"Thank the rangers," Teri told her. "I've been here with you the entire time."
"Oh, but you helped," Jean said, and next to her, David nodded firmly. "We've been going crazy this whole time, and if you hadn't been there, we would've just worked ourselves up into a frenzy—I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from going after the rangers to see for myself if Andy was up there, and of course you were right, they needed to work without any interruptions. So thank you. I'll be sure to tell the Park how wonderful you were."
"Oh, I'm not—" Teri started, but Jean had turned to hug her husband. Oh, well. She supposed it didn't matter if someone happened to tell the Park she'd done a good job even though she didn't work there.
At that thought, she was struck by a sudden, intensely wistful desire. If only she did work at the Park. How wonderful would that be? Being here every day, at the most beautiful place in the world. If she were a ranger, she could be outside every day, hiking around, helping people like the Morrisons, making sure the park stayed beautiful and safe for everyone who visited it.
Teri bit her lip and turned away from the Morrisons, blinking quickly. It wasn’t possible, of course. She couldn’t be a park ranger without training, and training cost money, and she had less than no money right now. Even if she got a job tomorrow, it would be months before she had enough money to even move out of her parents’ house.
If you were living with Zach, that wouldn’t matter.
Living with Zach. The idea distracted her for a second. Waking up with him, having dinner with him, watching him build the deck he’d talking about—maybe even helping. Mmm, Zach with tools, working out in the summer sun, maybe shirtless...pulling him inside for more of the mind-blowing sex they’d had last night...
Teri yanked her mind back to the present. Practicalities. She was thinking about money. And even if she did live with Zach and get a job fast, it would still be a long, long time before she made enough to pay off the rest of her medical bills, let alone contribute to their household and save up enough to pay for ranger school on top of that. And who knew if she’d even be able to make it in?
I could do it.
She shook her head. As lovely as the idea sounded, it wasn’t possible right now. And she wouldn’t get very far with her immediate problems if she were just daydreaming about possibilities in the distant future.
Besides, she didn’t want to be one of those girlfriends who was like, Honey, let’s do everything together! Look, I got a job at the same place where you work, isn’t that wonderful? She’d always thought that sort of thing was sad—forcing yourself on someone 24/7, like people didn’t need a break from each other now and then. No one could be happy living together and working together.
The fantasy of living with Zach crept back. She thought about also seeing him at work every day. His smile, his warm voice, his strong, competent movements, coming along with her no matter where she was...
Somehow, it didn’t seem too awful.
This was silly. They’d only just met, and mates or not, they’d get tired of each other eventually. Why was she inventing a future where she had a job she’d never considered before, making up problems that would never happen? Teri wasn’t going to be a park ranger.
Besides, all the Glacier rangers were shifters. A human woman probably wouldn’t be welcome in their ranks, anyway.
The radio crackled, making her jump. Cal was telling her that the group was on their way back down, and would probably pass by the campsite soon, so they should come out to the main hiking trail up the mountain if they wanted to rendezvous.
Good. Something concrete to focus on. Teri turned back to the Morrisons. “Okay,” she said. “Time to pack up all these emergency supplies that we’re not going to need anymore, and head out!”
Busying herself with in-the-moment tasks made it easy to forget about all that wishful thinking, and soon the three of them were hiking out to meet up with the rangers as they came down the mountain. The Morrisons pushed hard, and Teri followed doggedly behind, trying to hide how tired she was.
She still wasn’t a hundred percent, after all. She’d almost forgotten that she was in recovery, too caught up in the search for Andy Morrison to think about her own issues. But it was true that she was still getting her strength back, even if her bones were finally all completely healed.
She hung back behind the eager parents, who were too laser-focused on finding their son to look back, and concentrated on keeping her breath. By the time they saw the rangers coming down the trail toward them, she was achy and gasping, and happy to sink down to sit on a rock while the Morrisons ran ahead with a last burst of speed to get to their child.
The whole party stopped when the parents reached them, but one figure broke off and kept coming. Teri smiled through her panting breaths, and waited for him.
Zach looked concerned as he came up to her rock. “Teri? Are you okay?”
She nodded. She was finally starting to catch her breath. “Just tired.” She took a drink of water from the bottle she’d snagged from the Morrisons’ camp. And her eyes took a long drink of Zach, all official in his ranger uniform, but with such warmth and care in his silvery eyes.
She thought that the look strengthened her even more than the water did.
He was still looking concerned, though. She told him, “We went pretty fast to get up here, and I’m not quite used to it yet. I haven’t done any serious exercise since before the accident.”
“But you’re okay.” Zach studied her face. “Drinking water, catching your breath all right? Not nauseated or feeling faint?”
“Nope. Just had to sit and rest for a minute. I should be good to go soon.”
Zach nodded, the concern fading from his face, and came to sit next to her on the rock. She scooted over to make room, and leaned into him. He took her hand, twining their fingers together, and she sighed at the warmth from his body, wishing they were alone out here so she could just curl up into his side.
“We’re not going too fast because of Andy, so the way back shouldn’t be as hard on you,” he said. “But if you do need to rest again, just let me know, all right? I can stay with you. We don’t need five rangers to get Andy and Joel back down the mountain.”
Teri squeezed his hand. Once again, she appreciated the difference between how Zach took care of her and how her family tried to do it. Zach obviously wanted to be sure that she was all right. But at the same time, he was listening to what she told him about how she felt, and respecting her own ability to assess what she could do.