Chuck.”
“Mew.”
She reached out to scratch him behind the ears, certain he’d hiss, but he went very still and let her touch him. “I have to do this,” she whispered. “I have to try with him too.” She threw on her jacket and boots, and raced back up to the lodge, to the kitchen where she found Annie making more fudge. The Nextel was on the table.
“Hey there,” Annie said in surprise. “What are you-”
“I need to tell Cam something.” She picked up the radio. “Who has the radio out there?”
“Cam. But-”
Katie pushed the Talk button. “Cameron Wilder, are you there?”
She got a return squawk but couldn’t hear anything but static. But somehow, she knew he could hear her. It was in her gut, in her heart. And so was a bunch of other stuff she had to get out. She took a deep breath and pressed the Talk button again. “Cam? Goldilocks here. I know, I’m gone, or almost, but I have to tell you this first.”
“Katie,” Annie said. “I don’t think-”
“It’s okay. I know what I’m doing.” Or so she hoped. She pressed the Talk button again. “You once accused me of holding back. Not risking my heart. You were right.”
“Katie-”
She held up a hand to Annie to hold her off a minute. “As you pointed out to me, I risked everything
She’d done it. She set the radio down on the table and sent a shaky smile in Annie’s direction. “Sorry. I had to do that before I left. Besides, you already knew anyway.”
“I knew,” Annie agreed. “But I’m not sure the rest of the guys knew. Or the entire Search and Rescue crew. Or the clients.”
Katie stared at her. “I thought you said Cam had the radio.”
“Uh-huh, but they’re all together in the snow cave.”
“So I just told everyone in the free world that I love Cam?”
“No, just everyone within sixty miles or so.”
Chapter 27
Cam stared at the radio in his hands, ignoring the whistles and “woo-hoos” all around him.
“Aren’t you going to answer her?” Stone asked.
“He can’t.” This from T.J. “You know he can’t. They can’t hear us worth shit. Besides, look at him. He’s all wigged out.”
“Am not.” Cam rubbed his chest. His heart felt too big, too full. And he couldn’t breathe. Simply couldn’t draw air. Having no idea what he was going to say, or if there was any way at all that she could possibly hear him, he pushed the Talk button. “Katie.”
Nothing but static.
“Katie?”
More static.
He bowed his head and pressed the radio to his forehead. “Shit.”
“Probably you should have told her first,” Nick said.
“Told her what?” Scott, their rescuee, wanted to know. He was wrapped in a blanket, fully recovered, the stupid ass.
“That he loves her,” Nick said.
“Jesus.” Cam tossed down the radio. “We need to get back.”
“Agreed,” Nick said.
But saying so and doing so were two different things.
As if karma and fate had joined forces to shit on him, the climb out was ladened with technical difficulties. It was late afternoon the next day by the time they got back.
And Katie was long gone.
The drive back to Los Angeles was completely uneventful, at least once Katie got out of the wild Sierras that she’d never forget. Exhausted, she stopped halfway down Highway 5 in the middle of farmland country and stayed the night before getting back on the road.
She didn’t have a nightmare, but she did dream. She dreamed that she’d stayed at Wilder.
To be with Cam.
And in her dream, they made it work.
She made it into LA just in time to hit traffic, choke on the smog, and then drive into the carport of her apartment building.
Back to her world.
At least until she visited with her parents, bought a new map, and headed out again to her next adventure, where this time she’d risk all.
From here on out…
Her apartment was warm and stuffy. Wanting only to pass out for a few hours, maybe have one last pity party, she headed through the living room, pulling off her sweater. Already she missed the weather in Wishful. She missed Annie and the others. She missed Chuck, who was probably right this minute waiting for a handout from Annie.
No regrets. She’d promised Cam no regrets.
She came to her bedroom and stopped short at the sight of the black duffel bag on the floor that wasn’t hers. She might have panicked except for one fact. She recognized that duffel bag. Her head whipped toward the bed.
Someone had beaten her to it.
Cam.
He rolled over and opened his eyes. “Goldilocks.”
“Actually,” she said, nerves making her voice weak as she came into the room and kicked off her shoes, “that appears to be your name now.”
With a small smile, he sat up, fluffed her pillows, and leaned back against the headboard.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
She wondered what else he wasn’t wearing.
He looked as exhausted as she felt, but he held out a hand, which she took, allowing him to pull her closer until she was sitting on the edge of the mattress looking at him, running her fingers over the tattoo on his biceps, helplessly smiling at him. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?”
“Scott Winston owed me. His brother’s a pilot and flew me down here in his Lear.”
“Wish you would have picked me up on my way down.” Her heart was pounding, pounding so hard she was surprised he couldn’t hear it.
“I’d have picked you up on the moon if you’d answered any of my calls.”
“My cell ran out of battery, and I left my cord at the cabin somewhere, I think.”
“Ah.” Eyes never leaving her, he nodded. “That explains that. I want to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“I have this habit of quitting.”
“Cam-”
“No, listen. Boarding was never tough, it was easy, so damn easy. Until it wasn’t. And then I just walked away. Relationships got tough, and I walked away. Mentally, physically, whichever. The truth is, I walked away from
