Chapter 9 #2
“This way!” Julia shouted behind her, sharply turning right at a three-way fork he didn’t recognize. She had slowed down quite a bit and he followed closely behind her, trying not to get too close and trip her up or bump her.
They made it through to another clearing and Ethan could see the top of the cottage poking up just over the hill.
He stopped briefly, bracing his hands on his knees and taking in big gulps of air as the rain pelted down on him painfully.
He was used to running, sure, but he’d already been starving and exhausted, and this had just done him in for good. He was going to need a second.
He looked up to see if Julia had made it past the hill, filing away a comment about her ability to go into beast mode so easily, when he caught sight of her a few yards away from him on her hands and knees.
“Gem!” He bolted over to her with energy he didn’t even realize he had, dropping to the ground next to her, the knees of his chinos be damned. “Gem, are you okay?”
She groaned, and it sounded watery in a way that frightened him.
“Hey.” He tentatively put his hand on her back. “Are you hurt?”
“My ankle,” she bit out. “I think I twisted it.” She groaned again, dropping her head to the grass.
He barely felt the rain hitting him now. All his attention was focused on her injury and the pain she must be feeling.
“Can I see?” He kept his hand on her back, since she hadn’t asked him to remove it yet or given any indication that she even noticed it, and angled his head to try to look at her face more clearly.
Though partially hidden by the sleeve of her sweater, he could still make out that her expression was screwed up tightly in pain. He felt his jaw clench.
“Julia,” he said softly, purposely not using her nickname now that he had his wits about him a bit more, “let me just take a look to see how swollen it is and whether you can put some weight on it to make it back to the house.”
“This sucks,” she growled before sitting up and putting her leg out for him to inspect. “So fucking stupid.”
He took her foot carefully, trying not to pay too much attention to the bare leg itself, pulling the sock down to see if her ankle was swollen.
“Fuck!” she shouted as he attempted to ease her shoe off.
“Ethan, that hurts.” The last word ended on a sob, and he stopped immediately, shifting his hands to her toes and her calf, respectively, alleviating some of the pressure on her ankle.
His chest squeezed painfully at the sight of her, sodden and miserable.
“I’m sorry,” he gasped out, heart pounding rapidly as they continued to be drenched by the torrential rain. “What if you just try and stand? And we’ll look at it inside?”
She was nodding even before he could finish his sentence, and he could see her desperation to get out of her current position of weakness and actually do something about it.
“Here.” He stood up first, ignoring how soaked and uncomfortable he was, and offered her his hand.
She hesitated briefly before accepting it, locking her fingers and thumb around his, and gritting her teeth.
He watched carefully as she placed her weight on her good leg, trying to keep her bad one hovering above the ground.
She made it about halfway up, and he went to grip her arm with his other hand to help hoist her up more easily, but she lost her balance and ended up putting too much weight on her bad ankle.
“Agh!” she cried out just as he drew her up rapidly, pulling her against him. Her head dropped to his shoulder as she took in several deep breaths. He could feel her nails digging into his biceps as she gathered herself and attempted to take control of the pain.
“Okay,” she breathed out after a beat, her voice still strained.
“I can do this.” Pulling away from him slowly, she hopped to the side to put some space between them.
He kept a hand wrapped around her upper arm, reluctant to let her go for fear of what would happen if the ankle couldn’t withstand the weight she was about to put on it.
Luckily, she allowed him that small measure of grace, likely because she, too, was worried about dropping like a ton of bricks.
He rubbed the rainwater from his eyes with his free hand and watched as she tentatively took a step forward—
And almost lurched back to the ground with a cry of pain.
Holding her arm tighter, he pulled her toward him again, half lifting her in an attempt to get the weight off her sore foot.
“Okay, that’s enough of this.” He swiped at his face again, rain impeding his vision even more. “You’re not going to be happy with what I’m about to do.”
“What—no.” She tried to stumble away from him, but he held her firmly in his grasp. “Ethan, don’t you dare—”
He was absolutely soaked to the skin, freezing cold, and unbearably uncomfortable.
The rain was showing no sign of abating, and he was about thirty yards away from clean clothes, a warm fireplace, and a stew that had smelled delicious.
The only thing standing in his way was five feet two inches of obstinance with a sprained ankle and a lot of pent-up spite.
So he did exactly what she didn’t want him to do.
He leaned down and scooped her up into his arms before beginning to walk up the hill toward the inn.