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* * *
After checking Catherine was comfortable, Jason walked out to the helicopter with Josh, Davo, Mike, and Carly. He wanted the chance to talk to her, just briefly. Maybe he could help heal the scars she still carried on her soul. Or maybe he couldn’t—some scars were too deep to ever heal—but he wanted to try.
“It’s good to see you again, Carly. You look happy.”
Carly smiled. “I am.”
Jason nodded. “Good.” He hesitated for a moment, unsure whether or not he should say what he’d planned to. Maybe it was none of his business. Maybe he should just focus on Catherine and leave the past in the past. But part of him just couldn’t.
“Do you think you will ever compete again?” he asked. “Because I know Lisa would be sad to see you give up on your dream. You were good, Carly. You were very good.”
She shook her head sadly, but didn’t speak, so he continued.
“Lisa had the better horse, but you were the better rider by far. Bold, gutsy, daring—all of those. But mostly, you were a natural. Don’t waste your talent, Carly.”
She shook her head again, and gave him a sad smile. “No. I won’t compete again. It’s not the same without my best friend.”
Jason nodded. He understood. He’d seen it before, when someone was seriously injured, or killed, in a riding accident, the people close to them often stopped riding, too.
“Well, if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me. My stables will always be open to you and I’ll help in whatever way I can. You helped save my girl’s life out there today. I owe you one.”
My girl.The words slipped off his tongue so easily. She was his. At least, he hoped she was, hoped she still wanted to be.
Carly stepped closer to Davo, who wrapped an arm around her. “I won’t change my mind, but thank you. I’ve already come a long way. When I first came here, I couldn’t even sit on a horse, I was terrified. I can ride again now, but I don’t ever want to ride under that kind of pressure again. It killed my best friend.Ikilled my best friend.”
“You didn’t kill her.” Jason shook his head adamantly.
“My desire to win did.”
“No. No!” he added more forcefully. “Lisa was just as competitive as you were, she would have taken that jump anyway, no matter what you said.”
Carly glared at him. “But I encouraged her. It was you we were trying to beat!”
Jason grinned, remembering. Lisa and Carly had both been formidable opponents. “You would have, too. She would easily have beat my time. But stop beating yourself up about this, okay? Lisa’s death was an accident. It was tragic. But it wasn’t your fault.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Then, together with Davo, she turned and climbed into the chopper, grabbing Mike’s outstretched hand, letting him haul her in. A few minutes later, the helicopter carried them away, leaving Jason and Catherine alone at the hut once again.
* * *
Catherine looked helplessly at Jason as soon as he walked back into the little hut. Her knee was throbbing.
“Is there any ice here?” she asked. “My knee really, really hurts.”
Jason looked at her, concerned. “We really should have gone back,” he said. “You need to see a doctor.”
“No, I don’t,” she insisted. “I really don’t. I only twisted it, that’s all. I’ve done it before. I’ll be fine. The secret to my dreams is here, I’m sure of it.”
Jason frowned, and she knew he wanted to say something; to argue, to question her sanity. But he kept quiet. She was grateful.
“I saw a man looking down on me, before you arrived,” she said. “I know I did. He had a big bushy beard and a heavy coat, just like the man in my dreams.”
Jason sighed.
“I know I sound crazy,” she admitted, “but I know what I saw, Jason.”
Jason sat down on the bed beside her and rested a hand on her thigh. “I really don’t know what you want me to say,” he said. “I was in the helicopter and we could see for miles around, and there wasn’t a soul to be seen. So I don’t know who it was that you saw.”
