AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Blue blinks, and all those lashes touch and separate, revealing his clear eyes. He utters a warbly bleating sound, and I know he’s happy to see me. It sounds exactly like‘Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!’I give him a kiss on the cheek, too. “You survived!” I murmur, as I ruffle my fingers on the downy fur of his back. “You’re back. Oh, we were so, so,soworried about you and we looked for so long, and you are so brave.”
“Olivia,” Cole says with a chuckle.
I laugh, too. It spills out, bubbly and uncontrollable.
“I know, I know. He can’t understand what I’m saying. But he’s happy to be back, I can tell that much.”
“He’s happy to see you,” Cole says. “He told me all about it on the way here. How he missed you.”
I giggle again. “Okay, us talking to him is bad enough. Now the conversation goes both ways? Are we actually nuts?”
“Maybe,” Cole says.
“How’d you do it? Find him, I mean?”
“It’s a heck of a lot easier to search that desert landscape from up high. I got up over the canyon that we tracked him to last night and kept my eye out for a flash of white. He must’ve gotten tired, ’cause he was curled up in a ball. Didn’t even move while I parked the rig on the closest flat stretch I could find and hiked into him. Must be that he’s all tuckered out.”
He transfers Blue’s weight into my arms. I hold the little guy like he’s my baby. I’m so relieved to see Blue that I don’t even feel tired anymore. But I do remember the feeling.
“All tuckered out, hm? A night in the desert will do that,” I say.
Cole’s eyes hitch on mine, warm and bright. “Yeah, it sure will.”
Giddiness wells up in me. My man’s a pilot, and he found our goat.
Not just found…
Herescuedour goat.
I’m so busy savoring this new pet-rescuing side of Cole that I barely register the fact that people are closing in on us.
Lots of people. Too many people.
How can a girl gush over her newest favorite person and the goat he saved, with all these people around?
It’s nice to see Cole without his ball cap. And the Aviator sunglasses he has propped on his nose make him look like a hot guy dressed as a super-cool pilot for Halloween. Only the flashy helicopter behind him is proof that this is no costume. But I’m not the only woman in the crowd to get giddy at the sight of a macho pilot. Danielle pushes her way to the front of the little crowd.
“Wow, Cole, you flew that thing?”
Um, yes, lady,I think.It didn’t magically land.She bats her lashes Cole’s way.
“Awesome.”
Bet she’s rethinking that whole aunt visit excuse, right about now. Which is a bit of a problem. I don’t want Cole to go to the wedding with Danielle.
I want him to go with me. Cole pulls his sunglasses off. He tucks them in his shirt pocket.
“Yeah, I lucked out. Called a guy I know over in Moab, who works Search and Rescue. Speaking of, I’ve got to get this thing back.”
When he turns to face me, I feel like I’m being picked first for a gym-class volleyball team or something. Like I’m beingchosen. Which, I suppose I am.
“Olivia? You want to come?” he says.
Blue nuzzles against my chin. I hug him close.
“Sure, but I’m afraid of leaving this guy here. He might play Escape Artist again.” Cole opens the helicopter door wide.
“He can come, too. I’ll climb up first, and you hand him to me. Then I’ll get back down and help you up. That guy’s a natural at flying. Heck, I think he sorta liked the view.”
