She tried to nestle against him, and he wanted to hold her forever, but he had work to do. “The blood’s rushing back in your foot. I need to get it wrapped before it swells up.” He dragged their bags over beside her and unfolded the tarpaulin.
Once he got the tarp opened, he sheltered both of them. “Hold this over us so the dressing won’t get wet.”
He retrieved his socks and boots and tucked them in beside her. He opened one of the thermal blankets and tucked it around her shoulders. He needed to get her into dry clothes, but that ankle would swell like a melon if he didn’t wrap it now.
He got Aiyana’s soaked boot and sock off. Her foot was black-and-blue. He palpated the ankle. She winced. “I know it hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken.”
“Neither do I. When I first fell, before the rain started, it didn’t feel broken, just really sore. Sitting up was hard because it torqued it the wrong way.”
Cody rubbed her toes and the sole of her foot to get the circulation flowing. Her toes were too white, and wrinkled from being underwater.
Rain beat against the tarpaulin over their heads. Rivulets of water ran down the hill, in and around rocks, rushing past and under them. At least the tarp cut out the rain. It had eased up from its earlier mad onslaught, but still fell steadily.
“It’s swelling already.” He got out the first-aid kit and wrapped her ankle snugly, applying just enough pressure without cutting off circulation.
Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a pair of his own spare hiking socks and covered her foot with one of them, giving her toes one more quick massage. Again, he went into the knapsack and retrieved one of the plastic bags his mom had slipped in. “Ha! She lied.” Inside sat two day-old cinnamon buns. That’s what the smile in her voice had been about.
He handed one to Aiyana. “Eat this. It’s yesterday’s so it’ll be a bit stale.”
“Like I care. I could eat a horse. Raw.”
Cody bit into the second one. “Not bad for day-old.”
“It’s incredible. Your mom’s bakery makes the best cinnamon buns on earth. What did you mean she lied?”
“She said they were all out of yesterday’s buns.”
Aiyana smiled, her lips blue against her white teeth. “She wanted to surprise you.”
Cody rubbed his palms together then cupped her cheeks. They were ice cubes. “I don’t like how cold you look.” He hoped his heat would help warm her. He ran his thumb across her lips and she stopped chewing and stared at him with huge eyes.
The silence between them lengthened. Their summer together way back when had been innocent, but he remembered teaching her how to kiss. She’d had the sweetest mouth.
Wrong thought. Don’t go there. Keep it cool, Cody.
He dropped his hand.
“Sorry,” he said. “But your lips are blue.” He’d wanted to touch her lips, but there was no reason to tell her that. He was having trouble enough as it was not holding her.
He took the empty plastic bag, sticky sugar residue and all, and wrapped the sock-covered bandage, then used tape to seal it closed around the ankle.
“There. It won’t get wet.” He picked up her boot. “We won’t be able to put this back on, though.”
“Walking up that hill will shred the bag and the bandage.”
Cody shook his head. “You won’t be walking anywhere. There’s no way that ankle will support your weight.”
Aiyana picked up a rock and threw it hard and far. “I hate feeling helpless.” She sounded disheartened but also angry, and that was good. He liked her spirit. She tried to smile. “I threw a lot of rocks and chunks of soil last night. I was angry.”
Cody rubbed her shoulder. She hissed and flinched away from him. “What’s up?”
“My shoulder got wrenched when I rolled down the hill.”
“Sorry. Need me to take a look at it?”
“No. It’s not dislocated, just sore.” She met his gaze with brown eyes so dark in the shade of the tarp they looked black. She’d inherited a lot of her dad’s good looks. Cody had always thought her pretty, but she’d become downright handsome with age.
Aiyana had grown up well, but at the moment, just looked at the end of her rope.
“We need to get you out of here.” He whipped his cell phone out of his pocket. No service. He couldn’t call for assistance.
“There was a lightning strike. Seems it hit the cell tower.”
“We can’t phone anyone?” He hated the disappointment in her voice.
“Afraid not.” At her crestfallen expression, he pulled himself together. “You’re not alone, Aiyana. We’ll get through this.”
He didn’t like the way she looked at him, with something akin to hero worship. He was no hero, not by a long shot, but he’d get her out of here, or die trying.
He had a thought. “You didn’t come out hiking without a cell phone, did you?”
“Of course not.” He liked the spunk of her response. “I always carry my phone, but it was in my hand when I fell. I lost it on the way down.”
“We need a plan.” He looked up the hill. It was a long way to carry her, and steep, too. He was in great shape, but that climb would be serious business with him piggybacking her.
She’d wolfed down the bun. “You still hungry, Aiyana?”
“Yes. I’ve eaten only a protein bar since yesterday’s lunch. I think shivering uses a lot of calories.” She was trying to make light of things, but he could see it cost her.
“Let’s find a better spot and I’ll make us lunch. Stay here.”
He pulled up his hood and stepped out from under the tarpaulin, scouting the area until he found a large flat rock on which they could perch without sitting in one of the many rivulets coursing down the hill.
He returned to Aiyana. “Put on your knapsack. I’ve found a better spot.”
“I don’t think I can get it on fully, but I can pull both straps up onto my good shoulder.”
Cody put his pack across his chest and shot his arms through the straps. He positioned himself in front of Aiyana. “Hop on my back.”
“Cody, really, that isn’t necessary.” She stood up and cried out. “Oh, crud. You’re right. I can’t walk.” Again she sounded on the verge of breaking down, but she stiffened behind him. He sensed her bucking up. She tied two of the corners of the thermal blanket at her throat, wearing it like a cape. Next, he took her weight when she boosted herself onto his back. She wrapped her good arm around him and as far across his chest as she could.
He dragged the tarp behind him to the large rock he’d found. He eased her onto the rock’s surface, up out of the water cascading down the slope. Then he set up the tarp as a shelter using two nearby trees and some rope he’d brought with him. Next he took the second still-dry tarp from his bag and helped Aiyana to her feet so he could spread it beneath her across the rock.
When she sat back down, she sighed. “First dry thing I’ve touched since the middle of the night. You came prepared.”
“With Noah Cameron’s help. If I ever get stranded in the wilderness, I want my uncle with me.”
“What can I do?”
“There are sandwich fixings in my bag. Can you make us a couple?”
By the time he finished and sat on the rock beside her under the tarp, she had two