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She let their hands linger, the touch electric, even through the cold and damp.
He towered over her, all muscles and brawn and wilderness know-how.
Wow, he was handsome.
She forced herself to pull away and looked for a good spot to hang the line. Two trees near the trail, protected by the forest. Perfect. She hiked over and tied off one end of the line, then stepped up to the side of the path, seeking purchase with her boot. Found a chunk of solid ground near the rocks and pressed into it.
Except it gave way, both feet sliding out from under her in an instant.
She screamed as she fell, and her head slammed on the ground.
sixteen
Grayson’s headsnapped up when he heard Beth’s shriek and saw her halfway through a fall onto jagged rocks. He dropped the water bucket he was carrying and was running before she hit the ground.
He slid up next to her. “Beth—” He caught his balance, then knelt beside her. The cold mud soaked through his jeans. “Beth?” He swept her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear, careful not to jostle her.
His hands came away bloody.
No. This was not happening. He stripped off his coat and the long sleeve Henley he wore over his T-shirt, then used the shirt to apply pressure to the wound on the back of her head.
She roused. Blinked up at him. She’d landed flat out on her back, her head against the rocks.
“Don’t move.” He shifted next to her, the goopy mud tugging him down the slope. “Are you okay?”
She scrunched up her face, closed her eyes. Opened them. Looked at him. “What happened?”
She lifted a hand, brown with mud, and smeared it across her face before he could stop her.
“Let me get that,” he said. He wiped the mud away with his coat sleeve.
Green eyes searched his face, and then she flopped her body to the side by rotating her hips.
“You shouldn’t move.”
Someone knelt next to them. Colleen. She had her medical bag slung over her shoulder. “Hey, I saw her fall.”
Beth peered up at Colleen, then back to Grayson. “What happened?”
“You slipped,” Colleen answered. “Try to stay still for a few minutes. I’m just going to make sure you didn’t break anything.” She leaned in and pulled back the shirt Grayson held against the wound enough to look at it, then moved his hand back into place. “Keep that there.”
He nodded.
Beth stared at them. Blinked. “What happened?”
“This isn’t right,” Grayson said. His heart sank.
Colleen moved her hands around Beth’s body. “Nothing seems broken.”
Beth tried to rub her hand over the back of her head where he was applying pressure. “What happened?”
Colleen met Grayson’s look, and she gave a little shake of her head.
Yeah, this wasn’t good.
He should have turned them back when the storm first rolled in.
“You slipped,” Grayson repeated. “Do you remember?”
