It looked like no one had been along in forever. The drive was overgrown with weeds and gra.s.s. Tree branches reached into the lane and brushed the roof of her car. It seemed as if they"d be driving forever, but then a clearing appeared and the most G.o.d-awful ugly cabin sat falling apart in front of her. Home sweet home.
"Well, I feel like I"ve been had. Here"s a piece of advice . . ." Lu leaned forward and squinted through the rain-washed windshield to gaze at the cabin. "Never invest in real estate out of anger."
The dog and cat began scanning the s.p.a.ce around the cabin. She wasn"t sure if she should point out the obvious . . . Tynan"s truck wasn"t here. Eh, better not. Maybe she"d just let them sniff around and figure it out for themselves. She checked her phone for service, and just as she"d figured: nothing. Not a big deal. They"d be driving back out soon.
Lu zipped up her rain coat and clipped the leash onto Houdini. She hadn"t found a leash for the cat, so she really hoped the cat stuck next to the dog like a burr on a horse"s tail. She opened her door and they trampled over her, jumping down before she could even swing her legs out. "Okay, I get it. I"m a little worried that Mr. Control Freak didn"t return when he said he would, too, but a little show of restraint would be appreciated."
Houdini at least waited until she"d slammed the car door before he dragged her behind him on some scent trail. They went a full circle around the cabin, Houdini"s nose sniffing along the ground. Every so often he would lift his head and sniff the air, changing direction before sniffing along the ground again.
She"d never reasoned with a dog before, but she figured she"d give him five minutes of sniffing around before they got back in the car and headed home. After five minutes, when the dog figured out they weren"t heading off into the forest, he started barking at her again. "Dude, no. He"s not here. Let"s get back in the car and let Quinn"s forest rangers handle this."
More frantic barking, which Lu refused to cater to. This d.a.m.n dog was as stubborn as his master. She was about to tug the dog back into the car when the cat streaked past them both and shot into the woods.
"Stop!" Lu yelled over the wind and rain, but it kept on going. The dog sat on his haunches and stared at her as if to say, well, what are you going to do about that? Dammit. She pulled the dog over to the car and grabbed the hiking backpack. It was Tynan-sized, so it kept smacking her in the backs of her thighs as she walked, but she knew from all her years of hiking and camping with Joe, always go into the woods prepared.
"Let"s go, Houdini. Let"s go get your d.a.m.n cat."
It didn"t take long to find the cat, but by that time Houdini had caught some scent, and Lu learned a very important lesson: If a sixty-plus-pound dog doesn"t want to turn around, there"s pretty much no way a five-foot-three-inch woman is going to change his mind. Especially when the ground is covered with wet leaves and she can"t get any traction.
She held on to the leash for dear life and the dog pretty much dragged her all the heck around. And then he stopped in his tracks, lifted his head, and c.o.c.ked it to one side. Sure enough, over the pelting raindrops and the wind whistling through the trees, she heard it too.
A whistle. Three short bursts of a whistle. Someone was blowing their safety whistle. Houdini"s head turned back to her.
"I hear it. Good boy, Houdini. Wait one second, though." Lu swung the soaking-wet backpack down to rest on the ground and riffled through it until she found the safety whistle in her pack. She raised it to her lips and blew as hard as she could. No response.
No surprise. The weather was making a racket and the wind must have carried the other whistle downwind to her. Looping the cord of the whistle around her neck, she threw the pack back on. "Lead the way, Houdini."
Lead he did. Through a small stream, over logs, through p.r.i.c.kly undergrowth. He pulled with such intent, she barely could see where they were heading. Houdini followed a scent but every so often seemed to correct course when he heard the whistle blow. Branches whipped across her face, tangling and catching in her hair. She tripped over tree roots and slipped down a steep hill on her a.s.s. Twenty minutes later she was sopping wet, muddy, tired, and ready to give up. And that"s when they found Tynan.
He was sitting, casual as you please, leaning against a boulder with his long, powerful legs stretched out in front of him, his crazy eyes bright in the storm-darkened air. The whistle resting between his lips fell to hang around his neck when his lips slid into a grin. He was covered with mud, his clothes a bit tattered, and had angry-looking sc.r.a.pes on his hands, his right cheekbone, and a bruise along his jawline under his three-day beard. The man looked dangerous and hot as h.e.l.l.
"Tynan Cates." She let go of the leash and bent over to rest her hands on her knees and catch her breath while the dog and cat showed him how happy they were to see him.
He fought his way out from under his animals to stare at her. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?"
"Like I haven"t been asking myself that for the past hour." Lu wanted to laugh and cry. She wanted to sink down onto the wet, musty leaves next to him and sprinkle kisses all over his scratched-up, muddy face. She wanted to punch him for worrying her and being such a jerk. Only she couldn"t, because she"d been a jerk too. "So, Tynan, nice to see you. How are things?"
"Sorry. I"m d.a.m.n glad to see you; it"s just a surprise." He moved his gaze, looking behind her to see who was with her. "Who else came with you?"
Lu stood back up, still breathing heavily. The rain and wind both had increased, as if Mother Nature had turned the dial up a few notches. She pushed the wet hair off her face, then gestured toward his pets. "You"re looking at them."
"Oh, okay." His brow creased and he wiped at the rain pelting his face. He had to yell to get his voice over the noise of the storm. "How about you go back and get one of my brothers or one of the park rangers for help?"
She shook her head and walked forward, sinking down on her knees next to him. "This storm? Late-season tropical storm. Everyone"s pretty busy right now. Where are you hurt?"
"Ankle, bad sprain. Hit my head too. I rigged up this splint this morning and have been working my way toward the cabin. I don"t get too far walking before I get light-headed and have to rest, so possibly a concussion."
Or walking on a horribly sprained ankle was so painful he was almost pa.s.sing out from it. Stubborn man. Lu was no nurse, but she looked at his pupils anyway. From the crime shows she"d been watching with Agatha and Beatrice, she knew she should check to make sure they were the same size. Beyond that, she had no idea. "Okay, here"s what I suggest. We"ll retie your splint and get you to my car. Then we can head home, maybe even get back before the worst of it hits."
He didn"t look happy about being told what to do. Well, tough cookies. His dog and cat had pushed her around for long enough; now she was making some decisions. In fact, she decided not even to wait for him to decide anything.
She slung her backpack off and got out some aspirin. She shook out four and slapped them in his hand. "Here; chew these.
He must have been in pain because he chewed them without a word.
Next she decided what to do about a brace for his ankle. He"d rigged it pretty well, but between walking on it and the rain, it had loosened too much to give him the support he needed. "Okay, two options for your ankle. One: You lean on me like a human crutch and we walk out of here. The height difference might slow us up. Or two: We cut your spiffy raincoat into strips to reinforce the splint you made so you can walk on your own."
He held up two fingers.
She nodded. "Okay, option two it is."
They got to work. She started to remove his hiking boot but he stayed her hand, shaking his head.
"No. It"s too swollen. You"d have to cut it off and I"ll need it to walk."
Good point. Between the two of them, they got it done. Tynan cut long, three-inch-wide strips out of his Gore-Tex rain jacket. After Tynan retied the boot tighter, Lu wrapped it with the strips, pulling as tight as she could. She bit her lip when he groaned a few times. "Sorry."
He grunted, then reached out a hand to push away the wet hair plastered to her cheek.
"All set." She ran her gaze over his face, paler now than it had been ten minutes before. "Ready?"
He shook his head, leaning in so she could hear over the wind and rain. "I need a walking stick."
Right. She stood up and began a search for a large, st.u.r.dy stick. Hickory or oak would work best. It took at least ten minutes to find one she hoped would work. Holding it up for Tynan to see, he nodded.
She set it down on the ground next to him so she could use both her hands to help him up. He powered himself up for the most part. Leaning back down, she grabbed the stick and handed it to him "Are you sure you don"t want to stay while I go find help?"
Tynan took the walking stick with a sure hand as his grimace of pain smoothed out into a lopsided grin. "And miss the chance to stare at your sweet a.s.s walking in front of me? Not on your life, Lulubelle. Lead the way."
Chapter Twenty-seven.
Tynan stabbed the stick firmly into the ground and put his weight on the injured foot. Oh, f.u.c.k, he was about to pa.s.s out from the pain. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep his groan from escaping. He gave a curt nod and they moved forward, one painful step at a time. It turned out Lu"s sweet a.s.s was hidden by the borrowed backpack, so he distracted himself from the pain with a mental after-action report of The Bear Incident.
What had been his initial plan? Simple: to hike the s.h.i.t out of the mountain. What had happened? He"d become so hyperfocused on his goal as to forget basic hiking safety in bear country: make noise. He could kick himself because he d.a.m.n well knew better than to let his mind wander out here. What had he learned? Stay focused and don"t run into a f.u.c.king bear.
A flash of white-hot pain shot up his leg, causing him to make a quick a.s.sessment of his options. By his estimate they were less than a mile from the cabin. Normally a twenty-minute hike for an average person with a pack. But for a guy with a b.u.m ankle and a possible concussion, a pixie carrying a pack made for someone twice her size, a three-legged dog, and a soaking wet cat . . . he"d need to bend the s.p.a.ce-time continuum to calculate that. And a tropical storm? He knew for d.a.m.n sure three days ago it had been a tropical depression with a trajectory keeping it out over the ocean.
He refused to allow the pain in his ankle to stop him because that would either leave them all vulnerable or mean Lu would have to head back through the woods and the storm by herself again. No way in h.e.l.l would he let that happen. He wasn"t happy that she had come out here alone to begin with. After he had a long talk with her about safety he"d have a word with his family too. How could they have let her come out here by herself?
No, he would d.a.m.n well crawl out of here if he had to. h.e.l.l, this was nothing compared to hiking through hundred-degree temperatures, sandstorms, and gunfire. He gritted his teeth and kept going, following Lu. Rain sliced at them, driven by the gusting wind, but Lu pushed forward with Houdini reined in tight, trying to keep him away from Tynan"s feet.
At one point the cat parked its b.u.t.t in a pile of pine needles and stayed there. It hissed and glared at them all. Lu walked over and scooped it up. She handed it over to Tynan, and he draped it over his right shoulder, where it hung on for the ride.
Lu waited for his signal that he was ready to move again, then gathered the dog"s leash and moved forward. He kept shifting his gaze from Lu"s backpack to his feet. He didn"t want to fall on his face again or lose Lu in the woods.
A loud crack off to their left had Tynan jumping forward and grabbing Lu into his chest as an upper tree branch crashed to the ground next to them. h.e.l.l, another strong gust could easily take out one of the older pine trees. Tynan released Lu and they pressed forward at a slightly faster speed.
Finally, after about an hour and a half, they reached the cabin. In unspoken agreement, they headed straight for it. No point trying to drive through this and risk getting hit by a falling tree. They could shelter in the cabin until the storm had pa.s.sed through.
Tynan pulled the cat down into his arms, leaned next to the cabin door for support, and looked at Lu. "Key?"
She shook her head at him. Right. She hadn"t taken ownership quite yet. He handed over the cat and brushed Lu back a pace before smashing his elbow into the corner windowpane above the doork.n.o.b. He reached his hand through and opened the door. They all piled inside. Ty had to put his shoulder into the door to push it closed against a gust of wind.
Inside, the noise was blessedly muted. The rain hit the shingle roof, finding a few places to sneak in and onto the floor. Overgrown branches swayed wildly, scratching and slapping up against the two windows in the room as the wind tore through the woods. Tynan dragged himself in farther and leaned against a wall in relief. Any port in a storm.
The room, stuffed with overlarge generic rental furniture, looked dim and gloomy. Lu ran her hand around near the door, looking for a light switch.
"Farther to the left." He was afraid to tell her adding light wasn"t going to help.
She slid her hand further, and then Tynan heard a click and a sixty-watt bulb in the center of the ceiling oozed a murky yellow light down into the s.p.a.ce.
Lu was busy looking around in the small dark corners of the place. He grinned at the disappointment on her face. And then he opened his mouth because he just couldn"t help himself. "Nice place you have here."
She turned into the girl from The Exorcist right before his eyes. Her head spun around, and there might even have been sparks shooting from her eyes before she turned to look around the s.p.a.ce again. "This is the cabin you were raving about? It"s . . . it"s . . ."
"d.a.m.n ugly. And it"s yours."
Her gaze landed on his, biting her lower lip before she released it.
She looked so worried, the urge to wrap his arms around her and never let go hit him like a sledgehammer. But there were things he needed to say first. Apologies to be made and accepted. Questions to ask. Explanations they both needed to hear.
He straightened, using his shoulder to push himself off the wall. "I don"t know about you, but I think we should just wait the storm out for now."
She stared at him, her hair plastered to her head, water dripping from her nose, and sighed. "That"s probably a good idea. I need to run out to my car. I packed extra supplies, just in case."
"In case of what?"
"I have no idea, but those two over there"-she pointed to where the dog and cat lay curled up together on an armchair-"Houdini and DA, his diabolical a.s.sistant, were freaking out so much, they had me freaking out."
"I"ll help." Tynan limped toward her, trying not to grimace.
"No. I"ve got it. It"s just one trip." She braced herself and rushed out, pulling the door shut behind her.
Houdini jumped down and paced by the window until she came back.
Lu returned in a gust of wind and rain, slamming the door and setting a brown paper grocery bag down on the floor. "I was wrong. One more trip. Be right back."
This time the cat paced with Houdini. He"d have paced with them, but his ankle was throbbing as if an elephant had stepped on it. He also wanted to call Quinn and the park rangers, let everyone know they were safe and where they were, but not until Lu was safely back inside.
When he finally heard her on the porch he limped over and jerked the door open to let her in. He pulled his thermal shirt off over his head and crammed it into the square of missing window gla.s.s.
Water streamed down Lu"s face and neck and dripped down her jacket, leaving a wet trail on the wooden floorboards. She had his gym bag looped across her chest and was pulling the wheeled cooler from his garage. Lifting the strap from the bag over her head and off, she set it down on the floor. After peeling out of her soaked rain jacket she hung it next to the front door along a row of rusty hooks and kicked her shoe against the cooler. "Look. How great is this?"
"If you tell me that cooler is full of beer, I absolutely agree."
"Oh, no, I don"t think so." The radiant smile fell from her face. She leaned down and opened the lid, gesturing with her hand to it. "Ta-da!"
Tynan looked down into the cooler. Inside was a half-melted bag of ice, a few stalks of celery, and a pomegranate. He was expecting something better from a chef of her caliber. "Yay? Celery and pomegranate."
"No, not those. And don"t give me that disappointed face. That"s all you had in your refrigerator." She pointed a finger at him. "I"m talking about the ice. The ice! You"re going to stick your ankle in the cooler every twenty minutes."
Well, c.r.a.p. He"d had to do that during high school lacrosse season once. It hurt like a b.i.t.c.h until it went numb, but she was right; it would help. "Okay. Good thinking. Let me see if the phone in the kitchen is working first, so I can call Quinn and let him know where we are."
"Oh! Please ask him to call Beatrice and Agatha also. I wouldn"t want them to worry, plus I promised them I"d let them know where Houdini and DA wanted to go."
He narrowed his gaze on her. "What do you mean, where they wanted to go?"
Lu had taken the two items out of the cooler and wheeled it over so it sat in front of one of the dining-table chairs. "Your dog and his d.a.m.ned a.s.sistant kidnapped me. They tracked me down, bullied me, and then forced me to drive them around looking for you. For an hour."
Bullied? Kidnapped? "Why didn"t Beatrice and Agatha stop them?"
Lu squeezed the water out of her long hair so it fell into the cooler. Then she did some twisty thing with her hair until it was in one of those messy bun styles that make men think of rolling around in the sheets.
"Ha! They said it was more exciting than their TV crime shows and couldn"t wait to see where the two wanted to go."
Tynan ran a hand over his face. "Let me understand this . . . Agatha and Beatrice let you head into the forest with a tropical storm on the way to look for me? By yourself?"
"Not exactly. Hey, you know what?" She blinked her big brown eyes up at him. "I would feel better if we got your ankle in the ice now."
"Don"t think we"re done here." He hit her with one of his most intimidating gazes and pointed his finger at her, then hobbled into the kitchen to make the call but the phone was dead. Without knowing what was going on with the weather, their safest bet was to stay put.
Tynan limped back into the main room. It looked as if he and Lu would have all night to talk things over, and that was more than fine with him. He was afraid he might need all night.
A month ago, when Lu first had walked into his life, he"d had no earthly idea what he wanted. From day one she"d rubbed him the wrong way, but before long he hadn"t cared. She could have rubbed him up, down, sideways, or with sandpaper, as long as she was touching him. And he began needing to touch her.
Then the first blow had hit and she"d stolen his cabin. Next, he"d gotten slammed with the real bombsh.e.l.l when he"d discovered she"d been Joey"s fiancee. No, not just his fiancee but his high school sweetheart. Was he such an a.s.shole that the universe needed to play this sad joke on him?
How else could a commitment-phobic lifer like himself suddenly find the one woman he could imagine having a real, committed relationship with-and it ended up being a woman who had every right to hate him for not keeping her fiance safe and alive?
But standing here looking at Lu now, none of it mattered. None of it. Now all he had to do was convince her to believe that too.
d.a.m.n. The advice Captain York had given him a few months ago suddenly made sense. He"d said after experiencing war things would never be the same. And you either let that eat away at your soul or you figured out how to build your life around that immovable boulder. If you were lucky, you could chip it down in size, but it would always be there at your core.
In that moment, as he stared at Lu, he had a revelation. Immovable boulders made strong foundations. He was ready to build his life on his. Preferably one with Lu standing beside him.
"Hey, h.e.l.lo, Tynan?" Lu stood next to the cooler waving her hand, trying to catch his attention. "What did Quinn say?"
"What? Oh, nothing. The phone line"s dead." He sucked in a breath; it was now or never to make his case. "We"ll have to ride it out here."
"Looks like it." She shrugged then tapped the open lid of the cooler. "The ice is ready. Let"s get your foot in before it melts."
"Right. But first-take off your clothes. Strip, Tink."