Page 118 of Mountain Grump
His brows furrow, and holding both our sunglasses in one hand, he smooths a thumb across the rounded part of my cheek. “Don’t be scared, Starlight.”
“I-I’m okay.” I take a slow breath. “I’m okay.” I say it with more conviction this time.
“Yes, you are. And you’re going to keep being okay.” He pulls his hand away from my face, giving one of my curls a light tug as he lowers his hand. “I have a satellite phone. I’m going to make a call while I pack us a bag. Then we need to go.”
I blink at him.
Need to go?
Slowly, I turn my head to look out the windshield. At the forest.
At the mountains beyond.
At thenothing but wilderness.
My pulse doubles.
We’re stranded.
I was so concerned with landing. Withnot dying. I didn’t think…
My hands start to shake again.
I didn’t think about thewhere.
I didn’t think about the fact that we just crashed a plane in the middle of the Rocky freaking Mountains.
Fingers grip my chin. And Ethan turns my face back toward his. “Matilda. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“We-we were in a plane crash,” I whisper.
He shakes his head. “We experienced a controlled emergency landing.”
“But…”
“The tree hitus. But we’re fine. You’re fine.”
A sliver of humor—or mania—cracks through my wall of panic. “Rude of the tree.”
“Incredibly.” His eyes trace over my features. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.
I look back out his window at the tree that dared to hit our wing. Then I meet his gaze. “You did a very good job crashing the plane.”
His tongue presses against the inside of his cheek. “Controlled emergency landing.”
I nod. “Right. Controlled emergency crash landing.” My sliver of humor slips away. “What do we do now?”
Ethan drags his fingers down the front of my throat before dropping his hand. “Now, you grab your little backpack while I make a call. Then we start walking.”
I swallow. “We can’t stay here?”
It’s not that I can’t walk. It’s just that I have no idea how to survive in the Colorado wilderness.
Assuming we’re in Colorado. Not that the state matters. I don’t know anything about surviving in any wilderness.
“There’s a cabin a few miles from here. And if we leave now, we’ll get there before dark.”
The mention ofdarkhas my heart thudding all over again.
