Forever Love on Fireweed Island (Island County Book 4) (2 page)

“Coco, stay,” I called into the quivering leaves.

“I didn’t teach her that command,” Mrs. Coleville said.

“They said the call is a low priority, and they’re already on a high-priority call at the far end of the island,” I relayed. “They don’t generally handle cat-in-the-tree calls very often, but since she might be injured, they’re willing to give it a go. The volunteer station down south might be able to come our way, but there’s no guarantee.”

Coco’s whimper sounded above, tears filled Mrs. Coleville’s eyes, and I knew things were about to get really tricky, really fast.

“Coco is no feline. She’s a mighty Yorkie, and she could be injured. By the time they get here, it could be too late.” She sniffled.

I knew what I had to do. I was Coco’s only hope, but I was also deathly afraid of heights ever since I tumbled out of a tree fort at the age of eight. The thought of heaving myself into the canopy above made my knees wiggle and jiggle like raspberry J-E-L-L-O.

But I had to do it.

“I’ll go get my ladder. Don’t take your eyes off Coco.”

“Your ladder won’t reach.” She shook her head, her eyes glistening with tears. “And she might jump.”

“We’ll come up with something. If we want to get to her in a timely manner, it’s our only option.” I handed her my phone, ready and waiting to dial the vet. All she had to do was push the button. “Call Island Vet and let them know what to expect.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded weak and defeated.

I must not be displaying the air of confidence I’d hoped, which wasn’t too unusual. I ran to my garage and pressed in the code, willing the door to roll up faster.

“Hurry,” Mrs. Coleville hollered. “The leaf is shaking.”

And so were my knees.

I lifted the ladder off the hooks with a grunt. The metal scraped on the garage floor with every step forward as I hauled it outside. This definitely wouldn’t be tall enough to reach Coco, but it was all I had. Carrying the ladder across my yard and over to hers took less than a minute, but by the time I arrived, Coco was letting out horrified barks and yips.

Disaster was about to strike. I could feel the tension in the air with each quiver of the giant maple leaf surrounding Coco.

“Can you grab some towels?” I asked calmly, not feeling an ounce of it as I gauged where best to lean the ladder. Wherever I propped it, Coco might get spooked into jumping, and that would be the end of Coco. The weight of Mrs. Coleville’s world balanced on my too-slender shoulders and my nearly buckling knees.

She nodded and headed toward the front door. The leaf fluttered, and I focused on the surrounding area, searching for evidence of blood—or anything, really—to gauge Coco’s injuries. She’d quieted some, so I didn’t want to circle around the tree for fear I’d scare her, and she’d fall off the limb. She wasn’t a cat. There would be no springing back to life after that tumble.

As I waited for Mrs. Coleville, my mind drifted to BlznBookie. I wondered what he’d do in this situation. He always seemed adventurous and filled to the brim with good ideas and fixes. Whether he was rock climbing in Arizona or hiking the Pacific Coast trail, he had a solution for whatever problem arose. I should know, because I stalked his blog daily.

BlznBookie also happened to be a faceless being who I’d only met through my book blog, so the fact that he even popped into my head showed what a bizarre turn of events my social life had become since my divorce.

But seriously, I wondered what he’d do in this situation.

Mrs. Coleville came hurrying back outside and stood next to me with a stack of towels taller than she was.

I kept secretly hoping that sirens would sound in the distance and I wouldn’t have to tangle myself in the limbs and leaves.

“I’m going to prop the ladder on this side of the tree and climb onto the limb across from Coco. It looks pretty solid, and I should be able to reach her from there, but if she gets scared and jumps, I want you standing below, ready to catch her.”

“I always let Coco out on a leash. This is my fault . . . completely my fault. I never should have let her out this morning without me,” she mumbled into the towels.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” I said, staring at the tree and praying the fire department would show up in the next thirty seconds. This Yorkie was everything to Mrs. Coleville, and if she didn’t make it . . . “We need to stay focused on the task at hand, which is to get Coco out of the tree and to the vet.”

She nodded, and I grabbed a towel from her. My plan to snatch Coco was to do a sneaky lean-in toward the dog, followed by a graceful drape of the towel, ending the ordeal with a silent snag of the eight-pounder once I got close enough to her.

There were a lot of holes in this plan.

“Okay, let’s bring Coco down to safety,” I said.

Mrs. Coleville slowly walked over to where Coco sat in the tree, and I moved my ladder quietly, propping it in position. She scattered most of the towels on the ground around her and kept one over her shoulder. I put my foot on the first step and took in a deep breath before quickly climbing each rung.

The ladder bounced with each step, letting a squeak into the silent air, but I reached the top in seconds. Coco’s yips had turned into panting, and my stomach clenched. With all my heart, I hoped Coco wasn’t badly injured, but it didn’t sound good.

I adjusted the towel over my shoulders and climbed over to the sturdy limb that suddenly didn’t seem so sturdy. I was in the thick of the rescue, with branches poking my scalp and leaves tangling my hair. I glanced down, and my palms immediately got sweaty.

This had been a horrible idea.

Forget Coco—I doubted
I’d
even survive a fall from this height. I was way higher than the tree fort from twenty-plus years ago, which only gifted me with a broken arm.

This would be a career ender. There would be no Jewels to issue library cards, organize author events, or review my favorite books of the week on my blog,
Island Reads
.

Slowly shifting my weight, I straddled the limb and began inching my way toward the branch Coco had made her home. I could no longer see Coco’s ear, only the twitch of her tail.

I glanced down again and let out a silent gasp. The strength of my core vanished, turning me into a squishy sponge, my arms barely able to haul my weight forward. Fear pummeled through me.

With every scoot forward, I felt like a spineless amoeba waiting to become one with the earth.

“You doing okay up there?” Mrs. Coleville asked in a whisper that was more like a shout.

Even though I had been using both hands to clutch onto my one and only lifeline, I freed a hand and flashed a thumbs-up sign and quickly reattached my hand to my safety branch. I didn’t need her collapsing from a heart attack on top of everything else.

Coco’s panting stopped, and my heart froze.

Did she stop breathing?

Was she okay?

Well, “okay” was probably a relative term at this point. She was a dog trapped in a tree after being carted around by a coyote. If I thought my morning was going bad, Coco’s took the cake.

By the time I reached the center of the moss-covered branch, I was about a foot away, clutching the limb—no longer able to sit upright—as terror took over.

Apparently, Coco had also been afflicted with the same paralyzing fear, because she’d sprawled herself lengthwise and teetered precariously on the branch. Her head was pointed in the opposite direction, but my eyes focused on her tiny ribcage, hoping I’d spot movement. There wasn’t a speck of blood on her, but I also didn’t see her tiny chest heave in the slightest.

The strength of a coyote’s jaw could be deadly against an eight-pound Yorkie. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath as I pushed myself up and away, no longer able to hug my safe place. Twigs jabbed my skin, and the burn from the coffee incident still seared my stomach and thighs.

I thought about the irony of the situation. For years, I’d joked about the woman who spilled coffee on her lap and sued, and here I was, feeling every bit of that pain from too-hot coffee.

This really wasn’t the best way to begin my week. I forced my eyes open, pulled the towel from my shoulders, and readied myself.

The limb next to me shook from a slight breeze that began mustering its strength, and it felt like the world was dropping out from underneath me. It was now or never. With a quick, fluid motion, I curled the towel around Coco and brought her into my arms. Her brown eyes fluttered to mine, and I quickly checked her tiny body for wounds while simultaneously squeezing the limb with my legs with a strength I didn’t know my thigh muscles knew about. I nestled her back into my chest and hugged her, uncertain of what to do next.

“Coco doesn’t seem to have any teeth marks or puncture wounds,” I called down. “No blood.”

“The vet is waiting for her.”

“Okay, I’m figuring out how to get down.” I hadn’t thought that far ahead. My motto had been one step at a time because I probably didn’t think I’d get this far.

I held onto Coco with both arms, which made me not want to move even a fraction of an inch. One wrong turn, and my entire body would catapult over the limb like a wannabe Olympian. My thighs gripped the limb as I worked my body backward. It wasn’t until I got back to the crook of the tree that I realized I was doomed.

“Do you know how you’re going to get to the ladder?” Mrs. Coleville asked.

“Nope,” I hollered back, squeezing Coco and refusing to look down.

The idea of swinging my leg back over the limb made my head swirl. My thighs were the only things locking me onto the tree.

“I hear sirens,” Mrs. Coleville said, walking directly under where Coco and I were perched.

I strained my ears in search of the sirens, but I only heard my pulse thumping between my ears. It wasn’t until I heard a man’s calm voice that I realized backup had arrived. I’d been sitting in the tree for who knew how many minutes, clutching Coco and daring myself to move from my roost.

“We’ve got ya. Just slowly draw your leg in and turn your body,” the man said from behind me.

He’d apparently climbed up the ladder with the speed of a professional, and we’d be eye-to-eye if I could only manage to follow his instructions, but therein lies the problem. I was paralyzed with fear. The moment my thighs stopped gripping was the moment I’d go overboard. I could feel it.

“Miss, can you hear me?” he asked, his tone softening even more.

I nodded, afraid if I spoke, he’d hear how terrified I was.

“If you drag your leg over, you’ll be more stable. You can even hold my hand.”

I shook my head and let out a slow breath. “Take Coco. Save her before me.”

“I’d like to save you both.” It sounded like the man might have held in a chuckle.

Still clutching the limb with my thighs, I turned at my waist and came face-to-face with the most compelling mix of features I’d ever laid eyes on in one human being. Even behind his goggles, his eyes were beautiful and as blue as a glacier. Not to mention the twinkle in his eyes made my already weak knees useless as he stood perched in the nook of the tree without so much as a finger wrapped around a limb for balance.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

He smiled and reached out for Coco, and I let her go into the man’s grasp.

“Welcome,” he responded before quickly working his way down the ladder and handing Coco to Mrs. Coleville, who was busy giving her kisses before she even had Coco in her arms.

My head was spinning, and I knew I was about to go over, so I leaned forward and hugged the limb underneath me as the world around me moved at lightning speed.

“You doing okay up there?” the fireman asked, already climbing back up the ladder.

“Not really.” My eyes were focused on the grass beneath me as one man dressed in a full fireman’s uniform turned into several men. I wasn’t seeing double or triple. I was seeing quadruple as my stomach churned and my world twisted into the unsettling turn of events. “But I’ve got it. Just give me a second.”

“Whatever you need. There’s no rush. Mrs. Coleville is already on the way to the vet with Coco.”

I slowly worked my butt in the air while still keeping my legs firmly wrapped around the limb and pushed myself backward one inch at a time.

“Well, I’ll be. I think we now know what a drunk centipede might look like,” I heard the fireman below me whisper.

“You’re going to have to let go of the tree,” the man said from behind me.

“Can’t do that. I’m seeing triple.”

“I have a harness I can slip around your waist, but I need you upright. The sooner you let me fasten it around you, the safer you’ll be.”

“Okay,” I said, still squeezing the tree. “But I might fall over.”

“Vertigo?” he asked, coming closer behind.

“Think so. Never had it before.”

“I’m going to come up behind you and mimic how you’re positioned.”

Before I had even a moment to object or ask questions, my body went sideways and a scream pierced the air as I somehow dangled from the limb.

I realized I was the one screaming as my body dripped like a broken tree limb. I had no idea how I got there. The man who’d been in the tree was now under the branch, holding his arms up, and I suddenly didn’t feel so high up.