by Gemma Snow
Slowly, Cade pulled free from her body and Hollie began to climb off Sawyer until they were no longer one functioning machine of power and pleasure but three individuals who had a very challenging time of keeping their hands to themselves.
Cade came in a moment later with warm clothes and Hollie cleaned up then accepted the glass of water he handed her. It was, after all, one of the perks of being with a Dom—the sweet, quiet moments afterward where they wrapped her in a blanket and held her close.
Which he was doing now, taking the water from her hand and pulling her into his arms. She noticed that he left her in the middle of the bed, to allow Sawyer, who had just returned from the bathroom, to cuddle up on her other side.
“What do we do now?” she asked, because the silence was stretching and they had come down to talk and she knew that she was terrified she would get into that Jeep and drive back to Denver without once looking behind her. She, the consummate explorer, adventurer and traveler, the risk taker, the diver, climber and rescuer, was scared out of her mind.
Because what if they didn’t ask her to stay, what if they didn’t try to get her to trust them? What if this, whatever was really going on between them all right now, really was the end of the line?
“You have to tell us, Hollie,” Sawyer said. He was looking at the ceiling and not at her, and Hollie knew things couldn’t be any easier for them than they were for her.
Still, she knew what she wanted them to say, knew what she needed them to say to make everything real, everything possible.
She wanted them to ask her to stay.
She hadn’t realized it in the beginning. Not up until the conversation with Dec, not until the moment they had worked so hard to give her so much pleasure. It hadn’t been one moment. It had been every moment between them, everything real and delicious and lovely, everything hard and nostalgic and important. She wanted one of them, both of them, right now, right at this moment, to ask her to stay.
“I’m not going to choose between the two of you,” she said. “I wasn’t able to do it then and I’m certainly no more capable of doing it now.” She took a deep sigh. Sleeping together was one thing, but the kind of relationships her friends shared with their partners was something else entirely, something they hadn’t touched on. And hell, they hadn’t touched on it for a very good reason. But if not now, when?
Take that leap of faith, Hollie…
“What about something else…”
The two men at her side stiffened, each in their own unique way. Every muscle in Sawyer’s body went rigid, as if he were about to perform some feat of physical power and magnitude. Cade practically stopped breathing.
“You’re talking about the kind of relationships Lily and Maddy have,” Cade said quietly. Of course, it was the first time in all the years they had known each other where Hollie truly couldn’t figure out the emotion behind his words, and that scared her all the more.
And yet, she was talking about those relationships because they worked, because she had never seen Dec or Micah so damn happy, because Lily and Maddy were perfectly comfortable, perfectly at ease and more than loved in their relationships, and Hollie didn’t think it was too damn much to want something like it.
“They’re happy,” she pointed out, instead of answering the question. “They’re all very much in love.”
‘Love is complicated,’ Dec had said, but their love was no more complicated than anyone else’s, and they were so very happy, so very together forever.
“What if it’s too hard?” Sawyer asked quietly on her other side. “What if we can’t make it work between us? We lose everything.” ‘Everything’ being the relationship they could have shared, being the relationship they still could share if someone told her what was going on in their heads right now.
Ask me to stay.
She wasn’t going to beg. She was going to take their leads. If they wanted her to stay, they would have asked for it.
She wanted to be worth asking for.
Before she got the chance to say anything, not that Hollie had any idea what the proper thing to say was in a circumstance like this, her phone started vibrating against the floor.
She was out of bed in a flash, ready for the worst news. When she saw Savannah’s number on the screen, she knew it couldn’t be good.
“The bridge is already flooded,” Savannah said, in lieu of a greeting. “I’m going to need to get you and some guys down here. I can’t get through to Sawyer and Cam is calling Cade right now.” Sure enough, Cade’s phone was buzzing on the table where he had left it. “I’ve got calls for them too.”
“Where do they need to go?” Hollie asked, yanking on a fresh pair of underwear and her utilitarian socks and waterproof boots while she spoke. “I’ll get them there.”
Savannah rattled off the zones and Hollie nodded and asked her pressing questions, before she hung up.
“Cade, accident on second with minor injuries but line damage. I need to you to take point on that until the power is cut off. Sawyer, we’ve got two trees down near the road out of town and potential fire hazards in the surrounding area—that’s over on Fifth and Main.”
She chanced a look outside at the darkening sky with its ominous clouds and promises of surefire damage to come.
“The storm is here,” she said. “We’ll finish this conversation right after we’re done keeping this town safe.”
Chapter Fifteen
Cade dealt with the downed electricity pole in less than an hour, but the storm that had started as a slow drizzle while he had been leaving Hollie’s cabin had turned into a full-on raging thunderstorm and he’d stopped for his fair share of accidents, people out of their homes and other emergencies. The wind was kicking up, and he was able to help pull some trees out of the line of danger and prevent a couple of disasters with the winch on his truck and good old-fashioned grit and vinegar.
He’d caught up with Cam at the intersection to downtown, where they were working on unclogging several of the sewage drains that had become backed up, to help reduce the overflow into the streets. But though they continued to work to clear the drainage systems and prevent buildup, the streets began to flood, water rising to the tops of the rainboots he had been glad Cam insisted he wear.
For a thousand reasons, he was grateful Hollie had been sent their way, to help prepare evacuation plans and ensure the town had options if the flood levels rose—as they were doing now. It was impossible to see much beyond his own face, but Cade knew the mountains would look different if he could see them, the white caps replaced with deep, steel gray, darker than the murky water at his feet and the sky open and angry above them.
And though his hands were freezing and his entire body was soaked—except for the toes of his socks because—thanks, Cam—those boots were doing wonders, Cade couldn’t stop thinking about all the other reasons he was happy Hollie had come back. She had reminded him of who he was, given him the chance to see beyond his own memories, to understand the value of all that he had accomplished and how he might manage so much more.
And she wanted…
She wanted something Cade wasn’t sure he could give. It wasn’t even that he and Sawyer had been fighting for nearly a decade—though they had been fighting over her, which did make things more and less complicated at the same time. No, it wasn’t even Sawyer. It was the whole idea of sharing the woman who he’d never stopped thinking about with someone else, of not being enough for her all on his own.
And yet, it wasn’t that he wasn’t enough. Cade understood that from watching how the Hollis sisters interacted with their partners. Lily and Maddy Hollis gave their full hearts to both men in their lives without question, as if each of their partners fulfilled some fundamental but different role.
Sawyer, though? Sawyer, who he’d been fighting with for years, a man he barely managed civility toward and the same in return?
Because you both love her. Because you’ve both always loved her.
Damn it,
that was the truth of it, wasn’t it? Sawyer Matthews would be the perfect person to have such an arrangement with because Sawyer was the only other man in the world who loved Hollie the way Cade did.
Which meant.
Which meant… Fuck.
“Cade!” It was impossible to hear anything over the sound of the storm and they worked to dam the flooding and prevent it from damaging the buildings and homes along the street front, but the expression on Cam’s face had him moving to her as quickly as he could.
“Savannah can’t get through to Hollie,” she shouted over the storm, holding up her radio, which had been unceremoniously shoved into a Ziploc bag. “Wants to know if we’re able to find her.”
Cade nodded, but it felt as though his stomach was the runoff location for the storm, churning with muck and grime as he thought about where she might be and what might have happened so she wasn’t able to respond.
Her radio’s probably busted. It’s no big deal.
But there was no denying the way his panic rose at the thought of something happening to her, and Cade made for higher ground with Cam quick on his heels. They took shelter under the awning of the nearest shop and he pulled his own radio free from his slicker.
It was static then buzzing and the weakest connection, and he fiddled with the dials for a moment.
“Sawyer, do you read?”
It was nearly impossible to hear, but Cade didn’t care. It suddenly felt imperative that Sawyer was out there looking for Hollie alongside Cade and their years of arguing and fighting could be forgotten in a single afternoon.
“I’m here, Sheriff,” Sawyer said, coming in rough, but there nonetheless.
“We can’t find Hollie,” he said. “Cam’s going to meet up with Savannah. Rendezvous at Hollie’s house and go from there?”
It was the first thing that had come to his mind, but he had to do something. Cam gave him a nod and headed to the cruiser she had parked at the top of the hill as Cade made his way to his truck. Hollie’s house, the house he had practically grown up in, the house with the grandmother who had cared and the brother who had teased and the hot meals and the friendly smiles, was only a few miles down the road and he navigated around the raging rivers of water in the streets and toward the far side of the tracks. They’d all grown up on the wrong side of town, Hollie, Sawyer and him, and they’d all found their way up the ladder, becoming the best, most capable versions of themselves.
Almost.
Cade had a sneaking suspicion that the best version of himself involved Hollie Callihan in his life and, inexplicably and annoyingly, it involved Sawyer Matthews too.
Sawyer was already pulling down the street by the time Cade arrived and the damage to the small road was apparent at first sight. Two of the largest, oldest trees lay on their sides in the middle of the road and blocked both cars from getting any farther. Cade parked behind him and hopped out, meeting Sawyer’s stride, and they headed for the back of the house, calling her name, trying to be heard over the sounds of the howling wind and beating rain.
They didn’t need to say anything, not now, not with Hollie missing and the storm raging around them, but Sawyer wanted to. He wanted to say that he understood what Cade was telling him by sharing the call. For every tree they’d moved, every sandbag they had placed, he had thought of Hollie, of how she had voiced a willingness to try, but one that was all in, both or neither. She had been so bold and open, willing to lay herself out on the line—it put both him and Cade to shame.
What had truly come as a surprise, however, was that he wasn’t immediately turned off by the idea. Oh, sure, there were other men in the world he’d rather hitch his horse to the same wagon with, but Cade had loved Hollie as long and as deeply as Sawyer himself had…
Am I completely fucking nuts to consider this?
He wasn’t even sure what he was really considering. All Sawyer knew was that if Hollie left them again, that would undoubtedly be the end of him and his chance for love.
And if following love and forever and the fairytale bullshit that never came for guys like him meant thinking a little outside of the box, meant opening up his mind a little more than he had ever expected…
Sawyer was up for the adventure.
“She’s not here,” Cade said, looking around and pointing the flashlight he’d just pulled from his pocket at the various corners of the estate.
“Where was she when the call came?” Sawyer asked, then he and Cade were running back to the cars before they even finished the reply.
The bridge.
They didn’t even discuss it. Cade just climbed into Sawyer’s truck and Sawyer sent muddy wheels spinning when he pulled backward and hauled ass across town. Hollie had been called away to check on the flooded bridge, but that had been hours ago. Surely she was somewhere else by now. Surely nothing had happened to her.
But the idea that something had happened to her, that she might not be waiting for them with quips and clever remarks, that she might never share her sense of adventure with the world again, that any harm at all might have befallen her, made the rest of it disappear. Sawyer didn’t have any anger left, not toward Hollie for having left them all those years ago, not even toward Cade, whom he’d blamed for so long and who wasn’t any more responsible for her leaving than Sawyer himself. There was no anger left, just the hope that she was still okay and the willingness to do whatever it would take to ensure she stayed with them in the future.
Before Sawyer could give voice to any of that, however, they arrived at the bridge. Sort of. He couldn’t pull up any closer than two dozen yards. The road leading to the bridge and the two riverbanks were submerged, as was the bridge itself. It was like something out of an apocalyptic film—raging, dirty waters coming hard down from the mountains, the crossing of the bridge gone below the surface and…
And Hollie hanging on to one beam with all her might. Sawyer’s heart kicked into high gear and he parked and raced out of the car, stopping to grab a length of thick, solid rope from the trunk and coming to meet Cade when they ventured toward her.
“Hollie!” Cade called from beside him, but there was no way she could hear them, not with the raging water all around her and the powerful surge of rain still coming down.
“Here.” Sawyer uncoiled the rope and attached one carabiner to the hook on Cade’s jacket, then attached the other to his own. A third length of cord was wrapped around the middle of their ties and hooked to the front of the car, making a T shape and allowing them to both take that first step out into the muddy water. It was high and angry, the floods coming nearly up to his waist. They would have been so much higher on Hollie’s petite frame, and he had to wonder how long she had been out there, holding on to the metal beam for her life—what she had been thinking about as she had held tight.
It’s you, Hollie. It’s always been you.
And if that meant taking a chance on the man beside him, Sawyer was willing to do it. He hadn’t gotten along with Cade Easton for years—and not for the right reasons. But regardless, they had saved lives together and kept Wolf Creek safe and secure, all while griping and bitching about it. Imagine the kind of the good they could do for the town if they happily worked together…
To start, however, they had to work together on getting Hollie home safe. In fact, it was the only thing that mattered at all. Hollie. Hollie was the only thing that had ever truly mattered. And Sawyer was about to prove it.
The going was slow, against the rage of the current, but they were able to walk at the same pace half pushing against the water and pulling themselves along by the beams of the bridge, until they were five feet from Hollie, then three, then one.
She was soaking wet and her teeth were clearly chattering. Even as far away as they were, that was impossible to miss. She otherwise looked unharmed, though, and Sawyer sent up a prayer to whatever god was listening that they got her off the broken beam and home safe.
“Can you reach my hand?” he asked, holding on to one be
am of the bridge while he stretched out his hand. It was nearly six inches too far away. Hollie reached, but she couldn’t get to him, and Sawyer knew the other beam, laden down with water now, would never support both their weights. Even when she moved slightly toward him, the damn thing began to creak and sway, just like floorboards giving way during a fire. He’d take fire over water any day of the week.
“Just hold on,” Cade shouted from Sawyer’s side. “We’re coming.”
Sawyer wasn’t exactly sure how, but then Cade was scaling the side of the bridge and trying to come down to grab Hollie’s hand from above. The water below her was getting higher and the beam she was on was rocking violently now. Cade got her hand. Sawyer could see the moment their grips met—the same moment the beam snapped in half and they fell into the roiling water.
For a moment, he couldn’t see either of them and Sawyer thought that he had officially lost everything, but then a head of blonde hair, then brown popped up a few feet down—damn, that river’s really moving—and Sawyer felt the tug on the rope around his waist.
Thank god.
It was slow going pulling them both to safety, but he’d spent his years as a firefighter hauling heavier loads. It wouldn’t have mattered if the two of them hanging on to the rope had weighed as much as his truck, Sawyer would have put one hand over the other until they were safely back on their feet. The waters were rising and he did his best to keep his movements steady and even, to prevent his arms from tiring, and eventually Cade was able to place his feet on something and the rope eased when he and Hollie, half holding on to him and half supporting him, were able to reach the bridge.
Or what was left of it. The water was now at the second rung of the metal support beams and surging higher, and everything Sawyer had dismissed as the fear mongering bureaucrats overreacting to nature’s expected chaos had come to pass. Their little town was underwater—and they had done their best to save it from the worst of things.
