“We’re not going anywhere,” Terry assured him.
“Let’s go.” Shea put his hat on, and Kiss shot out the door the moment it opened. “The dog’s been itchin’ to get out, so I’m thinkin’ to follow her lead.”
“Good idea. Dogs know best.”
They raced toward the Ram and took off, bouncing along the rutted trail in the direction he’d seen Jake walk while they were on the lake.
“You go find him, girl,” he whispered into Kiss’s ear. They stopped where the trail ended and the path turned to grass, and became more difficult to drive through. Shea knew they’d have to slow their progress to avoid an accident. “Find him so I can kiss him before I kill him.” She panted and licked his face, then jumped out of the truck. They followed, keeping her wagging tail in their sight.
The rain had let up from the almost blinding deluge, but it still came down at a steady pace. The dog raced ahead of them, but they kept up with her, and when they reached the back fence of the ranch property, Shea saw with a sinking heart the broken railing.
“I thought we checked the fence?” he asked his friends, ready to rip them a new one. “You told me it was all good.”
“We did, and it was fine. Thinkin’ these two last rainstorms must’ve loosened the posts, and they cracked open again.”
“Well, shit.” He picked his way over the broken pieces of wood. Knowing Jake and his belief that he could do anything he put his mind to, Shea had no doubt the damn fool was on the opposite side of the fence. He watched Kiss leap over the rails and take off toward the creek, which had swollen from the recent rains and was running dangerously fast. “Be careful, girl. Jake?” he yelled out. “Jake, where the hell are you?”Damn idiot.
With ropes in hand, Craig and Johnny joined him, and they slipped and slid their way down to the bank. He heard the dog barking and yelping, and as quickly as he could with the rain in his face, made his way to her. He saw her at the edge, the waters swirling around her paws, while Jake was on the opposite side in the water, holding on to tree branches that had fallen in the water and were wedged between some rocks and the base of a giant tree.
“You damn fool, going near water when it’s rainin’. What the hell’s wrong with you? That dog has more sense than you,” he shouted as he jumped over another tree limb. “How the hell did you get yourself into this mess? Didn’t you see the fence with the warning signs?”
Filthy and drenched, his shirt and jeans plastered to his body, Jake still mustered a cocky answer. “Yeah, but I figured it would be okay. It wasn’t raining when I came, and I saw some deer and wanted to get a good picture for Stacey.”
Craig gave him the rope, and he made a knot at the end. “We’re gonna throw this to you now. Tie it ’round your waist tight, hold on, and we’ll pull you over.”
Jake nodded and reached out when they threw the rope, but missed and landed face-first in the water. He came up gasping and cursing. “Shit. Come on, do it again.”
Good. He deserved it for scaring Shea to death. Now that they’d found him, Shea could relax and give him a bit of hell. “Hold your horses, there. Don’t be usin’ that potty mouth.” He tossed the rope again, and Jake grabbed it and glared at him.
“You think you’re funny?” He tied it around his waist. “Okay, I’m ready.”
The three of them braced their feet into the ground, and with Jake holding on, towed him across the creek. The water reached up to his shoulders, the current dragged at the rope, but Jake fought through it, and they soon had him out of the water and on solid ground. He lay there wheezing, and Kiss jumped on him, licking his face over and over again.
Shea prodded him with his foot. “Okay, champ. Let’s get up and go. It’s still rainin’ and dangerous to be here,like the sign says.” He held out his hand, and when Jake took it, he yanked him up to standing, adding, “Besides the fact that you have your little girl worried to fuckin’ death about you, as well as Terry.”
His face paled. “Where are they?”
“In the lake cabin. Where we’re goin’ now.”
They trudged down the path where they left the pickup and climbed in, Shea still annoyed at Jake’s cavalier attitude. He remained silent, and Jake, perhaps sensing his mood, didn’t try to engage him in conversation. Jake leaned forward and tapped Johnny on the shoulder.
“Guys, I want to thank you for helping me. I’m sorry I dragged you into this mess. It was stupid of me to ignore the sign. I didn’t think it was going to rain.”
“Seems to me you didn’t think at all.”
Jake shot him a look. “I’m trying to apologize. You don’t have to make it harder than it is.”
“Go ahead, then, ’cause you need to do a whole lot more grovelin’ than that.”
“Let the man speak, Shea.” Craig met his eyes in the rearview mirror.
Jake swiped at his wet face. “All I saw was the deer and how excited Stacey would be to see them. I wasn’t paying attention to the weather, and the rain just came down like a bucket of water was dumped over my head. When I tried to turn back, I guess these boots are too new, and they slipped on the rocks or wet grass, and I fell in and got pulled downstream by the current. I’m really, really sorry.”
“It’s okay, Jake. We’re glad you’re okay. Probably lost your phone and everything too when you got pulled in.”
“Yeah, but that can be replaced.”
You can’t.
