“What’s wrong with her?” Becca asked Nick, quickly dismounting the horse.
He shook his head and looped the leather halter around the neck of his horse, coming closer to put his hands along Honey’s head. “I’m not sure.”
The ground beneath Becca’s feet seemed to shift like quicksand. Right in front of her, Nick tilted and put out his arms to keep his balance.
“Is it an earthquake?” Becca said, grabbing at his hand to keep her balance. Honey’s halter jerked out of her other hand and the two horses suddenly raced off, whinnying like the world was coming to an end.
Nick scanned the area with a frown. “This isn’t an earthquake, Bec.” He shook his head, and then whirled around to see the earth behind them sinking. “Run!” he yelled. “It’s a cave-in!”
Shocked, Becca couldn’t move for a second. That second felt like it lasted forever, but then Nick shoved her forward toward the mouth of the old mine.
But it was too late. Her boots sank into the crumbling dirt beneath her. She tried to lift her knees, tried to move forward, to run, but before she could even attempt to grip the earth with her toes and launch herself forward, the ground completely gave way below her.
Chapter 12
“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”
—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Becca was falling, sliding, screaming as her arms flailed while a waterfall of dirt caved in on her. She got a mouth full of dirt and then landed with a painful thud on her backside.
Dirt and gravel and weeds spattered like rain, hitting her face, her head, her legs and arms. Spitting and spluttering, Becca groaned, but the dull roaring noise of the wall of falling dirt finally stopped.
All went quiet. For a moment, all she could hear were the horses above her, but they sounded far away.
Becca tried to roll over, but something was in the way. “Great,” she muttered, trying to get her bearings and sit up. An old rotted timber from the mine’s tunnel was lying splintered clean into two pieces to her left.
Silence grew all around her, pounding against her eardrums. Where was Nick? Was he lying somewhere else where she couldn’t see him? Had he been hit by a cracking beam? Or worse, dragged away by one of the horses?
“Nick!” she screamed “Nick! Where are you? I’m down here!”
About eight feet under, she figured.
“Right behind you,” Nick’s voice said, as if he was far away, too, just like their horses.
She shifted her body and peered into the shadows of the tunnel. Nick was lying on his back several feet behind her and covered in dirt.
“Oh, dear God in heaven, thank you!” Becca gasped.
Covered in dirt, she crawled over to Nick as he slowly rose into a sitting position. His face was scraped up and a lumpy bruise was already forming on the side of his head.
“You’re alive,” Becca gasped. She closed her arms around his neck and to her complete surprise found herself suddenly crying. She hadn’t cried in years. Not even when she read sad novels. She was sure her heart had turned to one big math equation, hardened against any emotion or feeling. Just cold hard facts and algorithms.
Nick lifted a hand and patted her arm. “I’m okay,” he said quietly. “Head hurts like I just got hit by a baseball bat.”
“Unfortunately, you did. A two by four baseball bat.” Becca examined the split beam. “On the bright side, it was only half a two by four,” she added ruefully.
“I’m not sure I’ve seen you so optimistic in a long while.”
Becca rocked back on her heels. Slowly, she brushed dirt from her blouse. Picked at a tear in the knee of her jeans. When she lifted her head, Nick was gazing at her.
“I think you’re right,” she said, blinking dirt from her eyes. “Ever since I declared my major as a Chemical Engineer.”
Softly, Nick said, “I felt like I lost the funny Bec I once knew. And then I didn’t even see you for two years.”
“I’ve got a splinter,” Becca said. “From touching your baseball bat.”
Nick let out a chuckle, and then groaned, holding a hand to his head. “I may have a concussion. Let me see your splinter.”
She held out her hand where a jagged sliver of wood hung off her thumb. Nick cradled her hand in his palm, and then flipped on the small pocket flashlight hanging off his belt to study the splinter more closely.
“It’s not too deep. Hold still.”
“Ouch!” Becca cried out.
“It’s gone,” he said, lifting it up in the beam of the flashlight. “Check out my head. Feels like a goose egg.”
“It is a goose egg. We could fry it up for breakfast, I think.”
“Need to slaughter a pig for bacon first. I can’t eat my eggs alone.”
“Now you’re the silly goose,” Becca chided him quietly. She rose to her knees and held the flashlight to examine his head. “It’s a little scraped. Need some antiseptic, but no deep gash or stitches needed. Thank the good Lord.”
“I am,” he replied quietly.
“You are what?”
“Thanking God.”
“For what? We’re stuck in a collapsed mine. Our horses ran off. The walls of this tunnel are too high to climb.”
“We could try our cell phones.”
“Mine’s in the saddle bag. But at the moment I don’t really care.”
“I think that concussion is making you delusional, Nick Walton.”
“I like how you say my name. Like I’m in trouble.”
“You are if I have to spend the night here!”
Becca cocked her head to one side, staring at him in the glow of the flashlight. Realizing her hand was still on his face. Realizing what he’d just said. “You are so in trouble, Nick Walton.”
“Well,” he said quietly. “If I’m going to be in a little bit of trouble I might as well go for a big time-out.”
His hands reached up to touch her face and before Becca could think another coherent thought the boy she’d known since she was fourteen was pulling her closer. Pulling her to him. And then he was kissing her upper lip, and then her lower lip, and then her mouth, and Nick Walton’s lips were so soft and warm and oh, so gentle. He pulled her tighter, cradling her in his lap, kissing her over and over again. And she was kissing him back with a fervency that shocked her.
Nick murmured, “I’ve never been so glad in all my life that you are okay. That you’re still here with me.”
When he began to pull back, Becca tugged at his shirt collar and pulled his mouth to hers again just so she could feel his lips and taste his goodness all over again.
This was not like kissing Pete, the firefighter. This wasn’t even close to her silly daydreams about Captain Wade. And this was certainly not like kissing a brother. When Nick Walton kissed her, fireworks exploded behind her eyes, and then spread all the way down to her stomach. THIS was what kissing was supposed to be. The feeling she’d read about for so many years; the reaction she’d wondered was actually real—but had always hoped truly existed.
She just never dreamed that it would be Nick.
Breathless, she finally broke away. An inch. Their faces were close. Darkness seemed to hug them like a warm blanket. Nick’s breath was warm and sweet.
“I’ve wanted to do that for three years,” Nick confessed in a husky voice.
“What stopped you?”
“Your second summer after college, I didn’t have the guts. Third year you were gone on your internship. I figured I’d better do it now before you leave for grad school in Georgia and never come back.”
Becca wanted to weep. Emotions tumbled through her mind, her heart, her body, her soul.
Nick reached down to wipe the tear glistening at the corner of her eye. “Did I hurt you?”
“Never,” she whispered. “But I might have twisted my ankle.”
Chapter 13
“Of all the music that reached farthest into heave
n, it is the beating of a loving heart.”
—Henry Ward Beecher
Nick spent the next hour trying to call the horses to return to the spot where they’d crashed into the earth. Becca could hear the animals nearby, nickering and agitated, but they wouldn’t get close to the hole.
“The ground may be too soft for them. Maybe it’s for the best. Another tunnel might come crashing down. I’d hate to get the horses hurt, too.”
“No, you don’t want the horses to fall.”
“That would be disastrous,” Nick agreed. He’d risen to his feet and was examining the rectangular tunnel they were stranded in. “Problem is, I can’t see them to throw a rope and try to get them to pull us up the side of this dirt wall.”
“This hole is the same shape as a grave,” Becca observed.
“Don’t say that.”
She closed her mouth and shook her head. “I won’t jinx us.”
“Ah, I have a superstitious girlfriend now.”
“I’m your girlfriend?” Becca whispered. “No more buddies?”
“I’m so tired of being your buddy.” Nick lifted her up against him and she bent her head over his face, her hair falling along his cheeks as they kissed again. “Okay, Bec. Let’s get out of here so we can get cleaned up and go to the fireworks where I can kiss you again in the dark without anybody watching—and without grit on our faces.”
“Ha! You don’t like my mouth all dirty?”
“Only if it has brownie crumbs on it.”
She smirked at him, and then asked, “What’s the plan?”
“I’m thinking if I can lodge this partial timber into the side of the wall where it’s not as soft you could walk up it and hopefully I can push you out. Do you think if you can get your arms over the edge of this hole you can pull yourself up onto the ground?”
“I think so. Then I can get the rope from your saddle and help you up.”
“Exactly. You read my mind.”
It took a few tries to find the best spot where Nick could wedge the piece of timber into the wall where it wouldn’t slip out again, but finally they decided on the far end of the tunnel, away from the mine opening, seemed to be the best spot.
“Too bad I don’t have a sledge hammer to ram it into place, but this will have to do. Ready?” He tested the beam and it didn’t seem to wobble too much. “I think it will hold you.”
Becca glanced up at the sky. Late afternoon was coming on. Already the light down here underground was dimming more with each passing moment.
Gingerly, she got up on the beam and tested her weight. “Seems good.” Slowly, she walked up the side of it while Nick held her by the hips to keep her steady.
“I should have paid more attention to the balance beam in gymnastics.”
“You’re doing great. How’s your ankle?”
“A little wobbly, but I’m okay. Probably just twisted it.”
Just as she reached the top of the beam, the rotting wood began to slip. Desperate not to fall backward again, Becca lunged for the edge of the wall, grabbing the top at the same time Nick pushed her higher. Her legs dangled just above the top of Nick’s head. Thankfully, she managed to seize the branch of a nearby scrub bush, and then crawl combat style over the edge and onto solid earth once more.
“I’m up!” she yelled, flopping onto her back. Overhead, the big blue Montana sky drenched her eyes. Puffy clouds and a setting sun drifted toward the horizon.
She’d made it. She was alive. Her ankle was a bit tender, but a wrap on it would be all she needed.
“How are you, Bec? Talk to me!”
She crawled back to the edge and looked down into the hole at Nick. “We’re saved. I’m good. But dancing cheek-to-cheek with you will have to wait until next weekend.”
“That’s my girl.”
She smiled down at him, gazing in wonder at how life had turned so suddenly. On a dime. A complete one-eighty. She was happy, exhilarated. And she wanted to kiss Nick again. A few dozen more times.
“Getting the rope,” she called, spotting the horses munching on a few tufts of grass underneath a nearby cottonwood.
The animals had calmed by now and it didn’t take long to wrap the rope around the tree, knot it, and then bring the length to the tunnel for Nick to climb up the wall of the hole.
Once he was up, he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug. She pressed her face into his chest and the soft cotton of his shirt was the most comforting feeling in the world. “Let’s get you home and doctored up, Nick Walton,” she whispered.
“So what happens now, Bec?” he asked.
She bit at her lips and he touched a finger to her mouth to stop her. “Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?”
“No!” Actually, she’d been embarrassed to be seen with Pete after he kissed her on their boring date, but she wouldn’t tell Nick that. “I think us together is just going to be the biggest surprise to everyone we know.”
“I’m trying to picture what my mom and dad will say. They’ve been trying to set me up with so many girls the past year.”
Becca arched an eyebrow at him. “Pray, tell. I want details.”
“Nothing to tell. I never went out. I kept thinking of you and wondering if I needed to go find you at school. That’s a little embarrassing to admit now.”
“I like it,” she said, rising on her tiptoes to give him a light kiss. “I’m pretty sure Aunt Rayna thinks we’re still out catching frogs.”
“Good part is we don’t have to spend much time getting to know each other. I think I know you better than my sisters.”
Becca laughed. “I have an idea. You say you’re roped into the Bachelor Auction? In three days I’m going to saunter into that auction with the biggest, fanciest picnic basket and bid on you.”
“What if you have competition?” he said with a sideways smile.
“I’ll sabotage their picnic food. Or punch their lights out. Whichever works.” She shrugged, her mouth quirking up into a grin.
“Rebecca Dash,” Nick said softly, tightening his arms around her. “I think I’m in love with you.”
She put her hands on his face, gently brushing away the smudges of dirt, his blond stubble like sandpaper on her fingers. She loved the look in his eyes. She never thought anyone could look at her like this. Not teasing, not flirting, but honest and unconditional love for her. Because of who she was, from a boy she’d known half her life. Becca’s own eyes suddenly filled with tears. “The feeling is mutual. I just never dreamed I could fall in love with my best friend.”
Chapter 14
“You have bewitched me body and soul.”
— Pride and Prejudice, Hollywood film
On Saturday, the actual Fourth of July, Snow Valley celebrated Independence Day with style. The children’s parade was adorable in the morning, wagons festooned with ribbons and flags, and street vendors decked out in fine style.
Becca was pretty sure the entire county and maybe half of Billings had shown up.
The pie-eating contest had gone down in a grand success, a neck-and-neck finale over the last apple crumb. Now the contestants walking around with blueberry stains on their shirts and sick looks on their faces.
The barbecue lunch was fabulous—loaded plates, tables groaning with food. Becca and Nick surreptitiously held hands under the table while they ate.
“A piece of pie for dessert?” he asked.
“I’m sooo stuffed, but yes. One of each?”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “Anything you want, Bec.”
She laughed. “It would be nice to have a bite of each, but if I have to choose I’ll take triple berry ala mode, please.”
She watched him walk over to the tables laden with every kind of pie in the world, hot sunshine on her shoulders, a fizzy soda-pop feeling in her stomach, and eyes only for Nick Walton. After all these years who would have thought . . . he only had to touch her hand and she was soaring.
Pete Rodriguez had tried to take Becca out again befo
re he left town, but she’d put him off with all the craziness going on at the B&B. She didn’t have the guts to tell him she wasn’t interested any longer. So she avoided him and hoped he got the hint. And she was busy. New guests were arriving that weekend. Thanks goodness for summer family reunions—they helped keep the B&B in business.
Plans for Aunt Rayna’s 40th surprise birthday party were nearly complete. Becca had split the list of party food with Captain Wade and Nick was going to help her shop on Monday after the holiday weekend was over.
Nick had asked her to the fireworks and dance that evening and Becca was calculating what dress she should wear. She couldn’t wait to dress up and let Nick hold her close. Dancing was a good excuse to be together and not draw attention to themselves. They’d spent previous Fourth of July weekends in years past goofing around, being silly. For the moment, Becca wanted to keep their relationship close to her heart.
Next week after the firefighters departed she’d spill her secret to Aunt Rayna. Although Becca didn’t think they’d fooled Nick’s mother who had knowledge in her eyes whenever she glanced their direction.
Every day was full of promise and thrills. She was even looking forward to sitting with Nick in a pew at church tomorrow and then lying on the grass in the park for the Sunday evening concert—patriotic music played by several bands.
Nick set her triple berry pie down on the table, then slid in next to her. A noisy family with young children had taken over the opposite half, the mother saying, “You don’t mind squirmy little ones who might throw food?”
“Please! Sit!” Becca said. She dug into her pie and watched Nick take the first bite of his peach pie with a double scoop of ice cream.
They smiled at each other, oblivious to the crowds and noise and chatter all around them. Nick bumped her shoulder with his. “Hey, my dad and I went out to the old mine shaft with Sheriff Carter and a contractor to make sure the area is safe. There could be more cave-ins. Dad and I will have to fence the place off until the state can get a geologist in to look at it more closely. No more horse-riding out that way. But, we found the remains of a camp.”
Summer in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance Anthologies Book 2) Page 53
