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Chapter 23
Ryan left Hope’s house not long after Faith, pissed off that she’d gone without saying goodbye and knowing he had no right to be.
He’d asked her to go out with him; she’d said no.
“The woman is playing hell with my head, Syd.”
“Brazen hussy!” Syd squawked.
“Now, that’s not nice, bud.”
He needed exercise, and Shay’s text had provided it. Today they would kayak and watch the sunset on the lake.
It would be good to think about something other than his father and Faith for a while. His siblings, however, he quite liked. Hope had been right there.
He was sitting on the deck, resting his feet, and waiting for Shay. The calm he usually felt at the cabin wasn’t happening, but that was hardly surprising after the day he’d just had.
A scream filled the air and had him on his feet in seconds. Syd squawked at being dumped on the chair. Leaping off the deck, Ryan ran through the trees in the direction the scream had come from.
Reaching the trails, he nearly colliding with Shay, who was also running. Overtaking his slower friend, he continued.
“Faith!” Shay roared.
“What?”
“She was on the trails!”
Ryan was sprinting now, heart thudding hard inside his chest.
“Rest home!” Shay called as Ryan put distance between them.
He turned down the “track,” a shortcut through the trees he’d taken many times in his youth. The rest home was in this direction. He saw her then, motionless at the base of huge redwood. A container of cupcakes had been upended, the contents scattered around her.
“Faith!” Ryan reached her, dropping to his knees. “Christ.” The breath hissed from his mouth as he slowly rolled her over. Blood was trickling from a deep cut in her forehead.
“Open your eyes, baby.” He pressed his fingers to her pulse and felt the steady beat.
“What the hell!” Shay arrived, dropping down beside Ryan.
“She’s just out. Pulse is strong,” he said, to remind himself of that as well as inform Shay.
Ryan slowly checked her over but couldn’t see any other injuries. Looking at the trunk of the tree, he saw blood.
“How did she hit that with enough force to knock herself out?” Shay asked, following Ryan’s eyes.
“I don’t know. She’s walked these trails for years.”
“Maybe she was looking down at her phone?”
“Maybe.” But he doubted it. Most of the residents in town knew not to take their eyes off the trails in case of tree roots.
“We need to get her back. Open your eyes for me now, Faith.” Leaning over her, he stroked a cheek.
She moaned, then her lashes fluttered.
“It’s okay now, baby. Stay still.” He pressed a hand into her shoulder as her body stiffened with a return to consciousness. “You knocked yourself out.”
“Pushed,” she whispered, as if speaking hurt her. “Someone pushed me.”
