“For being so careless with your life?” I felt his forehead wrinkle beneath mine. “No way.”
I rocked my head back and forth against his. “No. For being careless with yours.”
His eyes narrowed in contemplation as he murmured, “Hmm . . .”
Since he was working on making up his mind, I might as well help him. My lips dropped to his and rested in place. I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel his lips again, for more than one reason, and I planned on enjoying the moment. When staying unmoving against him any longer was impossible, I sucked his lower lip into my mouth and tasted the rain coating it. I repeated the rain tasting with his upper lip.
By that point, Jesse’s chest was rising and falling hard against me. As much as I wanted to kiss him until everything around us faded, the man all but panting below me had a couple of broken ribs. I pressed a final kiss to his mouth before leaning back.
“Okay,” Jesse breathed, polishing his thumb over my lips. “You’re forgiven.”
If only everything were so easily fixed. But maybe, with Jesse, a lot of things could be so simple.
A light suddenly shone brightly down on us, startling me. I’d been so lost in the moment I’d almost forgotten the situation. I shielded my eyes and twisted around. The light came from a ways up, probably from the ridge.
“Am I breaking anything up?” a voice hollered down at us. “I can come back in twenty minutes or so if you want.”
Jesse groaned and sat up again.
I stood up. “Garth? Is that you?”
The light shifted away from us. When it stopped, it shined on Garth’s face.
“Convinced?” He flashed the light back down on us. “Maybe we can get you both out of there now.”
“I’d rather spend the night out here than have Garth Black come save the day,” Jesse muttered.
I was about to elbow him in the ribs when I caught myself.
“Jesse’s arm and ribs are broken,” I yelled up. “What’s your brilliant plan for getting us up there from down here?”
“Thatta girl,” Jesse said, tilting his chin at me. “Give it right back to him.”
“Would you shush already?” I hissed back at him. “You’ve got to be the only person alive who would turn away help from a guy because you don’t like him.”
Jesse shot me an exasperated look, then exhaled. “Garth?” he yelled. “There’re three of us down here.”
“You found the calf?” Garth circled the light around until it landed on the still sleeping calf.
Jesse lifted a brow. “I found her.”
Garth’s chuckle rolled down the ridge toward us. “No one could ever accuse you of not putting your heart, soul, and body into your work, Walker!”
“Why don’t you stop talking and start working!” I shouted. “And your brilliant plan is . . .?”
I heard something swing through the air until it landed at my feet.
“A rope,” Garth answered. That ego of his was dripping in two words.
“Did you find a good anchor up there, Garth?” Jesse asked.
“As good an anchor as I’ll find. Now, I’m tired, I’m wet, and I’m ready to crawl into bed. So who’s climbing up first?”
“Jesse!” I shouted.
“Rowen!” Jesse yelled at the same time.
Garth chuckled again. “Shit. I’m not getting any sleep tonight after all.”
I spun around, my hands already on my hips. “I’m not arguing with you on this, Jesse. You’re going up first.”
“No, you need to go first, Rowen.” He cut me off before I could interrupt. “You don’t know how to tie a rope around that calf so we can get her up.”
“And you can get a rope tied around a calf with one hand?” I stared at the arm he was cradling.
“I could tie a calf with no hands,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a while, you know?”
I exhaled my exasperation. He wasn’t seeing reason.
“So we’ll send the calf up first. Then you. Then me.”
Jesse stayed so calm. He stayed as calm as I didn’t. “And Garth’s going to be able to wrangle a calf up there on his own while he pulls the two of us up?”
I opened my mouth, then clamped it shut.
“You need to go first so you can hang on to the calf while Garth gets me up. That’s the only way we’re all getting out of here.”
“So we’ll leave the calf. Your dad and the rest of the guys will be here in a few hours and can get her then.” I couldn’t just leave Jesse down there alone. I couldn’t leave him.
Jesse’s eyes landed on the calf. She really couldn’t have looked more relaxed. She’d gotten separated from her mother, been lost in a storm, and had probably been terrified, but Jesse had found her. From the looks of it, that made everything all right.
“I can’t just leave her, Rowen.” His eyes shifted back to me. “I can’t abandon her.”
I knew I read more into those words than Jesse had intended, but I got it. I understood why he was the person he was. Why I’d fallen in love with him. Why he made me want to be the best person I could be. Jesse Walker didn’t abandon a person, or in this case, an animal, when it needed him.
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll do it your way.” The words were painful, but nonetheless, they were the right ones to say. “Are you sure you’ll be able to get up that thing in your condition?”