Smoky Mountain Sweethearts

Her smile was shaky but she gave it her best shot. Here in the lights, it was easier to see how thin she was and the dark circles of fatigue on her face. Whatever she’d been through, she was lucky to have come out on the other side.

He wouldn’t sleep tonight because he’d be filling in those blanks in his mind.

“And happy birthday.” Her mouth dropped open in shock. He’d surprised himself. Remembering that today was her birthday suggested she was more on his mind than even he knew.

As he turned his back on the group and called his mother, Sam stared up at the pieces of night sky he could make out through the trees. Whatever he’d expected this shift to hold, carrying Avery Abernathy in his arms had never figured into his plans.

CHAPTER FOUR (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)

IF SHE’D KNOWN how much trouble searching for this particular epiphany would cause, Avery would have stayed in her room and taken a nap.

But naps had gotten her nowhere.

Telling her story to the law-enforcement ranger staring down at her was also getting her nowhere.

“Honestly, Officer Hendrix,” Avery said as she exhaled loudly, “I’m not sure what part of ‘I waited too late to start my descent and got caught in the dark’ is so difficult to understand.” As Sam tipped his head to the side, Avery realized her tone might not have been as conciliatory as it should have been. “Sir.”

“Actually, it’s ‘Ranger,’ although I am a law-enforcement officer here at the reserve.” He rested one hand on the gun holstered on his belt. “Your story matches Sam’s, so I’ll take you at your word.”

Before she could argue that taking her at her word had nothing to do with anything Sam might have to say, Sam waved his cell. “They’re already on the way. No one answers, so Mom’s—”

The loud rattle of a large Cadillac cut him off as Sam and all the other reserve staff on hand turned to watch a yellow Cadillac lurch to a stop in the parking lot.

“Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too long.” Sam sighed and offered his hand to Avery. “If you’ve got everything you need in the incident report, I’ll help Avery to the car.”

Avery waved off his help. “I can walk. It’s an easy walk. Even I can manage that.”

Sam nodded as if he’d expected her to say exactly that.

Ranger Hendrix raised both eyebrows. “I hope you’ll come back and take the climb when you’re...better.” He tapped his pen against his notebook. “Climb like this, it’s good for mental health.”

She wanted to demand to know what the pause was about, but she wasn’t going to do it here with this crowd watching her.

Eleanor Rivera, the medic who’d checked her blood pressure and temperature, said, “I still think an ER visit might be a good plan.” She pointed down at the rip in Avery’s jeans. “You did take a fall up there.”

Rolling her eyes would get her nowhere, so Avery gritted her teeth and muttered, “I have had worse scrapes in my own front yard.”

“She has.” Sam raised his hand as if he’d testify. “Uglier bruises, too.” Then he shrugged. “Doesn’t mean having a doctor examine you would be a waste. You aren’t as young as you used to be.”

For a split second, Avery had to replay his words in her head. “As young as I used to be?”

“It’s her birthday,” Sam said as he turned in a slow circle to address the crew assembled there. “It wouldn’t be polite to tell you how many candles AA has on her birthday cake, but...”

The return of the Sam Blackburn who’d used the same tactic to force her to take dares she knew better than to attempt helped Avery settle in.

“And if I ever hear you insinuate another woman is old,” his mother said from behind his shoulder, “I will give you the birthday spankings I still owe you, young man.”

Regina Blackburn had the kind of good looks that made her ageless. She could still be watching their race to the top of the old oak next door as she stood there with both hands propped on her hips. “I’d force him to apologize, but...”

“We’d both know he wouldn’t mean it.” Avery finished the phrase Regina had said often enough when they were kids that it brought on another flash of homesickness.

“I suspect he was trying to infuse steel in her backbone,” Avery’s mother said as she tightened the belt on her robe. “Dragging an older woman out into the night because you needed a walk in the woods, Avery Anne Abernathy? I do not know what’s gotten into you.”

Sam’s mother tried to calm Janet Abernathy with an arm around her shoulders, but Avery’s mother brushed it off. “And poor Regina here, she insisted on driving because I was too upset.” The shrill last word echoed in the small parking lot.

It was funny to watch the search-and-rescue crew take a unanimous step back. Annoyed mothers brought out the same response the world over.

“Let’s get out of here,” Sam said as he wrapped a hand around Avery’s elbow. “She’s not going to the hospital.”

“You going to take these ladies back down the mountain?” Hendrix asked in his official lawman’s voice. “Because we are dangerously close to closing time. I’ll complete the incident report and leave it in the commander’s office for your review.” He tipped his head to Avery, who stood next to her mother. “I hope we’ll have a chance to meet each other at a more social spot.” When he smiled, his whole face lit up. Dour, official Officer Hendrix made her want to stutter and promise to never speed or jaywalk again, in a national park or anywhere. Smiling Officer Hendrix sent a small flutter of the old familiar feeling through Avery, the one that said a man found her attractive and in a totally nice way. It had been so long since it happened, she wasn’t sure what to do with the flutter, but if Officer Hendrix had given her a business card with his phone number, she would have taken it gladly and held on to it until she made up her mind.

“Thanks, Hendrix,” Sam said as he put his hands on Avery’s shoulders and turned her toward the cars. “I’ll make sure they get home.” His mother jingled his keys and Sam nodded.

When Avery’s mother realized she’d raced to the rescue in a house robe and bunny slippers, she was going to be even angrier.

Avery turned at Sam’s urging but looked over her shoulder at Ranger Hendrix. He was helping to pack up the gear the medic had scattered on the tailgate of one of the service trucks. It was hard to imagine what dinner with such a strong, healthy guy might be like. It had been years since she’d tried to carry on a conversation anywhere other than seated next to a hospital bed.

“Half a second ago he was ready to toss you into the reserve’s jail for wasting resources,” Sam muttered as he urged her toward the car, his arm wrapped securely around her hips. “Now’s not the time for making heart eyes anyway.”

“Reserve jail. Is that a real thing?” Avery tried to put on the brakes, pushing hard against his urging with her feet, but he was too strong. Gentle, but insistent and strong. “And heart eyes. What does that even mean?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. The emoji.” He fluttered his eyelashes in a ridiculous way. “Flirty, love, heart eyes.” He reached around her to open the door to his mother’s car so that Avery could slide easily into the back seat. Avery studied Regina Blackburn’s oblivious face and then her mother’s interested expression. Neither was good at pretending they weren’t watching this conversation with way too much investment.

“Flirty love eyes,” Avery said slowly. “I don’t remember how to do that, Sam. Come on. He’s a nice guy doing his best to encourage me to return to the trail.”

The muscle in Sam’s jaw twitched but he straightened his shoulders. “Sure. Nice guy. His wife left town with another guy. That’s the kind of nice he is.”

“Samuel Blackburn, you don’t blame the man for his wife’s terrible decisions,” Regina said with a scandalized yank of her cardigan. “You know better than that.”

Sam bit his lip. “Right. I’m saying he still has a wife.”

“You were warning me away from a guy, doing a service as...what? An old friend? Nemesis? Frenemy? What were we?” Avery slid deeper into the soft leather seat and sighed with relief as her tired muscles melted into puddles. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need a man and I certainly don’t need a bossy one, Sam.”

“Unless you’re stuck on the side of a mountain?” Sam asked slowly.

Good point. Not that she’d let him know that. “I would have gotten myself down. If you’ll remember, I was always able to rescue myself. No need for the knight to come racing in.” Avery ignored the sore ache of her knee, determined to make sure that Sam Blackburn, his mother and hers listened. If she’d gone up searching for a revelation, it had taken getting stranded to understand it. “I’ve been through harder things, Sam. Tonight all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. I can do that.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Duh. AA, nobody doubts that.” He shut the door firmly and walked off, both hands braced on his hips. From this vantage point, it was nearly impossible to miss that Sam Blackburn had grown into the kind of man that drew women like bees to the sweetest flower. He was tall, with broad shoulders. Here in the light, she could see the sprinkling of gray at his temples, the only sign that he’d celebrated birthdays of his own. Handsome and strong, the qualities every woman stranded on the side of a mountain hoped for in her rescuer. It was too bad his personality was stuck in high school.

His tough talk had been all that had kept her from falling apart more than once that evening. He goaded her into saying and doing things she wasn’t sure she could.

By acting like a jerk.

There were times when they were kids that he was no longer acting, but tonight, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he’d given her enough indignation to power through.

Neither Regina nor her mother said anything as they pulled away from the trailhead parking lot and out onto the dark two-lane road headed back to town.

And the silence was starting to get to her.