Page 74 of Love By a Landslide

On the trail, which was barely wide enough to accommodate them, Lucy walked briskly beside Jonathan. She held his hand with a silly skip in her step as relief flooded her heart.

Finally having a clear-cut path to follow reduced the impact of the heavy rain on Lucy’s spirits. The expertly groomed trail was a far cry from the primitive route she’d become accustomed to over the last few days. When she was younger, her dad used to volunteer with the local Trails Association back in Oregon. He’d go on and on about how they’d engineer ditches and install piping or culverts to reduce damage from unintentional water flow and pooling. A few times, he brought her along to help. But playing in the dirt—helping mostly by staying out of the way—she had never realized just how grateful she’d be for their efforts later in life.

Winding through the trees, the trail turned and paralleled along a large river. The white-capped rapids crashed over boulders and felled trees, sweeping any bit of debris it could grab from the banks. It was clear to Lucy that the water was higher than usual, likely from the healthy, if intermittent, downpours over the last few days. The roar overpowered all other sounds: rain, thunder, wind. Lucy had to shout so Jonathan could hear her—so she could hear herself.

“How much further?” she hollered over the tumultuous rush.

He didn’t look at her right away. Eyes trained on the punishing water beside them, he was somewhere far away. Lost inhis head as he took in the magnitude of flowing fury. He finally tore his gaze away and glanced at Lucy.

“Sorry,” he called back, his throat working to swallow some unspoken emotion. Jaw clenching, ticking, he struggled to give Lucy his full attention. “What did you say?”

“I asked how much further.”

Shaking himself out of a fog, Jonathan rubbed two fingers against his brow. “Half mile, maybe. We cross the river just before the trailhead.”

Lucy bounced on the balls of her feet, wanting to allow the excitement to wash over her, but worry held her back. His thoughts were written all over his face.

He was thinking about Cynthia.

“Jonathan, look at me.” Lucy laid a hand on either side of his face, willing him to focus on her, there in the present. “There is nothing you can’t handle—that we can’t handle together. We are so close. You gotta hang in there for a bit longer.” She slid her hands down his shoulders and arms then gripped each hand, providing a lifeline for him to cling to. “Let’s take some deep breaths together.”

He held her gaze, the amber pools of his eyes boring into hers. With each inhale, she willed her optimism into him and envisioned banishing all concern and worry with each exhale. After a moment, Jonathan smiled sheepishly. “Thank you.”

“Hey. We’re a team, right?”

“Right.”

“Good.” Lucy turned and tugged on his arm in the right direction. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter thirty-seven

Jonathan

You gotta hang in there for a bit longer.

Jonathan let Lucy’s encouragement sink in. Her honeyed voice coated his brain like a balm that soothed the rising anxiety and fear.

There is nothing you can’t handle—that we can’t handle together.

Unwittingly reliant on each other for four days, they’d tromped through uncut backwoods and escaped more than one disaster. He’d pulled her out of harm’s way when the landslide decimated their path home. She’d lost her pack, forcing them to share sleeping quarters and limit rations. She cared for him when he threw out his back: sought water, cooked, rubbed salve on his aching muscles.

We’re a team, right?

Damn right they were, and Jonathan was grateful for it. Lucy slid into his life like a destructive force, leveling his orderly rules and reconfiguring the terrain of his heart. Giving him something more to cling to than the boring, risk-averse routine he’d been carefully orchestrating for years. Her light brought him above ground when he hadn’t even realized he’d been buried for so long.

Jonathan had let a part of himself vanish along with Cynthia, penance for his culpability in her death. Maybe he wasn’t completely at fault. It was tough to accept, but Lucy’s faith inhim increased his longing to believe it, to move on and join the land of the living. To allow himself a slice of life where he could be happy with this humorous, passionate, and stubborn woman who persevered through each obstacle with her chin lifted and shoulders square.

My sunshine.

Jonathan looked down to where their hands clasped tightly together. Lucy tugged him along the trail, and his feet unconsciously followed. Even when his mind was arrested in thought, his bodily instinct was to remain close. To heel at her side like a lovesick puppy. The automatic response that would have been unsettling four days ago comforted him just then.

After a few minutes, a break in the trees revealed a clearing across the river.

The trailhead.

Lucy spotted it as quickly as Jonathan had and spun to face him, wearing the widest smile imaginable. A dopey grin tugged at his lips when she raised up on tiptoes and delivered a hard kiss. His pulse quickened for her, for the end of their ordeal.

For the unapologetically raging river they still had to cross.

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