Page 75 of Burnin' For You
He looked up, the voice so vivid he held his breath, searched for the source.Keep playing your position.His father’s voice—it sounded so real Reuben actually got up.
See the salvation of the Lord.
He stilled, rooted, his pulse thundering. Remembering their conversation last night. Now he wanted to lean into the words, believe them.
“Reuben!”
He stilled, the voice thin, a barest hint against the wind stirring the scorched earth.
Gilly?
“Reuben, I’m here!”
He whirled around, definitely hearing something now, and he prayed it wasn’t his heart, longing so much to hear her voice, he’d conjured her up.
“Gilly!” He didn’t see her. Just an ethereal voice lifting from somewhere near the ravine. He started running, hope flashing through him.
“I’m down here!”
Down—he didn’t see anything, just blackened trees, a film of ashy white over charred rock. He jumped over still-smoking tree trunks, came out to the edge of the cliff. “I don’t see you!”
“I’m down here!”
He followed her voice, scrambling along the edge, looking over the side.
He nearly fell into the ravine. His foot kicked the far edge, and he tripped, landing on his hands. His leg dropped into the expanse.
“Don’t fall in!”
He pulled himself out, backed up, peered down into the crevice. “Gilly?” There wasn’t a hope that he’d fall in—he could barely fit his leg in.
There, in the darkness, about halfway down. By the looks of it she’d managed to wedge her entire body in this safe cavity in the earth, protected from the blaze.
He went weak with the sight of her, crouched on a ledge in the recesses of the crack. She looked a little singed, her face blackened, her eyes huge as she stared up at him.
“Are you all right?” he asked stupidly because he didn’t know what else to say.
“I think so,” she said. “The fire just—well, I climbed down here just as it blew up over the edge.”
He swallowed back a rush of emotion that had the power to collapse him, rend from him another unmanly sob.
But he was just so— “I can’t believe you thought of wedging yourself in this crevice!” He was leaning down now, trying to figure out how to get her out.
“I didn’t—it just appeared. I thought I was going to die, and suddenly I fell into it.”
He had no words for the relief that gusted through him. “Let’s get you out, huh? Can you climb?”
“My knee is…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Rube.”
“Gilly, shh. No problem. Stay put. I’ll be back.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Then she smiled up at him, such a beautiful smile it took his breath away in a whole new way.
Joy. Right there in a tiny package that could fit in a slit in the ground.
Thank you, God.
Maybe the Almighty would just forget about that…earlier bit.