Page 60 of Wild Child
"Same."
Her eyelashes fluttered against the column of my neck as she blinked. I rubbed her cool arm with my palm and she shivered.
"It's cold this morning."
"It'll warm up fast." My gaze darted up to a cloudless sky. "Should be a hot day."
She nodded. "How long have you been up?"
"Just a few minutes."
"Already mapped out our escape?" she quipped and her face moved into a little smile.
Despite my own pessimistic thoughts regarding the onset of daylight and Kimball's likely deep desire for revenge, I heard optimism in hers. The sky had turned blue overhead. To the east, rays of sunlight had started to break. Birds sang in a wild cacophony of sound. It would be another hour or so before the sun would be visible over the craggy mountains, but light reached the world all the same.
"Had some ideas."
"Follow the stream?"
"Yeah, but in the trees." I tilted my head toward the bank of trees that reached up to the ridge. "Even those idiots could figure out that following a stream might be the easiest path out."
Her face moved into a smile that I could feel. "You have good ideas," she murmured. "It's what I was going to suggest."
She pulled away again, and I felt her missing pressure and heat like a removed limb. With her fingers, Ellie picked a hair band out of her hair and let her locks spill free on her shoulders. My throat tightened at the sight of her, rumpled from sleep, her eyes bright, and crinkled hair unbound in a wild mess over slender shoulders. I turned away and wondered how I'd ever be able to walk away and back to North Carolina.
"Is your head okay?" she asked as she combed through the hair with her fingers. A twig dangled off a few strands near her left shoulder. I reached over and plucked it free, flicking it off my fingers. A smile twitched my lips as I pulled another bramble out of another lock of hair. She snorted.
"My head hurts," I said, "but fine. You ready to hoof it out of here? I want to get started now that we can see."
"Yeah, let me just get a drink."
Ellie slowly straightened, arms stretched overhead. I diverted my hungry gaze so it didn't rove over the elegance of her arms and the shape of her shoulders. Then she reached for the water, drank several times, splashed her face and arms, and turned to me. Her eyes met mine for the first time this morning with a clear, sparkling curiosity. Brilliant as the thick greenery around us.
"You ready?" she asked.
For you?I thought.I always have been.
Instead, I dropped my gaze. "Just about." I couldn't tolerate her this unbound and in her element. The depths of unfiltered Ellie affected me too heavily to articulate. This is what I'd lived for. The hope of these sort of moments again with her is what kept me alive. Now that I lived them, they scared me more than anything.
How would I live without her easy grace to look at every day?
With her away from me, I slowly stood. Both of us roved through the forest with our eyes, but no movement or sound unfolded. We seemed, for all intents and purposes, alone here. My head pulsed with the movement, but it passed when I paused. The lingering headache still ached, but I'd deal with that later.
"You need more water," she said. "Drink it while you can. Dehydration will only make your headache worse."
I nudged her with an elbow. "Thanks, Mom."
She smiled reluctantly. "I'm hoping this stream leads to Red Lake, remember?"
"Yeah. We went there all the time."
Another fleeting smile brightened her face. "Yeah, and we won that game of chicken against your sister and her boyfriend at the time."
"That guy was a total jerk."
She giggled. "He was so angry. Anyway, Red Lake is miles from the truck, but maybe we can find someone, borrow a cell phone, and call Maverick?"
"Hernandez, too."
