Chapter 15

My fingers ache and my knees feel all scraped up against the rocky wall as I attempt to climb the mini cliff. Finally, I get to a point where I feel like I shouldn"t go any higher. I"m already afraid to look straight below me.

I"ve made more than a few mistakes in my life, and I"m starting to think this one is pretty high on the scale. Peering left and right, there"s no way of knowing where I am, or how far it is to Maple Trail, never mind Jace"s house.

Only a few raindrops have hit me so far, and the trees are providing shelter, but it"s starting to get dark, so if I don"t find a direction fast, I"m in big trouble.

Clamping my fingers around the edge of rock, I look carefully over my shoulder, making sure not to look down. The valley in the distance looks familiar. Is that the one we saw from the lookout near Jace"s house? If so, then Maple Trail is between there and where I am now. It seems incredibly far. It could take me hours to get there.

My entire body sags. Why didn"t I just go back into the library to get Jace? Why did I have to run?

Because you panicked. Because you"re a silly girl who keeps messing everything up.

The breeze picks up. I need to decide right now whether to try to climb higher, or get back down. Then I hear something. Not the wind. More like…a call? Straining to hear, the sound floats by again.

"Kara? Kara!"

I don"t think it"s Brad"s voice. But it"s definitely not Jace. I don"t recognize it.

"Kara – we"re friends of Jace."

Then a second, slightly different tone. "Kara – Jace sent us to find you."

It"s two different voices. Brad wouldn"t know about Jace, so they"re definitely trustworthy. "Over here!" I holler back, trying to climb back down the cliff.

Looking down…oh god, that makes my head swim…I"m only maybe twenty-five feet up, but it feels like a mile.

"We"ve found her." I turn to see two burly men heading toward me, one of them on his phone. "She looks okay."

The other man comes closer. "Kara, my name"s Barrett. Can you start climbing down?"

"Yeah. I think so."

The other man is obviously on the phone with Jace, explaining where we are. Barrett focuses on me. "You"re okay now. Just relax. Take a deep breath, and start backing down nice and slow."

He"s standing right underneath me, but there"s no way he could really catch me if I fell. I attempt to calm my ragged breathing, then reach my left foot back down to the edge I used before.

"Thaaat"s it," he says quietly and encouragingly. "One step at a time."

"Jace is on his way," the other man says. As I slide my eyes to him, he smiles and waves. "Hey. I"m Griffin."

"Thanks for coming to get me." My voice sounds tiny in the wind, which is starting to bounce off the rocks and trees around us.

As I slowly move down, I hear Griffin quickly calling several people to let them know that I"ve been found. Wow – Jace set up a full on search party for me? That makes my heart sing.

"Let"s try to get you down before it rains," Barrett says, throwing a worried glance at the sky. "Don"t rush, but…yeah, keep going."

I manage to climb down a few feet more before it starts to rain in earnest. "That"s it," Griffin calls up. "There"s a good hold for your right hand about one foot below."

Between the two of them guiding me, I manage to make it a few more feet. It"s super slow going, since I"m afraid to look down. All the way up, I could see what I was doing. Now my own body is in the way as I struggle to find hand- and footholds.

What was I thinking? I"m not a rock climber. Once again, I panicked, and as a result I"m in over my head.

I get to a point where there doesn"t seem to be anywhere for me to hold on. I pause, feeling around with my left foot.

"Stretch just a bit more to the left," Griffin says. "Shift your weight slowly. You"ve got this, Kara."

I can just feel the piece of rock with the tip of my toe, but would have to shift too much of my weight over there at once, and I don"t quite trust it since I can"t see it.

"It"s okay, baby. I"m right here." Looking down into Jace"s deep green eyes, my racing heart calms down a bit. "You"re not going to fall," he says matter-of-factly. "But on the off chance you did, there are three of us here to catch you. It"s all good."

With a deep breath, I swing to the left, finding the foothold. That gives me enough leverage to scramble down several more feet.

"Just a little more, baby. Then you"ll be in my arms."

I make it down a bit further before the rain really kicks in. Whatever kind of rock this is, there"s enough dirt on it that the sudden deluge of water makes everything slippery. "I"m going to fall!" I yelp, trying to descend quickly without losing my grip.

"No, you"re not. Just reach out to the right, down six inches."

I try to do as instructed, but my fingers slip, making my body swing out at a strange angle. I can see that I"m only eight feet above the ground now, but I"m not sure how I"d jump or land. I can"t get my feet under myself from here.

Jace doesn"t give me time to ponder any longer. He leaps up, his powerful legs sending him toward me as he grabs me, pulling me away from the rock and allowing us to land safely on flat ground.

He pulls my body tightly against his as I burrow my face into his chest. "I"m sorry," I sniffle. "I should"ve gone back inside the library. I panicked."

"Shh, it"s okay, baby." He strokes my hair with one hand, then stops suddenly, simply holding me with his right arm around my hips. "You"re just used to doing everything on your own. But that"s over now. Okay?"

"Jace, uh, I don"t mean to alarm you, but your hand is bleeding." Barrett sounds serious, making my head jerk up.

"Yeah, I can feel it," Jace grumbles. He sets me down, then looks at the back of his left hand. He must have scraped his knuckles and wrist on the rock as he pulled me away.

"I"m so sorry!" I almost start to cry, but Jace interrupts me with a swift, deep kiss.

"This is not your fault," he insists. "It"s just a scratch, anyway."

Griffin steps in, grabbing Jace"s arm as he takes a good look. "Dude, it"s more than a scratch. Why don"t you drive down and get Jonah to patch that up?"

Jace scoffs. "I have at least half the medical training he does."

"Yeah, but it"s hard to work on yourself. Just do as I say, will you?" Griffin puts on a stern expression, giving me the impression these guys must be very old friends. "Barrett and I can take Kara to your house."

Jace grumbles, but doesn"t argue. By the time we trudge through the darkening forest and get back to the trucks, his hand is dripping blood.

Griffin grabs some paper towel from his glove compartment and wraps it up. "Should I drive you there?"

Jace rolls his eyes. "No. Thanks, though." He pulls me against him, giving me such a fierce, deep kiss in front of his friends that I"m almost embarrassed. He isn"t. It feels like he wants them to see he"s claiming me. "See you at my place in half an hour, gorgeous."

I hate watching him drive away, but I do want to make sure that he"s all right.

Barrett offers me a hand politely to help me up into Griffin"s truck. As we start to drive, Griffin says, "We"ll swing by and get Barrett"s truck at the top of Maple Trail."

"Cool. Thanks."

I"m struck by the way that these guys just automatically jump in to help their friend and me. "I really appreciate your help."

They both turn to smile at me. "Jace Wolfe is one of the finest men we know," Barrett says seriously. "We"re just glad he"s found a nice girl."

I give them a saucy grin. "You don"t even know me. How do you know I"m nice?"

He shrugs. "Sometimes you can just tell. I knew the split second I met my girl."

Griffin chuckles. "If you have any nice friends, feel free to set me up."

Barrett snorts. "Do dirty boys deserve nice girls?"

I turn to him, raising an eyebrow. "Rude!"

"Just a fact, ma"am." It must be some sort of in-joke that I"m not getting.

Griffin rounds a corner, using the momentum to lean toward my ear. "My last name is Dirty."

"Seriously?"

"Yup. But trust me, there"s no man on this mountain who wouldn"t clean up for a nice girl."

We drop Barrett at his truck, then continue on to Jace"s house. Barrett has a key, so we go in and I make us all coffee.

My mind races. Has Jace been up here on his mountain, hoping to find a woman? The insecure part of me wonders if he simply jumped at the first girl who wandered into his path. But I don"t think so. It feels like we truly belong together. I just have to learn to trust him completely, and let go of my fears.

Because I want to be his girl. I want this crazy detour through the forest to end with the two of us together. Permanently.