Jess nodded, wiped a hand across her cheek. “You’re right. I’m being silly. After all, what could happen? So he finds out that I’m actually the missing whistle-blower of the Taggert Financial scandal. You’re right—I’m blowing this out of proportion.”
“Yes.”
“Because he won’t care that I testified against my father, put him in jail.”
He frowned at her. “No, I don’t think he will.”
“Even though his own father died in an accident his brother blamed him for. ”
“Jess, where are you going with this?”
“And it won’t matter at all that he felt betrayed and rejected—”
“Okay, just take a breath.” Ty took her by the shoulders. “It’s not the same thing.”
Her eyes glistened, her breath falling. “I betrayed and rejected my entire family. And, most recently, Pete.”
“You were scared. And trust me, he’ll be so glad we’re not dating he won’t hear anything else, I promise.”
Her mouth lifted up. “I hope so.”
“Trust me, Jess. Everything is going to be fine.”
Please, let everything be fine.
12
ELLA COULD HARDLY BELIEVE that twenty-four hours ago, she’d practically had to chain herself to the chopper to make Gage take her with him.
Now he rode as if he hadn’t a doubt she could keep up.
Across the tufted ridge, down a narrow chute, into open country, dodging a few pine trees, then a stair-step drop down a cliffside that left her stomach somewhere on top.
He stopped at the bottom, and she pulled up beside him, breathing hard.
“Look at what you just did,” he said and pointed behind her.
She didn’t want to look, but . . .
Even from the bottom, it took her breath away. Five ledges, no more than five-feet deep, iced with powder, and she’d skipped down them without doing a header or crashing, mostly in control the entire way.
But she definitely wasn’t in control of her heart when Gage turned back to her and held out his gloved hand for a fist bump, his incredibly brown eyes alight with pride. “Pretty good there, Senator,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been so worried about the Great White Throne. That was just as steep and you handled it no problem.”
She grinned, and her heart gave an extra bang in her chest.
Really, she didn’t know how she’d managed to put herself together after their embrace in the snow.
Gage Watson could still turn her world inside out with his touch.
Not to mention his words. “Being with you just might make me into the guy I actually want to be.”
She liked who he was now. Today. The man he’d become despite her.
Gage studied the terrain below, choosing his path. “We’re going to come around the cave from the back side. It’s easier access to go along the ridge and approach it from the flank than to drop down on top of it and hike back up the way I did before.”
He reached for his water bottle, uncapped it, and took a drink. When he offered it to Ella, she shook her head. He took another drink, then capped it.
“I actually found the cave by accident the first time. I had read about it from a backpacker’s guide to Heaven’s Peak but didn’t know if I’d find it—wasn’t even planning to, really. And then I came over the top of the roof and landed in the field just below the entrance. I was catching my breath when I spotted it, and since I was losing daylight, I climbed up. Couldn’t believe how big it was on the inside—the entrance is barely visible, the way the snow curves over it, but inside it’s dry and out of the wind. I wish we’d made it last night.”
Except then she wouldn’t have had a good reason to curl up next to him. “I hope my brother is there.”
“Me too,” Gage said. “Ready?”
She nodded, and he eased himself forward, down the ridgeline. It seemed like he rode with a new confidence.
Knowing that maybe he could trust her.
She urged her board forward, following him.
Frankly, she was beginning to trust herself. Because with Gage pushing her, challenging her, she saw a side to herself that so rarely emerged. With him, she let go, found herself actually enjoying herself.
It made her believe what she’d said to Gage—the hope that God was on their side. That she didn’t have to prove anything. That she could let the past go.
Except, well, she couldn’t. Not with the last terrible secret remaining between them.
Dylan’s drug usage. It was possible that, had he not been high, he wouldn’t have skied off that cliff.
Would have lived. More, Gage could stop blaming himself.
She needed to tell him.
But what if it made Gage only blame himself more, regretting that he hadn’t seen it? Maybe it would only add to the pile of mistakes that kept him from truly breaking free. Trusting.