Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
The moose charged right at me, its hooves accelerating over the rocky ground.
Noah was screaming something, but I couldn’t hear him, my attention consumed by the massive animal who had just been given another chance to end me. From the look in her eye, this time she didn’t intend to miss.
I closed my eyes.
But not before I caught a flash of white and grey out of the corner of my eye.
My eyelids sprang back open as I turned.
It was YETI!
Exploding onto the scene in a flurry of fur and a ferocious howl that would have sent any other animal running. Channeling her inner wolf just in time.
She positioned herself between me and the moose. Fur standing on end. Baring her teeth. She didn’t just bark; she growled and roared in a show of protective intimidation that would have made an entire wolf pack proud.
The moose didn’t need to be told twice. She slid to a halt, then quickly backed away several strides. Keeping her black eyes on the still snarling Yeti, she turned and lumbered over to the tree line where her baby waited.
With one last look over her shoulder, mommy moose and baby moose scampered off into the trees.
“Yeti?” I sat on the ground, watching it all unfold in shock. Partially from the fall. Mostly from bearing witness to Noah’s wolf dog literally saving my life.
When the coast was clear, Yeti jumped into my arms, her tongue slathering my cheek as if she was checking to make sure I wasn’t hurt.
“Yeti, you saved me!” I wrapped both my arms in her fur and kissed her right back, barely noticing the slobber on my lips. “Okay, okay, just to be clear, I don’t need mouth-to-mouth.”
Noah wasn’t far behind her, rappelling down the cliff like an action hero, then racing to my side to examine me.
“Sam! Are you hurt?” His hands were everywhere.
Okay, not EVERYwhere. But he checked my head, my ankle, my shoulder.
He looked even more scared than I did. “Sam, talk to me. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Adrenaline coursed through my veins, giving me a momentary reprieve from the pain. “Thanks to her.”
Yeti sat back, tongue sticking out, tail wagging, her smile showing her teeth. The perfect picture of a proud rescue hero.
“I guess you don’t hate me, Yeti. You saved my life.”
Yeti barked.
“She never hated you,” said Noah, rubbing the fur between Yeti’s ears. He let out a long breath, as if he’d just now remembered to breathe. “If I’m being honest, I think she kinda liked you from the start.”
“She did?”
Noah kept his eyes on his wolf dog, stroking her fur. “Yeah. She did.” He was quiet for a moment, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Noah’s words applied to more than just Yeti.
“I’m starting to think near-death experiences might be my authentic Colorado specialty.”
Noah’s expression became guarded again, as if remembering why we were in this situation at all. “What were you thinking? You shouldn’t be out here all alone.”
“I was looking for you.”
Noah’s expression shifted, as if he were trying to erase all emotion there. “Why?”
“So I could explain.” A jolt of pain shot through my foot when I tried to move.
“We should get you back to the resort’s medical clinic. That ankle needs to be looked at.” His voice was distant, all business, a clear indication of what I’d done to his trust in me.
He offered his hand to help me up. “No.” I crossed my arms instead of taking it. “Not until you hear me out.”
“You got something to say?” He planted a knee on the ground, now face-to-face. “Then just say it.”
“I was lying to them. Back there in the conference room. Lying to myself, actually.” What I saw in his eyes made my chest ache.
“Sounded pretty convincing to me. Just business. Generating content. Your words, right?” Each of my own words repeated back to me landed like a knife in the back.
“Yes, but ...”
“Marcus made it very clear what your priorities are, Sam. Sharing beautiful things so they can sell their beautiful lies. And I get it. I do. Your career is important to you. LuxeLife is important for your career. I’m just the local color to make it look convincing.”
“That’s not true.”
Noah stood back up and walked away, gathering his climbing gear.
“Okay, fine,” I yelled after him. “You’re right. I was scared and trying to save my job, but I realized ...”
“Realized what?” Noah whipped back to me, and for just a moment, his carefully maintained mask slipped, his words laced with something that sounded dangerously close to hope. “What exactly did you realize, Sam?”
Words piled up in my throat, a traffic jam of emotions I couldn’t untangle under the weight of his careful attention. “I ...” My voice faltered. “I don’t know.”
Noah laughed, shaking his head. “You don’t know? Unbelievable.” He turned back to his ropes, yanking them off the ground and coiling them in his arms like he was strangling something.
I struggled to my feet, then stumbled closer to him. “What I do know is that when I heard Victoria talking about replacing the Adventure Center, erasing your family’s legacy …”
Noah’s hands stilled, a length of rope clutched in his hand like a vise.
“I couldn’t be part of it.” I hopped a couple of steps more on my good leg. “And when you walked away thinking I’d been using you …”
The piece of rope he’d been coiling fell loose, unfurled to the ground.
I gestured helplessly between us. “Look, I don’t know what this is.
Or what it could be. But I know I had to find you.
To tell you what happened in that cabin, it wasn’t just content generation.
That wasn’t business. That was real.” I took a deep breath.
“So I came after you. A romantic grand gesture. That’s got to count for something, right? ”
“You almost got yourself killed,” said Noah, pointing toward the spot where the moose disappeared into the trees. “That’s not a grand gesture, Sam. That’s reckless. Do you have any idea what would have happened if Yeti hadn’t been here? If you’d faced that moose alone?”
Something snapped.
“You don’t give me enough credit,” I said, limping closer through the pain. “I’m not helpless, Noah.” Three days of being treated like a helpless city girl, of being underestimated and overprotected, finally boiled over.
His mouth opened to counter, but I wasn’t finished.
“I walked out on Victoria Sterling, the woman who will probably now destroy my career. I stole a golf cart, and when it crashed, I didn’t give up.
I kept going. On a sprained ankle. And a head wound dripping blood down my face.
” I ticked each point off on my fingers.
“I followed your Jeep tracks like you taught me about animal tracking. And yes, I almost got trampled by a moose. Which would have really sucked. But I also survived a bizarre mating ritual from a disco chicken, so ...”
“A what?” Noah’s expression went from stern to confused.
“The disco chicken. That weird bird that puffs out its chest and does the bouncy dance.” I tried imitating the dance, but it was hard to do with a busted ankle.
“How hard did you hit your head when you crashed?”
“I know what I saw. The first one nearly got me killed on my hike to the resort. The second one caused me to crash the golf cart.”
“Sam, there are no chickens in these mountains.”
“Not an actual chicken. It was like a chicken. With these weird inflatable chest pouches, or something. It danced and made popping sounds.” I imitated the popping sounds I’d heard, which in hindsight probably did more to hurt than to help my credibility.
Noah looked more skeptical the more I described it. “A dancing bird with inflatable pouches?”
“And popping sounds.” I made the sounds again.
“It almost sounds like …” Noah had a faraway look in his eyes, but then shook his head. “But that would be impossible.”
“Here, I can show you.” I held up my phone so he could see.
Noah’s eyes flicked over my screen, then widened like he’d seen a ghost. “Wait.” His eyes fixed on the video. “Play that again.”
I played it again.
Noah pointed to a specific moment when the bird turned, revealing a distinctive pattern on its neck feathers. “I can’t believe it.” His entire demeanor changed, anger and hurt wiped away by wonder. “Where exactly did you see this?”
“Coming from the resort. Near the Adventure Center.”
For such a serious man, I’d never seen Noah more serious.
“Close to where I saw the one my first night. Except that one was smaller and not quite as animated. I think one was a girl and the one today is a boy.”
Noah ran a hand through his hair, his eyes never leaving my phone screen. “Sam, do you have any idea what that is?” He looked at me like he actually expected me to come up with an answer.
“Not a disco chicken?” I ventured.
“It’s a Gunnison sage grouse,” said Noah, voice hushed with awe. “They’re critically endangered. And you’ve seen two different ones? In the same area?”
“It’s like they’re targeting me specifically.”
“Researchers have been trying to document their mating grounds for years. The population’s been declining so rapidly that finding an active lek is rare.”
“Lek?”
“Their mating grounds.”
For some reason, my mind flashed back to the old cabin. “So, me finding them is a good thing? Even if I did it recklessly?”
Noah couldn’t fully suppress a smile. “We have to show the others. This changes everything.”
With a renewed sense of urgency, Noah dumped his climbing gear in his Jeep, then whistled for Yeti.
“Um … a little help, please?”
I stood on one leg while Noah considered me for a moment, then made a decisive nod. “Put your arms around my neck.
“What?”
“I’ll carry you.”
“I thought you said you’d never carry me.” I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as Noah scooped me off the ground.
“That was before you discovered an endangered species’ mating ground.” He held me as if I weighed next to nothing.
I clung to Noah like I never planned to let him go. His body was warm against mine, his muscles tense as he checked to make sure I was secured. “You okay?” he asked, breath tickling my ear.
“I am now.”