I took a step that was more like a limp forward and said, “I fell.” I sniffled. “The only thing broken is my spirit.” I wiped at my face with my sweaty forearms and tried to smile but failed at that too. “Fancy seeing you here.”
His gaze went back to my knees. “Tell me what happened.”
“I slipped along the ridge and thought I was going to die, lost half my pride along the way too,” I told him, wiping at my face again. I was so fed up. Beyond fed up. I just wanted to get home.
His shoulders seemed to relax a little with every word out of my mouth, and then he was moving again, setting down two trekking poles I hadn’t noticed he’d been holding along the side of the trail and slipping his backpack off too before he stopped in front of me and kneeled. His palm went around the back of the knee with the ripped pant leg, and he gently lifted it. I let him, too surprised to do anything other than stand there trying to balance as he whistled under his breath, inspecting the skin there.
Rhodes glanced up from under those thick, curly lashes. He set my leg back down and touched the back of my other calf. “This one too?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I answered, hearing the sulkiness I was trying to hide in my voice. “And my hands.” I sniffled again. “And my elbows.”
Rhodes kept kneeling as he reached for one of my hands and flipped it, instantly wincing. “Jesus Christ, how far did you fall?”
“Not that far,” I said, letting him look at my palms. His eyebrows knit together in a pained expression before he took my other hand and inspected it too.
“You didn’t clean it?” he asked as he lifted that arm up a bit, grimacing again. I’d taken my UPF shirt off not even thirty minutes before falling. My skin might have been more protected if I’d left it on. Too late now.
“No,” I replied. “That’s why I turned around. I don’t have anything on me. Ouch, that hurt.”
He lowered my arm slowly and took the other, lifting it high up to check out that elbow too and earning him another “Oww” from me when it made my shoulder ache.
“I think I hurt my shoulder when I tried to break my fall.”
His gaze met mine. “You know that’s the worst thing you can do when you fall?”
I gave him a flat look. “I’ll keep that in mind next time I fall on my face,” I grumbled.
I was pretty sure his mouth might have twisted a little as he stood up. Rhodes gave me a single nod for sure though. “Let’s go, I’ll walk you down and get you cleaned up.”
“You will?”
He slanted me a look before picking up his trekking poles and backpack, slipping the straps on, then maneuvering the two sticks through crisscrossing cords on his back, leaving his arms free. Finally aiming his body back up the trail toward me, he held out his hand.
I hesitated but set my forearm into his open palm, and I watched as some emotion I didn’t initially recognize slid over his face.
“I meant your backpack, angel. I’ll take it for you. The trail’s not wide enough for both of us to go down at the same time,” he said, his voice sounding oddly hoarse.
Maybe if I hadn’t been in so much pain, and been so damn cranky, I would’ve been embarrassed. But I wasn’t, so I nodded, shrugged, and gingerly tried to take my backpack off. Luckily, I just started to shimmy a strap off when I felt the weight leave my shoulders as he tugged it away.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive” was all he replied with. “Come on. We’ve got half an hour to get back to the trailhead.”
My whole body slumped. “Half an hour?” I’d thought I had… ten minutes max.
My landlord pressed his lips together and nodded.
Was he trying not to laugh? I wasn’t sure because he turned around and started heading down the path ahead of me. But I was pretty sure I saw his shoulders shaking a little.
“Let me know when you want water” was one of the only two things he said on the way down.
The other being, “Are you humming what I think you’re humming?”
And me replying with “Yes.”
“Big Girls Don’t Cry.” I had no shame.
I tripped twice, and he turned around both times, but I gave him a tight smile and acted like nothing had happened.
Like he predicted, thirty minutes later, when I was basically wheezing and he was acting like this was a stroll down a paved path, I spotted the parking lot and almost cried.
We’d made it.
I’d made it.