Something urged him forward, to the top of the hill, but again he found nothing.
“Why won’t You help me? Why won’t You answer?” he cried. The words died in the thick air, muffled by the snow. He dropped to his knees.
“Jack?”
He almost didn’t hear the faint voice. Could it be? God was speaking directly to him? He started shaking. His hearing must be going.
“Jack?” Again, a little louder and directly below.
Not God. Darcy!
A rush of energy propelled him to his feet and down the slope.
“Darcy? Darcy?” He sang her name as he slipped and slid to the bottom.
He couldn’t see a thing down there. In frustration, he yanked the dead flashlight from his waistband. Work, please. He pressed the switch and on came the beam, shining brightly at the glistening snow-covered ground. And Darcy.
“Jack.” She trembled, her lips bluish, and tried hard to smile.
His knees gave way. Darcy. Darcy. He dropped the flashlight and it flickered out. He’d found her. He hugged her, shaking as he brushed the snow from the thick sweater. He then wrapped her in his jacket and held her close.
“Home,” she murmured.
“Yes, home.” Relief brought even more spasms as he tried to hold back the emotion. He would never let her go. Not ever. “Thank God. You were right all along. God does listen. He does answer prayers. He led me to you. I’ll never doubt again.”
She wrapped her arms around him, and he gave up trying to hold back the emotion. He didn’t care about being tough anymore. He was going to say what he should have said months ago.
“I love you. I love you so much.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You do?” Darcy’s joy that Jack had returned to God almost overwhelmed those three important words, but once they sunk in they extinguished the pain for precious moments.
He pulled back slightly. “This is news to you? Some newspaper reporter you make.”
She began giggling. Jack had found her. Jack loved her. She couldn’t be close enough to him. Wild emotions raced through her at full throttle. “I love you. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Her mad confession degenerated into tears.
He buried her words in a kiss, tender yet desperate. “Don’t you ever leave me again, Darcy Shea,” he said between kisses. “No note, not even a word to let me know where you were going.”
A laugh bubbled up. She’d said the very same thing to him after the last crash. “I won’t. I promise.”
“I don’t ever want to lose you again. Ever.”
“Me either.” Ever. She clung to his snow-coated sweater and let the tears flow. No she wouldn’t leave him again. Jack had given her dream wings.
“Don’t cry.” He wiped the tears and melting snow from her cheeks. “Please don’t cry, Miss Optimism.”
His use of her pet name only made her cry harder. She shouldn’t have gone off on her own, trying to be the heroine. She should have listened to Jack. She should have been more careful straining the oil. So many mistakes. So much false pride.
“I—I thought I’d get help. I thought the mining settlement was close. According to the map…” She hiccupped. “The map. I lost it. I lost the map when I fell. There’s no moon and it’s snowing and we don’t have a map and it’s cold and how will we ever get home?”
“Don’t worry.” His breath felt so hot on her cheek. His arms were so strong. “Together we’ll find a way.”
She gathered herself, ashamed that she’d lost faith. Of course they would. Hadn’t she known that the moment she lifted up her prayers? “The most important thing is we’re together. Jack, you are everything to me.”
“And you to me.”
The tenderness of his kiss resuscitated a deep longing for family and home—and evening walks and picnics and fishing in the creek. How foolishly she’d cast those treasures away. How much she’d give to have them back again.
She shook involuntarily. Then again. Then her teeth started chattering.
Jack rubbed her hands. “You’re freezing. We need a fire.”
“N-n-no m-matches.”
He hunted around in the snow. “If I can find the flashlight, we’ll go back to the camp.”
The camp. Yes, the camp. “N-n-near m-my legs.” The pain came back, dull and aching this time. “S-s-stuck. C-can’t move.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get them free, once I can see.”
It would hurt terribly, but she could endure anything, now that Jack was here.
“Aha. Found it.”
She heard a click but saw nothing.
“Dead.” He sounded discouraged.
She reached for him but felt nothing. Frostbite. “I-I’m a lot o-of t-t-trouble.”
“Not at all. Let’s get your legs freed. It’s going to hurt.”