Colton 911: Cowboy's Rescue. Marie Ferrarella
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While that did intrigue her, it just wasn’t her way.
Holding her breath, Maggie inched her way down.
The branch swayed and groaned with every move she made—or maybe that was the wind that was groaning. She didn’t know. The only thing she did know was that she had to move slowly because there was no way in hell that she was going to come tumbling down out of this tree and wind up on the ground right in front of Mr. Magnificent’s horse.
Watching her progress, Jonah grew steadily more uneasy. He continued to hold his arms up and opened. The wind yanked at his Stetson, then ripped it right off his head.
“Damn,” he muttered.
Maggie thought the remark was meant for her, but the next second she saw the cowboy’s dark Stetson fly by her and then it disappeared into the darkened distance.
“I owe you a hat,” she told her rescuer, raising her voice so that he could hear her above the howling of the wind.
“Just get down here,” Jonah ordered, reaching up even higher. “We’ll settle up later.” His shoulders were beginning to ache. “You sure you don’t want me climbing up there to get you?” he offered, watching Maggie’s painfully slow descent.
“I’m sure!” she snapped, irritated that it was taking her so incredibly long to reach him.
It certainly hadn’t felt as if it had taken her this long to climb up into the tree. But then, at the time, she’d been propelled by a dire sense of urgency. Maggie had been convinced that the floodwaters would just keep rising to the point that she would be in danger of being swept away.
Mercifully, they had receded and even though the rain kept falling, it didn’t do so with anywhere near the intensity that the weather bureau had initially promised.
If it had, all of Texas would have been submerged by now, Maggie thought, inching her way down. And then she managed to reach the man who had come to her rescue.
“Sorry,” Maggie apologized just as she finally reached Jonah’s arms. “I really didn’t mean to yell at you.”
“Did you yell?” he asked, feigning ignorance. “I didn’t notice.”
Having succeeded in lowering her into the saddle, Jonah shifted so that he could position himself right behind Maggie.
Seated snugly, he closed his arms around her as he took hold of the reins again.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
“Other than feeling stupid and having my pride wounded because I had to be rescued out of a tree? No,” Maggie answered.
Taking a moment longer to remain under the tree and somewhat out of the direct path of the storm, Jonah considered her answer.
“Could have been worse,” he told her.
Maggie found that she had to rouse herself in order to keep focused. Right now, she was losing herself in the warm feeling generated by having this hero’s arms wrapped around her.
“How?” she asked, her voice sounding almost hoarse. She coughed, clearing her throat.
“You could have not known how to climb a tree,” Jonah answered. He began to urge Cody to start heading away from the tree. The rain was just not letting up. “It looks like the floodwaters rushed through here before they receded back to a decent level.”
“They did,” she told him. “That’s why I was up in the tree. I lost track of time,” she ruefully admitted. “Do you have any idea how long I was up there?” Maggie asked.
“A long time,” Jonah deadpanned. “Your sister and Donovan just had their first baby a week ago. It was a boy,” he told her with a totally straight face, although she couldn’t turn around to see it. “They named him Jonah, after me.”
That was when Maggie laughed. “You know, you had me going there for a second,” she told him.
“Oh?” he asked innocently. He kept his head down, talking close to her ear so that she could hear him. “What gave me away?”
“Because after what we’ve just been through,” she told him, almost shouting so that he could hear her and not have the wind whip her words away, “Bellamy wouldn’t have gotten married without me there. Really,” she asked more seriously, “how long have I been out here?”
He thought back to what Rae Lemmon had said to him. “By my best estimation, probably close to twenty-four hours.”
That made sense, Maggie thought. “That would explain why I feel like I’m starving,” she said. And then she ventured another look up at the sky. She almost wished she hadn’t. “It looks like it’s going to rain harder,” she reported in dismay.
Without his hat to shield him, Jonah quickly glanced up and then looked down again. “That would be my guess,” he concurred.
She looked straight ahead and had no idea where they were going. She could hardly make out anything. The rain was obliterating everything around them.
“Are we going to get back to town in time?” she asked him anxiously.
That was easy enough for him to answer. “Nope, afraid not,” Jonah replied simply.
That startled Maggie enough for her to attempt to twist around to get a better look at him. She nearly wound up sliding off the horse.
Jonah immediately tightened his arms around her again. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you not to make any sudden moves when you’re riding double in the middle of a storm?”
“Never had a need for anyone to point that out before,” Maggie answered, feeling exasperated again. “If we’re not headed to town, then where are we going?”
“Well, we definitely need shelter so we’re going to the closest place I know of—if it’s still standing,” he qualified. He hadn’t checked on it since Hurricane Brooke had paid the area this unexpected visit.
He could feel Maggie growing antsy. “My place,” he told her. “It’s a one-room cabin, but right now, it’s probably our best bet if we want to wait out this newest wave of Hurricane Brooke,” he said.
As he answered her question, Jonah shifted ever so slightly so that he could pull the ends of his slicker apart. The second he did that, Jonah carefully tucked the two sides around the woman sitting directly in front of him.
“It’s not much,” he granted, “but at least it’ll give you some protection against this rain.”
“I’m already soaked,” she told him. “But thank you,” she added in a politer tone. Then, turning her face toward him—carefully this time so she wouldn’t slid off—Maggie added, “And thank you for coming out to look for me.”
“Hey, no big deal.” Jonah shrugged off her thanks. “As it turns out, I just happened to be in the neighborhood,” he cracked.
Maggie knew the man behind her had said something, but because the wind had increased, whipping his voice away, she hadn’t been able to hear him. “What?” she practically yelled.
Jonah started to repeat what he’d said, then gave up. Instead, he just shrugged. “Never mind.”
He didn’t think she heard that, either. Right now, it felt as if the wind was scattering his words to the four corners of the earth before they could be heard.
Leaning in over the woman he was holding tightly against his chest, afraid she would slide off if he loosened his grip even just a little bit, Jonah raised his voice and yelled, “We’ll talk later.”
She nodded, not bothering to try to answer him.
Maggie kept her face forward, searching the area for a sign of something that resembled a building or anywhere that they could take shelter until this latest onslaught of rain finally passed. There was nothing.
She