Her heart swelled at the sound of the little voice she cherished. Tears threatened hotly behind her eyes. Her gaze followed her son’s outstretched arm to the tall man holding his hand. She saw black hair, a devilish goatee and dark, mischievous eyes. Tony Colorosa, the chopper pilot, she realized, and choked out a laugh.
Farther back in the throng of people, she spotted several other members of the Rocky Mountain Search and Rescue team and Taylor Quelhorst. Taylor looked out of place amongst all that flannel and denim in his creased slacks and button-down shirt. Kelly should have been relieved to see him. She should have been relieved that the nightmare was over and she was free to get on with her life. Strangely, she felt nothing more than an odd sense of melancholy.
Buzz cut the ATV’s engine. Kelly was still pressed up against him, with her arms wrapped around his waist. It took a good bit of discipline to disengage herself and slide back.
More than anything, she wanted to see her son. She wanted to hold him and thank God they’d made it through the ordeal alive and unharmed. But before she could walk away, she realized there was something she wanted to say to Buzz first.
Numb with the remnants of fear and sheer exhaustion, she slid from the seat onto shaky legs. She stood there, trying to regain her equilibrium as Buzz slid off. When he turned to her, their eyes met, held—and the rest of the crowd melted away.
His eyes were as gray and hard as the mountain as they studied her. Cool as stone. Uncompromising as granite. And as unpredictable as a mountain storm. There was no sign of the pain that was surely racking his body. No sign of the tenderness he’d shown her the night before. No sign that anything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours had affected him one way or the other.
She stared at him, the festering wound of emotions inside her throbbing, about to burst. Suddenly, all the words that had been pounding to get out dried in her mouth. Her chest was so tight she couldn’t speak. It stunned her to realize she was close to tears. She didn’t want to cry here. Not in front of all these people. Certainly not in front of this man; she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.
“You okay?” Buzz asked.
Because she couldn’t manage anything else, she raised her hand and pressed her fingers lightly to his cheek. He flinched at her touch, but he didn’t look away.
“I just wanted to thank you,” she whispered. “For everything.”
The words weren’t adequate, but for the life of her she couldn’t think of anything else to say.
For a moment, he looked as if he wanted to say something more. Kelly found herself leaning toward him, wanting to hear his voice, desperate to know what was going on inside that hardened exterior.
“Mommy!”
The moment vanished. Kelly started, feeling as if she’d just been wakened from a deep sleep. Turning, she saw Eddie rushing toward her, Tony Colorosa in tow.
She knelt just in time for Eddie to fling himself into her arms. Closing her eyes, she enveloped him in her arms and squeezed him as tightly as she dared.
“Hi, sweetheart.” Pressing her face against his hair, she breathed in his little-boy scent. Her heart ached with love for him.
“Mommy, you’re squeezing me!”
Struggling to control her emotions, Kelly mustered a smile and eased her child to arm’s length. “How’s my puppy face?”
He grinned. “I’m not a puppy face.”
She choked out a laugh.
He was wearing a black RMSAR cap that was too big even though it was cinched to the smallest size. She figured it was Tony Colorosa’s. She could only imagine how Tony had kept her son entertained for the day while Buzz and the rest of the team had been out looking for her.
“Mommy, we were scared because you were lost in the woods, but Flyboy told me Buzz was going to save you just like in the movies!”
Kelly didn’t know what to say to that. “He did, honey.”
“Flyboy showed me his chopter. He let me sit in the pilot’s seat and everything!”
Tony smiled down at him and winked. “That’s chopper, sport.”
“And I got to sit on the horse! Man! When I grow up I want to be a Search and Rescue pilot only I’m gonna have horses, too!” He squirmed in her arms and looked at Tony. “Where’s Jake? I want to show Mommy the horse!”
Unable to keep herself from it, Kelly pulled Eddie close again and looked at Tony over his shoulder. She mouthed the words thank you and gave up on trying to withhold the tears.
“Kelly.”
She should have been comforted and relieved to hear Taylor Quelhorst’s voice. He represented her future. A secure life in Lake Tahoe. The job of her dreams. The future she’d always wanted for herself and her son. But for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why the sound of his voice filled her with dread. Why she didn’t want to see him. Why she didn’t want to talk to him. Why she felt vaguely annoyed that he was there at all.
Shoving the irrational feelings to the back of her mind where they belonged, she stood and faced him. His blue eyes swept swiftly down the front of her. He was smiling, but she saw distaste flash across his expression and realized he was reacting either to the stench of smoke or the way she looked.