He ignored her statement to eye the ajar door of the cabin. “I see you got some shelter.”
“Oh. Oh yes.” She stepped aside to let him enter, then followed him in. She cupped her elbows, unease replacing some of her joy. He didn’t look as thrilled to see her as she was to see him, but that made sense. He was still probably annoyed and wary of her, while she was just happy to have some company in her bruised, cold, wet state. Handsome company to boot.
“What is this place?”
“It belongs to the park. It’s an outpost for rangers. They have them all over.” She’d have to make sure they left it in the condition they found it in. Maybe she would make a donation to the parks department. “There was one near our old lake house. When I was young, I would go play—” She cut herself off. He didn’t care about her lonely childhood and how she’d created fantasy worlds around a sad state-owned cabin.
Gabe fumbled beneath his raincoat and pulled out a radio wrapped in a waterproof zipped bag. “Your brother’s probably going nuts. I had to ride a while past your last coordinates.”
Her brother had the annoying habit of tracking her phone. She’d known about it forever, but she hadn’t raised a big stink yet. She figured in an emergency it was good for him to know where she was. Right now, it seemed less annoying and more brilliant.
Gabe pressed the button on the side. “Yo.”
“Did you find her? Where is she? Is she hurt...?”
“I found her. She looks perfectly fine, and...” He glanced around the cabin. “We have some sort of shelter. We’re inside a little cabin a few miles farther up the road. The ranger outpost. We’ll wait it out here until the rain thins a little. Or at least until the lightning lets up.”
Static came through the radio, and then her brother’s tiny voice. “Give Eve the radio.”
She was an adult. So she felt more than a little foolish when she hastily shook her head and mimed zipping her lips.
Gabe raised an eyebrow and spoke into the radio. “Uh, sure. She’s right here.”
She gave him a disgusted look, but accepted the radio. “Hey, Nic—”
“How could you—”
“I’m fine,” she said quickly. “I’m fine, Gabe’s fine, and we’ll see you soon, okay?”
“The rain isn’t going to let up for hours. Maybe overnight.”
She bit her lip, not looking forward to trying to make her way through this mess when it was any darker than it already was.
But a night? With Gabe? All alone in the woods?
Ahhhh, this was great. Or terrible. She wasn’t sure yet.
Gabe took the radio from her. “Nicholas, we can stay up here ’til the morning. There’s a fireplace and some supplies. Don’t worry.”
“Thank God you’re with her. Okay, keep me posted on when you head back.”
The relief in Nicholas’s voice was more than apparent. Someone had rescued his baby sister, and all was okay with the world.
This wasn’t the romantic kind of rescue. This was a “someone take care of this kid” rescue. Her lips turned down. She’d managed to rescue herself fine, but all she would hear about from her big brother was how foolish she was to put herself in a position where she needed any kind of rescuing.
Gabe dropped the radio on the couch. “How’d you lose your horse?”
“The lightning spooked her. She threw me.”
“Threw you?” Gabe took a step closer. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Did you hit your head?”
“Only a little,” she admitted.
He took another step, then another, until he was standing right in front of her. He captured her chin. And her breath.
