8. Brianna
Chapter eight
Brianna
A s she made her way back along the narrow path to the Rattlesnake Ridge lookout, Brianna was certain that she would never forget the pain that came with each movement.
“You’re doing so well,” Rhys crooned from behind her. “If you keep going, I’ll give you the treat I’ve got in my bag.”
“Don’t make me laugh,” she grumbled. “Hurts.”
“I know, sweetheart. You’ve only got a few more steps to go. You can do it, mo here.”
Why is he calling me mo here… is my hearing going too?
Finally, they reached the lookout, and she eased her way down onto one of the stone seats, grimacing at the movement. Even in her frazzled state, she could appreciate the sight of the nearby mountain peaks visible in the moonlight.
Rhys settled a jacket over her shoulders and she turned her head slowly towards him. So long as she kept her movements slow and breathing steady, the pain was bearable. “You promised me a treat.”
“I did.” He smiled as he reached into his bag and pulled out a gigantic bag of her favorite Valentine’s Day candy.
“When you said a treat, I thought you meant a granola bar or something.” She was blinking rapidly, trying not to cry. Whether it was for a skinned knee or a broken heart, Nana always had a bag of the distinctive candy on hand. What were the odds that Rhys had brought them with him?
In the time between sending him the text and him finding her, she’d had a lot of time to think. While Old Brianna might have catastrophized about dying on the mountainside and her body never been found, New Brianna’s overwhelming thought was that she loved Rhys, and regretted not saying yes to what he’d offered her.
“I have a granola bar in my bag as well,” he said. “But I’ve come to associate these little sugar bombs with you, so it seemed appropriate that they came along tonight too.”
“Nana thought these could cure anything.” She sniffled, then gingerly held out her hand.
“They’ll certainly get your blood sugar levels back up, if nothing else.” Rhys tore open the bag more ferociously than she expected, causing the heart-shaped candies to go flying across the stone slabs underfoot. He’d appeared calm and in control since finding her, but upon closer inspection she could see his hands trembling. He’d obviously been thinking the worst in the moments between getting her message and when he found her.
She was just about to broach the topic of their fledgling relationship when there was a shout in the distance, and Rhys stood up and waved his flashlight. Resigned to the fact that the moment had passed, she popped a candy in her mouth, closed her eyes and let the low hum of voices drift over her, willing the stinging of her scrapes to ease.
The next time she opened her eyes, Rhys was kneeling in front of her, tucking her hair behind her ears.
“Bree, the rescue team are here and we’re going to get you off the mountain, okay?”
She bit her lip and shook her head slowly, not relishing the idea of getting back down the long trail. The five-yard shuffle from where she fell back to the lookout was excruciating enough. “Don’t want to move,” she whispered. “Hurts.”
“Adelaide’s here, and she’ll give you something for the pain.” His worried eyes scanned hers, and she did her best to give him a reassuring smile. She’d never seen his sister in action, but as a rescue helicopter paramedic she would certainly be able to dispense more than Advil.
“We need to talk,” she started, remembering their conversation from earlier. He had shown her his love in so many different ways, and she was finally ready to tell him the depth of her feelings for him.
“Soon, I promise.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers lightly, taking care not to hurt her. “I’m not going anywhere, remember?”
The team arrived just then, and anything else she might have said was lost amongst the noise. In a matter of minutes, she’d been given something for the pain, and was strapped into a stretcher with a blanket over her.
Rhys stayed by her side as she was carried down the trail to where the rescue helicopter waited at the car park. She was too exhausted to catch all of the conversation around her, but she did gather that Rhys had invoked the team’s wrath by coming out on his own. The team leader was adamant that he should have waited for the rescue team to go through their normal process of gathering information and sending out trained searchers. But he’d come when she needed him—and that was all that mattered to her.
The night passed in a blur of tests, scans, and having her scratches and grazes washed and bandaged before she was finally released to go home with Rhys.
As he drove slowly down the main street of town in the faint morning light, she expected him to find a parking spot in front of her store. Instead, he kept driving.
“Where are we going?” She knew the stairs to the apartment would be a challenge, but she hoped Rhys would carry her up them.
“You’re coming home with me,” he replied. “I could carry you up the stairs, but then I’ll spend what’s left of the night tossing and turning in my own bed, worrying about you. You can take my room, and I’ll take the couch.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier if I take the couch? Then you could get a good night’s sleep.”
He turned the truck off the road and headed down a dirt driveway, steering carefully around the larger potholes. He was avoiding the question, she realized, and she shrank back, wondering if she had crossed a line, and where they would go from here.
An A-frame cabin came into view and he put the truck into park before turning to face her. “Brianna, love.” His hand came up and stroked her cheek, taking care to avoid the angry red scratches where the branches had left their mark. “Don’t think for a second that I don’t want you in my bed—because I do.”
She smiled, relieved that he didn’t find her repulsive or had changed his mind about them being together.
“But we do need to talk, and soon.” He nodded towards the house. “Adelaide and Riley won’t be home for a while, so we have the house to ourselves. Is that okay with you?”
She nodded wordlessly at him, and he smiled in return.
“That’s my girl. Now wait there and I’ll come get you.”
It took fifteen minutes, an awkward bathroom break where she almost called out for his help, and another dose of pain meds, then finally they were sitting on the couch, with his arm around her. She spotted the familiar bag of Valentine’s Day candy poking out of his backpack from where he dumped it on the floor, and had a brainwave. “Could you pass me the bag of candy, please?”
He shook his head at her but went to do her bidding. “I thought you’d be all sugared out by now.”
“I am, but that’s not why I want them.” She took the bag and placed it on her lap. “How about we spend some time getting to know each other a little bit better?”
Twenty minutes later, she knew one thing for sure: her idea had worked. They took turns choosing a candy out of the bag, reading the message aloud, then talking about what it said. They’d covered best friends, childhood pets, and Rhys had made a big production out of taking his socks off when he pulled out the candy labelled ‘strip tease’.
“These are remarkably PG,” she said. Other than the strip tease, there hadn’t been a single candy alluding to love or romance.
“Well,” he looked down guiltily. “I had some spare time while you were in the X-ray room, so I went through the bag and took out all the ones that could be construed romantically.”
Her heart stopped for a second. She should have expected this—after all, she was the one that put their fledging relationship on ice only few days earlier—but the realization that she might have missed her chance with him was a tough pill to swallow.
Hopefully I haven’t screwed things up forever…but he deserves to know.
“You told me about your parents, but I haven’t said much about mine.” She ran her fingers over a piece of candy she had hidden in her pocket earlier that night while they were at the lookout. “My parents were pretty much the opposite of yours, in every way,” she whispered, not daring to meet his eyes. “My mom loved me, in her own way, but she loved alcohol more.”
He reached over with his free hand and took hers, silently encouraging her to continue.
“My father made a few half-hearted attempts at being a responsible parent, before he finally gave up when I was still in elementary school. I’ve got no idea where he is now. If Nana hadn’t stepped up, I probably would have grown up in foster care. I haven’t had that amazing example of love that you and Adelaide had, and that’s why I freaked out when you told me that story.”
He started to say something, but she shook her head to stop him.
“I had a lot of time to think last night.” She twisted the candy around in her pocket, hoping she could find the right words to light a fire under their relationship again, and that he would help her fan the flames. “And while I was waiting for you, I thought about how you told me that your dad walked into the pub, saw your mom, and he knew. He just knew."
“Oh, sweetheart.” He raised his hand and brushed away the tears that were trickling down her face.
“Because when you opened your heart to me, only for me to put us on ice a moment later, I knew too.” She pulled the pale blue candy out of her pocket and placed it in his hand; the words ‘I love you’ clearly visible. “It doesn’t matter anymore that my parents didn’t have a grand love story; because I’ve figured out how to write my own.”
“Oh Bree… I love you too.” He blinked furiously, and she saw the depth of emotion in his eyes. “I’m just gutted that Katerina being in the shop meant I couldn’t get to you sooner.”
A warm feeling made its way up to her chest before his second sentence registered in her brain. “Hang on—what did you just say?”
He sighed and closed his eyes briefly before opening them again. “Umm… so, I haven’t been entirely honest with you up this point.”
She braced for the spiral of irrational thoughts to start; and sure enough there was a small part of her wondering if he was secretly an undercover agent, or had a wife and kids waiting for him back in Scotland. But the bigger part of her brain was content to trust him, and have faith that what they had built together was solid.
He’s shown up for me so many times. Now it’s my turn to have a little faith in him… and us.
“Go ahead… I’m listening.”