The Family You Make (Sunrise Cove #1)(5)

“Hey. Hey, Levi, stay with me. Where did you grow up?”

“Here.” He swallowed hard, like he was trying not to throw up. “Tahoe. Not the gondola.”

She smiled. “Funny guy.”

“I try. Where did you grow up?”

“I didn’t. Not yet.” It was her automatic, by rote, don’t-give-too-much-of-herself-away answer, and she usually got away with it.

But Levi opened his eyes, then managed to narrow them slightly as he reached out and touched her cheek. His fingers came away with blood on them. “You’re hurt,” he said, sounding more alert now, carefully scanning his gaze over her. She watched as he took in the fact that she was crouching over him in just her bra, but his gaze was brisk and methodical. “Just a scratch,” she assured him.

He made a quick assessment anyway. Patting her down, checking the bloodstains on her.

“It’s your blood.” She caught his hand. “Levi, I’m fine.” Okay, so maybe she was a little dinged up, but she’d had worse. “Really. I’m good.”

He gave a nod so slight she almost missed it. “You are,” he agreed. “And brave as hell.” Then he closed his eyes and lay very still.

She checked his pulse again.

“My ribs are bruised, but not broken, I don’t think,” he murmured. “And you know head wounds always look worse than they are. I’m fine.”

“Yeah? You’re fine?” There might’ve been the slightest touch of hysteria in her voice. “Then maybe you could put all those well-honed muscles to use and pry us out of this tin can.”

That got a very small smirk out of him.

“Oh please, like you don’t know that you look like a walking/talking Outside magazine cover. Let me guess. You’re a wildland firefighter. A hotshot.”

His small smile widened a bit. “Data . . . scientist. Consultant.”

“Sounds very . . . cerebral.”

His smirk remained in place. “You think scientists can’t have . . . what did you call them . . . well-honed muscles . . . ?” His voice trailed off.

He was fading, and panic surged anew. “What does a data scientist consultant do?” she asked desperately.

He shrugged, which caused him to grimace in pain. “I . . . extract and design data modeling . . . processes . . .”

“Levi.”

“Hmmm?”

He was clearly having trouble finding words and keeping track of the conversation. He needed X-rays. An MRI. “What else does a data scientist consultant do?”

“Create algorithms and predictive models . . . for business needs, stuff like that.”

She looked around once again for the first aid kit that had to be here somewhere. Yes, there it was in the corner. She hooked it with her foot and opened it up. “Could you create an algorithm to tell me which fast-food joint is most likely to give me a stomachache when I’m inhaling food after a twelve-hour shift?”

“The answer is all of them. And that’s a long workday.”

“Betting you work long hours too.”

“I do. How about I feed you real food after this?”

She snorted. “Are you flirting with me right now, Levi the Data Scientist Consultant?”

The man managed a small smile, sexy as hell even with him sprawled out on the floor, bleeding. “I’m stuck in a gondola with a beautiful woman who took off her clothes. The least I can do is make her laugh.”

She did just that as she found the antiseptic and gauze and doctored up his head the best she could for the moment. “This isn’t exactly a laughable situation.”

“I know. I didn’t even get mouth-to-mouth—”

He broke off as another huge gust of wind hit them like a battering ram, rocking them violently.

Jane crouched over him to keep anything else from hitting him. “Wonder how many gondolas have fallen at this resort,” she asked with what she wanted to be a calm voice, but which sounded thin to her own ears.

Levi reached up and covered her hands with his. “Until tonight? Zero.”

“You better not be lying to make me feel better.”

“I’m not. I mean, I’d totally lie to make you feel better, but it’s also the truth. A gondola has never fallen in the Tahoe region. Scout’s honor.”

“Until now.”

His steely eyes held hers. “Until now.”

She realized their faces were inches apart. Pulling back, she began going through the stuff littered around them, finding a bottle of water. “Are you allergic to acetaminophen?” she asked.

“No.”

She handed over two pills from the small sample packet in her first aid kit. He propped himself up and popped them into his mouth, swallowing them before she got the bottle of water open. He lay back down and closed his eyes again. A muscle ticking in his jaw was the only sign he was in pain.

“What else do you need?” she asked.

“Can you reach into my front pocket?”

“Not even in your dreams.”

That got her another almost smile. “To get my phone.”

“Oh.” Right. The fact he was no longer flirting with her and his face was pinched with pain made her even more worried. Worried enough to indeed reach into his pocket and pull out his phone. She handed it over and watched as he sent out a quick text, getting an even quicker response. “I’ve got a friend on the search-and-rescue team here. He says the resort security alerted them. There’s already a team in place, but they’re being held up at base because there’s zero visibility.” He gave a very tense smile. “He said to hang tight.”