“Maybe you saw her. She was excellent, a natural before she was even ten years old. Really wanted to be a vet.”
She stared at him, the past tense making her hold her breath. “And…”
“We were in our Subaru Outback,” he said. “The quintessential Utah family car. The roads were wet,temperatures were dropping, and it was that time of day where the sun turns the whole mountain gold but blinds you at every turn. I was doing everything right, at least I thought I was. Under the speed limit, both hands on the wheel, Dad reminding me to ‘ease up on the brake.’” He shook his head. “Didn’t matter.”
Nicole fought a groan of fear at where he was going with this story, picturing the two-lane road, the jagged ridgeline of the canyons, and a boy trying to prove he could handle it.
“A truck towing snowmobiles hit black ice and jackknifed right across the line. I tried to steer us away.” He looked down at his hands, curling them like they still gripped the wheel. “Way too fast, too hard on the brake, like the rookie I was. We spun and the truck slammed into the driver’s side back door, right where Elise was sitting. The whole panel crushed like crumpled paper.”
Nicole let out a whimper at the image.
“The sound…” Cameron’s voice cracked. “Metal on metal. Glass shattering. And Elise—screaming bloody stinking murder because her legs were pinned. Mom was crying, Dad was cussing, and I was just sitting there with the airbag in my face thinking,what did I just do?”
She put her hands over one of his, mostly because she could tell he was trembling and she desperately needed to comfort him.
“Dad broke his wrist and Mom still has a bad neck. I barely had a scratch. But Elise…”
She held her breath.
“Well, she rode her last horse that day,” he whispered. “They saved her. I’ll never forget the first responders and how they moved. Or the doctors or the surgeries or the months of trying to put her legs back together.”
“Oh, Cameron.” She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry your family, your sister, had to go through that.”
“She’s a couple years younger than you,” he said. “Just about to turn twenty-five. And she has permanent nerve damage, is paralyzed from the waist down, and gets around my parents’ house in a wheelchair. Tough as nails, funny and bright and beautiful, but she will never have a normal life.” He closed his eyes, guilt etched over his clenched jaw.
Nicole leaned back, taking in the story and trying to imagine how life could change in the blink of an eye.
“Everyone says it wasn’t my fault,” he added. “Legally, it wasn’t. But I wonder if someone else behind the wheel—someone older—might’ve swerved just right, braked with more finesse. Maybe she’d still be whole.”
Nicole’s throat ached. “You were a kid, Cam.”
“Yeah,” he grunted. “But she’s the one paying the price.” He finally looked up, his eyes raw and unguarded. “That’s why I do what I do. Firefighting, ski patrol, paramedic school. If I can save one person, maybe I’ll balance the scales. And it’s also why I never got…serious with a girl.”
She frowned. “Why would that stop you?”
“Elise,” he said, as if it should be obvious. “She can’t really live alone, so she’s my responsibility for the rest of my life. My parents are older. My mom was in her forties when Elise was born and she’s facing seventy. My dad’s five years older. They got married a little later in life, so…”
So he thought about their passing, and how he’d take care of his sister.
“Anyway, I have some, uh, baggage,” he said, looking directly at her. “And I’ll never, ever put it down.”
The vehemence in his voice squeezed her heart, the sound of a man who genuinely loved his sister and had made a commitment to her. A man who wanted a potential girlfriend to know exactly what she was walking into. She respected that, and wasn’t the least bit afraid.
“I’d like to meet her,” she said. “If I could.”
He blinked. “Of course you could,” he said. “But I…you’re…we…”
She smiled. “Why is this man stuttering?”
“Because you just make me like you more every minute,” he admitted, laughing softly.
“Then my evil plan is working,” she joked.
His smile faded as he searched her face and leaned closer. “I knew I could trust you,” he said. “I don’t know why, but I knew it when I met you. She’s alone right now, but she insisted I come today because…I kind of talked you up.”
She felt a rush of warmth to her cheeks, and covered with a laugh as she pushed up. “Come on, let’s get down that mountain and go see Elise.”
“Okay,” he said, pushing up. “I love that—” He froze at the sight out the window, and sucked in a breath at the view that was nothing but white. “Yikes. We maybe talked too long.”
