“Yes.” She was winded—not unusual for a flatlander. “Woke up … with a really bad headache. I shouldn’t … have had that margarita. I don’t want to … ruin it for everyone.”
“You’re not going to ruin anything, and it wasn’t the margarita.” He walked her to a bench. “Sit down. Stay here.”
“I’m not … a dog.”
He ignored that, jogging to catch up with Austin and Lexi. “I’m taking Victoria down. She’s got altitude sickness.”
They stopped in their tracks.
“Really?” Lexi turned to look back at her friend. “God, why didn’t she say something?”
“What’s going on?” Austin was a paramedic, too.
“Bad headache, shortness of breath. She thought she had a hangover and didn’t want to complain. I’ll take her down and get her hydrated. We’ll catch up with you later.”
He turned and left them staring after him.
Victoria was right where he’d put her, but now there were tears on her cheeks. She pressed fingers to her temples. “Sorry to be a baby … but it really hurts.”
He knelt down, wiped away her tears with his thumbs. “You’re not being a baby. You’ve got altitude sickness.”
“Altitude sickness?”
He didn’t feel like taking the time to explain. “How long has it been since you’ve had a piggy-back ride?”
She got to her feet. “I can walk.”
So, she was going to be stubborn again.
“I know you can, but I’m not going to let you.” He knelt down, her arms going around his neck as he caught her legs and lifted her weight onto his back.
She gave a startled squeak as he got to his feet. “Where are we going?”
“I’m taking you to a lower elevation until you’re better.” He ignored the curious stares of tourists on their way up the trail. “Are you okay back there?”
“Oh, my God!” she whispered. “I’m being carried by a fireman!”
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’” If only the women of Scarlet were as impressed with his profession as Victoria was…
He set her on her feet beside his pickup, unlocked the door, and helped her into the passenger seat. Then he reached into the back and grabbed a bottle of water. “Drink. Lots of little sips. Got it?”
He headed back down Trail Ridge Road, hazarding the occasional glance her way. “Keep sipping.”
Her eyes were closed, her face tight with pain. “This didn’t happen last time.”
“Last year, Lexi had a broken leg, and you spent most of your time sitting indoors with her. You didn’t spend a day in the sun wakeboarding. I’ll bet money you’re dehydrated. That makes it worse.”
It took about thirty minutes to drop to nine thousand feet, the road crowded with tourists in RVs, campers, and family sedans.
“Do you feel any better?”
“No.”
He kept going all the way to the park’s entrance, but he didn’t have to ask to see that she was still hurting. “How do you feel about taking a little drive to visit my mother down in Boulder?”
Victoria didn’t even answer.
Chapter 4