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.
“There. It won’t get wet.” He picked up her boot. “We won’t be able to put this back on, though.”
“Walking up that hill will shred the bag and the bandage.”
Cody shook his head. “You won’t be walking anywhere. There’s no way that ankle will support your weight.”
Aiyana picked up a rock and threw it hard and far. “I hate feeling helpless.” She sounded disheartened but also angry, and that was good. He liked her spirit. She tried to smile. “I threw a lot of rocks and chunks of soil last night. I was angry.”
Cody rubbed her shoulder. She hissed and flinched away from him. “What’s up?”
“My shoulder got wrenched when I rolled down the hill.”
“Sorry. Need me to take a look at it?”
“No. It’s not dislocated, just sore.” She met his gaze with brown eyes so dark in the shade of the tarp they looked black. She’d inherited a lot of her dad’s good looks. Cody had always thought her pretty, but she’d become downright handsome with age.
Aiyana had grown up well, but at the moment, just looked at the end of her rope.
“We need to get you out of here.” He whipped his cell phone out of his pocket. No service. He couldn’t call for assistance.
“There was a lightning strike. Seems it hit the cell tower.”
“We can’t phone anyone?” He hated the disappointment in her voice.
“Afraid not.” At her crestfallen expression, he pulled himself together. “You’re not alone, Aiyana. We’ll get through this.”
He didn’t like the way she looked at him, with something akin to hero worship. He was no hero, not by a long shot, but he’d get her out of here, or die trying.
He had a thought. “You didn’t come out hiking without a cell phone, did you?”
“Of course not.” He liked the spunk of her response. “I always carry my phone, but it was in my hand when I fell. I lost it on the way down.”
“We need a plan.” He looked up the hill. It was a long way to carry her, and steep, too. He was in great shape, but that climb would be serious business with him piggybacking her.
She’d wolfed down the bun. “You still hungry, Aiyana?”
“Yes. I’ve eaten only a protein bar since yesterday’s lunch. I think shivering uses a lot
