Page 68 of Burnin' For You
“Shh. I’m fine here. We’re what—a couple miles at least from the cabin? And yeah, we probably made a trail like a bulldozer through the woods, but I doubt Patrick is looking for us. He thinks we’re dead, remember?”
He remembered most of it. Nodded.
“So, see, we’re the last things on their minds right now. Whereas the team is in jeopardy every minute we sit here arguing.” She reached into the pack, pulled out a canister of water, a power bar, and her silver fire tent.
“I’ll spread this out—it’ll be a reflector, and when you call in for help, tell them to look for me. The PEAK Rescue chopper can swing by and pick me up.”
“I’m not leaving you here—”
She pressed her hands against his face, her pretty blue eyes staring up at him, and, yes, deep inside he saw a flickering fear. But along with that, a determination and a jaw-tightening courage that reached out to him, wrapped a hand around his heart.
“Yes. You are. I’ll be fine. Go up the mountain, Frodo, find the lookout tower, call for help, and…” Her mouth edged up in a wry smile. “I’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”
He started to reply, but she pulled him toward her and silenced him with a kiss.
Something solid and resolute, and thank goodness he wasn’t dreaming last night. Because although he hadn’t thought he’d fallen asleep, the memory of kissing Gilly, of this woman kissing him back, surrendering herself into his embrace, seemed like some kind of delicious dream.
But here she was again, kissing him like she meant it. Like she didn’t have a crazy amount of baggage.
And like she did fully expect him to come back to her. She pulled away and met his eyes. “I know that disaster lends itself to powerful emotions, but Reuben, you’re exactly the man I thought you were. So, please, go up that mountain and bring our team home.”
And what, really, could he say to that?
He kissed her again, put his crazy rush of emotions into it, then released her and got up. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I know.”
I know. So much in those two words. He held onto them as he rappelled down the fifty feet into the ravine. Unlike the other ravine into the creek, this edge jutted out, and he free-rappelled down.
Shemighthave made it, but with her climbing skills, more likely she would have ended upside down.
Back in his arms.
Reuben hit the creek bottom, regret like a fist in his throat.The only way we can have peace with our decisions and choices is if we trust God.
He started down the creek, hearing her voice.
Okay, God. You’re on point.
Reuben found a scalable cliff on the opposite side and climbed up. Casting a look at the over the gulf he couldn’t see Gilly—now tucked away in the forest—and it gave him some measure of peace.
Then, in the hope that she could see him, he lifted his hand in a wave before he started through the trees.
He settled his bearings first thing—found the Garver Mountain Lookout Tower and headed southeast, affixing its location to the sun, calibrating it as he headed east.
He moved three times as quickly without Gilly, something he reluctantly admitted as he stopped for a drink. An hour later, he hit a forest road.
The sun arched overhead, still early morning, and a breeze caught the sounds of blackbirds and chickadees calling, the stir of the wind through the busy white pine, their long needles cradling thick pine cones. It always amazed him, the rebirth of a forest after a fire, the release of seeds into the ground from the cones under heat.
As if creation was made to flourish even under suffering. Start anew, despite the ashes.
His words to Gilly hung in his head as he spotted the lookout tower some five hundred yards ahead.Now it’s too late. Dad is dead, Knox is running the ranch. I can’t go back.
But what if he could?
Except, where would that leave him and—well, what he’d discovered with Gilly?
Which was…?