Ever After at Sweetheart Ranch (25 page)

 

Chapter 23

W
hen Will finally arrived at Sugar and Spice, there was quite a crowd gathered, and they eagerly surrounded him. Apparently they'd been getting text updates about his tour of Valentine Valley. Word was getting out that he enjoyed the book and loved being the center of attention—­as if that last part was anything new. Heck, maybe he should subtly spread a rumor that “casting” him had been all his idea.

“So where's Lyndsay?” he asked Tony.

Tony and Kate glanced at each other.

“We don't know,” Tony said.

Will looked around, then locked eyes with Mario, whose expression was sober.

Kate said, “I've tried to reach her, but she doesn't answer calls or texts.” After hesitating, she added, “She was worried about your reaction.”

“I'm just fine. She's the one we should be worried about. This should have been the best day of her life. What happened?”

He got the scoop about the eavesdropping that happened at breakfast from the widows themselves.

“I'm so sorry,” Mrs. Palmer said.

“Don't apologize,” he insisted. “I'm fine with it. I'm just sorry Lyndsay was worried that I wouldn't be.”

“Will,” Steph said, “through the window I saw her talking to Sean Lighton. Whatever they were discussing, he seemed pretty happy about it.”

She would hardly start dating someone so soon—­would she? And today, of all days? No way. “All right, I'm going to see her. I'll let you know what I find out.”

“For a guy who's not big into relationships,” Tony said, “you seem to care an awful lot about my sister.”

“Of course I do. That's never changed. And she broke up with me,” he added over his shoulder as he neared the front door, “remember?”

But Lyndsay wasn't at home, though her car was. That meant she couldn't have gone far. He drove up and down the main roads, but he didn't see her. He texted her close friends and family, but no one knew where she was. He tracked down Sean's cell from the friend of a friend, but Sean didn't answer either.

And his feeling of distress spread from the pit of his stomach to tighten through his chest.

Where was she?

By midafternoon, just when he was wondering if the police could help, his phone rang. It was Lyndsay's ID. He couldn't press the button fast enough.

“Lyndsay? Where are you?”

“Will?”

She sounded both frantic and relieved, which upped his own tension. But the sound broke up almost immediately, and he only heard a syllable here and there.

“Lyndsay, I can't hear you!”

“ . . . broken leg . . . Mountain Rescue . . . roaring . . . Capitol Cree—­”

And the phone call went dead.

His heart raced, and perspiration broke out on his forehead. She wanted him to call Mountain Rescue? She'd broken her leg? Where the hell was she? “Roaring” could mean the Fork, but she'd said Capitol Creek . . . she had to mean Hell Roaring trail.

He tried to call again and again, but she didn't answer. So then he called Mountain Rescue's dispatch, got put through to his buddy, Aaron Epstein, and told him the situation.

“So I think they're somewhere on Hell Roaring,” Will finished, talking too fast, he knew. “And I can fly you there.”

“Whoa, wait a minute,” Aaron said. “I agree that that's where they probably are, but we can hike up there easily enough, take a ­couple litters.”

“No, you don't get it. That's my
girlfriend
up there, and if you try to hike this time of day, you're going to end up there after dark. We don't know how bad her leg is broken—­maybe she can't spend the night on the mountain. I'm offering to fly you in—­it won't cost you anything, and it won't tie up your helicopter.”

“Well, if you put it that way—­”

“I'll pick you up at the Aspen airport.”

“That's good.” With concern in his voice, Aaron asked, “Are you sure you're up to this, Will? You sound shaky.”

Will took a deep breath. “I'm fine. Just hurry.”

Even as he texted Tony and told him to pass the news that he was off to rescue Lyndsay, all he could think of was that she'd needed to get away because of
him.
He should have just called her instead of trying to save the day—­then she'd have known he was okay with their secret being out. Instead, she was in danger. She'd sounded frantic and scared in just those few syllables. He felt sick to his stomach—­and Aaron was right. His hands were shaky. He fisted them and told himself to get it under control. Lyndsay needed him.

W
ith snow-­dusted Mount Sopris majestically capping the Elks in the distance, Will flew his helicopter above the treetops along the Hell Roaring trail. Aaron was in the seat next to him, headset on over his helmet, his curly dark hair sticking out around the edges and down his neck. Aaron was scanning the countryside as hard as Will was.

“There they are!” Aaron called, pointing ahead. “Just beneath the ridge.”

Will's feeling of intense relief was almost dizzying, but he was focused on what he was doing, so he let any emotions slide away from him. Lyndsay was on her feet, jumping up and down and waving a red jacket. Will laughed aloud.

Aaron stared at him.

“Sorry. Lyndsay's okay. I'm just happy.”

It was Sean who was lying in the snow-­covered rocks. Hopefully he was okay, too, but Will was focused on the sight of Lyndsay. He flew past her, higher up the trail, and landed gently on the flat of the ridge, his skids crunching as they settled into the gravel. Aaron doffed his headset, opened the door, and hopped out. Will wished he could follow, but he had to shut down the engine and rotors first, and that was a process. Frustrated, he gritted his teeth and did his job.

By the time he was climbing to the ground, Aaron appeared over the ridge again.

“Lighton's basically okay, broken leg, not a compound fracture. We'll use the litter to get him up here.”

Will followed Aaron across the rocky field, skittering through snow, but the wind had skimmed any deep drifts right off the top of the ridge. Mountains surrounded them on all sides, but Will wasn't paying attention to the view. He was looking for Lyndsay, and when he spotted her on the open trail, crouched beside Sean, he could have hugged her.

He settled for an arm around her shoulders when she stood up. Sean, his face white, regarded the two of them with dismay, then sighed and relaxed his head back onto his pack.

“You okay?” Will asked Lyndsay.

As Aaron began unbuckling the litter straps, she briefly leaned against Will, then smiled. “I'm fine. I knew you'd find me.”

He grimaced. “I barely heard what you were saying when you called. Hard to believe you got any cell reception at all.”

She gave a short laugh. “I ran around holding my phone in the air, and when I found one bar, I froze in this contorted position.”

“I'm glad you did.” He didn't let her go, and she didn't pull away. “What happened?”

As Aaron assisted Sean into the litter, she used the opportunity to back away and lower her voice.

“It was stupid. We shouldn't have climbed up this far without the proper equipment. Sean knows it—­he's embarrassed. He didn't even want me to call Mountain Rescue, thought he could limp back down the trail.”

“How did he break the leg?”

“We were almost to the ridge. He was just below me when he started to slide twenty feet or so back down the hill. He couldn't self-­arrest to slow himself down, and he hit a rock.” She shuddered. “I swear I heard the leg snap.”

He rubbed her arm in sympathy.

“I handled this whole day poorly,” she said, shaking her head. “I never should have agreed to climb higher without crampons.”

“Don't blame yourself. It's all my fault. I heard you were worried about the book secret getting out. I should have called you, let you know I was okay.”

She glanced at him in surprise. “Your fault?”

Before he could reply, Aaron called, “Okay, Will, he's secure. Let's get him up to the ridge.”

After that, it was all business, carrying the litter the last hundred yards up the rocky slope, then securing it in the helicopter. Sean kept apologizing to Lyndsay over and over, until Will could have told the guy to shut up. But he refrained.

Once everyone was loaded aboard, Will started the engine and eventually lifted off, heading back toward Aspen.

O
nce they got Sean onto the Mountain Rescue truck, Lyndsay promised him she'd call to check up. Then she headed back toward the helicopter, where Will was still seated at the controls, the blades whirling overhead. She ducked as low as possible, running toward it, then slid into the front seat beside him.

Once she had the headset on, she smiled and said, “Guess I managed to get a ride out of you after all.”

He rolled his eyes. “Buckle up. It should only take about fifteen minutes until we're back at the ranch.”

When he lifted off, she watched him work but didn't try to talk to him. He seemed . . . remote, professional. On the trail, he'd kept his arm around her, comforted her, but that guy seemed far away now.

The darkness crept up in the east, as the sun had already set behind the mountains. The sky was pink and gold, and all around the twilight below seemed like a dark mist, framing Will. She still couldn't believe what she'd heard him say—­that this accident, this crazy day, was all his fault.

His fault!

She knew he didn't think himself the center of the universe—­he just took the blame naturally, because that's what he'd been doing since high school. Well, she had news for him—­but she wasn't having this discussion through headsets.

She wasn't used to flying low over Valentine Valley, so she took in the beauty of the lights coming on over the streets, the tower of town hall lit for the night, the big neon sign on the Royal Theater displaying a half dozen colors.

“I can see my house!” she called, trying to lighten the tension.

He nodded but didn't smile.

Ridiculous man.

The ranch was a long stretch of darkness, lit by few lights except near the buildings. Will had radioed ahead, and his brothers had gotten the landing site ready, lights lit to guide them in. There was a landing light beneath the helicopter, too, and it helped Will see the ground below.

“You're not landing on the dolly tonight?” Lyndsay asked.

He shook his head. “Too tricky at dusk. No weather approaching tonight. I'll do it in the morning.”

They touched down with a minor jolt, and she sat still and watched as Will ran through his checklist to shut down the helicopter.

She didn't want to interrupt him, so it wasn't until the engine was silenced and the rotors still that she said, “You were great up there. Thanks so much.”

She could see the muscles in his jaw clench, but he didn't say anything, only took off the headset and opened the door.

Frowning, Lyndsay did the same, then ran around the front of the helicopter and stopped him when he would have headed for the hangar. “So I thank you, and you ignore me?”

She saw one of his brothers come out of the hangar, but she waved him off, and he went back inside.

“I'm not ignoring you, Lyndsay,” Will said calmly. “But you've already thanked me, and it doesn't feel right to be thanked.”

“Why not? You got my message and you flew to our rescue, when we would have had to spend a night on the mountain—­and we were ill prepared for that.” She shook her head. “I feel like an idiot.”

He didn't say anything, just looked at her.

She threw her hands wide. “Okay—­why did you say our hiking accident was your fault? How could you possibly believe that?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “His broken leg wasn't my fault, but it could have just as easily been you who was hurt. If static had captured just one more word of your phone call, I would have had no idea where to find you. And you'd have been stuck up on that mountain because of me, because I didn't tell you I was okay with our book secret being revealed.”

“Will,
listen
to yourself! You had nothing to do with my decisions.
I
wrote a book that got published,
I
based a character on you, and
I
panicked when word got out. I didn't check to make sure Sean had the proper equipment for a hike above the tree line at this time of year. It wasn't your fault—­just like Brittany's death wasn't your fault!”

He reared back as if she'd slapped him.

“Yeah, I'm saying it, and you're listening to it,” she said forcefully. “I made my own decision—­and so did Brittany. Stuff happens, and sometimes it's out of everyone's control. You need to find a way to accept that and not blame yourself.”

“Accept that?” he echoed. “She's dead. She'll never get married or have kids or any kind of life. And I'm just supposed to do all that when she never will?”

His voice broke at the end. Lyndsay wanted to throw her arms around him, but she didn't, not yet. “Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, Will, Brittany—­and her family—­want you to have a normal life, a good life, a fulfilling life. Do you think Brittany would be happy that you never let yourself find love? Do you think she was that kind of girl, who'd selfishly want the boy she loved to suffer because she died in a senseless accident?”

He said nothing, just stared at her, his eyes narrowed with confusion and pain.

“Stop putting up barriers, Will,” she whispered. “I promise to stop, too. I didn't wait for you today—­I ran away, rather than see how I'd affected you, rather than face how my success doesn't seem enough without you there to share it with me.”

He looked startled, but she plowed on.