Blown Away (16 page)

By the time night fell, I was getting hoarse from yelling Drew's name. The humidity had given way to cooler temperatures, but I couldn't bring myself to pull out the jacket in my rescue pack. Drew didn't have one, and it didn't feel right to be warm when she wasn't.

Dried pine needles and sticks on the forest floor crunched beneath my feet. I'd seen animal tracks I didn't like the size of, but it didn't look like anything Drew couldn't fend off, as long as she was conscious.

My red-hot panic upon finding out she was missing was now a frayed, desperate worry. In the back of my mind was the fear that some asshole had grabbed her out here. Maybe even taken her somewhere. Or worse. The thought of discovering Drew's body wasn't something I could even consider. I had to keep looking, and hoping.

I'd been a damn fool to think I could push her away and go back to life before her. She was my dream. I hated that my best friend's death was the reason my dream had become reality, but life was messy and painful sometimes.

And when things got messy and painful, I wanted Drew to be there for me, just like I wanted to be there for her. Through storms and calm. Ups and downs. Good times and bad.

That sounded a hell of a lot like marriage vows. And I wasn't breaking out in a cold sweat from it. My only panic in this moment was for Drew's safety.

Because I loved her.

It explained my urgent desire to push her away. Love was scary as hell. Full of risks. But now that I knew what such a soul-deep burning for another person felt like, I couldn't walk in the other direction.

I hiked up my pack and waded through a shallow creek, taking out my water bottle and downing a sip. The lukewarm water rolled down my raw throat.

“Drew!” I called. “I'm here. Can you hear me?”

The only response was the hum of cricket song and the call of a nearby bird. I wiped the creek's mud from my boots on the shore and kept walking.

I had to find her. Fate wasn't getting Drew. She was mine.

The crackle of a snapping twig made me turn in alarm. My heart pounded as I tried to make out the shapes around me. All I had was moonlight, and I couldn't see much.

It could be an animal, and I wouldn't see it until it was practically on top of me. My chances of outrunning anything were slim to none. I clutched the big stick in my hand, prepared to fight back as much as I could.

After a minute of waiting, my breathing started to slow. Between the pain in my ankle and my lack of sleep, I was feeling too drained to be on alert every second.

I relaxed my hold on the stick and tried to lie down on my side. Pain shot through my ankle and I gritted my teeth. I'd have to keep sitting.

The longer I went without sleep, the more I wanted to cry. I needed to pee again, but it was impossible with my ankle immobile. Before long I'd have to pee my pants, an option so horribly humiliating it actually made me laugh a little.

The blackness of night faded into gray as dawn arrived. I could make out the shapes around me now. Soon the sun would rise and I'd at least have the comfort of being able to see everything again. And I figured the team would start searching for me at sunrise. I had to keep it together until help arrived.

If they found me sitting in my own urine, well, I'd still be grateful. Though I had no idea how they'd get me out of here. The trees were too dense to carry a stretcher.

I couldn't worry anymore. I was too exhausted. I closed my eyes and tried to think relaxing thoughts.

Aiden was all I could picture. Holding me close to him while we slowly woke up in the morning. Kissing me in the pouring rain that day. Throwing Murph into the back of his truck as we outran a twister. Grinning at me from the driver's seat of his truck.

The more I told myself to stop thinking about him, the harder it was. He wasn't just a sexy man who got my blood pumping. Aiden was so much more to me. He was my comfort and peace. I felt safe with him. I only wished he felt the same way about me.

“Drew!”

My eyes flew open as I heard the faint sound of a man yelling my name. Had I imagined it in my worn-out state?

“Drew! I'm here! Answer me if you can!”

The baritone voice was
not
my imagination. The man I was daydreaming about was here. Grateful tears flooded out of my eyes as I called back to him.

“Aiden!” My voice came out as a croak. I cleared my throat and yelled, “I'm here! Aiden! I'm in the ravine!”

“Drew?”

The hope in his broken tone brought on full-on sobbing. Leaves crunched and sticks broke on the ground above as he ran closer.

“Careful!” I cried. “Don't fall. That's what happened to me.”

His silhouetted form appeared at the top of the hill I'd fallen down. “You okay? I'm on my way down.”

He wrapped something around a big tree trunk, secured it, and pulled on it to test it. I realized it was a rope when I saw him rappelling down the steep ravine.

Within thirty seconds, he was crouching beside me.

“Are you okay?” He cupped my face in his hands. I could just make out his eyes in the muted morning light.

Was I seeing what I thought I was? I had to reach for his cheeks to confirm it. They were wet.

“I'm okay,” I said, my throat tight with emotion. “My ankle's hurt, but that's all.”

He put his arms around me and I closed my eyes, pressing my face against his big, solid shoulder.

“I'm so sorry,” he said in my ear. “I said a lot of shit I didn't mean the other day. I've been going out of my mind worrying about you, and knowing I made you feel so bad made it ten times worse.”

“You're here,” I said, squeezing my arms around his back. “You came.”

“Of course I did. Drew…I love you.”

I pulled back to look at him, shocked. “You…
love
me? But…?”

“I know.” He cringed. “The other day when you said it comforted you to know you were the last woman Colby made love to, it ripped me in two.”

I ran my fingers over his stubbled cheek and into his hair, wishing I could see his eyes better right now.

“Aiden, no. I didn't mean it like that.”

“I've been telling myself since then that I've never been anything but your second choice and I never will be.”

“That's not true.”

His single-note laugh was humorless. “You know what? I've been looking for you all night and I realized as I prayed I'd find you and you'd be okay that I don't even care. If I'm second choice, I'll still love you with everything I've got. I'll earn my way as deep into your heart as he was, Drew, if you'll just…
please
give me another chance.”

He leaned his forehead against mine, his thumbs stroking my cheekbones.

“You broke my heart,” I said.

“I know. I'm so damn sorry. I swear I'll never do it again, and I'll ruin anyone else who ever tries to hurt you.”

“Before you said those things…when we were riding in your truck together the other day…I looked over at you and realized I was falling in love with you. I never thought I'd feel that way about a man again. It's worth a second chance for me,
if
—”

He exhaled deeply with relief.

“Aiden,” I continued, “only if you promise me that from this moment forward, you'll remember this: I want you for
you
. Not because Colby is gone, not because you were his friend, not because I'm lonely. I'm falling in love with everything you are, and just like I want
you
all to myself, you've got
me
all to yourself. This is just you and me.”

He nodded and kissed my forehead.

“I've wished for second chances in my life, but this is the first time I've gotten one,” he said, lowering his lips to mine. “I won't waste it.”

He kissed me softly. I moved closer to him, wanting the assurance of his solid, warm body against mine. A sharp pain shot through my ankle and I cried out, pulling away from him.

“The ankle?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said weakly. “I can't even lift it off the ground, it hurts so bad.”

He shrugged off the pack on his back and pulled out a flashlight, handing it to me.

“Shine this on your ankle so I can have a look.”

I did, and he groaned.

“Damn, baby. It's not good.”

“I figured,” I said. “I'd have climbed out of here if there was any way.”

“I need to take off your shoe and sock.”

I gripped his forearm as he started unlacing my shoe. “Just do it quick and get it over with.”

“Gotta take it slow,” he said. “Otherwise I might hurt it even worse.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, groaning deeply as he eased off my shoe. The sock was much easier. Then he took the flashlight from my hands and silently examined my ankle.

He took a radio out of his backpack and spoke into it. There was a crackle of static before another male voice answered.

“I've got her,” Aiden said. “She fell into a ravine about a mile south and slightly west of the command post. There's no way we can get a vehicle of any kind in here. I'm gonna carry her out. We'll need a medic when we get there. Her ankle's possibly broken.”

I sighed with frustration. Aiden spoke to the man a little more, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Broken, huh?” I said miserably.

“Maybe. It's not obviously broken, but it could be. Or you've got a severe sprain.”

I studied my ankle under the glow of the flashlight. It was swollen to nearly twice its normal size. Both the ankle and the side of my foot were bruised a dark shade of purple.

Aiden pulled a rolled-up elastic bandage out of his pack.

“I'm gonna wrap it to help stabilize it,” he said, moving down closer to my foot. “If you'd fallen in an area without such dense woods, we'd use an ATV or a chopper to get you out of here. That's not an option, though. I'm gonna carry you out, and it's probably gonna hurt. I can't fully immobilize the ankle.”

“I'll be fine. You came and I'm going to be okay. I'm so relieved, Aiden. I can't even tell you. Some pain is a small price to pay for causing all this trouble.”

“It's no trouble, Drew,” he said seriously.

I laughed lightly. “You've been looking for me all night. It sounds like other people have, too. And now you have to carry me out of here.”

“There's nothing in the world I'd rather be doing than carrying you out of here right now.”

I melted inside. How could I argue with that?

“You left your phone in Murph's car,” he said.

“Oh, good.”

Aiden cocked a brow. “Not as good as having it on you would've been.”

“Right…you're right. I thought I dropped it when I was peeing in the woods. Looking for it is how I got so turned around.”

“You sound like Murph.”

I groaned halfheartedly. “Okay,
lost
. I got lost.”

“Hey, when you get your phone back, don't mind the fifty missed calls and thirty-some texts from me.”

“You were worried about me,” I said, touched.

“I was out of my fucking mind.” He wrapped the bandage gingerly, being careful not to move my sore ankle.

“Can you help me, um…pee?” I asked, my cheeks warming. “I mean, I can handle the peeing part, but I can't seem to get…
positioned
for it with my ankle so sore.”

His lips quirked a little as he nodded. He held on to me and even graciously looked away as I finally peed. It felt almost as good as being rescued did.

When I finished, Aiden reached into his bag again.

“All right. I've got a harness on.” He gestured to the straps around his chest and shoulders. “I'm gonna put you in one, too. It'll let me carry you out of here like a backpack. When I'm climbing the hill, you'll have to squeeze your thighs around my waist because I won't be able to hold you.”

“Good thing I have experience squeezing my thighs around your waist.”

He smiled, enough light breaking through the canopy of trees that I could see his face well now.

“You're talking about sex right now?” he quipped.

I shrugged. “I can't help it. You're rescuing me, and it's hot.”

He eased the harness straps over my head.

“Aiden,” I said, meeting his eyes, “promise me you'll make time for me when we're back in Lipton. After this, if you don't—”

“I will. I want this, Drew. You and me. I meant every word I said when I got here. I want a real relationship with you. We'll go on dates and spend holidays together and…whatever else it is people in relationships do.”

“You'll let me cut your hair?”

“Anytime you want, baby.”

“Can I wax your junk?”

He groaned. “If you really want to…I'd let you.”

“I don't.”

“Thank God.”

I leaned forward and kissed him. When his lips brushed across mine, the tenderness I'd been missing was back.

He finished putting on my harness and gave me a serious look.

“If the pain's too much, tell me and we'll get a medic back here to give you something.”

“Okay.”

He lifted me by the waist and I let all my weight rest on my right foot. The left one hurt no matter what, so I gritted my teeth and forced a smile.

“Ready?” Aiden asked, bending down in front of me.

“Yes.”

“Okay, you see the clip-ons for your harness?”

“I think so.” I secured the clips and wrapped my arms around his neck.

When he stood and started walking, a new wave of pain shot through my ankle. I wrapped one arm around his chest so I could bury my face in his neck. His woodsy scent and the salty taste of his sweat on my lips anchored me as he made the climb up the hill.

“Okay?” he asked when he got to the top, breathing heavily.

I murmured a yes against his skin and squeezed him tighter.

He untied his rope and stuffed it into the backpack he was carrying on one shoulder now. Between me and the bag, he had to be carrying more than 150 pounds.

Aiden maneuvered carefully, turning and slowing to keep my ankle from touching any trees or branches. He was in his element, knowing the way without even using his compass or GPS.

I realized as he carried me that he'd found his perfect calling. He was meant to save people. He didn't just save them himself, but also by teaching others how to go into dangerous places and rescue others.

He'd found his calling in a heartbreaking way—from the loss of his family. It was like the way we'd found each other after Colby's death—proof that sometimes loss and grief lead us to a new path. Neither path was wrong, but what we'd both lost made us appreciate what we had even more. Aiden was in no way my second choice. He'd brought me back to life, setting my desire for him on fire while filling me with a grounded sense of certainty and safety.

I didn't let myself moan and groan from the pain. Instead I focused on every step he took getting us out of these woods and closer to our new beginning.