Reunited with the Lassiter Bride

“Grab on,” he called. “Grab anything.”

“I got it,” she shouted back, using one hand to pull her butt onto a wide branch and scrambling for a foothold.

He was out of time.

The freezing, debris-ridden water engulfed him. He instinctively took a deep breath, closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around the tree trunk, holding on for dear life.

The trunk protected his face and body from direct hits, but branches battered him on all sides, scratching his arms, bruising his legs, bouncing off his shoulders and hips.

His lungs were about to burst, when the water receded. He sucked in air.

“Evan!” Angie’s cry seemed high above him.

But then the water closed in again.

This time, he couldn’t fight the cold. It was numbing his fingers, making it impossible to hang on. Deep down in the base of his brain, he realized he was running out of time. Angie was safe, he told himself. At least Angie was safe.

The water receded again, and he drew another breath.

“Climb,” Angie called to him. “Climb, Evan!”

The water was at his neck. He opened his eyes, and his brain registered the chaos around him, foaming water clogged with debris. The sandbag wall had disappeared, as had part of the road. But the sandbagging crew was high on the bank, out of harm’s way.

“Come on, Evan,” Angie shouted. “Get up here.”

He gritted his teeth and reached one arm up. He managed to grasp a branch. It bit into his freezing hand, and it was all he could do to hang on. But he reached up with his other hand, getting it slightly higher. His feet scrambled along the trunk. Then one of them connected with a foothold. He pushed with all his might, grabbing a higher branch, then another and another.

His body finally cleared the water, and he heaved himself onto a broad branch next to Angie.

“Thank God,” she breathed. Her face was wet and pale, her right hand clinging to the tree, her left arm dangling by her side.

“Damn,” he ground out.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Forget me.” He eased his way toward her. “Your shoulder’s dislocated.”

“You nearly died.”

“I’m fine. Dammit.” He knew she had to be in agonizing pain.

She swallowed. Then her teeth started to chatter, and her eyes went glassy.

“I think I can help you.” He reached forward.

“Don’t touch me,” she begged.

“You have to trust me.”

“They’ll come and get me. Chance will have called the medics by now.”

He continued inching himself toward her. People on the bank were calling out to them, and the water continued to roar beneath them. They rain pounded down, but Evan’s focus was completely on Angie.

“I’m going to wrap my arm around your waist.”

“Evan, don’t.”

He did it anyway. “Relax, Angie. If your muscles are relaxed, you’re going to feel better.”

“I can wait.”

“I know it hurts like hell.”

“I’m fine.”

He put his other hand gently on the forearm of her injured side. “Relax,” he whispered in her ear. “Please sweetheart, just relax and trust me.”

“Okay,” she whispered. Then she gave a shaky nod.

“I’m going to move your arm slowly and gently. I won’t do anything sudden.” He kept talking as he worked, hoping to distract her. “You’re right. They are coming for us. Help is going to be here soon, and you’ll be home and dry in no time.” He bent her elbow, pivoting her forearm. “I bet Marlene will make hot chocolate, with whipped cream, and cookies. She’ll have been baking all day.” He eased her shoulder out straight. “I hope she made monster cookies. Oatmeal and pecans, they really stick to your ribs.” He moved her arm higher pivoting the shoulder.

She gasped a breath, but then the shoulder popped back into place.

She gave a small exclamation of pain.

“That’s it,” he quickly told her. “It’s back in.”

Angie relaxed against him, gasping in deep breaths.

“How does it feel?”

“Quite a lot better.”

He gave in to impulse and kissed the top of her head. “Good.”

“You just saved my life.”

“You climbed the tree with a dislocated shoulder. I just gave you a shove.”

She was quiet for a moment.

“Evan?” Chance called, his voice loud and worried. He was as close to them as he could get without wading into the overflowing creek. “You guys okay?”

“We’re good,” Evan called back. “But Angie’s going to need a doctor.”

“What’s wrong?”

“She hurt her shoulder. Nobody’s bleeding. We’re just cold.”

“You’re bleeding,” said Angie.

Evan glanced down at his body. His sleeves and pants were torn, and several deep scratches oozed blood.

“It’s not bad,” he told her.

“I thought you were dead.”

He gave a choppy laugh. “For a second there, it didn’t look so good. But I’m fine. Clearly, I’m tough.”

“You’re tough,” she agreed.

He glanced at the landscape around them. “This is a mess.”

“I’ve never seen it this bad. I guess I won’t be going back to L.A. today. You need a doctor.”

“Not anymore. So, how did you learn to fix a dislocated shoulder.”

He hesitated to tell her. “YouTube video.”

“Is that a joke?”

“It’s not.”

“Weren’t you worried you’d do it wrong?”

“A little,” he admitted. “But I dislocated my shoulder when I was a teenager. So I know how it feels. I was more worried about you being in such terrible pain.”

She seemed to think about it for a moment. “Well, I guess that’s nice.”

“How’s it doing?”

She flexed it a little. “Much better. Maybe you should watch a brain surgery video next, since you learn things so quickly.”

He liked that she was joking. “That way, if my business management gig doesn’t work out, I’ll have a fallback?”

“What’s your business management gig?”

Evan shifted to a more comfortable position in their perch. “Can I trust you to keep it confidential?”

“Yes, you can.”

“You won’t go running to the tabloids like Conrad did?”

“I never talk to the tabloids. Though, maybe we should tell them about this.” She cupped a hand around her mouth. “Hey, Chance!”

“What do you need?” her cousin called back.

“Get a picture of us, will you?”

Even from this distance, Evan could see Chance’s grin. “We’ve already got about a hundred.”

“A picture of all this should keep Conrad satisfied,” Angie said to Evan. “Try to look ecstatic about saving my life.”

“I am ecstatic about saving your life.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“I am.”

“Tell me about your business management gig.”

“Okay. But it really is confidential.”

“I understand.”

“Lex, Deke and I are looking into buying the Sagittarius.”

The surprise was clear in her tone. “The resort?”

“That’s the one.”

“You’re going to run a hotel?”

“We are.”

“But...I mean, Lex I can see, but Deke? And you?”

“Your confidence is overwhelming.”

“You know what I mean. You don’t have any experience running hotels.”

He frowned at her. “Seriously, Angie? ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ is the thing you want to say to the guy who just saved your life?”

“You know what I mean. You didn’t jump up and buy Lassiter Media. You spent years learning the ropes before you were in charge.”

Evan supposed that was true enough. “And now I’ll learn about hotels. Maybe there’s a YouTube video available.”

“So, you’re using J.D.’s money?”

“I am. I haven’t decided exactly how. I’m thinking about setting up a trust, using the money as a shareholder loan, and then donating the proceeds to a worthy cause.”

“Why not just put it in as equity?”

“Because it feels like a bribe, like your father paid me to mess with your head. I hate that, Angie. I never, ever would have agreed to a scheme like that.”

Sirens sounded in the distance, and flashing lights appeared down the road.

“Looks like the cavalry is here,” said Angie.

“I hope they brought a boat.”

* * *

Angelica felt like she’d been transported back in time to her teenage years. It was nearly ten o’clock now, dark and raining outside, and further cleanup efforts were going to have to wait until morning. In the great room at Big Blue, Marlene was handing around steaming mugs of hot chocolate. Chance was regaling them with stories of action, hard work and heroism, not the least of which was Evan’s rescue of Angelica.

Happily nobody else had been injured in the flood, but several of the area ranches had been damaged. People were coming together to move livestock, drain fields, fix buildings, and make donations to their neighbors. The main road had been wiped out in a couple of places. Construction crews would arrive in the morning so that work could begin as soon as the rain stopped.