Page 85 of Return to Me Always

Seeming satisfied, she faced the front again. "What are your other questions, sweetie?"

I decided to let it go for now and discuss the rest of my concerns. "Well, it's not as awful as a man being murdered, but I also feel pretty bad about the boat we crashed. I'm sure it's expensive, but I'd like to replace it somehow. And all the backpacking gear we stole too."

"Aw, don't worry, Kit Kat. Tyler already took care of it all while you were snoozing away in hospital."

Ignoring the last part of Ben's comment, I stared at Tyler. "You did?"

He gave me a quick nod, his gaze flitting away like he was embarrassed.

"Well, I'd like to help out with that too," I insisted.

Ben chuckled in the front seat. "Don't you dare. Don't you know that Tyler's loaded?"

My jaw dropped. Excuse me? Tyler had money? Gawking at him, he wouldn't even meet my eyes, just looked straight ahead. "I'm not loaded, Ben. We sold my parents' house, and I made a few lucky investments. That's all."

I had no idea what to think about that. In my mind, Tyler had been a struggling college student, an outdoorsy guy, and even a warrior. But rich? Well, he made it sound like that wasn't the case, but I couldn't be sure.

Finally, turning towards me, Tyler asked, "So did you have some other questions?"

"Um, yeah." I struggled to remember what else. The car's engine started to do that hypnotizing thing to me, the smooth highway making me yawn. "Um..."

"Don't you want to know how the helicopter found you at the end of the bloody earth, Kit Kat?" Ben asked, a smug smile on his face.

Oh, yes. Thatwasa good question. Judging by his grin, I figured he had something to do with it. "No. Not really," I teased.

Everyone laughed. "Come on," Ben said. "Let me have my moment here."

"Okay, Ben. So how did the helicopter know where to find us?" I asked, deciding to humor him.

"So you remember how I got the boat from that bloke at the pub, right?" His eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.

"Right."

"Well, after I said goodbye to you two at the dock, I went back to the pub to buy him a pint—which was a nice thing to do, I might add. Tyler, you owe me for that too."

Giggling, I shook my head at Ben.

"Well, anyway, the news came on," Ben continued. "And there you both were. It didn't really surprise me because, you know, when we left Fort William, you were all over the news. But then, I saw your mum was on there, and I asked them to turn it up. All they were talking about was that voicemail. And everyone was looking for you in a good way."

"You were on the news?" I asked my mom.

My mom turned around again. "Of course. But only after the police said it was okay and after they'd gone through all the red tape of verifying that the voicemail was real, which took a while. That was a real nail-biter, I tell you, the waiting."

"So, aye, sometime after we left Fort William, you were no longer running from the police," Ben said. "They were trying to find you tohelp, and they were looking for Malcolm to arrest him."

Oh, my God.

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. So we could have just avoided the whole damn almost drowning part and battle at the castle ruins? How many times had we come close to dying in those last few hours?

The sick irony of it all made me feel ill.

"But anyway, back to me at the pub," Ben said. "Once I found all that out, I kind of freaked. Not to mention, you had the great timing of going out on a boat while there was an epic storm brewing. You remember that?"

Yeah, I remembered. The thought of it made my heart pound—the freezing cold, the terror of almost drowning, the soul-crushing pain thinking that Tyler had died.

But he was right here, sitting next to me, still quietly holding my hand, his grip warm and firm. I had a hard time not staring at him. All I wanted to do was look at him and fill myself with his smile, his eyes, hiseverything.

"We remember," Tyler answered.

---