The glove box clicked as Rachel opened it, taking out a map. Her fingers flew over the accordion-folded paper. “Where are we…where are we?” she muttered.
I knew better than to answer her.
A quick look in my rearview mirror told me the slide was picking up speed, and we were the next obstacle in the chute.
“Here!” she exclaimed, pointing to the map. “There’s a road a half mile on the left. We should be able to get to the highway if this one…isn’t available.”
She sucked in her breath, and I caught her looking in the rearview as I slammed the car into fourth gear. “Don’t look.”
“Kind of impossible, seeing as the mountain would like to eat us.”
“Yeah, I know.”
I cursed, braking through a steep turn, knowing it cost us precious seconds. A glance back confirmed it. I couldn’t see the end of the landslide, only the two cars a little farther back in the debris, which meant we were in serious danger of hydroplaning and becoming part of the slide.
“There!” Rachel yelled, pointing to the road on the left.
“Hold on!”
“Never stopped,” she whispered.
We locked eyes for a precious millisecond, and then I ripped the car to the left, braking at the last possible second as the car skidded around the ninety-degree turn. I threw it into 4x4 low for the steep incline and tore up the gravel road, the rain forming a creek exactly in the middle of where I wanted to be.
“Landon!” Rachel yelled.
I punched the gas and prayed, thanking God when the tires caught and we lurched up the hill.
I didn’t stop until we crested the small hill, leaving at least thirty feet between us and the slide as it rushed by beneath us.
Flinging my door open, I jumped down, immediately drenched by the unforgiving rain. My feet carried me to the back of the Jeep, where I could see the massive river of…fuck, everything flowing down the road.
Rachel stumbled around the back, and I grabbed her to me, clutching her tiny frame against my chest. “Tell me you’re okay.”
She shook violently, and I couldn’t tell if she was nodding or not.
“Rachel?” I tilted her chin so I could see those brown eyes.
“I’m…f-f-f-fine,” she stammered, raindrops hitting her face.
I sat on the bumper and pulled her with me, cradling her as carefully as I could. “Good. That’s good.”
As I relaxed my muscles, the adrenaline fled, draining everything from me but the relief that we had somehow miraculously survived. My breath came in great gulps, and I knew that I held on to Rachel more for myself.
I replayed the last minutes, everything that had happened since we saw the ground give way, and my heart pounded against my ribs. “We’ll have to take the other road back. There’s no way that one will be passable.”
She nodded against my chest, her head tucked into that perfect notch just under my collarbone. It might have been years since I’d held her, but she felt exactly the same, her sun-kissed citrus scent still invaded my senses, and for just this moment, she held onto me as if we’d never been apart.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” I asked, needing to hear it again, needing to know that I hadn’t gotten her hurt.
She nodded.
I tilted her chin again so I could see her face. She looked up at me with wide, wild eyes and parted lips that I had the nearly undeniable urge to kiss.
But I didn’t. Not like this. Not because we’d almost died.
“Rachel?” I asked. “Say something.”
A shaky smile played at her lips. “I’m really glad you didn’t let me drive.”
We both burst into laughter, washing away some of the terror, and I hugged her close, savoring the contact and the beat of her heart.
Even if this was all we ever had—these few moments where we’d sought comfort from each other—it would be enough. Just having her not hate me for fifteen seconds was a hell of a lot better than the last couple of years.
Okay, that was a lie.
It would never be enough.
Chapter Ten
Rachel
At Sea
“Stop looking at me like that,” I told Leah as we hunched over our books at the dining room table the next afternoon.
“Like what?” she asked, her gaze still moving over all my exposed parts.
“Like I’m secretly wounded and about to bleed out at any moment.” I flipped the page in my notebook. “I told you I’m fine. He’s fine. We’re…” I shook my head. “Everything is fine.”
“You were civil to Landon at lunch,” she remarked. “You even let him sit across from you and didn’t break into a food fight.”
“Yeah?” I uncapped my highlighter and attacked my textbook. So much for selling this sucker back.
“Seriously, Rachel, what’s going on? Is this about the”—her voice dropped to a whisper—“mudslide?”
“You don’t have to whisper, I can still hear you,” Penna called out from the living room, where I was pretty sure her ass was going to leave a permanent indent on the sofa.
“Sorry, Penna. I just didn’t want to upset you.”
She scoffed. “Upset me? I wasn’t the one almost devoured by a piece of Sri Lanka, and I can honestly say that Brooke didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Maybe I did. After all¸ I’m the jinx, right? The curse?” I asked.