“What do you want to do?” Ash leaned into his shoulder, yelling into his ear to be heard. “Do you want to keep going?”
“I’m not leaving her out here!”
Pink hair plastered to her face, Ash nodded. “I’ll radio East and let him know we’re going ahead on foot.”
The fallen tree was massive, and Graham was still trying to find a good place to go over it when Ash came back, waving her radio in her hand.
“It’s Easton! He found her!”
“Is she okay?”
“I don’t know. I could barely hear him. But he says come back in.”
* * *
Zoey stood in the center of the angry mass of people in the hotel lobby, holding a blanket Easton had found her wrapped tight around her shoulders. He hadn’t left her side since returning to the resort, standing so close her shoulder brushed his arm.
She just couldn’t get warm, no matter how much body heat Easton gave off.
“You need to sit,” Easton rumbled, his gravelly voice like a slow rockslide. “You’re pale as a sheet.”
“I’m fine. Just cold.”
Which was mostly true. Zoey was physically fine, if more than a little shaken up. She didn’t know how long she’d been lost, trying to find her way back to the trail, but she’d hit deep mud and gotten stuck. Faced with staying on the ATV and in the path of rising water or backtracking on foot, she’d chosen to go it on foot. Terrified and half-drowned, Zoey had turned a bend and there he’d been, a massive, bearded man in the woods. Even if her rescuer had looked like Sasquatch on an ATV, she had nearly cried in relief, desperately grateful to not be alone.
Zoey hadn’t even realized until they were in front of the lights of his ATV that Easton Lockett was the one who’d found her.
Once, Graham had told her Easton knew these woods better than anyone, and now Zoey believed it. Arms around his waist, she’d simply held on as he took trail after trail, cut across a field she only vaguely recognized from her horseback-riding trip, and ended up at the barn Mugs had rejected her in. Grateful to be out of the rain, Zoey waited as Easton radioed that she had been found.
Assuring her that no one would mind, Easton borrowed one of the stable’s work trucks, driving her back to the resort. He could have left her there, his work done, but the storm had knocked out the hotel’s power, and the hotel had descended into chaos as the computer systems went down. Everyone’s keycards were no longer working, and no one could get in their rooms. Hundreds of more important—or at least angrier—people than Zoey were screaming at the overwhelmed staff.
Lana was in the midst of it, fighting for their place in line, determined that Zoey was going to get her hot shower before she died from pneumonia. A hot shower or some time in the sauna followed by a change of clothes would be awesome, but Zoey doubted that would happen anytime soon.
She should sit, but Zoey was rattled enough that she couldn’t. Besides, there wasn’t anywhere to sit but the floor, and she wasn’t sure she could find a corner where she wouldn’t accidentally get trampled.
Easton moved closer, his heavy hand coming down on her shoulder. Zoey was too exhausted and emotionally ravaged to feel intimidated by his presence. This was Graham’s friend, and in this moment, he was her friend too. So she leaned into his hand, thinking she was dangerously close to becoming a pile of muddy Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and muddier jeans on the floor.
“Screw this,” Easton suddenly growled. “I’m taking you back to Graham’s place.”
“I can’t. He doesn’t want me there.”
The mountain at her side snorted. “If he doesn’t want you there, he’s doing a terrible job of acting like it. Come on.”
The hand on her shoulder became a heavy arm around her shoulders as Easton steered her toward the hotel entrance. She was too exhausted to fight him and too overwhelmed by the other resort guests to want to stay in the lobby any longer.
“Okay, but I need to tell Lana.”
There were so many people in between her and the desk that there was no way Zoey could even start to find her friend.
“Zoey.”
A bellman almost lost a limb when one of the entry doors slammed open with far too much force. When Graham’s familiar voice roared her name over the angry yelling all around her, Zoey’s heart leapt in her chest.
Easton was head and shoulders above everyone else, but Graham was tall and strong and pissed, wearing almost as much mud as she was.
She hadn’t realized how much she needed him until his eyes locked onto her from across the lobby. Graham didn’t part the crowd as he strode toward her…he walked right over them. Ignoring more than one offended look and harsh word, he bulldozed his way to her. He crushed her into his body, arms wrapping around her shoulders.
“Are you okay?” Graham rasped, voice harsh and desperate. “Are you hurt?”
He stepped back a little and ran his hands over her body, checking her for injuries even as he hauled her close.
“I’m okay. Easton found me.”
“Thank God.” Then those warm, strong hands were tilting her face up, tracing her jaw, tangling into her soaked and bedraggled hair.
“I can’t believe my glasses survived all that. Look, the tape held.”
Even Zoey could hear the edge of hysteria in her voice. Graham must have heard it too, because he tightened his arms around her even more.
“Zoey. What happened out there?”
Her answer was muffled by his chest as she whispered, “It was a bad morning. Killian was trying to be nice, offering a trip out when mine had been canceled. We knew we were going to get muddy, but we were planning on getting back before the storm hit.”
Graham shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way. These summer storms hit fast.”
“Don’t interrupt her,” Easton grunted. “Keep going.”
“We went down that hill to the waterfall to take pictures, but we stayed too long, and the storm started getting bad. We raced back, and I was the last of the group, and the ground was a mess. They took off, but it kicked mud up into my face. I couldn’t see and…”
She trailed off. At her side, Easton went still. Graham’s eyes widened, then his tanned features went pale with rage.
“They left you?”
Even with her silence, Zoey knew the truth was written all over her face.
“I tried, but I couldn’t remember my way back. Then the four-wheeler got stuck, and I scratched up my glasses. I’m so glad Easton found me.” She didn’t add how terrifying it had been to be lost in the woods alone in such a violent storm. “It’s my own fault. My decision to go out in the weather, my decision to stay too long at the waterfall. It’s no one’s fault but mine.”