Chapter 24
WHEN HUNTER GOT the call, it felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to his gut, making him want to hurl.
The second thought that raced through his head was Allie. Did she know?
At a full run, Hunter rushed into her office. She looked up from the paperwork littering her desk, much like she had the first time he’d seen her, only this time Hunter was there as a friend and nothing more.
“Allie …”
“Hey, aren’t you waiting on an incoming trauma?”
“Yeah, but Allie, you should know—”
“Actually, if you got a minute, I should go first. I am so sorry, but I think it should come from me—”
His voice boomed in frustration. “Shut up and listen!”
Her jaw dropped in surprise, and while she was speechless, he finished. “There was a second avalanche while Dex was bringing in one of the patients.”
The blood drained from Allie’s face. “Oh, my God. Is he okay?”
Allie stood in the middle of the intake door, waiting for Dex, her whole body quaking with adrenaline.
Two ambulances carrying the injured teenagers pulled up, and as they unloaded them, wheeling them in side by side, Allie overheard one tell the other, “Man, that guy was a fucking badass. You should have seen him ….”
The doors closed behind them, so she didn’t catch the rest of the conversation, but she didn’t need to. She knew enough about what happened to know exactly what she was going to do to said “badass.”
Dex’s truck pulled into the parking lot and he climbed out, all six-foot-plus feet of him perfectly healthy. Allie couldn’t decide what she wanted to do to him more: kiss or kill him.
He caught sight of her and broke into a trot, a broad smile on his face.
“Allie, you are not going to believe what happ—”
Swinging her fist, she punched him as hard as she could in the arm. “Are you crazy? I heard all about it, you idiot! Why didn’t you wait for help before charging off like the Lone Ranger?”
“Jesus, what is wrong with you?” he asked, rubbing his arm.
“You! You could have been killed.”
“If I hadn’t gone when I did, those guys would have been caught under a second avalanche and we might not have found them at all.”
“And I’m glad that they’re okay, but you”—she shoved him in his chest, frustration raging when he didn’t move—“almost ended up buried. Do you know what the hell went through my head when Hunter told me that if you had been seconds slower you wouldn’t have made it?”
“Allie, you know what I do for a living. It’s not always going to be abandoned puppies and vehicle accidents.”
Gripping his shirt now in her tight fists, she tried to shake him. “I know that, but you can’t just jump into shit without thinking. Not now. Not after everything we’ve shared.” Her voice broke, and she choked up, blinded by tears.
“Allie, sweetheart, I’m fine. I’m here.”
His arms slipped around her, bringing her into his body, and she sagged against him. Her face buried in his shirtfront, she wrapped her arms around him and whispered, “I’m still mad at you.”
“I know.”
Dex knew that people were peeking out at them, but he didn’t care. Allie’s anger had surprised him, but nothing had prepared him for the hysterical woman clinging to him.
So many things went through his mind while he was waiting for the snow to overtake him, but at the forefront of his mind were thoughts of Allie. He was damn lucky to be here, to tell her how he felt about her.
In fact, he’d been so exhilarated to have made it, he hadn’t even considered she might be upset.
“Okay, I need to say something for a minute. You’re missing a few key facts about what went down. First of all, I watched the avalanche happen, so I knew where to find them. With an air pocket, someone buried in the snow can live fifteen, twenty minutes. So, time was ticking. Second, I had my beacon on, so even if I’d been buried, they would have eventually found me.”
“That’s”—sniffle—“not comforting.”
“Woman, will you shut up and let me get this out?” Reaching between them, he tilted her chin up so he could smile down at her. “And lastly, no matter what, I was going to make it back, because I had something important to tell you.”
She wiped at her tearstained face and looked back at him.
He kissed her lips, salty with her tears, and whispered, “That I love you.”
Then she hit him square in his shoulder.
“Ouch! I tell you I love you and you hit me again?”
“You just have the worst timing. I’m ranting at you for scaring me and you think that’s a good time to drop the L-bomb?”
Dex deflated slightly. “Hey, if you aren’t there yet, it’s okay.”
“What? Of course I love you. Why do you think I’m so pissed? We just got started and I thought—”
Dex didn’t let her finish, cutting off her anger with his mouth until she was leaning into him. When they finally broke apart, he pressed his forehead to hers and whispered, “I promise to be more careful in the future.”
“You better, or next time, I will beat the shit out of you.”
Dex chuckled before whispering in her ear, “Have I ever mentioned my dream girl looks like an angel and cusses like a sailor?”
“Hmmm … you may have mentioned that once. If she shows up, I promise to step aside.”
“Awfully gracious of you. Angelic, perhaps.”
Allie pulled away from him, shaking her head. “There you go with the cheesy lines again.”
“I can stop if you want.”
“Never, never stop.”
Dex never intended to in the first place.