Leaving Jamie in the waiting area, Rachel followed Doctor Hartmann through the corridors, as Tyler Dodson walked quietly alongside.
“Are you going back to the wildfire?” she asked him.
He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll head back to the base camp tonight. The captain will likely come by in the next day or so to check on him.” He slanted her a questioning look. “How long are you planning to stay in Bozeman?”
“My parents are on a cruise in Hawaii, and I’m not sure when they’ll be able to make it back here. We’ll stay here until they arrive.”
“You and James.”
He said it as a statement, and although she didn’t detect any judgment in his tone, Rachel couldn’t help but feel defensive. “Yes. Jamie grew up across the street from us. He’s Dylan’s best friend.”
“Yeah, I got that,” he said. “I just thought you two were—” He broke off. “Never mind, I haven’t gotten more than four hours of sleep in the past three days, so I’m a little out of touch with reality.”
“No, tell me,” Rachel urged. “What did you think?”
Beneath the soot and dirt, Rachel thought she saw a flush darken his cheekbones. “It’s none of my business, but I thought maybe you were a couple.” He shrugged. “If you’re not, my mistake.”
Before Rachel could respond, they reached a set of swinging doors, and Doctor Hartmann held them open. “He’s through here,” he said, indicating a room filled with medical monitors, and beds partitioned by curtains. He stopped at the end of one bed, and Rachel couldn’t contain her soft gasp when she saw her brother.
One leg lay cushioned on a foam pad, with ice packs on either side of the knee. The knee itself had ballooned to three times its normal size, and a long incision ran over the top, closed with surgical staples. To Rachel, it looked like something out of a horror movie. The leg itself was swollen and discolored, and several other wounds had also been closed with staples.
He was covered with only a light sheet. Rachel could see tubes protruding from his abdomen, and his entire torso was mottled with darkening bruises. Her brother’s dark blond hair, which normally hung to his shoulders in careless waves, was hidden beneath a surgical cap. Only the dark scruff of beard growth on his face looked familiar to Rachel.
“He looks worse than he is,” Doctor Hartmann assured her. “I’ll let you visit for a minute, but keep it brief.”
Rachel nodded, her eyes on Dylan. “Of course.”
She moved to the side of his bed and, careful not to disturb the intravenous tubing in his arm, took his hand in hers. She studied his face, noting the changes since she’d last seen him. With his strong jaw, chiseled cheekbones, and golden good looks, he’d never had a shortage of girlfriends. The few people who’d made the mistake of thinking his long hair meant he was a tree-hugger didn’t know the real Dylan McCafferty. He was an adrenaline junkie; an extreme adventurer always in search of the next thrill. He was happiest when jumping out of a plane or battling a wildfire. Now she looked at his leg. Would he ever jump again?
“He’ll be okay,” said Tyler. “It’ll be a good three to six months before he can resume normal activities. I doubt he’ll ever jump a fire again, but considering he could be dead, I think that’s a preferable alternative.”
Rachel nodded and blinked back sudden tears. “All he ever wanted was to be a smoke jumper.”
Beside her, Tyler laughed softly. “Not to argue, but I don’t think that’s entirely true. All Dylan wants is a challenge. Tell him he can’t do something, and guaranteed he’s going to find a way to get it done.”
Rachel smiled. “That’s true. I remember when he was training for the fitness test. He’d run up a mountain with a seventy-pound pack on his back every morning, and it wasn’t enough to just beat the time, he had to kill it.”
“That’s Dylan,” he agreed, and then suppressed a yawn. “I don’t know about you, but I’m beat. I’m going to head back to the base camp and try to get a few hours of sleep.”
Leaning down, Rachel pressed a kiss against her brother’s face. Then, with one last look at him, she followed Tyler back to where Jamie waited for them in the lobby.
“Where do you want to stay?” he asked, after they left the hospital and he had settled himself into the back of the van. “We passed a bunch of hotels downtown.”
“I made reservations at a lodge on the outskirts of town,” Rachel replied. “It looked nice, and the rooms are big.”