“Has to be done, buddy.”
Joshua swallowed hard, his hands trembling as he nodded. “Just … just tell me what to do.”
Trent guided Joshua’s hands, placing them gently on Colin’s shoulders. “Hold him steady while Alex holds the leg.” He turned to Alex. “Keep that leg as still as you can. I don’t want him moving.”
Alex nodded and sucked in a trembling breath.
Trent grasped the rope, prepared to tighten the splint and immobilize the leg. “Deep breath, buddy,” Trent murmured.
Colin nodded, then cried out; Joshua’s jacket twisting in his fist as Trent tightened the ropes around his leg and foot.
Joshua bit his lower lip hard, shaking at the sight of Colin’s pain, but his hold on Colin’s shoulders remained firm and solid.
Colin’s eyes fluttered, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Jesus, please tell me you’re done.”
“I am,” Trent told him. “Now we just have to get you to the skiff.”
“Fucking hell,” Colin moaned. “Thatshould be a picnic.”
“You’ll be on a stretcher. All you’ll have to do is lie there.”
Joshua crumpled lower, his forehead pressing against Colin’s, his breath catching again and again.
Trent stood and moved to the riverbank. “Josh, is the stretcher on the skiff?”
“Yeah.”
“Alex, come and help me get this rowboat out of the way; then we’ll get him onto the stretcher.”
Once the rowboat was pulled ashore, Trent repositioned the skiff, then he and Alex brought the stretcher and situated it next to Colin’s body. “OK,” Trent said. “Josh, you and I will lift him. I’ll take his legs. You lift his shoulders and body. Alex, you kneel here next to the stretcher. When Josh and I lift him up, you shove the stretcher under him, then we’ll lay him back down.” He glanced at the two of them. “You ready?”
Joshua slid his arms under Colin’s shoulders and hips as Trent supported his legs. “On three,” Trent told them, then glanced up at Colin. “One more deep breath, buddy. I know it hurts, but please try to lie as still as you can. I don’t want that cracked rib to pop loose and puncture a lung.”
Colin nodded. “Just do it.”
“One, two, three,” Trent intoned, then, as gently as possible, he and Joshua lifted Colin off the ground while Alex shoved the stretcher underneath him. Within seconds, they were securing the straps around Colin, and minutes after that, Joshua and Trent had lifted him onto the skiff.
“I’ll drive,” Trent told them.
“Thankgod!” Joshua muttered, then knelt next to Colin, holding his hand and smoothing his hair, while Trent gunned the skiff’s motor to life and wheeled it around in the river, headed back toward camp.
“I want to stop at the campsite,” Trent said over his shoulder. “See how they’re doing.”
Colin nodded, then lifted Joshua’s hand to his lips. “Alex saved my ass,” he told his husband, who turned and patted Alex’s back.
“Thank you,” Joshua whispered. “You are now officially my hero.”
“Mine too,” Colin said.
They paused at the campsite long enough to check on David and the campers, who were nearly finished breaking down the campsite. Every camper sloshed into the river to hang over the skiff’s side and greet Colin, reaching in to pat his shoulders and praise his heroism.
“Not that heroic,” Colin told them with a sheepish grin. “All I managed to do was break my ankle.”
David leaned in and stroked Colin’s hair. “We’re almost done here. I can get the kids back in the two rowboats that are left. We’ll come back tomorrow for the tents and supplies.”
“And the rowboat we left back where Colin was injured,” Trent said, then gunned the skiff’s engine again. “OK, back off now, guys. We need to get him to the ambulance.”
Chapter 17
