Page 79 of 15 Summers Later

He shut off his engine with a concerned look. “What’s up? Are you having mechanical difficulties? Where’s Ava? Did she stay at camp with her husband?”

She shook her head. “It’s a long story, but we found the dogs everyone has been looking for. One of them is caught in some kind of pit about two hundred yards off the trail. Ava stayed with them while I came back here for supplies.”

He looked at the array of items in front of her. “Supplies for what? What exactly are you planning to do with your kit here?”

“Get him out,” she said simply. “We can’t leave him there. I thought I would belay down, have Ava lower the crate down, put the dog into it, then use the pulley and winch to get him back out.”

“And how were you planning to get back out?”

“The same way. With the pulley and winch.”

He sighed. “Of course. Why not? What could go wrong?”

She decided, in this case, she couldn’t do everything on her own. Her customary need for independence seemed pointless when an animal was in need.

“I could really use your help. Ava’s not...feeling her best right now.”

Without hesitation, he climbed out of the vehicle, grabbed a few supplies of his own out of his vehicle, then picked up the heavy winch in one hand, the crate in the other and followed her into the forest.

21

We find ourselves scrambling across a rocky scree, loose stones cascading beneath our feet. The jagged terrain threatens to betray us, and I feel my sister’s hand slip from mine as we stumble and slide down the unforgiving slope. Bruised and battered, we rise again, our determination unbroken, a testament to the strength that has emerged from our shared ordeal.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Luke

“Where’s Sierra? I thought you wanted to bring her up, looking for the dogs with you,” Madi asked as they made their way toward Ava.

“She had a better offer, apparently. My mom scored last-minute tickets to a concert in Sun Valley and invited her along.”

“That’s fun.”

“Yeah. Seems like she is a social butterfly these days. I wonder if I should be feeling left out that she seems to have time for everyone but me.”

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “You might want to get used to that.”

As he followed Madi through the forest, on no discernable trail, Luke could see she was in pain. She always walked more carefully when her weak leg was giving her trouble, though she would never admit it.

He wanted to tell her to wait back with their vehicles, but he knew that would be like telling the grass not to grow or the snow not to fall in January.

Would she really try to belay down into a mine shift?

Yes. One hundred percent. His Madison was completely fearless.

Nothis, he reminded himself.

“There they are,” she said, pointing through the undergrowth. As they moved into a clearing between Douglas fir and lodgepole pine, he saw a sight he never would have imagined in a hundred years.

Ava Howell Brooks was sitting perched on a fallen tree trunk, crooning softly to a matted corgi with a pink collar.

“Look who I found,” Madi called out cheerfully.

Ava looked up and the vast relief on her pale features made him smile.

“Luke! Oh, thank heavens. Maybe you can talk some sense into her. She can’t go down into a mine shaft to rescue a dog. It’s ridiculous. We have to come up with another way.”

Madi glared at the two of them, as if daring him to agree with her sister. The fierce expression on her features made him check his impulse to do exactly that.

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