Jill Shalvis - Instant Attraction

And stared at their cell phones.

At eight o’clock, the Nextel radio squawked.

All three of them lunged for it, but T.J.’s arms were the longest.

“We’re socked in,” came Nick’s voice over the radio. “We started back down. We’re in a cell hole halfway up Desolation. We have a big problem-”

His voice broke up.

“Repeat that,” T.J. said. “Nick, repeat.”

Nick tried, but whatever he said was unintelligible. T.J. let out a breath, then pushed the Talk button again. “Nick.”

Nothing but static. T.J. looked at Annie. “You know where halfway up Desolation leaves them.”

“Forty-five miles from here,” Annie said grimly. “What do you suppose the ‘big problem’ is?”

Katie prayed it wasn’t Cam. Annie gripped her hand tight, but before she could say anything more, Nick was suddenly back.

“T.J., can you hear me?” T.J. grabbed the Nextel again. “Yes, go ahead. Your problem?”

“We have a missing guest. Two went out for a leak and only one came back. I think he slid down the west side. Cam went after him, but neither have come back.”

Katie’s heart jerked to a painful stop.

“Fuck.” T.J. pushed the Talk button again. “Stone and I are coming. We’ll get S and R-”

“No one will fly you here until morning,” Nick responded. He said other things, too, but he faded out and never came back into range.

T.J. stood up and headed to the door. Annie leaped up and just barely caught him. “No, T.J. No.”

“I’m going to find a pilot who will fly me there.”

Annie was shaking her head, her eyes wet. “You can’t even get Stone back from town. You’d never make it there in this.” She gripped him tight. “I’m not risking two more of you. No way, no how. You’re not going anywhere until the morning, at least.” She threw her arms around him. “Promise me.”

T.J. hugged her back, then moved to the window alone, his back to them, stiff and tense as he stared helplessly out at the storm. “I should have gone instead. He didn’t need this.”

“Cam is stronger than you think,” Katie told him quietly. T.J. turned and looked at her.

“He is. He’s strong enough for this.” Her voice broke, but she nodded with resolve. “He really is.”

“Because of you.”

“No, I-”

“It’s true,” Annie said. “You gave him something we couldn’t. You gave him himself back.”

Maybe. But as far as Katie was concerned, she’d gotten a whole hell of a lot more than she’d given.

She slept with Annie in front of the big fireplace in the living room, and when dawn came, the sky was clear as a bell, making it hard to believe that a storm had been raging for days.

Except for the eight feet of snow blanketing absolutely everything. T.J. took the Sno-Cat into town, met up with Stone and Search and Rescue, and took off for Desolation. They arrived at the base of the peak by mid-afternoon and literally ran smack into Cam just as he climbed back up from where he’d slid down the night before. Uninjured but frustrated, he was happy to have the additional help because there was still no sign of Scott Winston, their missing client.

At the news about Cam, Annie and Katie hugged and cried in relief and went into the kitchen to eat an entire batch of fudge. Then Annie went to check on the fire in the living room and the radio squawked. Katie jumped on it. “Go ahead,” she said, heart in her throat.

“Where’s Annie?” came Cam’s unbearably familiar voice.

Emotion flooded her. She wanted to say how very glad she was that he was okay, that she hoped he was warm and dry. That she’d discovered one last thing-he was right about her being willing to take risks on adventures but not with her heart.

Never with her heart.

She wanted to tell him all that, and she wanted to hand her heart over to him and risk it all.

Right now.

But most of all, she wanted to tell him that she loved him. “She’ll be right back. Cam-”

“I don’t know how long you’ll be able to hear me. Tell Annie to call the clients’ families. The contact info is in the files.”

Nothing else. Nothing personal. No “Hey, you’re still there,” or “I miss you.” Much as that hurt, she understood. A man was still missing, his life in jeopardy. A life Cam was responsible for. He couldn’t let down his guard or be weak, not now. Probably not ever again, at least with her. It broke her heart, but she got it. She was gone, or would have been except for the storm.

And in truth, this had all been a fluke, a fantasy. A really great fantasy, but a fantasy none the less.

And it was time to move on.

Word came in at ten o’clock that night that Scott Winston had been found. He’d slipped down a snowy ravine on the opposite side of where Cam had done the same thing. Unable to climb back up, and equally unable to make himself heard over the wind, he’d decided to walk around and try to climb up another way.

And then had gotten himself lost.

He’d been picked up three quarters of a mile from where Cam had ended his search. He had frostbitten toes and fingers, but other than that was uninjured.

In her cabin, Katie was alone with Chuck, who’d shown up for the last of the cheese in her refrigerator. They sat together looking out the window at the stars.

And then, one fell. Katie looked at Chuck. “Did you see that?”

He blinked.

“A falling star.” She slammed her eyes shut, but she didn’t have to think, she knew what her wish was-Cam’s safe trip home. She also knew something else, that she wasn’t quite finished here. “I have one last thing to do, Chuck.”

“Mew.”

She reached out to scratch him behind the ears, certain he’d hiss, but he went very still and let her touch him. “I have to do this,” she whispered. “I have to try with him too.” She threw on her jacket and boots, and raced back up to the lodge, to the kitchen where she found Annie making more fudge. The Nextel was on the table.

“Hey there,” Annie said in surprise. “What are you-”

“I need to tell Cam something.” She picked up the radio. “Who has the radio out there?”

“Cam. But-”

Katie pushed the Talk button. “Cameron Wilder, are you there?”

She got a return squawk but couldn’t hear anything but static. But somehow, she knew he could hear her. It was in her gut, in her heart. And so was a bunch of other stuff she had to get out. She took a deep breath and pressed the Talk button again. “Cam? Goldilocks here. I know, I’m gone, or almost, but I have to tell you this first.”

“Katie,” Annie said. “I don’t think-”

“It’s okay. I know what I’m doing.” Or so she hoped. She pressed the Talk button again. “You once accused me of holding back. Not risking my heart. You were right.”

“Katie-”

She held up a hand to Annie to hold her off a minute. “As you pointed out to me, I risked everything but my heart, and I can’t leave here until I fix that. So here I am, risking it all.” She paused, breathed, and let it out. “I love you, Cameron Wilder.”

There.

She’d done it. She set the radio down on the table and sent a shaky smile in Annie’s direction. “Sorry. I had to do that before I left. Besides, you already knew anyway.”

“I knew,” Annie agreed. “But I’m not sure the rest of the guys knew. Or the entire Search and Rescue crew. Or the clients.”

Katie stared at her. “I thought you said Cam had the radio.”

“Uh-huh, but they’re all together in the snow cave.”

“So I just told everyone in the free world that I love Cam?”

“No, just everyone within sixty miles or so.”

Cam stared at the radio in his hands, ignoring the whistles and “woo-hoos” all around him.

She loved him.

“Aren’t you going to answer her?” Stone asked.

“He can’t.” This from T.J. “You know he can’t. They can’t hear us worth shit. Besides, look at him. He’s all wigged out.”

“Am not.” Cam rubbed his chest. His heart felt too big, too full. And he couldn’t breathe. Simply couldn’t draw air. Having no idea what he was going to say, or if there was any way at all that she could possibly hear him, he pushed the Talk button. “Katie.”

Nothing but static.

“Katie?”

More static.

He bowed his head and pressed the radio to his forehead. “Shit.”

“Probably you should have told her first,” Nick said.

“Told her what?” Scott, their rescuee, wanted to know. He was wrapped in a blanket, fully recovered, the stupid ass.

“That he loves her,” Nick said.

“Jesus.” Cam tossed down the radio. “We need to get back.”

“Agreed,” Nick said.

But saying so and doing so were two different things.

As if karma and fate had joined forces to shit on him, the climb out was ladened with technical difficulties. It was late afternoon the next day by the time they got back.

And Katie was long gone.

The drive back to Los Angeles was completely uneventful, at least once Katie got out of the wild Sierras that she’d never forget. Exhausted, she stopped halfway down Highway 5 in the middle of farmland country and stayed the night before getting back on the road.

She didn’t have a nightmare, but she did dream. She dreamed that she’d stayed at Wilder.

To be with Cam.

And in her dream, they made it work.

She made it into LA just in time to hit traffic, choke on the smog, and then drive into the carport of her apartment building.

Back to her world.

At least until she visited with her parents, bought a new map, and headed out again to her next adventure, where this time she’d risk all.

From here on out…

Her apartment was warm and stuffy. Wanting only to pass out for a few hours, maybe have one last pity party, she headed through the living room, pulling off her sweater. Already she missed the weather in Wishful. She missed Annie and the others. She missed Chuck, who was probably right this minute waiting for a handout from Annie.