Maybe she shouldn’t have asked why he wasn’t in the Navy anymore—it had been a deeply personal question. But she’d been trying to stall, afraid really, at the thought of what bruising he might find.
She so didn’t want to die on this mountain.
The scream broke through the night. High. Terrified.
Aria jerked, but her body protested movement.
Jake sat straight up. In a flash she saw him orient himself, calculate the situation.
He looked at her first, then scrambled toward the door and unzipped it. He still wore his polar booties but grabbed his jacket, and in a second he was out the door.
The screaming had stopped, leaving behind only the residue of Aria’s thundering heartbeat. Sash—
She tried to push up to a sitting position, but her body had hardened to stone.
God, please—
The zipper moved and Jake appeared, crawling back inside. “Jenny. She’s fine. Apparently it was a nightmare.” But he sat on his sleeping bag and pulled on his overpants.
“What’s going on?”
“Your friend Sasha isn’t well. I’ll be right back.”
He met her eyes then, and offered a small, steadying smile.
Then, he took a piece of her heart with him as he climbed back out.
She closed her eyes and in walked Kia.
You know you like him.
And yes, she knew she was arguing with herself, but sometimes she just missed her sister, so . . .
I do, but that doesn’t matter. What happens after we get off the mountain?
You think too much—be spontaneous. Follow your heart.
You mean your heart.
She shook away the argument. How screwed up was she that she still let her dead sister tie her into an emotional knot?
Aria rolled over, despite the ache, and finally pushed herself into a sitting position. Then she untangled her overpants from the wadding she’d used for a pillow and shook them out.
Now to get her foot into the pants.
She unzipped her bag and worked her feet out.
Her ankle had ballooned to three times its size. Probably part altitude, part stress, but there wasn’t a hope of her jamming that foot into her boot today.
Maybe tomorrow.
But Sasha didn’t have tomorrow.
Raised voices outside caught her attention. “Asking her to climb down Karstens Ridge on that ankle is a recipe for disaster. And we can’t move Sasha, Ham.” Jake’s low, husky voice. The concern in it was dangerous to her heart.
“We have to move Sasha—she needs to get to a lower elevation.” Ham, solid, rational, in charge.
“Or we get some dex—one of us could climb back up to High Camp. We’ll radio down to the Basin guys and have the doc bring us some.” She recognized Orion’s voice in the mix.
“That’ll take a day, maybe more—” Ham’s voice.
“Then we go down.” Orion. “I’ll go down, get into radio range, and call Clancy.”
“Can a chopper get this high?” Jake.
“What else do you suggest? We can’t carry her.” Orion again.
Silence.
Jake’s words filtered back to her. “I’m going to get you down this mountain, even if I have to carry you.”
No. He didn’t have to carry her. She’d gotten herself into this mess—she’d figure out a way to get herself out. She grabbed her overpants, bunched up one leg, then leaned over and pulled it over her foot.
She didn’t mean to let out a whimper as she jarred her ankle, it just burst out of her. But she had the pants leg over her foot. She lay back, breathing hard, sweat prickling her forehead.
She could do this.
Really? Because you aren’t the brave one, Aria.
She blew out a breath and leaned up again, grabbing her pants and moving her other leg into them.
Yes. Yes. She lay back and worked the pants over her body and around her waist. Buttoned them.
Now, boots.
No, wait. Socks. She’d slept all night with just the polar boots but that wouldn’t be enough to keep her toes from freezing.
She found her wool socks at the bottom of her bag and sat up, shaking them out.
Looked at the balloon of her ankle. This was going to hurt.
Just give up already, sis.
“No!”
Now she was really going crazy. But she clenched her teeth, worked her thumbs into the sock to bunch it up, and, holding her breath, eased it over her toes.
“Oh!”
She gulped back her cry, then closed her eyes as she pulled the sock up, feeling it compress her bones with its weight.
She let out her breath as it moved up to her heel.
Leaned back on her hands, just for a second.
C’mon, Aria, you survived worse than this. Her own voice this time, and her hand went to the scar that bisected her chest, under all her layers.
Yes, she’d survived much, much worse.
She leaned over, grabbed the edges of the sock, and pulled.
Her cry emerged without stops, brisk, sharp, and sustained. But she bit it down, containing the agony through her teeth, and pulled the sock up her leg.
Then she flopped back on her sleeping bag and just breathed.
She could do this.
The door unzipped. “What the—hey, what are you doing?”
She opened her eyes, and sure enough, Jake had heard her, was scrambling inside. He zipped the door closed behind him, then moved next to her. “What’s going on?”
“I know this is a shock to you, but I’m getting dressed. I do it every day. Well, usually. I have been known to wear a bathrobe around the house on the occasional Saturday when it’s snowing out and I’m watching the Hallmark Channel. But otherwise, it’s all clothes, every day.”
He didn’t look amused. “You put your sock on?”
“All by myself. Since I was three years old.” She leaned up and grabbed her other sock. “Watch, I’ll do it again.”
“You’re not funny, Aria. You have a serious injury here.”
“And my friend Sasha is dying. We need to move her down the mountain—”
“You’re not going anywhere.” He was watching as she put her sock on, his jaw in a hard line. “You won’t make it.”
“I have news for you, pal. I’m one of the youngest board-certified pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons in the nation. And—” She stared at him, sucking in her next words. And a heart transplant survivor.
Because no, he didn’t need to know that if she hoped to convince him she was fine.
She wasn’t unaware of what the altitude could do to her body.
“I’m tougher than you think.”
“I think you’re plenty tough there, Houlihan.” His eyes glittered. “I just don’t want you to fall and drag me down the mountain with you.”
“Don’t rope up with me.” She leaned over to grab her boots, just inside the door, but he put a hand on them.
“Too late for that. I already promised to get you down the mountain.”
“I absolve you—”
“Are you trying to get us both killed?”
She recoiled. Stared at him. The teasing fun from last night had vanished from his expression.
“That’s not how this works, Aria. You fall, I fall.” His jaw was tight, and as she stared at him, emotion ringed his eyes. He looked away. Shook his head.