Ethan scanned the
muddy water hoping to see her blond hair reemerge so he could get a fix on her, before she passed the log. When she came up sputtering and flailing about twenty feet from the log, he sucked in a breath and prepared to go in after her, even if it meant letting go of the backboard to swim downstream. At the last minute though, she grabbed onto the very end of the log, hugging it tightly.
Ethan let go
of the backboard and the current took it downstream tightening the rope attached to his waist. He scooted further down the log toward her and grabbed onto another branch. Leaning forward as far as he could toward Roxanne, he extended his hand to her, holding onto the branch with his other arm.
"Grab on!" he yelled
hoping he had enough strength in his legs to hold on and pull her in too. Waist deep in the water now, his hold on the log was tenuous at best with the water rushing against him and the backboard pulling at him even more.
When a couple of minutes passed and she
still hadn't tried to grab his hand, he growled, "Take my damned hand, before you drown!"
"Can you hold me?" she asked with fear in her gray eyes. It was obvious she
didn't believe he could. "I can make it, just give me a minute to catch my breath," she yelled breathing hard.
"Grab my
hand, Roxanne. I don't have a minute or that guy is gonna die!" he shouted gruffly leaning out toward her again.
With resignation in her eyes, she nodded then swallowed and reached for his hand, but six inches separated their hands.
"
Jump for it, I'll catch you," he promised confidently. "Use both hands, Roxanne, and grab my wrist," he told her when it looked like she was still going to hold onto the log with the other, which meant she would never be able to grab on. "Push off with your legs."
After a moment, she pinched her lips and he saw her wind up her courage
, before she launched herself out of the water toward him. In slow motion, he watched her hands grasping for his wrist. When they closed over his wrist in a stranglehold, he let go of the branch and grabbed her forearms, then used all of his strength to pull her to him.
Breathing hard, s
he scrambled up onto the log in front of him.
"Thank, God," he said
, his breathing just as erratic as hers. After a few gulping breaths to calm himself, he told her, "Help me pull in this backboard, then you need to get that damned horse out of the woods, so we can go back over there and help that guy."
"
Okay," she said weakly, reaching out to grab the rope.
Together
they pulled it to the log, then Ethan told her, "Climb over me, and face toward the bank, I'll hand you the rope. Drag it with you to the bank."
With a nod, she
carefully moved behind him, and he untied the rope from his waist and handed it to her. "Tie that around your waist."
Ethan
turned around on the log facing the shore too and waited until she was standing on the bank and had the backboard on shore, before he pulled on the second rope attached to the branch and made it back to shore too.
She left him sitting there untying ropes, and a minute later reappeared from the woods with a big black horse that looked tired and scared.
The animal had scratches on his muzzle and side, but he looked none the worse for wear to Ethan, as she led him over to where Ethan was sitting.
"He okay?" Ethan asked and pulled up
to stand using the stirrup.
"
I think he will be once I put some salve on these scratches and give him some Bute," she told him with disgust and anger in her tone.
"Think it'll be okay if I ride?" he asked. If he couldn't, it would be damn slow going to get back over to the injured man. He hadn't realized he had gone
this far away from there.
"Yeah, can you get up or do you need help?" she asked and walked around the horse.
"I've got it. We'll need to tie the backboard to the saddle horn and drag it behind, if he will do that."
"Yeah, this is one of the most bombproof horses we have on the ranch. That's why it's so damned aggravating this asshole abused him like he did.
I'd just as soon leave him out here and let the buzzards get him."
"We'll take care of the horse after we take care of the asshole," Ethan told her with frustration and grabbed the saddle horn. This horse was a lot taller than Diamond had been, and he was a lot more worn out, so he wasn't sure at all he could mount without assistance. After two tries, he
huffed out a breath and asked angrily. "Can you give me a leg up?"
"Yeah," she told him with a snort then cupped her hands and leaned down. He put his foot in her hand
, bounced and used his arms to push himself up at the same time she heaved him up. Landing on his belly on the saddle, Ethan threw his leg over then found his balance. Rocky grabbed the rope on the backboard then handed it to him and he looped it around the saddle horn.
"You gonna give me the reins?" he asked.
"Hell, no...you ride, I'll lead. Rambler has had enough trauma for one day," she said with a snort then started forward down the bank along the tree line.
Ethan's bare wet feet were a little slippery in the stirrups and several times he had to grab the horn to keep his balance
when the horse bogged down in the mud and shifted to get his hooves free. Rocky just kept trudging forward, even though he saw she was having the same problem with the soft mud sucking around her feet.
When they reached the spot where the man was laying, he was awake now and didn't look like he was too happy. "Bout damned time you got here. I'm a good mind to sue your ass off. That damned horse is crazy," he said and tried to sit up then groaned loudly.
Ethan saw Rocky's shoulders tense and he knew she was about to cut loose on the abrasive man. He shot her a look then grated, "Sit still."
Even though he was at the end of his reserves of energy, somehow
Ethan managed to get his legs on the same side of the saddle to slide to the ground. Instead of landing on his feet though, his knees buckled and he landed on his ass. Instead of trying to stand again, he just crawled over to where the may was laying.
"Bring me the first aid kit, Rocky," he said then scooted up near the man's head.
It was starting to get dark, and they needed to get the man out of here before it did. He hoped Terri had called for the helicopter, and that it would arrive soon.
Roxanne
set the case down beside him, he opened it then rummaged around until he found a pen light. The man's pupils were even and responsive, so Ethan didn't think he had a head bleed.
He checked the man's skull and didn't feel any
indentations, although he did have a bump behind his right ear. Working his way though his assessment of the man's condition, he determined that other than bruises and contusions, he had only the compound fracture of his femur and possibly a broken collarbone.
"I'm going to put a
splint and pressure bandage on your leg. This will hurt some," he told the man then proceeded to do that, while the man grunted and groaned. When he finished wrapping it, Ethan tied it off then pulled out the blood pressure cuff and stethoscope to check the man's vitals. They seemed stable, so all he had to do was get him in a collar just in case he had a neck injury, before he put him on the backboard.
"I need your help to get him packaged up," Ethan told Rocky
moving the backboard around to align it with the man's body. "This will probably be a little uncomfortable sir," he warned.
"Nothing about my trip to this damned ranch has been comfortable. Just do it!" he grumped.
Ethan looked up at Rocky's red face and knew she was biting her tongue. He felt sure she might need sutures for it once they got out of earshot of this guy. Quickly, Ethan put the C-collar on the man's neck to stabilize it, then told Rocky, "Get his feet. We need to hold him steady and roll him on his side in one motion."
S
he moved to his feet and held his calves together then nodded. "On three," he said then counted and they rolled him on his side. He screamed like someone had grabbed him by the balls and yanked.
Ethan glanced at Rocky and saw a smile flit across her face
. He shook his head, because it looked to him like the woman didn't have a damned bit of compassion for this man. Ethan reminded himself never to mess with one of her horses.
"Okay, shove the board under him and we'll ease him back down on it in one motion," he instructed and tucked his end of the board under the man's shoulders and head. Rocky did the same then he counted and they lowered him
onto the board. Ethan strapped him onto the board and found tape in the kit to tape down the collar to the board.
"What now?" Rocky asked, sitting down beside him.
"I start an IV, then we wait for the helicopter," he told her and checked the man's vitals gain. Next, he pulled out a bag of saline, tubing and a twelve gauge needle. After sanitizing his arm, he started the IV, then gave the man a little pain medication to take the edge off until the helicopter arrived.
The best thing this man could hope for was unconsciousness, so he didn't say anything else that might send Roxanne Baker over the edge. If he did, Ethan was afraid they wouldn't need the medical transport after all.
"I gave you a shot of morphine to help with your pain," Ethan told him.
And to help you keep your mouth shut
, he added silently.
Relief washed through Ethan when he heard the sound of rotor blades in the distance. That sweet sound meant that this whole ordeal would be over soon. Ethan had never had a more challenging rescue, even when he
had rescued his sister from this same creek last year.
Then he had been in top physical condition, so things were easy. Rig
ht now he was less than halfway where he had been that night. Although that made things a lot more difficult with this rescue, somehow he had managed to save not one, but two people, without killing or injuring himself in the process.
Ethan
was proud of his performance here, and he was a little hopeful he might eventually get back to where he was. Satisfaction poured through him, and something else, hope. His back would never be the same, but maybe he could compensate and still do some of the things he used to be able to do.
"How are they going to get him out of here? A boat?" Rocky asked him.
Ethan snorted and looked at her, "No, they are going to drop a rescue swimmer, then send down a basket to haul him back up. They'll probably send the basket back down for us to ride out."
"Oh," Rocky said with lifted brows. "You used to do this?"
And a lot more, he thought, but he said, "Yeah, I used to do this."
"Impressive," was all she said, but he saw grudging respect in her eyes
as she pushed up to her feet. "I'm going to walk Rambler a mile or so downstream and cross at the shallow part of the creek. I'll meet you back at the ranch later."
"You're walking out?" he asked with surprise.
"Yeah, unless there's room for a horse on that helicopter," she said with a chuckle then added with a chin nod toward the now sleeping man on the ground, "I've got to make sure my horse is okay now that you have him handled."
"Okay then, I'll see you later...be careful crossing," he warned.
"I'm always careful," she tossed his words to Terri back at him and grinned.
CHAPTER
NINE
When the rescue swimmer paramedic dropped from the helicopter into the creek, he swam over to the bank where he waited, Ethan knew he was shocked to find the patient already triaged, treated and packaged when he got out of the water.
After h
e checked Ethan's work, and Ethan gave him a sit rep on the man's condition, the medic loaded the patient into a basket dropped down from the helicopter. Someone in the helicopter hoisted the basket back inside the bird, then sent down a different one to pick them up.
Riding out in the chopper basket with the rescue swimmer was as much fun as Ethan had had in forever. He soaked up every minute of it too, because the odds were he would
never have another chance to do it again in the future. Those days were over for him.
In the helicopter, the two medics and the pilot asked about his background. When he told them
that before his accident, he was a firefighter and Spec Ops Paramedic who worked with the Texas Task Force 1, they became fast friends by the time the pilot dropped him off back at the ranch in front of the house.
It was
just getting dark when he got there, but the front porch lights were on and Penny came out of the house when she heard the noise from the rotor blades. The helicopter quickly lifted off again to take the patient to the hospital in Amarillo, leaving Ethan standing in the yard in his underwear.
Penny
shuffled off the porch and across the yard toward him. After fussing about his lack of clothing, and the fact he was covered from head to toe in silt and mud, she went back inside to get his walker, then led him over to the side of the house where she hosed him off, before going back inside again for towels.
When
Ethan dried off, he went inside the darkened house, and nobody else was around, so he figured they were either still out by the creek, or headed back. As he walked down the hall to go finish showering, he wondered if they were still having the bonfire tonight.
Ethan knew he
should be tired, worn out and want nothing other than a beer and bed, but he was pumped. Adrenaline was pumping through him and he was more full of life than he had been since the accident. Just like old times, there was no way he was going to be able to sleep without some unwinding time.
Ethan was in the middle of dressing, had just buttoned his jeans when Joel burst through his bedroom door.
"What the hell happened?" he asked frantically. "Where's Terri?"
"
She's okay, man...it's all good now," he told his brother-in-law. The man looked fit to be tied.
"All
good
?" Joel howled, then demanded, "
What the hell happened
?"
"One of the guests took out a horse without permission and
ended up hurt down by the creek."
"Hurt badly?" Joel asked and started to pace at the end of the bed.
"Bad enough to need to be flown out," Ethan told him and slipped his t-shirt over his head before finishing, "A broken leg, maybe fractured clavicle, bumps and bruises."
"Where's Terri?" Joel stopped to ask with his hands on his hips.
"She was down by the creek, should be back any minute."
"If she went in that creek, I'm gonna kick her a--"
"Kick my
what
?" Terri demanded walking into the room behind him.
Joel spun around and jerked her to him, squeezing her tightly. Ethan thought if her husband didn't let her go soon, he might be giving h
is sister resuscitation in a minute.
"I'm fine, Joel...let me go," Terri mumbled into his chest, pushing against it.
"Did you go into the water?" Joel asked, his eyes narrowed angrily.
"Heck no, Ethan did," she said with a snort. "I'm not stupid."
"Ethan went into the creek?" Joel repeated incredulously and turned around to give him a wary look.
"Yes he did, and he saved Big Mike
and
Rocky," Terri informed then looked around Joel at him. "I'm proud of you baby brother, thank you," she told him.
"Anytime, sis,
it was fun," he said with a chuckle.
Joel shook his head then asked with concern tingeing his voice, "Why did Rocky need saving? Is she hurt?"
"No, she decided she needed to help Rambler who was tangled up in the woods, so she jumped into the creek at the bend and tried to swim to the other side."
"Jesus, I leave for a few hours and this place turns into drama central," Joel muttered then spun on his heel and stomped out of the room.
Ethan laughed then asked, "Are we still having the bonfire and barbeque tonight?"
"Yeah, I think we could all use a beer or ten after the crap that went down today," Terri replied.
"Sounds like just what the doctor ordered."
"Speaking of doctors...you have an appointment with yours next week. I think he'll be happy to see your progress," she told him. "I really
am proud of you, Ethan."
Pleasure flowed through him
as he said, "I'm proud of myself." Sitting on the bed, Ethan put on his socks then slid his feet into his spare boots. His other pair was down by the creek. "Did you pick up the clothes I left at the creek?"
"Yeah, they're in the back of the truck."
"Did Rocky make it back to the barn with that horse yet?" he asked nonchalantly. He wanted to make sure the stubborn cowgirl hadn't gotten lost out in the woods, but he didn't want his sister to make too much of his concern. She had interfered enough already trying to push them together.
"Yeah, I saw her riding into the barn when I was heading here," she told him.
"Good, just checking to make sure we don't need to send out a rescue party."
If she was lost, t
hat party wouldn't include him. Someone else could go out looking for her, Ethan Baker really was done chasing Roxanne Baker in any way, shape or form.
Between all the times she'd turned him down or pushed him away since he met her,
the kindergarten riding lesson earlier, and the way she reacted when he was trying to rescue her at the creek, he finally got it.
Roxanne Baker
didn't have an iota of faith in him, she thought he was weak and disabled. The more he thought about how she acted earlier, what she'd done and why she jumped in that creek, the angrier he got.
She hadn't jumped in that water because she thought Rambler was in danger, she'd jumped in because she was afraid he would fail in his rescue attempt, and thought she could do better.
The only reason she had been helping him with therapy and riding lessons was because she thought he was a charity case. Roxanne Baker had no faith that he would ever get to the point he could join that search and rescue team.
And
she had made it more than obvious she wasn't interested in him as a man, didn't think he was one anymore.
They'd had sex once, and that really was the end of it.
He
wished her well and hoped one day she found what she was looking for, because obviously he didn't fit that bill, and he didn't want to anymore.
Rocky grabbed a beer from the huge wash tub over by the chuck wagon and used the opener mounted on the back to pop the top off. Putting the cool bottle to her lips she took a long swig then sighed as the cool liquid chilled her throat. What a hell of a day it had been, she thought and walked over to sit on a log by the fire. One of the worst she'd had since she started working at the R & R Ranch over a year ago.
That dumbass male chauvinist guest who had gotten hurt this afternoon wasn't even supposed to
still be at the ranch, or riding. His group had left two days ago, but he had extended his stay evidently. Probably because he had skipped her riding lessons, which he sorely needed. According to Dylan who had a confrontation with the man out in the field, Big Mike wanted to take one final ride before he left.
Well, his final ride had almost been his
final
ride. If Ethan hadn't stepped up to save him, he might well be dead right now, instead of recuperating at the hospital in Amarillo.
Earlier, when she got back to the ranch,
Rocky called the hospital to check on the man, because even though she had wished him dead a couple of times since she met him, she didn't
want
him to be dead. According to the exasperated nurse she'd talked with, Big Mike was doing fine, but from the nurse's voice she imagined he was giving everyone hell there too.
Hearing the sound of a truck motor,
Rocky looked up and saw Terri's ranch truck headed across the field. She wondered if Ethan would be with his sister, because she needed to thank him for saving her life too. Jumping into that creek had been a big mistake, and if he hadn't stepped up to help her, she could have drowned. Probably would have drowned.
Although
Rocky was a decently strong swimmer, she had only swam farther down the creek where the current wasn't as strong. Faced with the current near the bend in that creek where they had been, she was as weak as a kitten.
"Hey, darlin', you doing okay?" Dylan asked and nudged her with his elbow.
"Yeah, fine as frog's hair," she replied with a grin and nudged him back, then took another swig of her beer. "Just a little waterlogged."
"You scared the crap out of me," he told her seriously. "I should have gone in th
at creek after Rambler, instead of you."
She snorted then asked, "Why because you're a man?
You think men don't drown just as quickly as women?" Rocky knew she had more than proven herself here on the ranch. Because she was a woman, she had to work twice as hard as they did to earn respect. Sometimes that wasn't enough though.
"
Um, well, you know...forget I said that," he replied with a chuckle, then his mouth cocked up on one side. "Your sister going to be at the fire tonight?"
"Stay away from my sister, Dylan...I
'm warning you," Rocky growled then laughed when she playfully put her elbow into his stomach.
"I'm just yanking your
rope, Rocky," he said with a snort and stepped away.
"Thanks for letting her stay at your trailer, I appreciate it," she told him.
"You're welcome, and it's not a problem. She can stay as long as she needs to stay."
The ranch truck pulled to a stop by the chuck wagon and Terri slid out of the driver's seat, waving to them as she headed toward the fire. On the other side of the big white truck, she saw a shadow moving around inside the cab and she assumed it was either Joel or Ethan. Her heart sped up a little, as she waited to see who it was.
Taking a long swig of her beer, she emptied it then walked around the chuck wagon to throw it away, so she could see who it was.
When Joel walked into the light thrown by the campfire, her heart sank a little.
"Hey, boss man," she said as her bottle landed in the bottom of the trash barrel with a clank. "Where's Ethan?"
His eyebrows raised a little, before he told her, "He's coming in a few minutes in the golf cart."
"Oh, okay
," she replied trying to hide the disappointment in her voice.
"You need him for something?" Joel asked curiously as he went to the aluminum tub and pulled out a beer.
"Just wanted to thank him for pulling my fat out of the fire out at the creek. I got in over my head, literally," she told him with a chuckle.
"That doesn't happen often," Joel said as he opened his beer then took a long draw.
No, it wasn't often she lost her head, but she had this afternoon.
H
er goal in jumping in that creek was twofold. Not only was she trying to save the horse, she was trying to help the man, because when the backboard got stuck on the log, she thought
he
was in over his head and would get hurt.
She
realized now that she should have thought more before she jumped.
Ethan had been a firefighter for a long time,
he had the skills he needed to handle that situation and then some. Even though his physical ability was stunted by his injury, he had the mental acuity and determination to get the job done. Right there on the bank of that creek, he had formulated a plan and had taken a leadership role to get it done, without fear and without hesitation. He hit a snag in his plan and she freaked out.
Because dammit against all odds, she cared about the man.
Rocky needed to have more faith in him, the same faith that he evidently had in himself now. She had shortchanged him this afternoon, twice, and owed him not only an apology, but a thank you for saving her ass too.
Hell, the man was amazing in her estimation
. In just a couple of months here at the ranch, he was not only out of the wheelchair and
walking
on crutches and without, he had mounted Diamond on his own just this afternoon, then saved both her and Big Mike.