Kurstie bounded off in her fancy ballet flats. When she barely slowed upon hitting the trestle, Joe murmured, “Jesus. If that was me, I would probably be crawling across the thing.”
“Ty said the same thing when he told me to leave him behind.” Hayley rested her head against the trunk. “I don’t suppose either of you have an Aleve?”
They did not, but minutes later she heard Paulette call out from the woods. Joe rose and went to meet her.
A brief while after that, the sheriff squatted in front of Hayley.
“God love us,” she said softly. “Joe said Patsy Beal did this to you? Where is she now?”
“Oh, God, Paulette.” Hayley’s eyes welled with tears once more. “If she’s not dead I’ll be amazed.” She was thankful Jon-Michael once again took up the explanation.
Paulette called the search and rescue team to start looking for Patsy’s body. Soon after, Ben Myers and Evie Bell, Gravers Bend’s EMTs, showed up, Ben packing a backboard under his arm like a surfboard.
Looking at the narrow-headed target arrow sticking out of her arm, he squatted next to her and said, “I’m sorry, chickie, this is going to hurt.” He snipped its point off with a pair of powerful clippers.
Hayley was still catching her breath when he suddenly yanked the projectile out. Red-hot pain exploded in what felt like her entire left side. “Seriously?” she panted.
“Sorry. There is just no good way to do that. On the bright side, it doesn’t look like it struck anything vital.” He pressed a thick gauze pad against the wound and taped it down, then leaned Hayley against his chest so Evie could do the same to the exit wound. They slid her onto the stretcher, strapped her to it and smoothly rose to their feet with her on the backboard between them.
Evie split a look between Jon-Michael and Joe. “Can one of you follow us to the Mavis Point trailhead? I want to get Hayley to the hospital and we could use an extra guy to help Ben pack out Holloway.”
“I will.” With a final look down at the water where his wife had disappeared, Joe came over to join them. They all set off for the Big Bear trailhead.
The journey was far from comfortable but every movement didn’t explode pain through her arm as it had with the arrow still in it. She was nonetheless happy to be loaded onto the ambulance that doubled as Graver Bend’s hearse.
And eternally grateful not to be on her way to Swanson’s Funeral Parlor.
They made a stop at the other trailhead, leaving Joe and Ben with a second backboard to collect Ty. Evie drove Hayley to the little two-story hospital. She and Jon-Michael, who pulled in right behind them, carried Hayley into the ER. The EMT gave the doctor on call her report then left to drive back to the trailhead to pick up Ben, Joe and Ty.
The sun had long gone down by the time the ER doc finally cut her loose. Weary, sad and sore, Hayley wanted only to go home. But as Jon-Michael tied her shoes so she could leave in the wheelchair the staff insisted she would ride as far as the hospital entrance if she wanted out of there, Kurstin banged through the door.
“Ty is leaving me to take some big deal job on the New York Times. For my own good, he says!”
“Dammit, Kurstin, take care of your own problems,” Jon-Michael snapped.
But Hayley spoke over him. “What? Oh, for God’s sake.” She waited until he finished tying the second shoe, then slid off the hospital bed and walked gingerly to the door. Stopping, she turned. “What room?”
“Follow me.” Kurstin eased past her.
Hayley took exactly one step before Jon-Michael raced up behind her with the wheelchair. “Sit,” he said in a you-don’t–even-wanna-mess-with-me voice. She sat, and still he swore under his breath the entire short trip down the hall.
She, on the other hand, marveled over the drugs they had administered for her pain. They were suddenly damn effective. She was rejoicing over how they not only killed the pain but made her feel downright happy-happy, when Kurstin turned into a room. Jon-Michael wheeled her in behind his sister.
Getting her head out of La-La-Land, she said, “Move aside,” and took control of her chair to roll up next to Ty’s bed. “I hear you’re trying the do the honorable thing,” she said without preamble. “That’s gotta be an uncomfortable fit. You and I both know what you would really do given half a chance, so why don’t you just tell Kurstie what you told me when you thought you were going to die?”
Her friend whirled to gape at her, “What did he tell you?” she demanded at the same time Ty said, “Hooking up with me is the worst move she could make.”
“You’ll be an old man if you’re waiting for me to say, No, no, you have it all wrong.” A wave of wooziness had her weaving a little on her feet and she braced herself. “But you do not get to treat her like a child who doesn’t know her own mind when you’re the one who is too chickenshit to air a few honest emotions. So, tell her what you really want, let her tell you what she wants and take it from there. But just remember this, Ty. If you do hurt her, she has a brother who would be happy to beat the crap out of you with his bare hands.”
Jon-Michael, bless him, studied the knuckles of the fist he’d clenched.
“Not to mention a bestie—“ she bounced her thumb off her chest “—who will help her bury the body where no one will ever find it. So, man up and tell the truth for a change. I wanna go home.”
“Fine,” he said, a little sulky to be called out on his emotional dodge-‘em. At the same time, he looked at Kurstin with a gleam in his eye.
“Don’t think I won’t compare conversations with Hayley in the morning,” Kurstin interjected. “I will know if you wuss out.”
“That’s our cue to leave,” Jon-Michael said and Hayley nodded. She doubted either Ty or Kurstin even noticed when they let themselves out.
Ty eyed Kurstin warily. Except for her double-take when Hayley outed him, the woman had not taken her eyes off him. She barely waited now for the door to close behind her brother and best friend before demanding, “Let’s hear it.”
He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He hadn’t given his life expectancy great odds during the however-long he had been in the woods. And his biggest regret had been willfully refusing to tell Kurstin the truth. Well, that and thinking it was a good idea not even attempting to explain himself in the wake of imploding their relationship.
Yet here he sat, not only alive but with a second chance a fingertip away. And still he had no idea where to start.
How ‘bout with an apology? his conscience whispered. You can never go wrong with an apology. “I’m sorry.”
“How nice.” Ok, her cool tone made it clear she wasn’t impressed. “Is that what you told Hayley when you thought you were going to die?”
“Yes. But mostly I asked her to make sure you knew how much I really did care for you.” He quit hiding behind an emotionless recitation and reached for her hand. Looked into her beautiful eyes. “God, Kurstin. I have felt more in the short time I’ve known you than I have for everyone else in my life, combined. I don’t know squat about love. So I can’t say for sure if that’s what all this turmoil is going on in here.“ He rotated the heel of his hand against the spot where his diaphragm met his sternum. “But it has to be something close to it. I sure as hell never knew it was possible to feel the way I do—both happier than I’ve ever been and scared shitless.”