I didn’t answer, but still held onto her waist keeping her close. What was it about this woman? I couldn’t leave her alone for a minute without her getting herself into another spot of bother.
She shivered. “She could have killed us both. I thought she was going to eat me before you came along.”
I smiled. “Well, she didn’t. I got to you first.” Jesus, I almost finished that sentence with the words. And so I get to eat you.
“Yeah. You did.” She twisted in my arms to look back where the lion had disappeared to. “What made you come down here?”
I didn’t want to tell her the effect she had on me. With all the other women in my life, I could let them walk away. No matter if they were crying or hurt. I just didn’t care. With her, I find it impossible. It hurts me to see her hurt. “Come on, let’s get out of here before we meet any of the other unfriendly locals.”
My grip was still firm around her from adrenaline and fear. I loosened it to let her move freely away from me. She didn’t. She held my shoulders and looked searchingly into my eyes. “OK, let’s go.” She made to take a step and winced in pain.
Instinctively, I caught her. “What have you done to yourself?”
“Argh! It’s my knee. I must have banged it up pretty bad.”
I frowned. “How?”
“When I fell.”
I shook my head in exasperation. “You fell too? Seriously, you are a risk to yourself.”
“Until I met you I was a strong independent woman.” A wary note had crept into her voice.
“Maybe you’re just not mountain woman material,” I said, not wanting to argue again. I didn’t want to start caring about what happened to her. She was nothing to me. As soon as the snow melted she’d be gone back to the city. I just needed to keep it light.
“Aw, the mountain will get used to me after a while, and then she’ll love me. Everybody does.”
Yeah, I bet they did. Grumpily, I put my arm around her waist so I could act as her crutch. “Here, lean your weight on me.”
She hobbled along on one leg, most of her weight supported on me. It was slow going up the mountain, but it actually felt nice being close to Katrina, our bodies working together in perfect synchronization. Whenever there was something in our path and we were out of step, she felt the pain and gritted her teeth. It was a lot like our every exchange since I heard her car crash over the pass. Every time we get out of step with each other, she feels the pain of my harshness.
I felt sorry for being an asshole to her back in the workshop. I didn’t know how to react to her seeing the sculpture. Of course, it was a sculpture of her, but I didn’t think my artistic skills were good enough for her to recognize herself in my piece. Maybe I do have some abilities. I was so shocked that she saw herself reflected that I lashed out, I hurt her out of my own embarrassment. I didn’t want her to know she’d gotten to me right from the moment I pulled her out of the car.
“You know …” I just couldn’t find the words to explain what happened in the workshop. To tell her how I felt is the kind of language that I don’t have. I didn’t think I ever would. But I could be decent. “I’m sorry. About earlier. Haven’t ever shown anybody my sculpture work before. It was too soon.”
“I’m sorry too, for snooping around. Next time, I’ll just knock, huh?”
She smiled, and something deep in my stomach sparked and rippled electricity all through me. How another person can create that chemical reaction in someone else is marvelous, just from a smile.
“Do you need to rest for a minute before we carry on?”
“No, I can keep going. Let’s just get back to the cabin, and then maybe you can make me another one of those drinks you’ve secretly got stashed around.”
Ahead I saw a rock and I knew I didn’t want to see her face crunch up with pain. I swept her into my arms and hoisted her over my shoulder. She squealed with surprise then began to laugh, that rocky, sexy, confident laugh that I loved. The sound was beautiful in the desolate scenery. When she was gone I would remember her laugh on these mountains. It occurred to me that her presence had changed the mountains for me. It won’t be the same. What I had appreciated as my solitude would feel empty.
“I’m too heavy for you to carry me all the way,” she protested.
I could feel the delectable warmth from her hip against my cheek. God, I was obsessed with this woman. “You’re not heavy. We’ll have to have a look at your knee when we get back.”
“Have you got any other forms of pain relief around that you’ve been keeping under wraps?”
“Well, I can think of one thing that might help,” I murmured.
She laughed again. “Hang on, did you just flirt with me? Was that what that was? Well, I am astounded!”
That made me laugh.
“Oh, my God, and now he’s laughing. Are you the same person? Do you have an evil twin, and you’re like the good guy of the duo? Have I been with the bad Cade and now the good twin has arrived?”
“Hey, come on, that’s not totally fair. The bad Cade did rescue you from your crashed car. I was nice … some, right?”
It was fun to laugh with her.
“And that’s not what I meant by the way. Well, it kind of was, but what I actually meant was some ice-cold water for your knee. A dip in the creek may do you a world of good. It will certainly bring any swelling you have down. I use the creek every morning for that very thing.”
“You don’t!” She laughed so loudly, she was in danger of setting off another avalanche. “I can’t believe you just said that! You actually go into the creek every morning to get your swelling to go down? That is hilarious. You know, there are other ways of doing that.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
“Maybe. I haven’t decided if you’re worth the hassle yet. You’re kind of hard to read, you know?”
“Yeah. I guess I am.”
“Why is that? Why are you so complicated?”
“I don’t think I am.”
“What’s up? Why have you turned all serious on me? It’s like a dark cloud just rolled over you.”
“Nothing’s up. I’m just not complicated. You’re reading too much into me.”
“OK.”
She must have thought the evil twin Cade was surfacing because she stopped talking. She switched the fun off, didn’t ask any more questions. She just lay quietly on my shoulder and I focused on getting us up the mountain without exacerbating the pain in her knee. Maybe she was right to back away from me.
Cade
Back at the cabin I eased her down onto the stool. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah. I think I’m just kind of exhausted from it all. The adrenaline and endorphins are gone. That experience with the mountain lion, that was intense. I’m starting to feel the effects of everything now.”
I took a step back and ran my hands through my hair awkwardly. She was right, the adrenaline high was gone and we were back where we started. “Ok. Let’s get you something for the pain.”
“How about an Irish coffee? I was drinking coffee when I set out this morning looking for you. You could put it back on the stove and then put a shot of whiskey in there. That would help my knee.”
I lit the stove to get some heat under the coffee. While we waited for the stove to get hot, I made a pallet on the floor for her, collecting up all the cushions and quilts I had around the cabin.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Is it personal?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Go on then.”
“When I was in your workroom I saw no other sculptures. Where is all your other work? Do you sell them in town or something?”
“I don’t sell my work,” I said shortly.
“Oh, what do you do with them then?”
I didn’t turn around to face her. “I break it up and use for firewood.”
“What? Why?”
I didn’t reply and for a while there was only silence.
> “Why don’t you sell it?”
“You sell something if you need the money. I don’t.”
“But why would you not want to keep them?”