Mary Sullivan - Cody's Come Home

He wrapped her in his arms, but there was no chance of warming her properly without building a fire, or getting her out of this ravine.

Thank God she was safe.

He pulled back.

When he pushed wet hair from her forehead, his hand shook.

She looked bewildered by his presence. “I’ve been praying for someone to find me, but you, Cody? Where’d you come from?”

“I got in late last night. Drove in from LA. Your dad came to the house at first light to enlist our help. He’s worried sick.”

“Oh, p-p-poor Dad.”

See? Here she was, obviously feeling like hell, and her sympathy was for her father.

“There’s an entire search party out looking for you.”

She groaned.

“What happened? Are you hurt?”

“My f-f-foot is jammed between a couple of boulders. I c-c-can’t get it out.” She sounded exhausted. “There was no water here when I fell down last night, just a little stream nearby, but it’s been raining hard. Look at it now. My foot’s been underwater for a couple of hours.”

Her teeth chattered and her words came out jerky, her sentences in bits and pieces. He silently cursed long and fluently. He could tell she was putting on a brave face, but she had to be freaking out on the inside—had to have had a miserable night out here alone, freezing in the dark. And in pain.

He didn’t like the way she kept glancing around and the fear that lingered in her eyes. She should be relieved that she’d been located.

“What is it, Aiyana? What are you afraid of?”

Her frightened gaze shot to him. “N-n-nothing. Get m-m-me out of the water and then we’ll t-t-talk.”

The tops of the two boulders crested the fast-moving stream. He sat down and took off his hiking boots—the rain had soaked the outer layer, but at least they were still dry inside. He removed his socks.

“What are you doing?” Aiyana asked, clearly flagging.

“I’m getting into the water to assess the situation. I need this stuff to stay dry.”

“Your feet will freeze.”

“How are your feet?”

“I can’t feel them anymore.”

“Then this needs to be done. We need to get you out of here and warmed up.”

“Oh, God, I s-s-so want to be w-w-warm.” She sounded this side of tears, but held them back.

He rolled up the legs of his pants to his knees and stepped into the water. “Frig, that’s cold! How have you stood it all morning?”

“L-l-last of October hit with a vengeance last night. It was so n-n-nice y-y-y-est—” Talking was too hard for her and she gave up, laying an arm across her eyes to keep out the rain.

Cody felt around under the water, his hand smoothing down her jean-clad calf until he reached her foot. It was jammed, all right.

“Okay, listen, I can get you out, but the second I release your foot, blood is going to rush into it. It’ll hurt like a son of a b—” He cut himself off.

“Cody, it’s okay. I know how to s-s-swear. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve been saying all n-night.” She tried to laugh. “Anyway, you c-c-can’t move those boulders by yourself.”

He grinned at her. “I can.”

“Must be n-n-nice to be strong.”

“I’m gonna push the boulder to the left. The second I do, you need to pull out your leg.”

“D-d-don’t know if I c-can. I can’t feel much down there.”

“Put your hands behind your knee now. Use them to pull your leg. Okay?”

“I’m having trouble sitting up. S-sorry.”

“Here.” He adjusted his knapsack on top of hers underneath her back, pushing her a little higher, then helped her grasp her leg behind her knee.

“Ready?”

She nodded.

“On the count of three. One. Two. Three!” Cody put his back into moving the boulder. He heaved and felt it give.

“Now!”

Aiyana pulled her leg and her foot popped out of the water. She screamed. Cody dropped the rock, spraying both of them. He knelt beside her and hauled her into his arms. Jeez, poor Aiyana. She turned the air blue with an inventive onslaught of swearwords.

“Yeah, you can curse, all right, and not just in English. I’m impressed.”

She grimaced. He wasn’t sure, but it might have been her attempt at a smile.

Grasping her under the arms, he dragged her uphill under a tree, where he settled her back against the trunk. He crouched in front of her.

The tears she’d been holding back overflowed.

“I didn’t think it would hurt so much.” She swiped her palms across her face, leaving streaks of dirt on her cheeks.

He brushed the dirt away with his thumbs, wishing he could take her pain onto himself. He remembered the affection he’d had for her. It came flooding back.

She tried to nestle against him, and he wanted to hold her forever, but he had work to do. “The blood’s rushing back in your foot. I need to get it wrapped before it swells up.” He dragged their bags over beside her and unfolded the tarpaulin.

Once he got the tarp opened, he sheltered both of them. “Hold this over us so the dressing won’t get wet.”

He retrieved his socks and boots and tucked them in beside her. He opened one of the thermal blankets and tucked it around her shoulders. He needed to get her into dry clothes, but that ankle would swell like a melon if he didn’t wrap it now.

He got Aiyana’s soaked boot and sock off. Her foot was black-and-blue. He palpated the ankle. She winced. “I know it hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken.”

“Neither do I. When I first fell, before the rain started, it didn’t feel broken, just really sore. Sitting up was hard because it torqued it the wrong way.”

Cody rubbed her toes and the sole of her foot to get the circulation flowing. Her toes were too white, and wrinkled from being underwater.

Rain beat against the tarpaulin over their heads. Rivulets of water ran down the hill, in and around rocks, rushing past and under them. At least the tarp cut out the rain. It had eased up from its earlier mad onslaught, but still fell steadily.

“It’s swelling already.” He got out the first-aid kit and wrapped her ankle snugly, applying just enough pressure without cutting off circulation.

Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a pair of his own spare hiking socks and covered her foot with one of them, giving her toes one more quick massage. Again, he went into the knapsack and retrieved one of the plastic bags his mom had slipped in. “Ha! She lied.” Inside sat two day-old cinnamon buns. That’s what the smile in her voice had been about.

He handed one to Aiyana. “Eat this. It’s yesterday’s so it’ll be a bit stale.”

“Like I care. I could eat a horse. Raw.”

Cody bit into the second one. “Not bad for day-old.”

“It’s incredible. Your mom’s bakery makes the best cinnamon buns on earth. What did you mean she lied?”

“She said they were all out of yesterday’s buns.”

Aiyana smiled, her lips blue against her white teeth. “She wanted to surprise you.”

Cody rubbed his palms together then cupped her cheeks. They were ice cubes. “I don’t like how cold you look.” He hoped his heat would help warm her. He ran his thumb across her lips and she stopped chewing and stared at him with huge eyes.

The silence between them lengthened. Their summer together way back when had been innocent, but he remembered teaching her how to kiss. She’d had the sweetest mouth.

Wrong thought. Don’t go there. Keep it cool, Cody.

He dropped his hand.

“Sorry,” he said. “But your lips are blue.” He’d wanted to touch her lips, but there was no reason to tell her that. He was having trouble enough as it was not holding her.

He took the empty plastic bag, sticky sugar residue and all, and wrapped the sock-covered bandage, then used tape to seal it closed around the ankle.