Wordlessly, he held the check to the fire and let it catch. “I was wrong.” The paper charred a quick trail to his fingers. “If I’d wanted to keep you safe, I never would’ve let you come to the diner with me.”
Calder didn’t even flinch when the fire chewed between his fingertips and he opened them to a stain of ash.
“So why did you?”
His gaze lifted and settled onto mine, a look sweeping over him that answered me with words he refused to say.Words I ached to hear.But before I could ask ... or beg ... he stepped back and jerked his chin in the direction of the Airstream.
“Go get your things, Tomb Raider, before I bend you over my tailgate and ruin another pair of your pants.”
And just like that, the ache I had for him ignited once more, careless of the desperation I had to find my sister.
“You can’t ruin these. They’re all I have.”
His mouth quirked on one side as it descended close to my ear, and he murmured, “You say that like I care.”
We were pulling out of the drive and heading north not even ten minutes later, the Tetons rising into a cloudless blue sky off to the right.
“I’m sorry about earlier,” I offered. “I’m not good at this. I’m not good at letting people in.”
“I live in an Airstream that only parks for long stretches in the Wyoming wilderness. I don’t think that makes me great at it, either.” His sideways stare caught mine and I smiled.
My phone vibrated twice from inside my purse, the sensation surprising to me after so many days either without it or without service.
The screen was filled with a bunch of random alerts from the weather app and from my email, but it was the missed call and voicemail that launched my heart into my throat.
“Crap,” I murmured and swiped to open the message.
“Everything okay?”
“It’s the hospital.” I tapped on the message and put the phone up to my ear, Dr. Morgan’s low drawl coming in clear.
“Dr. Crane. I wanted to call and let you know that Sunrise’s internal review of the case has closed, and you’ve officially been cleared of all wrongdoing. I will be back in touch in a few days once we decide our next steps.”
The voicemail ended, and even though it should’ve been good news, my chest struggled to release my breath.
“Lara.” A large hand closed over mine, making me realize my fingers had balled into a fist in my lap.
“The hospital’s investigation into what happened in the ER is closed. They cleared me of any wrongdoing,” I repeated almost hollowly.
His hand squeezed mine. “Isn’t that a good thing?”
“It ... I don’t know.” I fought to swallow. “I guess. It just ... I guess it just feels like if I’d done everything right, Ian would still be alive.”
Calder hummed. “Feelings aren’t always the best indicator of fact.”
“I know.” I stared blankly out the window, focusing too much on the comfort I derived from the simple gesture of his hand holding mine.When was the last time anyone had comforted me?
When was the last time I’d let someone in enough to know I needed comforting?
My mind went to that night at the retreat when I’d broken down in his arms and told him what had happened in the ER that day. Maybe I wasn’t that bad at letting people in after all. Or maybe it was just him.
God, I shouldn’t be thinking about him like that. Like he was ...everything I’d wanted all these years?
Flushed at the thought, I sat up and reached for my coffee, effectively loosening his hand from mine. “Did Callum find the location from the solar panels?”
Calder cleared his throat and then let out a grunt of disbelief. “Yeah.”
He slowed as the road turned to gravel and shifted the truck into all-wheel drive; the amount of rain over the last couple of days had not only turned the road into mud, but as we climbed higher in elevation and deeper into the woods, scattered limbs of trees turned into obstacles.