“Yeah,” I nodded, thinking that made perfect sense. “Which means, we should never run.”
“Not ever again,” she agreed.
“So…what do we do now?”
“What do you mean?”
I tried to sit up and failed. I couldn’t move if I wanted to. “We’re outside of town. No one will find us for hours.”
“Maybe if we sit up?”
“Highly unlikely,” I said, still feeling the pain in my chest from too much exercise.
“We could walk back.”
I could hear the devastation in her voice that matched the tone in my head. The idea of going anywhere didn’t appeal to me.
“Maybe we could just take a nap out here.”
“A bear might eat us,” she reminded me.
“I’m not sure I care right now.”
“Did you bring your phone?”
“No. You said no music. You said it would be a distraction.” I sat up on my elbows and glared at her. “You said it would be too easy to give up and call someone to pick us up!”
“I did say that, didn’t I?” She reached into her shorts and pulled out her phone, shooting off a text.
“You had your phone?”
“Well, in all fairness, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it. I was just trying to make you feel better.”
I would have been angry, but she had a phone. She could call someone for help. We wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to town.
“How long?”
“JR said he would be here in a few minutes.”
“That’s good,” I said, closing my eyes as I tried to orient myself. The spinning sensation was easing, but dehydration was setting in. I was going to die if I didn’t get something to drink soon.
A car pulled to a stop in the gravel.
“Oh, thank God!” I cried out, my eyes still closed. “I hope you brought plenty of water and plan to carry us to the truck because my legs won’t move!”
“I’m not sure you want me to carry you after you tried to attack me earlier.”
My eyes flew open at the voice, and I sat up, the world spinning around me. “You!” I hissed.
Ryder grinned at me, shoving his hands in his pockets as he leaned back against his car. “I take it by the way you’re looking at me, you were expecting someone else.”
“My husband,” Josie answered, waving her hand carelessly above her head before letting it flop on her face.
“And you needed help because…”
“Because running is hard,” she answered for me.
“And you decided to pass out on the side of the road,” he surmised. “Good idea. I mean, I would have chosen someplace less deserted,” he said, glancing around the vast wilderness.
