Secret of Deadman's Ravine. B.J. Daniels
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bottle of water.
“Have you seen my horse? Is she all right?” Eve asked before taking a drink, a catch in her throat.
“Your horse is fine. She returned to the ranch this morning. That’s what started the search for you.”
“Just like Lassie,” she said, near tears, and took a long gulp of the water to hide her relief.
“Just like Lassie,” he said with a smile. “Her tracks led us to you.”
She kept her focus on the water bottle, furious that all it took to transport her back to their senior year in high school was his smile. She could feel him studying her, his look gentle, concerned. Just as he’d been the night he took her virginity in his old pickup behind her family’s barn.
Her hands were shaking, legs trembling, the past twenty-four hours taking their toll. Behind her eyes, she could feel tears welling up. She hurt all over, some of those bruises from years ago and her last encounter with Carter Jackson.
She bit her lip and took another drink as she heard him dig in his pack again. Was he thinking about that night in his pickup? More than likely he was thinking what a fool she’d been to ride so far without water or food, let alone proper clothing.
“Here,” he said, and handed her a candy bar.
She took the candy, struggling with the wrapper, her fingers refusing to work properly.
Covering her with his shadow, Carter leaned down to take the candy bar from her, ripped the paper open and handed the bar back to her without a word.
“Thanks.” She’d known Carter Jackson all of her life. They’d gone to the same one-room schoolhouse through elementary school before being bused into Whitehorse for high school.
There’d been something between them from the moment she’d punched him in the nose in grade-school recess to the first time he’d kissed her, something she’d mistaken for love long before she’d given herself to him in his old Chevy pickup.
She brushed a lock of hair back from her face, knowing she must look a mess. “Go on and say it. I know you’re dying to. I was an idiot for riding this far out yesterday without any provisions.”
“You don’t need a lecture,” he said quietly. “You’ve been through enough.”
So true, she thought, studying him. Problem was he had no idea what she’d been through. Not years ago when he dumped her for Deena Turner—certainly not last night.
Carter said nothing as he reached into the pack again and this time took out a pair of rolled-up jeans, a flannel shirt and jacket. “McKenna got these for you from your house.”
She stared at his handsome face for a moment, the devoured candy bar like a lump in her stomach. Tears burned her eyes. She’d been so scared, so afraid she’d never get back to the ranch, never see the people she cared about again that she hadn’t realized how much she’d scared her family and neighbors. Of course, they would be worried sick about her.
If it had been anyone but Carter who’d found her, she would have wept with joy at being rescued. But she couldn’t break down, not with Carter—and trying not to cry had left her raw with emotion.
She took the dry clothing, desperately needing to get moving before she couldn’t anymore. The sugar from the candy bar was trying to jump-start her dog-tired body, but knowing that she no longer had to push herself to get home again all she wanted to do was curl up on a warm rock and sleep for a week.
“The…underwear is in the jacket pocket,” Carter said, sounding almost shy as he turned his back to let her change.
She couldn’t help but remember the last time he’d handed her her clothes. She’d been naked then, though, and even more vulnerable than she was now.
The warm, dry clothing felt wonderful, although it took her a while to get her wet clothes off, her movements awkward and slow. She realized how close she’d been to hypothermia, how close she’d been to dying if she’d stopped even to rest too long earlier.
As she pulled on the jacket, she hugged herself, feeling warmer for the first time in what seemed like days.
With a start she remembered what she’d left in the pocket of her wet jeans. Quickly she checked to make sure Carter’s back was still turned before she reached into the front pocket of her dirty torn jeans and, with shaking fingers, transferred the rhinestone pin she’d found in the plane to her clean jeans pocket before saying, “All done.”
He turned to look at her. “Better?”
She nodded, fearing he could see the guilt written all over her face. But maybe he didn’t know her as well as she knew him. Maybe he never had.
He handed her another bottle of water, picking up the empty one from where she’d placed it on a rock and putting it back into his pack.
She opened the cap and took a long drink, trying to get control of her emotions. She could feel the weight of her old feelings for him heavy in her stomach. Just as she could feel the sharp edges of the rhinestones poking her upper thigh, prodding her conscience.
She dug for anger to steady herself, recalling the morning she reached school to find out that after being with her, Carter had been with Deena Turner. Deena had told everyone at school and announced that they were going steady. Nothing hurt like high school, she thought, but even the memory couldn’t provide enough anger to balance out her guilt.
She had to tell Carter about the plane.
Even if it meant betraying her own family.
CARTER STUDIED EVE, worried. He knew her too well, he realized, even after all these years. One of the things he’d always liked about her was her directness. She said what was on her mind.
But he could see that she was fighting more than exhaustion, as if trying too hard not to let him know just how bad last night had been. The fact that she hadn’t said anything made him fear she was in more trouble than being caught without her horse in a storm in the Breaks.
“I am curious how you lost your horse, though,” he said as he stuffed the dirty clothing she’d rolled up into his pack. “You get bucked off?”
Her head jerked up, her dark eyes hot with indignation. “You know darned well I haven’t been thrown from a horse since I was—”
“Nine,” he said. “I remember.” He remembered a lot of things about her, including her stubborn pride—and the moonlight on her face their last night together.
Her eyes narrowed as if she, too, remembered only too well things she would prefer to forget.
“McKenna told me that you and your mom had words just before you rode out yesterday,” he said.
“McKenna,” Eve said like a curse. “Did she also fill you in on what it was about?”
He shook his head. “Apparently she didn’t hear that part.”
Eve gave him a wan smile. Nothing more.
“How’d you come to be way down there? It’s not like you to end up without your horse in the bottom of a ravine.”
“You don’t know what I’m like anymore,” she snapped, looking back down the steep rocky slope.
“Okay, if you don’t want to tell me…” he said as he slung the pack over his shoulder.
“I found something.” She said it grudgingly.
He looked down at her, hearing something in her voice that instantly set his heart racing. She was biting down on her lower lip, looking scared. “What?”
“Hey down there!” Errol Wilson called from the top of the gulch. “Everything all right?” A shower of small rocks cascaded down just feet from them.
“She’s fine,” Carter called back, irritated at the interruption. “Make