BRADLEY
“Jenkins! Jenkins? Wake up, Jenkins!”
I awake to the feeling of pressure against my shoulder. Opening my eyes, I see Tate standing there smiling down at me, her hand pressed against my face.
“Is it morning already?” I ask.
“Come on! We’re getting out of here! There’s a chopper outside with a rope ladder to airlift us out of here. I can help you climb. How’s your ankle feeling?”
I reach down and rub my swollen ankle. “It’s okay, I think,” I say, masking the urge to wince with a smile. “It still hurts, but it feels a lot better than yesterday.”
She helps me to my feet and limp out of the cave. Just as she said, there’s a chopper above us. The furious wind of the blades blows through my hair and rustles the trees. I make my way up the ladder first and Tate follows close behind, her hand on my leg to help steady me as I make my way up the rope rungs until we’re safely inside.
An ambulance waits for us at the fire station and a couple of paramedics check us both over. Once we’re given the clear, we head inside to the dining room where the rest of our team is waiting for us. All the guys cheer as Tate and I enter, most of them coming over to give us both hugs and high fives.
“Glad you’re both okay!” Andrews says, the crew nodding in unison.
“Yeah, me too.”
Andrews turns to Tate. “Were you scared, rookie?”
“Hey! Only I’m allowed to call her that,” I chime in, shooting him a warning grin. “Especially after what we just went through.”
“All right, all right,” he says, sticking his hands up defensively. “Geez, someone’s protective. What the heck were you guys up to all night anyway? Must have been boring as hell inside that cave, hey?”
Tate’s face drops but I force a chuckle and slap Andrews on the back. “Dude, my ankle popped right out of joint when a tree nearly fell on us on the mountainside. The night consisted of her bandaging my ankle and me trying to get some sleep on the cold ass ground.”
Andrews looks over to Tate, but she just rolls her eyes. “What? You heard what Jenkins said, so stop trying to fish for nasty details that never happened, you pervert.” She stands up to him and I see the woman that I’ve fallen for holding her own. Even if I’m not here, she’ll be fine.
Andrews bursts out laughing. “Fair enough. That’s a shame though. The guys and I were all placing bets on whether or not anything freaky went down. Guess I just lost twenty bucks.”
“Serves you right for betting on something so stupid,” I groan.
“Well, there was one freaky thing that happened,” Tate pipes up.
My heart freezes in my chest.Is she seriously going to tell him what happened?
“Jenkins asked me to dinner. Given the circumstances, he said if we didn’t die out there, he’d really like to take me to dinner sometime. And I said sure. So there you go, if that’s consideredfreakyenough then maybe you won’t lose your money.”
“I don’t think that counts, sadly. But hey, congratulations you two! I don’t usually approve of coworker romance, but it’s just dinner, right?”
Tate and I look at each other and smile. “Right.”