Page 49 of Lost With You
“Stay where you are.” The voice drew closer. “I’ll come to you.”
With a gasp, she turned to Dylan, who followed her more slowly. He hadn’t said a word to her about why he still gripped his side as they followed the riverbank in search of their gear. But she’d noticed how he flinched, now and again, when he twisted to look at something, or when he breathed too deeply. He was trying valiantly to hide the pain. Probably so she wouldn’t panic. But her heart dropped with every clench of his jaw.
“Did you hear that?” For his sake, she ignored how he dropped his hand from his side as if this would somehow hide the obvious. “The cavalry is coming.”
“Looks more like a ranger.”
She observed the approach of a man through the trees. Their savior wore the khaki and army green of a forest ranger and raised a hand in greeting. She swooned at the sight of the gear on his belt—a walkie-talkie, a can of bear mace, a bottle of water. For the first time since she’d hauled herself out of the river, she could finally breathe.
The ranger took in the sight of them, damp and dirty and bloody in places, but his expression didn’t flicker.
He squinted at Dylan. “You’re Dylan MacCabe.”
“Worse for wear.” Dylan put a hand on her shoulder, his face tight with suppressed pain. “This is my partner, Casey.”
She managed a smile and a wave.
“Peter Demers, park ranger.” He pulled a bottle of water out of his pack and held it out to her. “You look thirsty.”
“Thank you,” she gasped, twisting off the cap.
“I have food, too, if you need it.” He planted his hands on his hips. “We were warned you might be in distress.”
Dylan stilled. “You were warned?”
“We received a report that you were both missing.”
Casey finished drinking to see irritation cross Dylan’s features.
“I apologize for my family,” Dylan said. “I gave them specific instructions not to bother the state authorities unless we were more than three days off schedule. We can’t be more than a day from the border, right?”
“Two, by canoe, but any delay can be too much for a worried family.” The ranger’s smile twitched. “You were expected over the border by now, so they requested our aid.”
“And thank goodness they did,” Casey piped up, thrusting the bottle at Dylan. “Sounds like perfect timing to me.”
Dylan took the water she offered. “I’ll still be having words with my family.”
“You won’t have to wait long.” The ranger twisted, nodding to some distant horizon. “They’re all waiting for news in a hotel about ten miles from here.”
A hotel?She swayed at the thought of real food, a hot shower, a soft, downy bed, and clean sheets.
“Got a first aid kit in that pack?” Dylan handed the empty bottle back to the ranger. “She needs those knees bandaged.”
Just like that, the ache in her knees swelled, and all the energy whooshed out of her like air out of a balloon. She allowed Dylan to lead her toward a boulder to lean against. The ranger followed, glancing around the clearing, which was bereft of any gear.
The ranger said, “Your canoe capsized in the rapids?”
“Yeah.” Dylan’s stood beside her as the ranger dropped his pack to the ground to pull out a first aid kit. “We lost our phones, our gear. Everything.”
Not everything.She hadn’t lost Dylan. Now she leaned into him, staying close to the vibrant presence that had apparently been the only thing that kept her upright over the last hour, considering how bruised and battered she suddenly felt. She braced her hands against the boulder behind her so she wouldn’t lose her balance and slide off like a wet noodle.
“I found some of your gear,” the ranger said, tearing open an antiseptic wipe that stung when he swiped it across her scraped knees. “I set it aside where I found it so I could retrace the path if I had to. But your laundry bag must have torn open in the water. I followed a pretty trail along the riverbank, which led me to you.”
The ranger nudged his pack. Casey glimpsed a lacy bit of cloth peeking out…a familiar, silt-streaked thong.
She glanced at Dylan, whose smile tilted with mischief despite his pain.
“Saved by your underwear,” Dylan said, his voice dropping. “Clearly, I picked the right partner.”
