“It was just a mistake, Ty.”
“No. The reason I didn’t check it was because I’d been out partying. I was a little wasted, and I wasn’t thinking.”
Pete went quiet beside him.
“I hid it from Chet, but I was in no shape to fly that night.”
More silence, then finally, “Yeah, I’d probably keep that to myself too.”
And Ty felt it again, that hand on his chest telling him to take a step back, into the safety of obscurity.
He forced himself to keep talking. “Except that’s not the only thing that happened. While I was dragging myself out of the crash site, trying to get help, I had a weird thing happen. You could call it a spiritual encounter, maybe, but . . .”
He didn’t know how else to describe it. A divine presence, a holy moment as he collapsed in the snow, overwhelmed.
Done.
Ty lifted his voice to the back. “Five minutes out, Gage.”
“Good,” Gage said.
Ty turned back to Pete, took a breath, and tried to frame it. “I guess I realized that I had a choice. I could die with my mistakes or let God save me and start over. Be someone different. And I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what happened. One minute I was freezing to death, the next your brother had found me.”
“I remember him telling me how he thought he heard you calling out, but when he got to you, you were completely passed out,” Pete said.
“So, the thing is, I do have a story to tell. About a guy who used to think he was somebody but who had to nearly die in order to figure out how to live.”
Pete was just staring at him.
“What?” Ty said.
“I have this terrible feeling that you are the better man.”
Ty let a grin tug up one side of his face. “Maybe.”
“I was kidding.”
“Good. Because Jess isn’t in love with me.”
“Really?”
“No, dude. She has it bad for you. And she’d kill me if she knew I told you that.”
“I thought so. I mean, I couldn’t put it together, the way she ran to you—”
“Hey. I’m a catch.”
Ty pulled up to the PEAK ranch. Kacey was already striding toward them, Jess beside her. Ty put the truck into park and turned to Pete. “I’ll talk to Brette. No more secrets, huh?”
Ella hadn’t seen Gage since he and Ty had transferred her and Oliver to the chopper. Jess had jumped in beside them and taken the short hop to the hospital.
Ella had, however, met Gage’s father, an orthopedic surgeon. He even looked a little like Gage. A handsome man in his late fifties, with dark brown hair cut short, earnest eyes, and a confidence in his work that echoed his son’s abilities on the mountain.
“You’ve got a double break, in both your tibia and fibula. You need surgery to set it.” While he’d pointed out the X-ray, Ella kept her eye on the door.
But Gage didn’t show up, even in time for Dr. Watson to take her away to surgery.
Her only other thought was for Ollie.
“My wife is looking in on him,” Dr. Watson said.
Ella had forgotten that Gage had two outstanding parents. Talk about needing to keep up. No wonder he pushed himself into being a champion.
She woke in the quiet late-afternoon shadows of her hospital room, her leg in a cast. Outside, snow had begun to fall, gentle flakes peeling from the sky. The clouds hung low, obscuring the mountains from her view of the park. Someone had come in, left flowers on her tray.
But no Gage.
He hadn’t been hurt, had he? She reached for the call box and buzzed for a nurse.
The door opened, and the nurse came in. “Oh good, you’re awake.”
She walked over, lifted Ella’s wrist to take her pulse.
“Do you know anything about my brother? He came in with me—Oliver Blair.” The anesthesia still weighted her body, turned it heavy.
The nurse reached for the pitcher of water, poured her a glass, and handed it to her, holding the straw. Ella took a drink, the water soothing on her parched throat.
“He’s in surgery. That’s all I know.”
She sighed. “Have I had any visitors?”
The nurse reached for the blood pressure cuff. “As a matter of fact, I have someone outside your room, just waiting to come in.” She took Ella’s blood pressure.
It might have risen a little with the nurse’s words.
She sat up, wishing she’d had a chance to comb her hair, maybe pull it back into something that resembled anything but a rat’s nest. But that’s what two days of backcountry snowboarding did. Messed a woman up, made her forget who she was and what she thought she wanted.
No. She knew what she wanted. Gage.
The door opened and she heard footsteps. She smiled.