The Calendar Brides (26 page)

“Still nothing doing?”

Linda’s eyes registered worry. “Not a bar.”

Thunder boomed as darkness shrouded the forest, settling between towering redwoods and ponderosa pines.

“Night’s falling.”

Linda swallowed hard, panning the dense landscape. In their effort to take shelter from the storm, they’d wandered off the trail. Now that everything was covered in a deep sludge, they couldn’t find it at all. “Uh-huh.”

“Don’t panic.” Connie wrapped an arm around her little sister. “This is one of those summer things. It will blow over.”

“Sure, and then what?”

“Then… Well, I don’t know! We’ll think of something. It’s not like we’ll be stuck out here forever.”

Linda’s chin trembled as she shook her head. Connie met her sister’s panicked gaze, knowing just what she was thinking. They
were
going to be stuck out here forever. Eventually, nothing would be found of them…except for a few scattered bones that had been picked over by grizzly bears.
 

“Linda?” Connie asked, her voice warbling.

Linda’s voice trembled in return. “Huh?”
 

“Oh my Gawd!”
they shouted in unison, gripping one another.

Mac shimmied up a spreading oak, his hiking boots slipping on the damp trunk. The rain had stopped an hour ago, leaving everything in the forest soaked. He steadied himself and climbed higher, his food bag on a rope and pulley secured around his waist. He wouldn’t have any bears stealing his grub this time. He damn well couldn’t afford it. Not with his business, as well as his dreams of financial security, having gone up in smoke. His feet slid again, and he paused, glancing down below. He’d been lucky to get his tent pitched before the downpour. Thankfully, he’d been able to keep everything dry, including some wood and kindling sticks he’d collected and covered over with a tarp. Wasn’t easy to build a campfire when the logs were as soaked as this towering tree. Mac gritted his teeth and clambered up another few feet. He spotted the perfect branch overhead. Once he had this in place, he’d head back down and cozy up by the fire. Even in summertime, the nights here got pretty chilly. But Mac knew how to handle that. He was good with the outdoors and never missed a beat. Yessirree. He was a fellow who always knew just what he was doing.

Connie forged ahead as Linda clung to her arm. “Remind me to kill you if we live through this.”

“Oh, we’ll live, all right. Then you’re going to be the one who needs protection—from our entire family.”

“Thanks.”

Linda stumbled, but Connie shored her up. “We’ll need to watch our step.”

“No kidding. Thank goodness that was just a stick and not a snake.”

“Snake?” Connie stared at her in panic. If there was one thing Connie couldn’t stand, it was anything that slithered. Fact was, she didn’t care much for creepy-crawlies either.
A weekend in the wild. How in the world did I let Linda talk me into this?

“You blame me, don’t you?” Linda asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, but you were getting all mysteriously quiet, like you do when you think I’ve come up with a bad idea.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t your idea for us to get lost.”

“No, but—”

Connie held up her hand, scanning the woods ahead. She thought she spied a glimmer of light beyond a stand of pines. “Linda, look!”

“Where?”

“Over there. I think I see something.”

Linda shivered, seizing her by the elbow. “You mean like something big, with long, sharp teeth?”

“Stop being such a chicken,” Connie scolded. Night noises sounded all around them, and Connie gripped her sister’s hand.

“Now who’s being the baby?” Linda whispered.

“Shh!” She pulled Linda forward. “Come on, I think it’s a campfire.”

“Are you sure we should go through that thicket? Could be loaded with scary things.”

“There’ll be less of those around the fire,” she said, giving Linda’s hand a tug. “Let’s go.”

As they made their way through the thick brush, Connie saw she’d been right. It was a campfire for sure. Neatly ringed by large stones and blazing in its glory. There was a tent set up nearby. A tin coffeepot sat on a flat rock by the fire, beside a single mug.

“Where are the campers?” Linda asked under her breath.

Connie whispered, her voice trembling. “Maybe the bears got them.”

“Very funny.”

“I wasn’t trying to be.”

Just then, the two heard rustling overhead. The girls looked up with a start, spotting a dark figure shimmying down the tree and moving toward them.

This was it. Connie knew it. She and her baby sister were about to become something’s dinner. How she wanted to run. Bolt like a streak of light straight to that fire and beyond. Pick up a club, weapon, coffeepot… Huh? Well, anything! Maybe one of those very big stones over there. Yeah, that would work. If only she could get her feet to move. But they were stuck like lead in quicksand.

“Connie!” Linda said softly. “Let’s go!” She yanked on Connie’s arm. But Connie just stood there, mesmerized, transfixed by the fact that she was living out her final moments. Destiny had a way of catching up with everybody, so maybe it was time she met her fate. She’d deceived her family into thinking she was still getting married, letting them go to a lot of unnecessary trouble and expense. And now she was going, to pay…in spades. Maybe if the beast filled up on her, he’d be too full to gobble up her sister. “
Connie!
”
Linda wrapped two hands around Connie’s wrist and tugged with all her might, yanking her up and off her feet.
 

“Ahh!” Connie screeched as something loud bellowed from above.
 

A split second later, heaven and earth came crashing down in a heap, landing in a huge mass in the very spot where Connie had just stood. She stared at Linda agape. “You saved my life!”

“Yeah, but from what?”

They stared down at the pile of branches and leaves shielding a groaning form. “Oohhh. Aahh.”

Linda cupped her mouth with a hand.

“What is it?” Connie asked.

“A bear?” Linda offered uncertainly.

“Since when do bears make those kinds of noises?”

“I don’t know. I don’t speak bear.”

Connie squinted through the darkness as rays of light from the campfire cast a sporadic glow on their subject. She cautiously inched forward and gingerly lifted a branch.

“Don’t get too close,” Linda warned.

Connie stared in disbelief at two slightly worn hiking boots protruding from under the mass. “Oh my goodness.”

“I knew it! It’s a bear!”

Connie lifted another branch, then sucked in a breath. “It’s a
man
.”

“A
what
? What was he doing up there?”

As if in answer, a long coil of rope spiraled down from the trees, dropping in a heap on top of the leafy pile. Linda reached forward and picked up the rope, which dangled in something like a hangman’s noose.

“Oh my God,” Connie gasped.

“Yeah. Totally.”

Mac thought he’d heard talking beneath him, but that was unlikely in this part of the woods. Maybe he’d had such a long day he was hearing things. He had the rope almost set, but decided to prop it in the crook of a branch and leave it a sec to check out the noises below. Maybe some wildlife was searching for kibbles around the fire. He’d need to scoot down and shoo it away before finishing his work.

He was halfway down the tree when his darned boots slipped again, causing him to skid. Maybe if he grabbed that branch over there to steady himself, he’d be able to ease down slowly. But no! The branch snapped unexpectedly, hurtling him into the darkness below.

The next thing Mac knew, his back ached and his head was killing him. To make matters worse, there appeared to be whispering around him, as prickly prongs poked at him from every which way.
Is it my imagination, or did something just kick my boot?

This is one hell of a hangover
, he thought before passing out again.

Chapter Two

“Don’t kick him!” Connie yelped.

“I’m just trying to see if he’s, um…with us.”

“Alive, you mean? Good God, Linda. Let’s unbury him.”

“Bad choice of words.”

“Sorry.”

They got to work quickly, casting aside the branches and leaves.

“Wow, he’s a man all right,” Linda said as firelight from the campfire illuminated his handsome face. “A darned good-looking one at that.”

“Linda! Now’s not the time to think about good-looking!” Although she had to admit her sister had a point. He was pretty hot. Even in that position.

“Come on,” Linda said, “help me get him over to the fire so we can examine his wounds.”

“You don’t move a man who’s fallen.”

“You’re right.”

Connie set her chin in one hand while resting her elbow in the other. “Maybe we should try talking to him? Getting him to come around?”

A soft voice carried on the night wind, calling Mac out of his slumber. “Um, sir? Are you all right?” He awakened to find lovely blue eyes peering into his own. They were set in the face of an angel with short blonde hair and lovely pale skin. She radiated heaven’s glow, a soft ring of light from beyond framing her head.

“You’re an angel?” he asked, scarcely able to believe it. He thanked the heavens for sending one approximately his age. That was what they called divine providence. Or so he thought. He couldn’t remember that far back in church school, not that he’d be mentioning this to St. Peter.

She pursed her lips a beat and stared at him. “Um, no. Not really.”

He got it. She was one of those messenger types. An angel wannabe, waiting to earn her wings. And, boy, how he wanted to help her, do any little thing she wanted… If only his head didn’t smart so much. He tried lifting it, then set it back down with a thunk, grimacing at the pain.
 

“Do you think you can move?” she asked in a voice so sweet Mac thought he heard a chorus of harp strings.

“I’m not sure,” he answered hoarsely.

“Ask him if anything’s broken,” another voice said from nearby.

Mac rolled his eyes toward the clearing, spying another angel, a bit smaller than this one… Wait a minute. Wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap? Mac sat up with a start, and little birds began chirping all around him, darting through flecks of light. “I think I need to lie back down.”

As his eyelids fluttered shut, Mac thought he spied flames lapping the darkness in the distance. He hoped that wasn’t a bad sign. He didn’t seem to be thinking too straight at the moment.
The Dodgers. Well, I’ll be. I never knew God played favorites.

Connie stared at her sister as the man passed out again. Thunder rumbled above and little flecks of rain began to strike the surrounding foliage.
 

“Oh no. Not again.”

“What are we going to do?” Connie asked with despair.

Linda adjusted her cap against the rain that was streaming down harder. “We need to get him to shelter.”

Connie agreed. Though she couldn’t see for the life of her how she and her petite little sister were going to move this bear of a man. “I know, but we certainly can’t carry him.”

Linda shook her head. “How about if we drag him?”

“By what? His beard?”

“Hang on. Keep him dry.”

Linda scurried away toward the tent as Connie angled herself over the guy, holding her jacket out sideways to keep as much moisture off as possible. “Hurry it up, will ya?” she called back to Linda, who seemed to be taking her time in the tent.

“Got it!” her sister proclaimed, emerging with a curled-up bedroll.

A makeshift stretcher. What a great idea! “You’re a genius,” she told Linda as her sister carted the piece over and unrolled it next to the man.

“Okay, now help me,” Linda instructed. “Let’s get the top end first.”

Connie bent low to grip the guy under one arm, while Linda grabbed him by the other.

“On three! Watch his head, now.
One… Two…
”

Goodness, he weighed a ton.

“
Three!
”

“
Harrumph.
” Both girls tugged together, sliding the top part of the man’s torso onto the bedroll. The rain drove down harder, flecking his flannel shirt and dampening their clothes.

“Better hurry it up,” Connie urged.

They got his legs on next, then prepared to tug from the head end of the bedroll. “Are you sure this will work?” Connie asked. “What if we injure him further?”

“What if he drowns in the rain?”

“You’re right.”

Seconds later, they gave the bedroll a tug. Nothing happened. They met each other’s gazes, then yanked harder. The man’s hands and arms flopped to the side. “Oh no!”