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“Dammit, Pops, just tell me.”
“There’s been an avalanche.”
“What?” I gasp, but my mind is already spinning. Who was on that mountain? Surely, not Merritt after her plane crash yesterday? But then, that’s exactly what my girl would do. “No.”
I sink down onto the sofa and wait.
“Mason and Wyatt made it out okay, banged up pretty good but not enough for them to give up searching,” he says.
“Who?”
“Court and Merritt.”
“No.”
“It’ll be okay,” he says. “We just have to have faith.”
“I’m not sure I have any left.”
“Well, find some.”
“How much do you have after all you’ve seen?” I ask.
He watches me before answering. “Twenty years ago? Absolutely none. I couldn’t close my eyes either—asleep or awake—and not see blood on my hands or the death of my friends. War will do that to you and Vietnam was no different. I moved out here to be alone, to wait until I died. Alone. I opened the bar because selling booze meant I could drink more and continue my life of bad decisions until I was done and ready to meet my maker.”
“Pops,” I whisper.
“But twenty years ago. A sweet young woman, still a baby herself even though she had three in tow, had absolutely no one in the world. I took one look at her and her girls and knew that if I got my shit together, we could help save each other. After getting to raise you in your adult years and the girls through just about all of it, I’d say I’m a man who believes in miracles and you should too.”
“I love you,” I tell him with tears rolling down my face.
“I know it. I love you too. Now quit crying. You know how itchy it makes me.”
“I know,” I laugh. “So what do we do now?”
“We pray and we wait.”
And that’s what we do. We pray and we wait—for four hours.
Chapter 15
Court
HOLD MY BREATH
4 hours later…
“I hear something,” someone shouts. “I think they’re over here. Mer! Court!”
“Here!” she shouts. “Here!”
We dig and dig and dig and then the last little bit falls in on us as Mason, Wyatt and a ton of people dig us out. They were looking for us.
“Thank God,” Wyatt says as I hand Merritt out to him, and he holds her close to his chest like a bride.
“We got ’em,” Mason shouts as he holds out a hand for me, pulling me up and out of the hole. I’m freezing. Someone hands us blankets and ushers us to a truck.
It’s midday and we’re taken to Zelda’s, where she runs out in her stocking feet. I hold my breath to see how she’ll react to seeing me. Maybe once she has Merritt fully ensconced in her arms, I can quietly go back to my hotel and take a hot shower. I just have to hold my breath and wait.
