TAYLOR SPENT THE next hour thinking about what Brian had admitted. He’d loved her. He’d wanted to keep dating her. He’d been willing to defy his family. She was the one who’d walked away. It was a novel idea, and she was having trouble accepting it.
His admission shouldn’t have made any difference to her, coming as it had, so many years later. Except, if it wasn’t important, why had he mentioned it? And why had she felt such a stirring inside when he’d told her how much he’d cared?
“Brian.”
He ignored her and kept walking.
“Brian!”
“What is it now, Tag?”
She heard the irritation in his voice, which suggested his leg was hurting and his fever was worse. She bit her lip, unable to ask directly whether he still had feelings for her, or whether they’d died long ago. Their lovemaking in the cave had been the result of seeking comfort. It didn’t have more meaning than that.
Maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. Once they were safe, once they were back in the world where Grayhawks and Flynns were enemies, she could ask her question and get a more honest answer.
“Look!”
Brian stopped so abruptly Taylor ran into him, nearly knocking him down. She grabbed handfuls of his shirt at the waist to keep him upright, then let go and sidestepped so she could see where he was pointing.
“The forest,” she said in a whispery voice. “The evergreen forest. Thank you, God.”
“We’re not out of the woods yet.”
She laughed. “Actually, it looks like we’re just heading into them.”
Brian chuckled. “Let me try that again. We have a ways to go before we’re home free.”
Taylor put a hand up to shield her eyes and admired the yellow and orange and purple sunset. “Not a minute too soon. Once the sun gets below that mountain, it’s going to be as black out here as it was in that cave. How long do you think it’ll take us to reach the green stuff?”
“Another ten minutes ought to do it. What was it you wanted to say before?”
“Nothing important. It can wait.”
“Let’s hoof it, then. It’ll be a lot easier to set up camp if we still have some light to work with.”
Taylor marveled at Brian’s fortitude as they trekked that final ten minutes. She hadn’t realized how hot it had been in the charred landscape until they reached the cool, green forest. “Oh, this is heaven,” she said as they moved into the trees.
“Find as many dead limbs as you can and stack them up near this tree.” He pointed to a blue spruce. “We’re going to need firewood to stay warm overnight.”
“You really think it’s going to get that cold?”
“Better safe than sorry.”
It dawned on her that a fire would also keep predators—wolves and cougars and bears—away, and Brian likely hadn’t wanted to remind her of the danger.
Brian dropped the parachute and his PG bag, then pulled out his knife and began trimming off limbs to use as a bed to keep them off the ground. Once he had a carpet on the ground under the spruce, he began making a contraption she realized was a snare for a small animal. He gave her a satisfied smile. “With any luck, we’ll have meat for breakfast.”
Taylor had grown up eating venison and buffalo, but she’d never tried squirrel or rabbit. Her mouth watered. Right now, at the end of the seventh day since she’d eaten a decent meal, either or both sounded pretty good.
“Should I look around for a stream?” she asked.
He glanced at the disappearing sun. “We can do that in the morning.”
The sun was there, and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. The darkness was astonishing.
Taylor grabbed for her headlamp and snapped the light on. “I’ve been camping in the wilderness, but I don’t remember it ever being this dark.”
“We should have started the fire sooner, I guess.” He began breaking up some of the dry wood she’d retrieved.
She knelt beside him as he dug a fire pit in the dirt, then put together flammable pine needles, small twigs, and larger branches for their fire.
“The last thing we want to do is start another forest fire,” he said with a crooked grin.
“That would be one way to get the smoke jumpers in here to rescue us,” she pointed out.
“Unless the fire got us first.” He struck a match and lit the tinder. “I’m glad I brought a whole box of matches with me. I only had two left when I looked the evening I was planning to jump the fire, and I stopped to get another box. I’d hate to think of us trying to light a fire by rubbing two sticks together.”
“You’ve done it before, though, haven’t you?”
“Eagle Scout,” he said. “Survival badge.”
She smiled. “That’s quite an accomplishment.”
“Couldn’t have done it without Aiden’s help. Shit. Even if he’s still looking, by now he probably thinks I’m dead. I wouldn’t be surprised if he said ‘good riddance’ and gave up the search. He hates my guts.”
“I thought you two were close. Why would he hate you?”
“It’s nothing that concerns you.”
“Oh, I see. Now that you think we’re going to get out of here, you’re clamming up. Spill, Mr. Flynn. What did you do to piss off your brother?”
“I don’t think I can tell you.”
“Why not?”
“It concerns your sister.”
“Which one?”
“Leah.”
“Now you have to tell me. What did you guys do?”
“I bet Aiden that he couldn’t get Leah to fall in love with him.”
“That was a safe bet,” Taylor said as she settled cross-legged on the sleeping bag Brian had laid over the boughs, so she could be warmed by the fire.
“You’d have thought so.” Brian settled a larger branch on the snapping fire and joined her.
“Are you telling me Aiden won the bet? I don’t believe it.”
“You’d better believe it.”
“I never once saw Leah with Aiden, and she never mentioned a word about him. How on earth was he able to get her to fall in love with him?”
Brian shrugged. “You got me.”
“All right, so now they’re in love,” Taylor said. “Why does Aiden hate your guts?”
“Because I told Leah about the bet.”
Taylor felt her stomach twist. “Oh, no, Brian. How could you?”
“It was a shitty thing to do, and I regret it. I didn’t think Aiden really cared for her. Leah hasn’t let him near her since she found out.”
“Poor, poor Leah!”
“Poor Aiden. You’d think your sister would give him a chance to explain.”
“Explain what? That he manipulated her into loving him to win a bet? The more I think of what the two of you did, the more furious I am with both of you! How could you hurt Leah like that?”
“If it’s any consolation, I think Aiden fell in love with her for real.”
“Aiden can plead all he wants. Leah will never, ever trust him again.”
“Well, hell. That makes her sound like a stubborn—”
“Don’t go there, Brian. It isn’t Leah’s fault a man she loved turned out to be a liar. And you wonder why I didn’t believe you ever loved me.”
“So we’re back to you and me?”
Taylor huffed out a breath. “There is no ‘you and me.’ ” She opened her mouth to say, “And there never will be.” But the words wouldn’t come.
She liked Brian. She always had. If he’d loved her once, maybe he could love her again. She wasn’t going to close the door on a future that included a relationship with him, even if it seemed far-fetched at the moment.
“We’d better get some shut-eye,” Brian said.
Taylor’s stomach growled. “I’ve had what amounts to an entire Snickers today, and I’m still hungry.”
“Imagine that,” he said sardonically. “Just think how great breakfast will taste on an empty stomach.”
“Presuming you catch something with that flimsy trap you made.”
“My snare is a superior example—”
“Shut up, Brian, and go to sleep.”
He grabbed her by the waist and spooned her against him on the sleeping bag, close enough that she could feel he was burning up with fever. He pulled the parachute over them, for her sake, she realized, since the night air was surprisingly cool.
“Brian…”
“What?” he murmured.
What could she say? That she wanted to bathe his body with cool water to see if she could get his fever down? They had to save their water to drink until they found a stream. That she should take a look at his wound to see if it was worse? It was surely worse. What good would looking do, if she had no way to treat him?
How long before the fever laid waste to his body? How much farther could he go? And what would she do if he collapsed before they found water—or somebody found them?