“That’s a really good rule,” Jesse said after a long moment. She could tell that he was forcing the words out. “What’s his last name? I’ll go kill him.”
Regan held up her hand. “I pressed charges, and with Laurie as my witness, it was an easy case to win. He’s locked up right now. He’s not an issue anymore.”
“Yes, he is,” Jesse said. “He’s an issue because he’s made you think that every guy is just like him, but we’re not, Regan. Yes, there are some jerks in this world, but let me tell you a secret—most of us are kind. Most of us are thoughtful. Most of us would never . . .” He pressed his lips together again. “Most of us would never push you faster than you wanted to go.”
“And how do I know that?” Suddenly, the undergrowth felt too close, and Regan pushed her way out. She stood in the rain and let it beat down on her head. Jesse followed her and she turned around to look at him, the rain making it hard to see him. “How do I know?”
He took a step toward her. “If you spend your whole life refusing to trust, you’ll spend your whole life blocking yourself away from joy.” He took another step, reached out, and tucked a loose piece of hair behind her ear. “Do you want to know what I was thinking while I was kissing you?”
“I don’t know. Do I?” Regan crossed her arms, wishing she had another way to separate herself from him. But he wasn’t having any of it. He took her by the elbows and came one step closer until she could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
“I was thinking about how blessed I was to be holding such an amazing, precious woman in my arms,” he said softly. “It was a gift, Regan, not something I would ever take lightly or abuse. It was special to me. Yes, there are guys out there who do take advantage of women, but I’m not one of them. I’m not, Regan.” He took a step back. “I don’t know how to prove it to you, but I’d like to try. Maybe you’ll choose to trust me, and maybe you won’t. It’s your choice. But right now, we need to be thinking about Cara. The rain’s starting to let up. Let’s go.”
Regan blinked. She’d been so caught up in the intensity of the moment that she hadn’t been paying attention to the rain. Jesse seemed angry with her—well, not her, exactly, but the situation, and she’d never seen him angry before. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They put on their backpacks and resumed their hike. Jesse took the lead when the trail got narrow again, but this time he didn’t even try to talk with her as they walked. He just trudged ahead. Even though he was upset, he pushed tree branches out of the way and held them so they wouldn’t snap in her face.
As they walked, she thought about what he’d said. She’d been assaulted—there was no doubt about that. But she’d refused to be a victim. She’d put up her walls and her barriers and blocked out the world, but she’d gone to work and hung out with her friends and done all the things she was supposed to do. She wasn’t going to let Glenn take her freedom away from her . . . except that’s exactly what she’d done. She’d let her experience shape her life, and not in a good way.
She kicked at a branch that lay across the path. In all her efforts to stay strong, she’d made herself hard. In trying to be independent, she’d made herself solitary. She’d gone a little too far when what she needed was balance. And her other relationships had paid the price. The tears that ran down her cheeks were warm in comparison to the rain, and she didn’t wipe them away.
“Look.” Jesse pointed. “We’re not that far from the lake.”
Regan could see glimpses of blue between the trees. It felt like a whole day had passed since they’d left Brennan and Cara and she was exhausted, not only physically, but emotionally. Now, seeing the progress they’d made, she felt a renewed burst of energy, which made walking seem easier.
She wanted to say something to Jesse, to apologize for shutting him out, but the words got stuck in her throat. She wasn’t used to saying she was sorry. That required humility, and humility was something she didn’t really have. That realization was difficult to swallow.
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she’d stopped watching where she was placing her feet, and she stepped in a hole. Pain shot through her ankle, up to her knee, and into her hip. She cried out and stumbled forward, tears coming to her eyes.
Jesse spun around. “Regan! Are you all right?”
“I think . . . I think I’m hurt,” she gasped. She couldn’t put weight on her foot, not even a little bit.
Jesse took her elbows and helped her sit down. “What happened?”
“I was thinking about what an idiot I am and wasn’t watching where I was going, and stepped in that hole.”
He unlaced her boot and pulled it off, along with her sock. “We need to work fast before it starts to swell.” He felt along the sides of her ankle. Even though he was touching her lightly, the pain was almost too much to bear. Regan bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“It’s not broken, but you probably have a pretty decent sprain.” He took off his pack and rummaged through it, coming up with an Ace bandage and a bottle of ibuprofen. “Take two,” he said.
“And call you in the morning?” She smirked.
“Only if you want to.” He wrapped her ankle snugly, then pulled her sock on over the bandage, and then put the boot on last of all. “We won’t take that off again. It will help stabilize your ankle and keep the swelling to a minimum.”
Regan swallowed down the pills with a swig of water from her bottle. She handed Jesse a piece of jerky, and they sat in silence and munched.
“So, we go camping, and there’s no bathroom. Then Cara falls down a ravine. And we get caught in a rainstorm. And now I’ve hurt my ankle.” She started to chuckle. “Okay, what’s going to happen now? A rock slide? A swarm of bees?”
“Maybe the rain washed out the bridge and we’ll have to wade across a flooded stream,” Jesse said as he zipped up his pack.
“Is there a bridge ahead?” Regan asked.
“I’m afraid so.”
“Okay, we should just plan on it being washed out, then. It will make it so much easier to deal with.”
Jesse slid his arms back through the straps of his bag. “Regan, I hate to say this, but we need to keep moving. I’d love to let you rest, but now we’ve got two people who need medical attention. I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re shaking pretty badly.”
Regan looked down at her hands and realized he was right. “Why? Why am I shaking?”
“I think you’re in shock from the pain, and you’re also wearing damp clothes. I’m pretty sure hypothermia is setting in.” He helped her up, and she put all her weight on her good leg. “We’ve got to keep moving, okay? Keep that blood pumping to get you warmer, and we’ll reach the road eventually. Help’s not too far away.”
Jesse looped her arm around his shoulders, and she tried to take a step. The pain was beyond anything she’d ever felt before, and she nearly buckled right to the earth.
“You can do it. Come on—tell me something else that could go wrong. Make me a list.”
“Okay.” Regan took a deep breath as she edged her foot forward. “Lightning could hit a tree and knock it down across our path, and we’d have to fight through vegetation to get around it.”
“Good, good.”
“The lightning, or the fact that I took a step?”
Jesse grinned. “The step, but I like lightning. What’s next?”
Regan forced herself to take three steps before giving her next answer. “What if we got caught in an animal trap? Like, a bear trap? Are there poachers around here?”
“I imagine there are poachers just about everywhere.”
The pain had made Regan nauseated, and she regretted eating that jerky. “I know. We could get carried off by giant eagles.”
“That would be really exciting.” Jesse shifted his hold a little and slid his arm around her waist. “You’re doing great. Keep moving. You can do this.”
“I don’t think I can. I think . . . I think you’d better go ah
ead without me. I’ll wait right here.” Regan’s vision was starting to blur. It was too much.
Jesse turned and faced her directly. “Listen to me. I will not leave you here. You are coming with me, we’re getting help, and everything will be fine. Now, what’s next? What other bad things could happen?”
“You could yell at me and make me come with you.”
“That already happened. Come on. What now?” He nudged her forward again.
“What if . . . what if your shirt got caught on a tree root and ripped off, and so you had to hide behind a tree because you were embarrassed?” Regan started to giggle at the thought. It wasn’t that funny, but for some reason, she couldn’t stop laughing.
“Are you saying I have embarrassing abs?” Jesse asked, feigning horror.
“I’m saying . . . it would be funny. Zombies. Zombies would be bad.”
“Yes, they would be. Now, listen. We’re going to try something else, okay? We’re going to take ten running steps, and then pause, and then take ten more, all right? We’re moving too slowly. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
“Okay.” That sounded absolutely horrible to Regan, but she had to trust that Jesse knew what he was doing. He was the only help she had right now, and if she didn’t let down at least one wall long enough to get off this accursed mountain, she would end up a whole lot more hurt than she already was.
“Count of three, run ten steps. All right?”
She nodded, and after they ran, she wished she’d never agreed to it. She clung to Jesse’s shoulder, sweat pouring down her back. “What if . . .”
“Yeah?”
“What if I was scared of rain and had a nervous breakdown?”
Jesse looked up at the sky. “That would have been bad. Good thing it’s clearing up now.”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing.”
“Time to run again.”
They kept this up for several yards. Regan concentrated on her list, trying to make each item more outrageous than the last. There was the giant purple dragon that carried them off, an evil magician who turned their feet into concrete blocks, leeches—although that one seemed a little blasé, after the purple dragon—and poison ivy, which was too unimaginative for words.
“I think it’s time for a break,” Jesse said. “You’re losing your touch.” He lowered Regan onto a large boulder and then stretched, rolling his shoulders.
“I’m sorry. I must be killing your back.”
“I’m okay.” He reached to touch her face, then seemed to think better of it and pulled back. She was disappointed. “I’ll just head to the chiropractor when we get home.”
“How far have we come?” She looked up the trail, afraid she’d see that they’d only made it a few yards.
“Don’t worry about that. Focus on that.” Jesse pulled down a tree branch that was obstructing her view, and she saw that they had descended far enough that they were now almost level with the lake. “We’re close. We’re so close.”
She leaned forward and rested her head in her hands, fighting off the lightheadedness that wanted to take over. “What if . . .”
“Yeah?”
“What if the only map out of here was in the shape of a birthmark on my knee, but it’s covered up by my jeans, so we can’t see it, and we get lost?”
Jesse chuckled and placed a hand on her forehead. “Yeah, you’ve got a fever all right. A little delirious, are ya?”
Regan nodded. “Pretty sure of it.”
“I wish I could lend you some of my clothes, but they’re just as soaked as yours are.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Hang in there. You’re doing great. I’m so proud of you.”
She closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. His hair was sticking up a little bit—he’d run his fingers through it while it dried, although she figured that was in agitation. He was still mighty easy on the eyes, though. She wondered if anyone had told him that lately. Kind of a shame if they hadn’t.
“Have you . . . do you know . . .”
“What?” he asked, his chin resting on the top of her head.
“Did you know that you’re kind of really good-looking?”
“I am, huh?”
She nodded. “Yeah. But that’s probably the fever talking and you should forget I said that.”
“Okay. I’ll do that.” He brushed a feather-light kiss across her forehead. “You’re burning up. Let’s keep moving.”
“Mmmm.” She shook her head, burrowing her face into his sweater.
“What about leprechauns?” he whispered in her ear.
“Leprechauns?”
“Yeah. They could cause all kinds of problems. Worms. Spiders. Come on, Regan, we need to keep moving.”
She let him pull her to her feet, even though she would much rather throw up instead. “We could . . . we could lose our shoes in the mud.”
“Yes! Yes, we could. Come on. Another few steps. What if we found a message in a bottle, but we couldn’t decipher it, and it was the only key to getting out of here?”
She dragged her leg forward. “Found a dead body. Probably mine. But yeah.”
They broke free of the trees, and Regan forced her eyes open enough to look ahead and see a field of green grass leading down to the lake, and a road curving around the small body of water. They’d made it.
“Okay, we’re almost there. I need you to give me everything you’ve got, Regan, and I know you have a lot in there. You’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met. We’re going to do the ten-running-steps thing all the way to the road, and then you can lie down while we wait for a car. Okay?”
Regan looked up and took note of the distance between them and the road. She could do this. She had to do this. “Okay. But . . .”
“Yeah?”
“I think I’m going to need more tiramisu.”
Jesse laughed. “I tell you what. When we get back to Aspen Ridge, I will buy you as much tiramisu as you can eat.”
Regan cocked her head. “I don’t think you want to make that promise. You have no idea how much I can eat.”
“I look forward to finding out. Are you ready?”
She looked into his eyes and saw the steel there. He was prepared to do whatever it took—she needed to be too. “Yes.” She slung her arm around his neck. “Let’s go.”
The next ten minutes easily surpassed all the pain of the preceding minutes put together. Regan refused to stop. Instead, she ran the entire way to the road and then threw herself on the ground, where she vomited. Everything was spinning—the sky, the trees, Jesse . . .
“Go ’way,” she said, batting at him with her hand.
“Why?”
“Because I just threw up. And it’s not pretty.”
He squatted down next to her. “It’s okay, Regan. Stuff like that happens when you’re in pain and shock.”
“But it’s still not pretty. Go away.”
He shook his head. “How about this. I’ll give you some water and gum, and you can wash your face with my bandanna. Then crawl over here where I am, and we’ll forget the whole throwing-up thing even happened.”
She looked at him through one eye. “Okay, it’s a deal. But don’t think this gets you off the hook for tiramisu. I’m sure my stomach will be more than fine by then.”
He held up three fingers. “Scout’s honor, and yes, I’m an Eagle Scout, I will buy you the tiramisu.” He then walked about fifty feet away and sat down on the edge of the road.
Regan dumped some of the water on the bandanna Jesse had left her and washed her hands and face. Then she unwrapped five pieces of gum, chewed them furiously, spat them out, and rinsed her mouth. Just for additional security, she took one more piece of gum, and then she crawled over to where Jesse sat.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. “That’s a lot better.”
“Here.” Jesse guided her a little closer and invited her to use his leg as a pillow. She curled up on the grass, and a moment later was surprised how nice it felt when he began
stroking her hair.
“How long do you think it will be before a car comes by?” she asked.
“I wish there was a way to know. Sometimes we see tons of cars and trucks go by when we’re here, and other times, we can go for a couple of hours without seeing a soul.”
“So, we have to wait and see.”
“Yep.”
Regan’s exhaustion was winning this battle. Her eyes drifted closed. “Do you think Cara’s all right?”
“I think Brennan’s doing everything he possibly can, and so are we. We’ve given her the very best chance possible for being all right.”
She liked how he could be comforting and still tell the truth at the same time.
“Hey, Jesse?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I threw up.”
His chuckle was warm and mellow. “Why are you apologizing for that?”
“Because I’d kind of like to try that kiss again, and until I’ve brushed my teeth, I just don’t feel right about it.”
“That’s okay,” he said, his fingers caressing the side of her face. “We have lots and lots of time for that.”
Chapter Eight
Regan opened her eyes when she heard the squeal of breaks. A large truck pulling a camping trailer had stopped in front of them. She tried to sit up, but all she could do was manage to let Jesse up. He strode over and began talking to the driver, and she laid her head back down on the ground. It was nothing like Jesse’s leg, but then, nothing was … except Jesse’s leg.
The passenger door of the truck opened and closed, and a woman came scurrying around and knelt at Regan’s side. “You poor thing. You must be exhausted and terrified. My husband’s calling in some help for your friends on the mountain right now. What do you need?” She placed her hand on Regan’s forehead. “You’re just burning up. We need to get you into some dry clothes. Charlie!” she called out.
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