Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
S o…much…warmth…Brielle’s memories of their kiss when they were young could never have lived up to what she was experiencing now. The temperatures were low, the air was dripping with water, she was only half dressed, but right now her entire world was exploding in light and heat.
It was clear that the threat of hypothermia had been extinguished, at least momentarily, and yet Brielle had no intention of saying anything to Ryan. When she’d attacked him first, it had been with the intent of a thank you. Her body had been in pain, she was struggling for every breath, and her brain was foggy with cold, so she couldn’t exactly be held accountable for her actions. But Ryan had taken it to another level.
And now he was declaring that Aurora was the liar, like they had originally discussed. Her own sister had lied about so many things. Worse yet, the lies were without provocation. It wasn’t like Brielle and Aurora had been fighting over Ryan, and Aurora was simply undermining her sister.
Absolutely none of it made sense, and yet Brielle’s mind was having a hard time focusing while Ryan broke through their current circumstances with his kissing, making Brielle experience yet again the sensation that she was feminine and worthwhile.
He pulled back, both of them breathing hard, and kept his forehead on hers. “I keep waiting for you to punch my lights out,” he teased.
Brielle laughed breathlessly. “I suppose you’re lucky I’m still in shock.” She shifted and winced at the pain in her foot. Healing from this was going to be a nightmare.
Ryan immediately frowned and pulled back. “Is it worse? Do you need to sit in a different position?”
Brielle closed her eyes, and a smile spread across her face without permission. “I’m fine.” She shrugged and opened her eyes. “As fine as I can be, anyway. Somehow I don’t think moving me is going to be the answer right now.”
Ryan nodded and pulled her closer, tucking her head under his chin again. The skin on skin contact did a good job keeping the heat they’d created alive, and she relaxed into his hold. They sat in silence, Brielle listening to the rain and the sound of his breathing as they waited to be rescued. She knew, logically, that it would be better to be rescued earlier rather than later, but she couldn’t help the small piece of her that wanted a little more time with Ryan. She’d been sure this would never happen, not after everything that seemed to be keeping them apart.
You mean you?
Brielle scrunched her nose at the thought. She had been the one keeping them apart, but it was because she believed her sister, like a dunce. But Brielle was still confused at why Aurora would act that way at all.
Aurora had never lacked for male attention. She’d won several pageants over the years and had always been spoken of by their mother in a reverent and proud tone.
Unlike Brielle, who seemed to bring nothing but criticism.
It simply didn’t make sense .
“So you really didn’t date Aurora at all?” Brielle asked. “I’m not trying to beat a dead horse, but I’m just really confused right now.”
Ryan’s chest moved with a long sigh, and his hand went up and down her back. “No. I didn’t date her. I have no idea why she said it. I’m just as confused as you.” His hand stopped. “And you really thought I rejected you just because I was sitting with her?”
Brielle bit her tongue. It was one thing to discover that her sister lied, it was another to tell him all the insecurities she’d struggled with around Aurora. Crying in his arms when Sparky passed had made Brielle vulnerable enough, she didn’t think she was capable of dumping her entire life’s troubles in his lap, no matter how heroic he’d been in coming to get her.
“Lots of guys were interested in Aurora,” Brielle said, sidestepping the question. “It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.”
He grunted and tightened his arms around her.
A surge in the rain had Brielle burrowing farther into his embrace. “They’re not going to find us tonight, are they?”
Ryan didn’t answer right away. “Probably not,” he admitted. “They know I went after you, and they probably didn’t prepare for anyone to follow me.” He shifted his weight again. “When I haven’t brought you back by daylight, my guess is they’ll send a rescue team. None of them have any way of knowing how long it took me to find you, and I’m sure the committee is rounding up lots of runners.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? What for?”
She lifted her head to look him in the eye. “For not being upfront with you. I should have talked to you back in high school. Though like you, I’ll blame that on being young and stupid. But here? Now? As an adult, when Aurora said she’d convinced you to kiss me, I should have asked you if it was true.”
Ryan shook his head and leaned back against the tree trunk. “Nah. I don’t really blame you for that. I mean, who would question what their family told them, right? What I’m questioning is why Aurora did it in the first place. What did she gain by it?”
Brielle shook her head. “I have no idea.”
He grunted again. “It doesn’t matter now,” he huffed. “We got it figured out, and we can move on.”
Brielle jumped when the thunder cracked overhead. “Do we need to move?” she asked, hating how small her voice was.
Ryan’s headlamp was aiming toward the sky as he stared at the branches overhead as if he could see through them. “I don’t know,” he responded. “This is the only place that’s dry, but that lightning could be trouble.”
“Why are we out here in the first place?” Brielle muttered.
Ryan chuckled, bouncing her ever so slightly. “Because you have an unhealthy obsession with doing extreme things.”
“Hey!” She gave his chest a playful tap. “You’re out here too.”
“Only because I was dragged into it.”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and Ryan’s chuckle turned into laughter. It felt good to let the atmosphere lighten a little. If that lightning decided to make ground, Brielle knew they’d be in a world of hurt. She couldn’t walk, they were drenched to the bone, and their body temperatures would struggle to make it if they had to hike back at her pace.
But instead of focusing on everything that was wrong with their situation, Ryan was laughing, holding her and keeping her warm as if it were the best of times. He really was a hero.
“Why did you come after me?” The words were out of her mouth before she could think better of them, and Brielle immediately felt like a weak, compliment-fishing idiot. But before she could open her mouth to take it back, Ryan responded.
“Because I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress.” He grinned when Brielle frowned at him. He reached up and brushed some of her soaking hair away from her forehead where it had been dripping down her face. “Okay…there might have been more to it than that. ”
Her expression didn’t change, and he continued. “In case you haven’t noticed…things have been a little tense between us lately.”
Brielle’s frown drifted away and turned into something decidedly more sheepish.
It almost made Ryan grin, but he held back. Brielle was more stubborn than a mule in the pasture, but her drive was part of what he adored about her. It’s part of what made her such a wonderful, loyal partner. There would never be a worry of her getting sidetracked by another man because she didn’t have a deceitful bone in her body. If she didn’t like Ryan, she’d tell him to his face, not run around behind his back.
“As I finished my run, I was worried about you going so far in the dark and the mud, but didn’t have much of a choice since they hadn’t canceled the race.” He tilted his head down to make sure he kept eye contact. “And even though Levi took me back to the tent, I couldn’t get over the idea of you being hurt, so when we were told to call it off and discovered you left your phone, I didn’t even think…I just took off.”
“And you don’t think anyone else will follow?” she asked, her voice still soft and weak as she collapsed against his chest again.
Ryan laid his cheek down on her wet head. His backside was almost numb and, he was praying for it to just give in because he knew they weren’t going anywhere for a while. “No one else was dressed to leave. Most of them were in recovery shoes, and no one had their running gear on.”
“Except you.”
“Except me.” He waited a beat. “I was concerned for you,” he clarified, “but I also knew this would give me an excuse to get you by yourself for a bit and force you to talk to me.”
Her laugh was dry and sarcastic. “Well, you got more than you bargained for.”
“I’m glad I’m the one out here,” he said. “If any other guy tried this with you, I’d have to take his head off.”
Brielle’s laughter grew a little more genuine. “Honestly? I’m not sure if I could have handled this with another guy.”
“I don’t know,” Ryan hedged. “Stu would have been up for giving it a try.”
“Ha!” Brielle shook her head. “Stu’s a flir, and he drives me crazy. Levi too sometimes.”
Ryan felt something in him relax just a touch. He knew Brielle hadn’t been interested in the other men, but it was nice to hear out loud just the same. “Well, since we have more time on our hands than is healthy, how about you tell me what happened after you graduated?”
“From college?”
“You said you didn’t go to college, right?”
Brielle shifted. “I tried, but I just felt claustrophobic.”
Ryan nodded. “I’m guessing that’s why you stayed in Seagull Cove?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t sound happy about it. “The thought of living in some concrete jungle makes me want to puke. I love my trail runs and beach walks. I mean, sometimes it’s lonely, but there are good things about being here too.”
He continued to run his hand up and down her arm. “What do you like most?”
“Hmm…” Brielle breathed deeply. “I like having a steady group of friends.” She snorted. “I like being able to eat Aspen’s cake whenever I want to.”
Ryan grinned and made a mental note to try it himself.
“I like that people smile and say hello when I walk down the street and that my clientele, or at least most of my clientele, treat me like family.”
“Most?” Ryan hedged. “That sounds like there might be a bit of drama in the dog grooming world.”
She laughed softly, her body sinking further into his hold. “There’s always that one customer, you know? I’d bet my right toe that you’ve dealt with those little old ladies who treat their dogs like children and freak out any time something is different?”
Ryan nodded slowly. “Yeah, they come into the vet’s office. It’s our version of a hypochondriac patient. If their dog sneezes, they have to put them on antibiotics.”
“Right,” Brielle said. “I have a couple like that as well, only they’re not looking for medication, they’re looking for me to turn their mutts into princes or princesses.”
“I can see how that would be a problem.” They grew quiet for a moment, and Ryan felt her continue to slump. She must have been getting tired from everything that had happened to relax into him so fully. “Do you ever get emergencies?”
Snorting laughter came from beneath the collars of their raincoats. “Oh my word. So I have this one customer, I won’t share their name, but they have an eight-year-old son who…let’s just say, has a very vivid imagination.”
Ryan grinned.
“I get emergency calls for their black lab all the time. But the best one was when the boy chased the dog through the house and around the yard, trying to paint it white so it would look like the dogs in the movie.”
Ryan’s eyes widened. “You’re talking about that Dalmation one, right?”
Her head moved in a slow nod and he heard her jaw crack with a yawn. “Yeah. It took me forever to clean that poor guy. I’m not sure why Shadow sticks around. That dog must have more patience than I do.”
Ryan chuckled. “Admit it, Bri. That’s not hard to do.”
Her laughter was breathy. “True…but I tend to blame it on my red hair.”
Ryan kissed that wet, but beautiful hair. “It’s one of my favorite parts of you.”
She hummed and snuggled in tighter while Ryan shifted his weight and kept rubbing her back. The goosebumps there seemed to be a permanent part of her skin, and Ryan knew the night would only get colder as it wore on. Heat now would help hold it off later.
A sound came from Brielle and Ryan tried to look down, but all he got was a faceful of hair. He couldn’t quite tell if the sound was one of pain, or if she was trying to speak to him and he jostled her ever so slightly. “Brielle?” he asked softly, still trying to figure out what was wrong.
She shifted and a sound suspiciously like a snore reached his ears.
Slowly, a too-wide smile pulled at his mouth. She’d fallen asleep. Awake one minute, asleep the next, and she’d done it in his arms, laying on his chest, sharing body heat.
She trusts me.
He should probably wake her up. She’d been hurt. She probably hit her head at some point when she went down and he really should keep her talking, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
Her trust almost had his throat closing up with emotion, and Ryan couldn’t clear it away without risking waking her up. For years she’d thought he’d turned his back on her, thrown her away for Aurora. Then, more recently, she’d believed he’d lied about his purpose in kissing her and now pursuing her.
But now…after forcing them to have a heart-to-heart about it all…she trusted him enough to relax and sleep even when they were in a dangerous situation.
A small chuckle escaped, and he worked to contain it before his rumbling chest shook her awake. “And all it took was a major storm, dozens of miles in the forest and a serious injury.” He nodded.
Sounds about right.