a good-natured chuckle and we moved as one, calling out their names and using high-powered flashlights to search the area carefully.
Anything could happen in this kind of flooding — one moment, the rain seemed little more than an annoyance, and the next, it washed away everything. Trees, bushes, shrubs, overflowing ponds, and lakes. People and houses, too. It could wash away everything during the night and, in the morning, leave a vibrant, lively landscape with no trace of the damage it had caused. “We should head straight for the basin, ‘cause it’s probably half full by now.”
Mr. Savior: A Roommate Hero Romance Page 3