Heartburn (Love By Design 3)

“Amelia?” The shout was a bit louder now, but I was not. I was fading quickly from exhaustion and I didn’t have any idea where the voice was coming from. I looked left and right but nothing emerged from the dark, sinister or angelic, and my imagination ran rampant.

“Please! I’m h-here!” I gave it all I had, slumping back down against the hard rock, scratching my leg through my dark jean leggings on the slide down.

The voice stopped and a hysterical cry left my lips. How could something so beautiful leave me so bereft? I didn’t hear anything now except the constant fall of rain and the howling wind. The sound was gone and with it, any hope I had of getting out of here.

4

Whit

Sounds to the right of me echoed, down into the woods pulling me to look past the large rocks that ended up here after the last geological ice age. The sound could have been anything, the wind, an animal. I found no evidence of the girl named Amelia so far. The area was riddled with mountain lakes and ponds from the last glacial period making deep divots and pockets perfect for scared and soaked college girls out past their curfew.

For all I knew, she could have made it back and got a ride out of the park, leaving her stupid friends to worry and me with a case of seriously waterlogged hiking boots. Logic told me I was probably dealing with a brat who had no concept of responsibility and common courtesy.

I called her name again, “Amelia!”

The last thing I wanted was to be traipsing about the woods for some unappreciative girl. The whole situation made me rethink gifting her friends with a few citations for illegal camping and drug use. I was pretty sure I had a ticket book in my jeep glove box that was eager to be filled.

Movement downwind of me caught my eye and I turned, taking heavy steps through slippery foliage that clung to my shoes like tar. Lightening from overhead illuminated the dark for a split second and a human silhouette against the granite rock face had me running over logs to reach what I thought could be her.

“Amelia?”

“H-here. I’m h-here.” She looked more like a drowned rat with her hair in tangles, makeup streaking down her face than a human female. She took a step toward me and collapsed in my arms, pulling me to my knees with her dead weight. Her whole body shook with a convulsion and the skin of her hands touching mine felt ice cold. I needed to check her vital signs and let Jeff know he could call off the cavalry.

Crashing into me, her slight weight felt like a fifty pound sack hitting me in all the wrong places. I helped her up. Another flash of lightening showed me her face. Frightened, wet, but luckily unhurt from what I could tell.

I cupped her cheeks tilting her face up to reassure her. “Hey, I got you.” Looking into my face, bedraggled and shivering, she was surprisingly lovely. Dark eyes of indiscernible color in her heart-shaped face had me lingering over her looks until another shiver twitched her whole body. I had to get her out of here.

“T-thank you.” Her chin dipped down and her eyes darted away.

“Can you walk?” I asked her, our voices muddied by the rain and thunder.

“W-what?”

“Are you hurt? Can you walk?” I yelled again to get her attention.

“I think so.” Nodding, I helped pick her up. Standing, I handed her a sweatshirt and a rain poncho from my backpack. She didn’t move, so I grabbed it back from her and put both over her head, pulling her arms out and dressing her like a parent would a child.

“T-thank you.” Shudders racked her body and I nodded, knowing we needed to make good time getting out of the rain. There would be time to ask her how she got here and what she was thinking to leave her campsite ill-prepared. Guiding her, we hiked up the hill precariously, with our feet slipping on leaves, sticks, and rocks as we made our way back up to the trail.

“This way.” I steered her toward an old hunter’s cabin I knew was about a half mile further down. Anything had to be better than being exposed to the cold wet rain. The cabin wasn’t much having been abandoned some forty years earlier. The park mostly kept it standing because it would have been next to impossible getting a backhoe out here on the carriage roads to knock it down. It was a lot closer than my jeep, which was now a solid mile or more back at the trailhead. As experienced as I was even I felt disorientated here in the dark. Shelter was my primary concern, the rest would come later.

“Are you sure?” she asked. A frown on her face was her way of letting me know she didn’t trust me yet. Poor girl was hopelessly lost if she thought walking in the direction of the cliffs or the lake nearby was the way to go. The last thing I wanted was her running off and tripping over the mountain.

“Yeah. I’m Whit, by the way. I work for the park service and your friends came to the Ranger Station to report you missing.” I showed her my ranger badge in case she thought I was lying. She grunted inelegantly and the first sign of color pinked her cheeks.

So that’s the way of things.

“I wish this day never happened.” Her hand ran through her messy hair making me chuckle.

“You and me both.” I mumbled. “Sure you’re okay?” I checked in with her again. All I got was a nod so I tried to be as reassuring as possible. “Well, we’ll be out of the elements soon enough, Amelia, and then I’ll get you back to your friends.” I still debated slapping them all with citations.

“Lia. You can call me Lia.” Holding my arms out, I helped her step over another log jumping down into my arms. Awkward her body rubbed down along mine, hands braced against me, her face brushing mine and our lips so close I nearly tasted her dewy breath. This was dangerous territory I traversed feeling attracted to her.

I cleared my throat after a moment letting her step away. Had it not been raining and balls cold I might have considered seeing where than went, but instead I turned ignoring her whimper and headed toward the cabin. We walked in silence for what felt like another twenty minutes in the dark. The trail was littered with fallen branches from the wind and leaves that covered the natural trail markings making the trek harder. My flashlight dimmed flickering not giving us much to go on. I smacked it against my hand and ended up turning it off.

“Is it supposed to do that?” she asked.

I shrugged and put the flashlight in my pack moving forward by instinct to the cabin I knew was here practically from muscle memory.