Page 161 of Major Love

He shoves his big hands in his pockets and sighs quietly as he meets my eyes.

“You don’t know how to get up there, do you?” he asks.

I hesitate for a moment before reluctantly whispering, “No, but it’s okay – I’ve got a navigation device. And I only got stuck up those roads once before.”

“Jesus Christ,” Beckett mumbles, before turning around and trudging to another large truck. He unlocks it and pulls open the passenger door, glancing back at me over his shoulder. “Come on, I’ll take you.”

*

As soon as Beckett slows the car and starts pulling up at the base of the mountain, two large search-and-rescue trucks in front ofus, becoming obscured by the quickly falling snow, I’m ripping my seat-belt out of the holder and swinging open the passenger side door.

“Don’t go past the trucks, okay?” he calls out to me, a deep frown on his brow as I drop down to the snow beneath us.

“I promise,” I call back to him, the running engines ahead almost requiring me to shout, and he gives me a nod of acquiescence before I begin racing toward the clearing at the base of Bear Pass.

To my surprise, the makeshift lot actually has other cars in it – vehicles belonging to more experienced hikers who are used to this kind of weather and who stick to the lower valleys, rather than climbing the incline into the trees.

And because of that I allow myself to keep on running, snow whipping against my cheeks as I reach the cordoned line, separating the other cars from where a large black snowmobile has braked at the mountain’s base.

And my heart pounds faster because I know that snowmobile.

I don’t know how long the search-and-rescue team has been out here but I spot the injured hiker through a window in one of the trucks – a young guy who can’t be more than nineteen looking a little shaken as the crew inspect a wound. Even though I don’t know him, I feel the warm spread of relief at his rescue, and awe toward the team who managed to get him down from there so safely.

And then the big figure of a man in a black search-and-rescue uniform comes into view, snow sticking to the breadth of his shoulders as he finishes shoving rescue supplies in the back of a vehicle.

And my heart swells in my chest as his eyes meet mine.

His large body stills, because I was supposed to be on route to Nashville right now, but then he tears his gloves off and he strides right for me.

I run as fast as I can through the gaps between the trucks and then I’m crashing into his chest as his solid arms wrap tightly around me.

“I’m so sorry,” I whisper against him, my heart warming as he gently cups the back of my head, those large palms holding me steady as we press together under the pelting snow. “I should never have left without saying goodbye,” I rasp. “I should never have left, period.”

“I shouldn’t have let you leave,” he says back to me. “The second that I saw your note, I was coming after you.”

And my heart squeezes as I peek up at him, a snowflake kissing the tip of my nose as he looks down at me.

He brushes his thumb softly over it and then drops his forehead gently down to mine.

“I’m sorry that I had to do a job up in Bear Pass,” he murmurs, and I clutch him tighter, wanting to feel his strong heartbeat against mine.

“I trust you,” I whisper back to him, and he exhales roughly, his hands in my hair. “And I’m not going to let my fears stop me from living my life anymore. I’m done being afraid. If all I have is today, then I’m going to make it count.”

“Sunday,” he rumbles, breathing out a gentle laugh as he searches my eyes.

“I don’t mean to get too deep,” I whisper, “but you know what I mean.”

Life is made up of a multitude of moments, and if I’m constantly scared of tomorrow, then I’m not living today.

And if today is all that counts, then I’m going to make sure that it’s a good one.

“I know what you mean,” he murmurs back to me, before letting me see that handsome smile.

And I can’t help but beam up at him, lifting onto my tip-toes so that I can give him a gentle kiss.

He cups my jaw and reaches down, groaning quietly as our lips meet, and then he caresses my mouth slowly with his, exhaling hard as I pull him closer.

“Not here,” he murmurs roughly, and I fight back a smile, hearing the hunger in his voice.

---