Chapter 4 #3
He scrambles as close as he can get while calling her name, finding her small hands clutching the edge while the rest of her swings above the wide open gap.
“I gotcha. Hold on.” He gives her a tug, but can’t pull as effectively as he normally would when his fingers are so cold. Can’t feel much of anything anymore, and that means his biceps are useless when his hands are numb.
She yells his name, terror building in her wide eyes as he keeps on trying to drag her up, finally getting an arm under her shoulder and hooking it in place.
It’s only then that his muscles kick in and do the work, lifting her straight out of the pit with brute force that knocks them both backward into the snow, her body covering his like a blanket.
“Are you okay?” he gasps, both arms around her in a tight hug, as if she might fall again. “Are you hurt?”
She blinks back at him in shock, hands braced against his chest and delicate lashes fanning across her skin, as disbelieving words escape parted lips. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay. I’m still here.”
One long, curling strand of hair hangs down between them to caress his cheek, and he curbs the urge to do that thing he’s seen in the movies, hook his finger on it to brush behind her ear.
Not that he even wants to, because he doesn’t.
Touching her is the last thing on his to-do list. He’s simply relieved she’s safe, that’s all.
Sure, he might be too mesmerized by how close she is to form a coherent thought beyond the tone of blue in her eyes, but that’s a normal reaction to nearly losing someone over a sinkhole, he reasons.
They’re frozen in more ways than one, but eventually she realizes what they’re doing and moves off him quickly with a scowl, her words irritated as if she has to force them out from deep within her lungs. “Thanks for pulling me up.”
“At your service, my lady. It is what a decent person would do after all.”
She huffs. “Maybe there’s a ground-level entrance. Think there’s a cave down there? We could stay there overnight.”
He grunts out a sound of approval as they get to their feet and very pointedly avoid talking about anything that just happened while tension hangs thick in the air.
Nora’s right about the cave entrance. It’s small, though, barely able to squeeze through without sucking his stomach in past his ribs. It opens up once he’s inside, the first part at least. That entrance is tight, and she balks on the other side.
“Are you coming?”
She bites her lip, the remaining daylight bouncing off her face in a golden haze. “It looks really small in there.”
“Do you have trouble with small spaces?”
“No. I dunno. I’ve never been shoved into a crevice like that.”
He’s not sure what the protocol is for something like this, but he’s got his own fears, and if it were reversed, he’d want her to be patient while he got his shit together. Not make fun, or push, or do anything but encourage while he makes his own choices.
“It’s bigger in here,” he tells her. “It opens up more. There’s space for a fire, too.”
He’s already dropped the sticks and twigs they gathered from the surrounding area, grateful it’s still light enough to be sure there wasn’t anything lurking inside this hallowed-out shelter. Not far as he can tell anyway, though he has no plans to venture deeper.
She doesn’t budge, not even when the wind picks up and whips her coat hood off her head.
“I just need a minute.” She closes her eyes and visibly tries to calm herself.
It’s no use and when she opens them again, her face breaks, a sniffle sticking in her throat.
“I don’t know why I’m more upset about this than I was about nearly falling in that giant crater.
It doesn’t make sense. I need to see the back and I can’t. ”
“Hold on a minute. I got an idea.”
He arranges the wood into a little pile and sets about creating a fire the way Oliver taught him. It takes a few minutes, but eventually the embers start to flame and spark, lighting up the inner section of their temporary residence.
The warmth doesn’t spread far, but it glows, and the shadows pull back just enough to make it seem less like a tomb.
“Now you can see further in.” Gently, he holds out a hand for her to take. He’s relieved when her padded palm slips into his. “Once you get past that narrow part, you’ll be alright. Come on.”
He gives her the barest tug. Not enough to force her to do it, only enough to support the choice when she leans his way. Then all at once she’s slipping past the narrow rocks and into the fire-lit cave with him.
She lets go of his hand and shakes her arms out with nervous energy, breathing heavy as that tension fades from its build-up. “How’d you learn to make a fire so quickly? Boy Scout?”
“Yep.”
“Really?”
“Really. And an Eagle Scout. But I learned a lot more from being dropped off in the wilderness with my brother once a year than I ever did at those camps.”
“Do you have any other skills I should know about?”
“I can do some hunting. Fishing. Nothing fancy.”
“That sounds pretty fancy to me right about now.”
“None of that’ll help us without a bow to hunt with or a pole to fish with.”
She hums out a soft sound. “At least we’ve got a fire, that’s something. That’s a lot. We’ll be relatively warm tonight for the first time in days.”
“How about you? Any special skills? Other than roasting me for sport.”
“A few. You’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em.” She winks, before going quiet, holding her hands out toward the heat much like he is, rubbing them together and sending him curious glances when she thinks he’s not looking.
“Tell me about Oliver? I should know who my friend is marrying. At this point, all I have is that he’s an asshole most of the time. Gwen hasn’t told me much yet, either.”
“Not much to tell, really. Me and him butt heads a lot. When I said he’s an asshole, yeah it’s the truth, but he’s also loyal.
If Oliver cares about you, then he’ll always be in your corner.
We fight, but it’s just as much me as it is him.
I’ve got some resentment I’m trying to let go of.
He’s funny sometimes. Women like him. Shit, I’m not doing a good job of talking him up, am I?
Gwen could do a lot worse than Oliver. If he’s all in, then there’s nothing that’ll keep him away from her. ”
“Family is a difficult thing sometimes,” she mutters into her cupped hands.
“You’re not joking.”
“Does that resentment have anything to do with being dropped off together in the wilderness once a year, because I gotta say that sounds pretty awful.”
He sort of expected that their story-for-a-story deal would be void now that she’s decided he can’t be trusted, but perhaps the total lack of entertainment has left them little other option.
He can’t expect her to share too if he won’t be honest in return, and as curious as Nora is, he’s equally as ready to know more about her.
Besides, he owes her a story after she told him about her ex and their zoo life.
“It might have a lot to do with it.” He pokes at the fire with a twig. “Our dad wasn’t a good man. You know how some people are just wired wrong? Hard to live with. Hard to love. Difficult.”
“I do. I know exactly what you mean.”
“That was him, to both of us, but he hid it behind the false promise that he only wanted us to be stronger. I’m still not sure how making brothers compete against each other in a yearly fight for survival after being kicked out of a helicopter in the remote wilderness was supposed to make either of us better at business dealings. ”
“That sounds like a terrible reality show.”
“Lotta shit went down between me and Oliver out there. I’m trying to remember he didn’t have it easy when he was younger, either. Didn’t have any more choice than I did. Neither of us really won.”
Her face softens, but it’s not pity that he sees, only a growing spark of something else that she quickly tamps down again. “When you said he made you compete for his affection, you weren’t joking.”
“Not in the slightest. I’m trying to move on. I probably need some fucking therapy.”
“Therapy only works if you follow the advice. Just ask my therapist,” she says with a sad, half-grin. “How are your fingers? Do you need to feel me up again? I might find you slightly obnoxious now, but I’m not a monster.”
“I’ll pass on that offer for now, but if you need to feel me up…”
She rolls her eyes. “Literally just had to keep your mouth shut or say no while I offered a very small olive branch. Either of those two options would have worked.”
“Noted.”
She’s even beautiful when she’s glaring at him. A blast of wind from outside swirls its way into the cave and jolts him out of that ridiculous thought.
“Is it just me, or is it getting colder?” She frowns.
“Not just you. We got lucky for a while there. It looks like the weather’s turning.”
She edges closer to the remaining fire and, in the process, a few inches closer to him.
They don’t have enough wood to last the whole night, or enough food to last more than a couple of days.
They have no idea how much farther it is to the next house or town.
Winter is heading their way even stronger than before, and something tells him they aren’t prepared to be hit with it full force.