The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska #1)(59)

“You have to tell me which dangly bit.”





Chapter 10



Climbs back up always sucked more than climbs down. At least Zoey had a great view.

Graham went first, climbing with the competence of a man who was used to this sort of activity. When he reached the top, he whistled loudly to signal to Ash they were ready to start back. Then Graham turned and knelt by the rope ladder as Zoey followed suit. She climbed up more slowly than Graham had climbed, taking one last look around to memorize the moment.

“That was amazing.” Unable to keep from beaming at him, Zoey accepted Graham’s offered hand, getting a foot safely on the ice. “Did you see—”

It wasn’t the rope’s fault that things went to hell in a handbag. It was all the ice’s fault. Or maybe it was the stake having wriggled just loose enough in the warming surface of the glacier. Or maybe, just maybe, the glacier was as fed up as the locals were at having their home territory crisscrossed by the curious feet of exuberant tourists, because when the rope went, it took the stake and Zoey right along with it. That would teach them to not pay attention to climate change.

With a squeak of surprise, Zoey slipped. She kept slipping, right off the edge of the shelf into the cave. Graham lunged for her, snagging her wrist as she went over. Dangling twenty feet above the floor of the cave, only Graham’s strength keeping her from falling.

“Hold on!” Graham bellowed, tightening his grip on her wrist. “Ashtyn, get a rope! Zoey, give me your other hand.”

She tried to stretch, but the movement only made them both slip more. “Graham—”

“No way.” A feral snarl escaped his throat. “I’m not letting you go.”

“Actually, I was going to say please don’t let me go. I will eat every reindeer dog in Alaska until Santa’s sleigh is permanently stuck on the ground if you don’t—”

A cry of fear escaped her lips as Graham’s purchase gave a few inches.

“Ash, move! She’s slipping.”

Not just Zoey. They both were slipping. As terrified as she was, it occurred to Zoey maybe it would be a good thing to make Graham let her go. If someone was going to get eaten by an ice cave, it was better for her than him. He had a much better chance of getting help.

At first, Zoey thought they were falling. It took her a moment to realize that they were both dangling, only now he had a two-armed grip around her waist from grabbing her. Graham’s face squashed painfully into her left breast as he cursed like a sailor.

“Did we die?”

“Not yet, gorgeous,” he grunted. “I’m going to hoist you up. Grab onto Ash and don’t let go. If you have any muscles, you use them.”

“I have muscles.”

“Prove it, Zo, because I’m not at my best position to be tossing tourists right now. One, two, three.”

Maybe he wasn’t in his best position, but when he hit three, Graham muscled her up past him. If he had been cursing like a sailor, up on the ice, Ash was as foulmouthed as the sailor’s disreputable uncle, ice ax clenched between her teeth as she rewrapped the rope that now held Graham’s leg secured around a new stake in the ground. Between the two of them, Zoey and Ash grabbed Graham’s legs and hauled him high enough he could get the top half of his torso out of the ice cave.

Graham dropped back on the ice, inhaling deeply to regain his wind. “Thanks for saving our bacon, Ash. That was exciting, wasn’t it?”

It took a moment for Zoey to realize that the pounding in her ears was actually her heart beating violently in her chest.

“I think our versions of exciting may be a little different,” Ash groaned, sitting on the ice near them, winded.

Zoey looked over and realized Graham’s face was two shades paler than it usually was, and his hand was tight around her own.

“That was brave,” she whispered, rolling over and wrapping her arm around his waist. “Thank you. Both of you.”

He hugged her tight, a much-needed comfort for both of them. Smoothing his hand over her hair, Graham looked into her eyes.

“You know how life-and-death situations bring things into sharper clarity? I just realized something very important.”

“What is it?”

Nose-to-nose, Graham panted, “I am so glad I’m not a wuss.”

*

“Did you ever see Dirty Dancing? You’re carrying a watermelon, Zoey.” With that, Graham dropped something bulky in her arms. It wasn’t a watermelon, but the sticks of firewood he gave her sure weren’t light.

Grunting under the weight, Zoey followed Graham down the sandy beach where a party full of strangers waited for them. “I feel like you use too many pop culture references.”

Graham hefted his own firewood bundle up higher, balancing it in one arm and taking a handful of her top pieces to add to his own.

“I have it.”

“Yes, but I don’t want you to fall the wrong way. Stick a foot in a mud flat, and I won’t be able to get you back out again before the tide comes in and you drown or freeze to death.”

“Ha ha.”

“No joke. Stick to the dry stuff, and you’ll be fine.”

Eyeing the frothy, crashing waves next to them, Zoey stepped closer to Graham’s side. “It’s a dangerous day to be us, huh?”