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The sound of a motor came from overhead. Van looked up, and there was a small drone flying their way.
“Ah, you’re going to take video so you can see the whole pattern from above.” Hale seemed determined to state the obvious. “Will you be able to decipher it?”
“Sure thing.” Mel watched as the drone started flying in a specific pattern. “Though I know most of their mating nests. Normally I wouldn’t make a fuss, but there’s a lot going on right now what with you two being the target of a rogue sasquatch.”
“It wasn’t…” There was no arguing with the man. “So what do you do once you figure out the code?”
Was he looking at Jake like the father he wished he’d had, the one who’d let him call him Dad and didn’t expect him to get himself out of trouble by the age of eight because he wasn’t going to treat him like “some infant”? Had Jake become the father figure he could count on, therefore he could never disappoint him?
He was trying to have the life Jake had, but what if he was starting from the wrong place? He’d viewed the job and the friend as the starting place of Jake’s successful life, but what if it had been Serena all along? What if the steady job and nice pay meant far less than sharing a woman he loved with his best friend?
Jake had built a family for himself. He spent his holidays with them. His kids had met their parents, but they barely knew them. They had an Uncle Ian though. And an Aunt Charlotte, and cousins they shared no real blood with.
Was that what Mel was trying to tell him? That there was no one way to have a family? There was only the willingness to be part of one?
“Well, I’m going to let Lucy’s men snow plow the hell out of this because they aren’t supposed to be this far south during winter.” Mel looked up to the heavens. “You’re supposed to go mate in Montana!”
That was the moment a skier seemed to go off track. They were all over the place, but the majority were heading for the ski lifts or going back to the lodge. This swiftly moving barrel of fun was coming down the mountain, and he hadn’t stayed on the track. He plowed right through it and seemed unsteady on his skis.
Mel moved closer, waving his arms. “No, go over there. I’m not done with my survey. Go that way.”
“Help!” The man was definitely not an expert skier.
He was out of control and could hurt himself.
So naturally Hale stepped right in his way like he could catch the guy himself.
“Give me one end of your scarf.” Van quickly moved into place on the other side of their rapidly approaching skier. “You hold the other. Spread it out and try to catch his waist. The snow will break his fall.”
The scarf was wide. Teeny Warner had made one for both of them, and Hale had wondered if it was a blanket. Now Van was grateful for it. Trying to stop this guy with their bodies could kill them both, and letting him fall into the deep patterns the Neluts had made seemed dicey, too.
He had not just had that thought.
He tossed it aside because he had a runaway dude to clothesline and hopefully not kill.
Hale seemed to understand and moved into place, drawing the heavy scarf taut.
The skier hit it square in his chest and went flying back, skis up in the air and back on the snow, but it was a far softer landing than the one that had been waiting for him.
Van moved in, dropping to one knee. The man was wearing some kind of designer ski suit, covered in logos. Van did not get that. “You okay, man?”
Already he could hear someone calling for the medics.
The guy lay there in the snow for a moment before pushing up his goggles. He looked to be in his mid-twenties to early thirties, with dark hair and an oddly familiar face, though Van couldn’t put a name to it. Had he met this guy before?
“I was going too fast,” the guy gasped and then managed to sit up. His shoulders sloped down at an odd angle, but that just seemed to be his body type. It made the suit he was wearing look wrong on him. “I’m fine. I’m okay. Wow. That was quick thinking.”
“He’s smart like that.” Hale had a grin on his face as though the whole day had been one big, long adventure.
Hadn’t it?
The man glanced up at Hale and then stopped, his expression going blank. “I should get up.” He pulled his goggles back down. “Help me up and I’ll be on my way. Thanks.”
“I think you should wait for the medics,” Hale said. “They’ll check you over.”
