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"Grant!" I scream as he slides at top speed down the side of the mountain toward the river with my goat smooshed between him and the ground.
I'm going to lose them both. I know it as sure as I know my name. The world tilts and my heart breaks.
Shit. I love him. I love Grant.
And I'll be damned if I let him go without a fight.
As I work my way down, I slip and slide from tree to tree. I can't see Grant anymore, but I can hear the goat crying. I have no idea if they're in the water or if Grant managed to stop them before they reached the river.
"I'm taking the trail down," Sunny yells. "We can't all fall in the river."
I don't look back up at her. I focus on each controlled slip and slide I take down the side of the mountain, the rushing of the river getting louder and louder as I go.
The land doesn't slope gently to the river, but drops off suddenly in a short cliff made shorter by the rising water.
I stand on the edge and scan the river. It's moving so fast that Grant and Arty could be a mile away by now.
"Grant! Arty!"
There's a maa in response, much, much closer than a mile away.
"Dani. Over here."
I look down and about ten feet to the left of my feet, and see fingers clinging to the edge of the cliff. I rush over, drop onto my belly, and look over.
Grant is hanging by one hand, his feet dangling over the river, Arty still wrapped tight in his free arm.
There's no way I can lift Grant over the edge. "Can you hand me the goat?"
Grant looks up at me, the doubt and fear clear in his expression. I scoot forward as far as I can and reach toward Arty. I can almost grab the rope around his neck, but I don't want to pull him up by that and break his little neck.
"Can you lift him up, just a little?"
Grant grunts and strains and twists toward me, lifting his arm and the goat. I push a little farther out, until I'm literally hanging over the edge on my hipbones, and wrap my hands around Arty's middle. I lift with my lower back and use the toes of my shoes to pull myself back onto solid ground.
Thank God, Arty is so light.
While I'm doing that, Grant manages to grab the cliff edge with his free hand, but even from here, I can see his arms are shaking. I place Arty on solid ground and drop back down next to Grant. I can't pull him over by force, but he's lifting himself, doing a pull-up and pushing himself further, his arms shaking, his breath coming in fast pants.
I grab his belt and use all my strength to pull, hoping any little bit of help I can offer helps.
He gets his top half on the ground and lets out a breath before using his hands to claw himself all the way up. "Holy shit," he says when he's fully on safe ground. "You saved my life."
"Guess that means we're even." I lay next to him. "Does that mean we're no longer bonded?"
He throws a heavy arm over my middle. "Doesn't matter. I'm not letting you break up with me, Dandelion Weston."
I roll onto my side and he rolls onto his side and pulls me close, his arm tight around me. Finally, my heart stops pounding and my brain acknowledges we all survived and are going to be okay. "Why would I break up with the man I love?"
His eyes widen and he smiles slow. His expression switches from relieved to be alive to cocky in a second. "You love me? Even though I'm an obnoxious, meddling rule follower?"
I press a kiss to the tip of his nose, because I'm too happy he's alive to be mad at him about anything. "Yup. And you love me, even though I don't follow rules that are idiotic."
His hand rises from the middle of my back to cup my head. "Hell, yes, I love you. I love you so much I won't even make you pay for that last time you camped without paying the fee."
I chuckle. "That's true damn love right there."
Then, I kiss him.
