“Gregory!” Sorrel’s voice cracks with fear.
“I’m okay,” I manage, though my voice sounds raw. “Just... slipped.”
Just slipped. Like that’s not a big fucking deal when you’re twelve feet up and your heart is still somewhere in your throat.
I force myself to keep moving. Slower now. Testing each rung more thoroughly before committing weight.
Finally, blessedly, my boots hit snow.
But I feel no relief.
“Your turn,” I call up nervously. “Slow and steady. I’ve got the ladder.”
She climbs down more carefully than she went up, and I watch her every movement, ready to catch her if she falls. I tear my gaze away only to cast the occasional fleeting glimpse at the tree line.
When she’s close enough I reach up and grip her hips, guiding her down the last few feet.
The second her boots hit the ground I pull her against me, crushing her in a hug that’s probably too tight but I can’t help it.
“You’re okay,” I breathe into her hair. “We’re okay.” I keep my eyes on the trees behind her.
She’s shaking in my arms, her face buried in my neck. “I thought you were going to fall. When you slipped. I thought I’d watch you die.”
“I didn’t fall.” I pull back enough to cup her face, forcing her to look at me. “I’m right here. We’re both right here.”
I kiss her cheeks, tasting salt from tears I didn’t realize she was crying.
I let her go, well aware that the mountain lion is still out there somewhere. “Come on. Let’s get inside before that fucking cat returns.”
I scoop up the ladder, and she grabs the two shovels.
We make it to the mudroom door, stumbling inside.
I drop the ladder to the floor and lock the deadbolt behind us. She tosses the shovels aside.
We pull off our gloves and boots, then hurry into the great room, where we collapse in front of the fireplace, still in our outdoor gear, too shaken to do anything but hold each other and absorb the fire’s warmth.
“We did it,” Sorrel says after a while. “The dish is clear.”
“We did it,” I agree.
But I’m not thinking about the dish or the rescue or my near fall from the ladder.
I’m thinking about how close I came to losing her. Howshecould have fallen or the cougar could have reachedheror a hundred other things that could have gone wrong.
A world without Sorrel Silva in it is not a good world.
The very thought makes my heart feel like it’s being crushed.
I’m not going to lose you.
I can’t.
But I know just how easy it is to lose someone.
How easy it is to let work and greed take over your life.
How easy...
