Page 13 of Searching for Bristol
They stared at each other for a long moment, and Rocky knew this was insane. They’d just met. But he couldn’t lie. There was just something about her.
“I’m not sure what to say about that.”
“You don’t have to say anything,” Rocky replied. “I didn’t tell you to make you uncomfortable. I just want to reassure you that I’d no sooner do something to hurt you than I would my brother. How do your legs feel?”
“Besides the right one being broken? Not bad,” she quipped.
There. That. She had every reason to bitch and moan about the pain she was in, but instead she downplayed it and made a joke. It was somethinghemight do, or his close friends. Maybe that was why he felt so comfortable with her.
“Any tingling in your feet? Carrying you with my arm under your knees can cut off the circulation if we aren’t careful.”
“I’m good. How areyou? It can’t be easy carrying me, even if I’m not that tall.”
“I’m all right. But yeah, this would be easier if I had my team with me, of course. You ready to go?”
She nodded. “Will you tell me about your team?”
“Sure.” Rocky stood, arched his back, then leaned over and touched his toes. He twisted to the right, then to the left, before heading over to where he’d dumped the backpack. He shrugged it back on before returning to Bristol. “Okay, same routine as last time. I’ll pick you up, wrap your arm around my neck, and don’t move your legs at all. Let me do all the work.”
“Okay. I’m ready.”
Rocky picked her up as if she was made of glass, and having her in his arms again felt…right. Which was irrational.
Best to concentrate on the here and now. She was hurt, and the slightest move could possibly lead to pain for the rest of her life if he knocked her leg the wrong way. The absolute trust she offered made him even more determined not to do anything to cause her discomfort.
He could move faster now that they were on the trail. He still had a ways to go to get back to the trailhead, where he’d have cell phone reception. His first call was going to be to Raiden, even if his friend would give him hell for fucking up so badly by going out on a search alone…despite Rocky thinking there likely wasn’t anything to search for. Then he’d call Doc Snow and make sure he was available to meet him and Bristol at the clinic in town.
“Rocky?” Bristol asked. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
“Getting you help when we get off the trail,” he told her. “But you wanted to hear about my team, right?”
“Yes, please.”
Rocky had no problem talking about his friends. “Well, you know about my brother. Ethan’s the de facto leader of the Eagle Point Search and Rescue team. He pretty much had the idea to get us started, and he recruited me and the others. Best decision I ever made was to come to Fallport. Not only do I get to keep working with my brother, but he managed to put together a team of like-minded men.”
“How old are you and your twin?”
“Thirty-five. Why? How old are you? Oh, shit—I’m not supposed to ask that, am I? Never mind, forget I asked,” he told her.
Bristol giggled, and Rocky felt the laughter vibrate through him, since he was holding her against his chest.
“I don’t mind. I’m not ashamed of my age. I’m thirty-seven. Although some days it feels as if I’m old as dirt, and other days I swear it was just yesterday I was graduating from high school.”
“I know the feeling. Anyway, Ethan met an amazing woman, Lilly, earlier this year. They’re engaged and planning on a Halloween wedding.”
“How’d they meet?” Bristol asked. “Please tell me it wasn’t because she was lost in the woods and he found her.”
It was Rocky’s turn to chuckle. “Not quite. She was a videographer in town to film that Bigfoot show.”
“No way!” Bristol exclaimed. “Are you serious?”
“Yup. Long story short, Ethan and her spent a bunch of time together, and she ended up staying in Fallport.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. I mean, that’s pretty much why I’m in town too. Mike heard about the show and thought it would be fun to come up here and hunt for Bigfoot. He said it would be better to do it now, before the show aired, and everyone and their brother descended on the town.”
“He’s not wrong, even if heisstill a douchebag for what he did to you.”
Bristol chuckled again. “We’re in agreement on that.”
