by Maine, Miley
Thank God she did as I said without a peep.
I moved over to Bethany. “Is there anything else hurting besides your arm? Shoulder dislocated, collar bone aching?”
She pulled her scarf down under her chin so I could hear her over the now-howling wind. “No. I hit my arm right on the other side, where the ulna and radius are. And how'd you know it was my arm?”
I pointed at her arm where she held it to her chest. “You're holding it. People don't normally sit like that for no reason. Have you broken that bone before?”
Usually injured people weren't so specific about bone names unless they were doctors or nurses. I realized I didn't even know what she was studying in college. Hell, I didn't even know if she was in college. If she mentioned it last night, I didn't remember. All I remembered was the way she looked with her legs spread beneath me, and the eager way she took my cock, despite never having a cock in her pussy before.
But now was not the time to be thinking of that.
Logan, you are an asshole.
“No. I took anatomy last semester. The names stayed with me.”
“That’s good. I’m not going to try and get your coat off. Up here, I could do more harm than good. So I’m just going to wrap all of it up, and pin it close to your body, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered.
I figured she must be in a lot of pain. Otherwise she wouldn't be so quiet. I could tell from the way she bit down on her lip that she must be in agony.
“I’ll make it fast.” This whole situation might be her fault, but that didn't mean I wanted to see her in pain. In fact I wanted to get her to a hospital as soon as I could.
I took the ace bandage and wrapped it around her body so that her arm was held close to her chest, coat and all. Then I picked up the thermal blanket and wrapped it around her. I pinned the blanket closed. Hopefully it would prevent her from going into shock.
I pulled out my satellite phone and called for help. My snowmobile might carry more than two people, but I couldn’t put Bethany on it with a broken bone, and I wasn’t willing to leave Bethany’s friends up here. Our best bet was a medic with a rescue team.
I couldn't see her eyes with her goggles on. But I didn't want to take them off either. The wind was growing more fierce by the minute and I wanted her to stay as warm as she could.
“Did you hit your head?” I asked.
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I'm sure. The only thing I hit was my arm.”
“Okay. Good.” I pulled out a bottle of water and some pain medicine. “Have you ever had any problems with Tylenol?”
“No.”
“Take these two.” I watched her swallow the Tylenol and then I got up. “I’ll be right back with your friend. We’ll all wait here together.”
I took off. I found the other girl not far away. She was crossing the mountain in slow arcs, which was actually pretty smart of her. Maybe this one could talk some sense into Bethany, although I doubted she would listen.
I had the other friend on my snowmobile within minutes and we headed back up the mountain to where Bethany was waiting.
When I got back, Bethany was calm. Her friends were not. The one I had gone after started to cry.
“Hey,” I said. “Don't cry. You're going to make your scarf all wet and then it will be cold, and it will probably freeze.”
My statement made her cry harder for some reason. I assumed it was stress. After all, they had sent her down the mountain alone. She had assumed the rescue effort was resting entirely on her shoulders. That was a lot of pressure.
Bethany reached out and patted her arm. “It's okay he's just trying to help.”
In what universe had it seemed like I wasn't trying to help? How in the world could that have been construed as anything but helpful? Had I not just saved their lives?
I guess I had lost my touch. During my missions, I had comforted all types of people. Most of them had responded well to my presence. I rarely made people cry unless it was on purpose.
“Yes. I'm trying to help,” I said, drawing on patience I didn’t know I had. “Have you all eaten anything?”
All three of them shook their head no. “We brought granola bars with us,” Bethany said. “But none of us have eaten them.”
“That's good,” I said. “Where are they?” I kept nonperishable food in my bag but they were more likely to eat stuff they brought, over the dried jerky that I had.
The one who'd been crying pointed to her bag. I unzipped it and pulled out a protein bar. I broke it into three pieces. “Eat those. Now. Even if you don’t have an appetite.”
“I don’t know if I can,” Bethany said.
“Try,” I insisted. I'm sure she felt nauseated. But I really didn't care. The sugar could help keep her from going into shock.
All three of them chewed dutifully, but soon the friend who’d I’d retrieved from further down the mountain was shivering. I found an extra thermal blanket stashed in my snowmobile. I motioned to the friends. “Scoot together.” I wrapped the blanket around her. “Hold on to that. Keep your helmet on, and your goggles.”
One of them sniffed. “Thank you.”
I nodded. And thank God, the rescue effort showed up just a few minutes later. I needed to be done with this crew right now.
They brought a medic and a sled for Bethany, which she was going to need because she couldn't be expected to hang onto a snowmobile while going downhill with her arm broken. They also brought an extra snowmobile and driver for the friends.
The medic declared Bethany would need to go to the hospital, but so did the two friends because of the risk of exposure.
None of them argued, but I heard another sniffle.
She didn’t speak to me, but several times, I thought I saw Bethany look in my direction.
The experts were there, they’d taken over, and I was free to go.
But I didn’t. After the medics had gotten everyone loaded up, I followed behind at a slower pace. I just couldn’t bring myself to leave her until I’d seen her safely to the hospital. Who knows? Emergency rooms could be scary places. I didn’t want to leave her and her two jittery friends alone to navigate an unfamiliar hospital.
Was I lying to myself about why I was following them?
Maybe. But that didn’t change the direction I was driving either.
13
Bethany
I would never be able to describe the relief I felt when Logan’s snowmobile came roaring up next to the fallen log we were sitting on.
After Emma had skied down the mountain for help, I had imagined us all dead already, just in time for Christmas. As the minutes ticked by, I imagined one worst case scenario after another. A mountain lion attacking Emma. An avalanche burying me and Mia. A bear coming out and chasing all of us down for a pre-hibernation snack.
Logan had been right. Why hadn’t I listened to him? After Emma took off down the mountain, Mia had grown increasingly emotional. I was trying to stay calm for her, but she wasn’t making it easy. She was remorseful about many things, including forcing me to come on this trip.
“We should have stayed home,” she’d wailed.
I tried to reassure her. “You were trying to help me get over Winston.”
“But now he’s going to have to attend your funeral.”
I had been unhinged earlier, but now in the face of Mia’s distress, I was calmer. One of us had to keep our head on straight. “Do you think he’ll be sorry? Maybe he’ll bring his new girlfriend.” I thought maybe some dark humor would lighten the mood. I was wrong.
Mia began to sob. “Our parents will be so upset.”
I put my arm around her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t joke about it. It’s not funny.” I pulled her closer to me. “Don’t be scared. We’re going to make it out of here.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I know we will.” I spoke confidently, but I didn’t feel quite so certain. I was starting to feel a little fuzzy fro
m the pain, and probably from the vomiting, but now a pretty big case of guilt was settling over me too.
I was the reason they were on this mountain. They had come to humor me, and to make me feel better. Neither of them would have ever been up here had it not been for me.
Shit. What if I got one of them killed? Or even injured? I was profoundly glad that I was the one with the broken arm. I would never forgive myself if it was one of them.
“Yes,” I said decisively. “Emma is a great skier, and she’s so careful.”
By that point I was feeling despair.
Then Logan showed up. I've never been interested in a knight in shining armor or having a man ride to my rescue. But Logan had done that, quite literally. He had come to my rescue and he had saved all of us.
Of course he was super prepared. He had thermal blankets, and a satellite phone. I suppose any military member would know to bring those types of supplies. I should have known too. It wasn't rocket science to realize that a mountain might not have phone reception. He’d also made us eat, and drink water, and he’d given me the Tylenol, which had helped a little bit.
Now I was bumping along on a first aid sled, pulled by a medic. I was thankful to be alive, but overall, it was really quite embarrassing.
Now that I knew my friends would live, and that I would too, the humiliation came rushing in. I had ignored Logan’s sound advice. I had done something risky without a solid plan. I had put my friends’ lives in danger.
It really wasn't like me. Maybe I was still in shock from Winston's cheating. A small part of me had felt defiant toward Logan. I wanted to prove to him that I can make my own decisions and ski this mountain.
Clearly, I couldn’t. I’d have to apologize to him later. And to Mia and Emmaline.
Oh shit. My parents were going to flip out. I’d have to find a way to downplay this to them. Or maybe not tell them at all. Although if my arm really was broken, it would be hard to hide a big plaster cast. Oh hell. Our flights were scheduled to leave at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.
I hoped this visit to the ER wasn’t going to take long, because there weren’t many outgoing flights from this town, especially not this time of year. We’d have to drive to Salt Lake City to try and get a flight, and if we couldn’t get a flight, we’d have to drive.
But I wasn’t sure we’d even be able to find a car to rent this close to Christmas.
Ugh. Even if we could find a car to rent, driving it would be an issue. I had never spent much time driving on snowy roads. When it snowed in central Arkansas, everything shut down, because most of the snow was really a wintery mix, with sleet and freezing rain mixed in. That wasn’t drivable for anyone, chains on the tires or not. And the snow only lasted a day or two, before the sun came out and it melted away from the roads.
I didn’t know anything about driving on real snow. We’d always used rideshares when I traveled with my family, and occasionally my father had driven.
I’d have to figure that out later. Right now I needed to focus on something happier.
As we bumped along, my arm began to throb, and I let my mind wander to the night before. To Logan, and the way he’d taken charge. Not that I’d expected anything less.
He’d taken charge of me once again.
Finally we reached the base, and the medics transferred me to an ambulance. They wanted Mia and Emma to visit the ER too due to their exposure to the elements, but there wasn’t another available ambulance. At that point, the medics gave me some pain meds, some real ones, and I zoned out.
I remembered Emma and Mia peering down at me, and then I heard Logan’s gruff voice telling them he’d drive them to the hospital.
This seemed to satisfy the medics and we left. After that, everything was a blur. I could hear Emma and Mia’s voice nearby. A doctor checked them over and declared them fine to leave, and then they appeared in my cubicle. The doctors x rayed my arm, declared it a simple fracture, and set the bone.
For that, they gave me some extra medicine. It hurt, but it wasn’t any worse than the pain from getting a tooth pulled. Then they wrapped my arm up in a plaster cast. They asked me what color I wanted, and I chose black, which horrified Emma. “Black, at Christmas? Beth, are you sure you didn’t hit your head?”
“It will go with all of my holiday dresses. I have one that’s a really pretty dark green” I tapped her arm. “Imagine if the cast were white.” I laughed. “I could get camo. Pink and gray camo!”
Emma’s nose crinkled. “No. Okay. Let’s stick with the black.”
“I knew you’d see it my way.”
More time passed and I fell asleep for a little bit. When I woke up, Emma and Mia were both sitting beside me drinking Cokes and whispering.
Mia was shaking her head, and I heard her voice crack. I knew something was up, more than my black cast.
“What’s wrong, guys?”
Mia picked up my good hand. “Oh. Nothing’s wrong. We were just trying to figure out the logistics of getting home.”
“The flight’s not until morning,” I said. “We have plenty of time.”
“Beth, it’s 2:00 a.m.”
“What? When did that happen?” The last time I’d looked at the clock it had been 8:00 p.m.
“I think the pain meds made you fall asleep.” Emma tried to smile at me, but it was forced. “Do you remember what the doctor said?”
“No. Not at all.” I racked my brain. I had a vague impression of a doctor, but it wasn’t clear.
“She said you need to stay for several more hours. At least until noon tomorrow. They don’t want to release you until the pain meds wear off.”
“Okay. Why is that a problem?”
“Because our flight is four hours from now.”
“Oh shit.” Now it all came rushing back. The fact that if we missed this flight, it would be days before we’d get another. “You guys go on. I’ll be fine.”
“Of course we won’t leave without you,” Mia said, squeezing my hand.
But Emma didn’t speak up. She was biting her lip.
Her brother, the Marine, was coming into town. He’d been gone for a long time, and he only got a short break for Christmas. She wouldn't miss it.
And Mia had a family wedding. She was the maid of honor.
I grabbed Mia’s wrist. “You guys have to go back.”
Mia yanked her hand away. “We are not leaving you here, are you crazy?”
Emma got up and stood over me. “You’re in the hospital. What kind of person does that?”
I tried to sit up, but because I could only use my right arm, I ended up mostly lopsided. “I’ll be out in ten hours. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open. “Your parents would murder us!”
Emma shook her head so hard her hair was flying in her mouth. “And we’d be shitty friends.”
“Mia,” I said. ‘You can’t miss the wedding. Emma, you cannot miss your brother. Neither of these things can be rescheduled. It’s my fault I’m here. I’m not dying. I’ll be fine.”
But they were adamant. They couldn’t leave me here alone. I started to wonder if I could call my parents and get them to come up. Or maybe they could convince my friends to go home to their own lives. But I wasn’t prepared to deal with the drama that would create.
Especially not right now at 2:00 a.m.
We kept arguing until a deep male voice joined in. “I’ll stay with her.”
Logan.
He was the last person I’d ever expected. Hadn’t he gone home hours ago?
I’d looked for him at the base of the mountain, but he hadn’t said goodbye. I’d just assumed I’d never see him again.
So what the hell was he doing here?
My mind was sluggish, but apparently he’d just said he’d stay with me so that my friends could catch their flights and go back home to their normal routine.
Logan? Volunteering to help me out when I’d brought this on myself? After he’d warned me about the co
nsequences?
What was the angle here?
I kept pushing myself up with my right arm until I was mostly upright. I didn’t really want him to see me like this. I hadn’t brushed my teeth, my hair had to be all over the place, and I had on hospital scrubs that were too big. My cheeks definitely felt windburned from the cold too. A nurse had helped me to the bathroom earlier, but I hadn’t looked in a mirror. I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
I wanted to see him again, but maybe not like this.
Both of my friends whirled around to face him. Or at least I thought they did. The curtain was blocking him, and I still hadn't seen him with my own eyes yet. “You don’t even know her,” Emma said.
His eyes darkened. “I know her well enough.”
That made me blush. Hard.
Then he stepped into the cubicle and I stared up at him.
Nevermind that it was the middle of the night and the rest of us looked like shit, he was even more gorgeous than I remembered.
He wore a dark blue long-sleeved t-shirt that pulled tight across his well-developed pecs. Now I knew what those pecs looked like. All I could think about was putting my mouth on his chest. Which was something I had not had the opportunity to do last night.
If I stayed with him, could I get the opportunity? Would he let me put my mouth on his chest? Was that even something men like? I had no idea. But I could find out.
I wanted to feel his cock inside me again too.
Why was I thinking about his cock right now? Was it the drugs? What if I said something to him about sex right here in the middle of the hospital? I put my hand over my mouth.
He took a step closer. “Bethany? Are you alright? Do you feel sick?”
It occurred to me that I had my hand over my mouth. In this particular circumstance it could be construed as me needing to throw up again. But it was the exact opposite. My stomach was churning but it wasn't from nausea. My brain wouldn't let go of the idea that I could have Logan again.
Now all I had to do was convince Mia and Emmaline to go along with it.
Was it possible? Would he really be willing to let me stay with him? I wasn’t sure how much love-making I was up for, but surely in a day or two I’d be fine.
