Lost & Found (Lost & Found 1)

It went against everything I knew, but I fought the panic. Inspecting his head wound to make sure it wasn’t leaking enough fresh blood to be concerning, I came around to his side again. His breathing was a little fast and his color was a couple shades lighter than normal, but otherwise, his injuries didn’t seem life-threatening.

“What are you doing out here, Rowen?” he asked, inspecting my body like I’d just done his.

“I came to find you,” I answered as I wiped the mud from his face with the back of my hand.

“How did you get down here?”

I swallowed and pointed up the cliff face.

His expression went pretty much exactly how I thought it would go: flabbergasted with a trace of outraged. “You realize that’s called Suicide Ridge for a reason, right?”

I crossed my arms and sat up on my heels. I wasn’t there to argue with him. “Do you?”

“Yeah, I do. That’s why I take it seriously when I travel it,” he replied. I couldn’t stop staring at the way his right arm cradled his left arm.

“And you call it ‘taking it seriously’ when you decided to travel it in the middle of the night during the storm of the century?” Why was I still arguing with him? Really, all I’d wanted to do since I’d stumbled over him was kiss him hard on the mouth and cuddle close until help came.

“It is when you see the calf everyone’s been looking for at the bottom of the ravine.” Jesse tilted his head toward the big shrub. I hadn’t noticed at first, but a tiny black calf was laying under the shelter of the bush. She was as wet and muddy as the rest of us but resting as peacefully as I’d ever seen an animal sleep.

“You broke your arm, your ribs, and your damn head to save a baby cow?” I said, waving my hands at the calf.

“I wasn’t planning on breaking anything when I climbed down to get her,” he said. “But the mud, my balance, and my feet had other plans.”

“What were you doing out here on your own in the first place? What were you thinking when you tried coming down that thing”—I waved at the steep wall in front of us—“in those boots?” I flailed at his feet next. “I have four-inch heels with better traction than those things!”

Jesse looked like he was fighting a grin. A second later, all humor left his face. “I am not answering another question until you tell me what you were thinking coming out here on your own. What you were thinking climbing down that thing in those things?” His pointed from the cliff to my boots. “And . . . and . . . how did you get here in the first place?”

I doubted my answer would put him any more at ease. “Sunny.” I shrugged.

Nope, it definitely didn’t put him at ease. It put him the opposite. “Sunny?!” He tried sitting up more, but he only made it a couple inches before grimacing.

“Would you lie back and take it easy?” I said. “Before you break or bust something else?”

He didn’t right away, but Jesse eventually settled back against the rock. I zipped out of the rain jacket and wadded it into a makeshift pillow.

“Rowen,” he said, shaking his head, “put that back on right now. Don’t be crazy.”

“Jesse,” I rolled my eyes and carefully stuffed it behind his head, “don’t you be crazy. And don’t tell me what to do.” I rested my hand on the side of his neck, and even in the cold of the night and with the rain coating our skin, I felt the heat charging through our touch.

“Anything else?” he asked as he settled into the raincoat pillow.

“Yeah,” I said, lowering my face over his. “Stop pretending like what I did was insane. Stop pretending you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing if our roles were reversed.”

Jesse’s good arm lifted and his hand cradled my face. “That it?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Stop pretending like you’re mad at me because you suck at it.”

A chuckle rushed out of his mouth. “I suppose I do.” His thumb skimmed my cheek and, just like every other touch shared with Jesse, I melted into it. “But, Rowen, the guys would have found me. It wouldn’t have taken them much longer. Why did you risk your life to find me first?”

A hundred reasons. A thousand explanations. I’d do it a million times over.

“I’m working on that whole healthy thing.”

Jesse mirrored the smile on my face. “How is almost killing yourself healthy?”

I glanced over my shoulder, then back at him. “Because I’m here with you now.”

“Is this the same girl who pushed me away, ran away, and was so hung up on the deserve-don’t-deserve thing?”

“It’s the same girl. It’s just the same girl who let a few wise words from a couple wise people set in. The same girl who let a few of her own realizations set in.” I lowered my forehead to his, shielding us both from the storm. “Because I love you, Jesse. I know that I will love you more than any other person in the world ever could. Because you were right. Deserving has nothing to do with loving someone. I’m grabbing hold of what I want and not looking back.”

Jesse’s eyes stared into mine and they were as light as I’d seen them. “That sounds like a person who’s gotten past her ‘deserve’ hang up.”

I smiled. “Well, even if I haven’t gotten all the way past it, I figured this whole saving your life thing was a step in the right direction.” Jesse laughed, then winced. Apparently broken ribs and laughter didn’t go well together. “So? Am I forgiven?”

“For being so careless with your life?” I felt his forehead wrinkle beneath mine. “No way.”

I rocked my head back and forth against his. “No. For being careless with yours.”

His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he murmured, “Hmm . . .”

Since he was working on making up his mind, I might as well help him. My lips dropped to his and rested in place. I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel his lips again, for more than one reason, and I planned on enjoying the moment. When staying unmoving against him any longer was impossible, I sucked his lower lip into my mouth and tasted the rain coating it. I repeated the rain tasting with his upper lip.

By that point, Jesse’s chest was rising and falling hard against me. As much as I wanted to kiss him until everything around us faded, the man all but panting below me had a couple of broken ribs. I pressed a final kiss to his mouth before leaning back.

“Okay,” Jesse breathed, polishing his thumb over my lips. “You’re forgiven.”

If only everything were so easily fixed. But maybe, with Jesse, a lot of things could be so simple.

A light suddenly shone brightly down on us, startling me. I’d been so lost in the moment I’d almost forgotten the situation. I shielded my eyes and twisted around. The light came from a ways up, probably from the ridge.

“Am I breaking anything up?” a voice hollered down at us. “I can come back in twenty minutes or so if you want.”

Jesse groaned and sat up again.

I stood up. “Garth? Is that you?”

The light shifted away from us. When it stopped, it shined on Garth’s face.

“Convinced?” He flashed the light back down on us. “Maybe we can get you both out of there now.”

“I’d rather spend the night out here than have Garth Black come save the day,” Jesse muttered.

I was about to elbow him in the ribs when I caught myself.

“Jesse’s arm and ribs are broken,” I yelled up. “What’s your brilliant plan for getting us up there from down here?”

“Thatta girl,” Jesse said, tilting his chin at me. “Give it right back to him.”

“Would you shush already?” I hissed back at him. “You’ve got to be the only person alive who would turn away help from a guy because you don’t like him.”

Jesse shot me an exasperated look, then exhaled. “Garth?” he yelled. “There’re three of us down here.”

“You found the calf?” Garth circled the light around until it landed on the still sleeping calf.

Jesse lifted a brow. “I found her.”

Garth’s chuckle rolled down the ridge toward us. “No one could ever accuse you of not putting your heart, soul, and body into your work, Walker!”

“Why don’t you stop talking and start working!” I shouted. “And your brilliant plan is . . .?”

I heard something swing through the air until it landed at my feet.

“A rope,” Garth answered. That ego of his was dripping in two words.

“Did you find a good anchor up there, Garth?” Jesse asked.

“As good an anchor as I’ll find. Now, I’m tired, I’m wet, and I’m ready to crawl into bed. So who’s climbing up first?”

“Jesse!” I shouted.

“Rowen!” Jesse yelled at the same time.

Garth chuckled again. “Shit. I’m not getting any sleep tonight after all.”

I spun around, my hands already on my hips. “I’m not arguing with you on this, Jesse. You’re going up first.”

“No, you need to go first, Rowen.” He cut me off before I could interrupt. “You don’t know how to tie a rope around that calf so we can get her up.”

“And you can get a rope tied around a calf with one hand?” I stared at the arm he was cradling.

“I could tie a calf with no hands,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a while, you know?”

I exhaled my exasperation. He wasn’t seeing reason.

“So we’ll send the calf up first. Then you. Then me.”

Jesse stayed so calm. He stayed as calm as I didn’t. “And Garth’s going to be able to wrangle a calf up there on his own while he pulls the two of us up?”

I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut.

“You need to go first so you can hang on to the calf while Garth gets me up. That’s the only way we’re all getting out of here.”

“So we’ll leave the calf. Your dad and the rest of the guys will be here in a few hours and can get her then.” I couldn’t just leave Jesse down there alone. I couldn’t leave him.

Jesse’s eyes landed on the calf. She really couldn’t have looked more relaxed. She’d gotten separated from her mother, been lost in a storm, and had probably been terrified, but Jesse had found her. From the looks of it, that made everything all right.

“I can’t just leave her, Rowen.” His eyes shifted back to me. “I can’t abandon her.”

I knew I read more into those words than Jesse had intended, but I got it. I understood why he was the person he was. Why I’d fallen in love with him. Why he made me want to be the best person I could be. Jesse Walker didn’t abandon a person, or in this case, an animal, when it needed him.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll do it your way.” The words were painful, but nonetheless, they were the right ones to say. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get up that thing in your condition?”

nt against everything I knew, but I fought the panic. Inspecting his head wound to make sure it wasn’t leaking enough fresh blood to be concerning, I came around to his side again. His breathing was a little fast and his color was a couple shades lighter than normal, but otherwise, his injuries didn’t seem life-threatening.

“What are you doing out here, Rowen?” he asked, inspecting my body like I’d just done his.

“I came to find you,” I answered as I wiped the mud from his face with the back of my hand.

“How did you get down here?”

I swallowed and pointed up the cliff face.

His expression went pretty much exactly how I thought it would go: flabbergasted with a trace of outraged. “You realize that’s called Suicide Ridge for a reason, right?”

I crossed my arms and sat up on my heels. I wasn’t there to argue with him. “Do you?”

“Yeah, I do. That’s why I take it seriously when I travel it,” he replied. I couldn’t stop staring at the way his right arm cradled his left arm.

“And you call it ‘taking it seriously’ when you decided to travel it in the middle of the night during the storm of the century?” Why was I still arguing with him? Really, all I’d wanted to do since I’d stumbled over him was kiss him hard on the mouth and cuddle close until help came.

“It is when you see the calf everyone’s been looking for at the bottom of the ravine.” Jesse tilted his head toward the big shrub. I hadn’t noticed at first, but a tiny black calf was laying under the shelter of the bush. She was as wet and muddy as the rest of us but resting as peacefully as I’d ever seen an animal sleep.

“You broke your arm, your ribs, and your damn head to save a baby cow?” I said, waving my hands at the calf.

“I wasn’t planning on breaking anything when I climbed down to get her,” he said. “But the mud, my balance, and my feet had other plans.”

“What were you doing out here on your own in the first place? What were you thinking when you tried coming down that thing”—I waved at the steep wall in front of us—“in those boots?” I flailed at his feet next. “I have four-inch heels with better traction than those things!”

Jesse looked like he was fighting a grin. A second later, all humor left his face. “I am not answering another question until you tell me what you were thinking coming out here on your own. What you were thinking climbing down that thing in those things?” His pointed from the cliff to my boots. “And . . . and . . . how did you get here in the first place?”

I doubted my answer would put him any more at ease. “Sunny.” I shrugged.

Nope, it definitely didn’t put him at ease. It put him the opposite. “Sunny?!” He tried sitting up more, but he only made it a couple inches before grimacing.

“Would you lie back and take it easy?” I said. “Before you break or bust something else?”

He didn’t right away, but Jesse eventually settled back against the rock. I zipped out of the rain jacket and wadded it into a makeshift pillow.

“Rowen,” he said, shaking his head, “put that back on right now. Don’t be crazy.”

“Jesse,” I rolled my eyes and carefully stuffed it behind his head, “don’t you be crazy. And don’t tell me what to do.” I rested my hand on the side of his neck, and even in the cold of the night and with the rain coating our skin, I felt the heat charging through our touch.

“Anything else?” he asked as he settled into the raincoat pillow.

“Yeah,” I said, lowering my face over his. “Stop pretending like what I did was insane. Stop pretending you wouldn’t have done the exact same thing if our roles were reversed.”

Jesse’s good arm lifted and his hand cradled my face. “That it?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Stop pretending like you’re mad at me because you suck at it.”

A chuckle rushed out of his mouth. “I suppose I do.” His thumb skimmed my cheek and, just like every other touch shared with Jesse, I melted into it. “But, Rowen, the guys would have found me. It wouldn’t have taken them much longer. Why did you risk your life to find me first?”

A hundred reasons. A thousand explanations. I’d do it a million times over.

“I’m working on that whole healthy thing.”

Jesse mirrored the smile on my face. “How is almost killing yourself healthy?”

I glanced over my shoulder, then back at him. “Because I’m here with you now.”

“Is this the same girl who pushed me away, ran away, and was so hung up on the deserve-don’t-deserve thing?”

“It’s the same girl. It’s just the same girl who let a few wise words from a couple wise people set in. The same girl who let a few of her own realizations set in.” I lowered my forehead to his, shielding us both from the storm. “Because I love you, Jesse. I know that I will love you more than any other person in the world ever could. Because you were right. Deserving has nothing to do with loving someone. I’m grabbing hold of what I want and not looking back.”

Jesse’s eyes stared into mine and they were as light as I’d seen them. “That sounds like a person who’s gotten past her ‘deserve’ hang up.”

I smiled. “Well, even if I haven’t gotten all the way past it, I figured this whole saving your life thing was a step in the right direction.” Jesse laughed, then winced. Apparently broken ribs and laughter didn’t go well together. “So? Am I forgiven?”

“For being so careless with your life?” I felt his forehead wrinkle beneath mine. “No way.”

I rocked my head back and forth against his. “No. For being careless with yours.”

His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he murmured, “Hmm . . .”

Since he was working on making up his mind, I might as well help him. My lips dropped to his and rested in place. I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel his lips again, for more than one reason, and I planned on enjoying the moment. When staying unmoving against him any longer was impossible, I sucked his lower lip into my mouth and tasted the rain coating it. I repeated the rain tasting with his upper lip.

By that point, Jesse’s chest was rising and falling hard against me. As much as I wanted to kiss him until everything around us faded, the man all but panting below me had a couple of broken ribs. I pressed a final kiss to his mouth before leaning back.

“Okay,” Jesse breathed, polishing his thumb over my lips. “You’re forgiven.”

If only everything were so easily fixed. But maybe, with Jesse, a lot of things could be so simple.

A light suddenly shone brightly down on us, startling me. I’d been so lost in the moment I’d almost forgotten the situation. I shielded my eyes and twisted around. The light came from a ways up, probably from the ridge.

“Am I breaking anything up?” a voice hollered down at us. “I can come back in twenty minutes or so if you want.”

Jesse groaned and sat up again.

I stood up. “Garth? Is that you?”

The light shifted away from us. When it stopped, it shined on Garth’s face.

“Convinced?” He flashed the light back down on us. “Maybe we can get you both out of there now.”

“I’d rather spend the night out here than have Garth Black come save the day,” Jesse muttered.

I was about to elbow him in the ribs when I caught myself.

“Jesse’s arm and ribs are broken,” I yelled up. “What’s your brilliant plan for getting us up there from down here?”

“Thatta girl,” Jesse said, tilting his chin at me. “Give it right back to him.”

“Would you shush already?” I hissed back at him. “You’ve got to be the only person alive who would turn away help from a guy because you don’t like him.”

Jesse shot me an exasperated look, then exhaled. “Garth?” he yelled. “There’re three of us down here.”

“You found the calf?” Garth circled the light around until it landed on the still sleeping calf.

Jesse lifted a brow. “I found her.”

Garth’s chuckle rolled down the ridge toward us. “No one could ever accuse you of not putting your heart, soul, and body into your work, Walker!”

“Why don’t you stop talking and start working!” I shouted. “And your brilliant plan is . . .?”

I heard something swing through the air until it landed at my feet.

“A rope,” Garth answered. That ego of his was dripping in two words.

“Did you find a good anchor up there, Garth?” Jesse asked.

“As good an anchor as I’ll find. Now, I’m tired, I’m wet, and I’m ready to crawl into bed. So who’s climbing up first?”

“Jesse!” I shouted.

“Rowen!” Jesse yelled at the same time.

Garth chuckled again. “Shit. I’m not getting any sleep tonight after all.”

I spun around, my hands already on my hips. “I’m not arguing with you on this, Jesse. You’re going up first.”

“No, you need to go first, Rowen.” He cut me off before I could interrupt. “You don’t know how to tie a rope around that calf so we can get her up.”

“And you can get a rope tied around a calf with one hand?” I stared at the arm he was cradling.

“I could tie a calf with no hands,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a while, you know?”

I exhaled my exasperation. He wasn’t seeing reason.

“So we’ll send the calf up first. Then you. Then me.”

Jesse stayed so calm. He stayed as calm as I didn’t. “And Garth’s going to be able to wrangle a calf up there on his own while he pulls the two of us up?”

I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut.

“You need to go first so you can hang on to the calf while Garth gets me up. That’s the only way we’re all getting out of here.”

“So we’ll leave the calf. Your dad and the rest of the guys will be here in a few hours and can get her then.” I couldn’t just leave Jesse down there alone. I couldn’t leave him.

Jesse’s eyes landed on the calf. She really couldn’t have looked more relaxed. She’d gotten separated from her mother, been lost in a storm, and had probably been terrified, but Jesse had found her. From the looks of it, that made everything all right.

“I can’t just leave her, Rowen.” His eyes shifted back to me. “I can’t abandon her.”

I knew I read more into those words than Jesse had intended, but I got it. I understood why he was the person he was. Why I’d fallen in love with him. Why he made me want to be the best person I could be. Jesse Walker didn’t abandon a person, or in this case, an animal, when it needed him.

“Okay,” I said. “We’ll do it your way.” The words were painful, but nonetheless, they were the right ones to say. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get up that thing in your condition?”