“For ice?” Jack asked.
“I swear to God, I was going slow, for the ice…”
“Molly, you kept your head. You kept eighteen kids still for two hours. You probably saved all their lives.”
“Jack, I don’t know that I was ever so scared.”
He put a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her against his chest. “Yeah. Me, too.” He took a breath. “Me, too.”
Luke had gone to the bar, hoping to get dinner to take home for himself, Art and Shelby. Upon finding it closed, he heard about the accident and, like everyone else who heard, headed that way. There were so many people in the thick of a rescue that was well under way by the time he got there, he didn’t get too close. He stayed back behind the perimeter tape, behind a crowd of parents and townsfolk, watching in fascination as a team that combined men from town—Paul and some of his crew, Preacher, the general, Mike V.—and the rescue team worked. They bolted down a brace, fastened a heavy cable from a huge spool and ran it down the hill.
While this was going on, he saw Shelby with Mel and Cameron, saw her rush forward to lead a child to the Humvee for medical evaluation and treatment. She was in the thick of it, helping to administer first aid, soothing crying children, calming disgruntled parents, snapping to attention with every request from either Mel, Cameron or even a paramedic. She looked as if she’d been doing it all her life.
Finally, after standing for well over an hour, his breath swirling around, he saw the firefighters bring up the bus driver, the very one who’d splattered him on his way into town. He’d been listening to the talk in the crowd of towns-people, that Jack had been down there, hanging on to a rope, keeping her calm while she had the bigger job of keeping all the children from wiggling around or trying to escape the bus.
He saw Jack give her a hug, then saw Shelby go to her, take her hand and lead her to the paramedic rig to have her bleeding chin looked at. Mel followed, watching them treat her injury.
People were beginning to leave, or follow their children to the hospital or take uninjured kids home. Road-construction barriers were set up around the brace that held the cable that held the bus; California Highway Patrol was directing traffic out of the area. And Luke walked toward Shelby as she was packing supplies back into the Humvee.
“Hey, there,” he said. “What’s new?”
She jumped in surprise. “Luke! How long have you been here?”
“Little over an hour,” he said. “By the time I got here, the fire department, police and paramedics were all over the place and I had to stay behind the barrier with everyone else. I didn’t want to distract you.”
“Did you see that bus down there?”
“I didn’t want to get too close. There was an awful lot going on.”
“The floodlights are still on it. You should look. It’ll scare you to death.”
“So—what they’re saying is, you found a couple of hurt kids who got out before it slid down the hill and went for help.”
Before she could answer, Mel was beside them. “Correct,” she answered for Shelby. “You would have been impressed, Luke. She never flinched. She knew all the right things to do and remained perfectly calm. Efficient, skilled, confident.” Mel smiled. “She’s going to be an incredible nurse. You should be so proud of her.”
“I am,” Luke replied. “And not at all surprised.” He draped an arm around her shoulders.
And Shelby thought, Oh God. I have to get this over with. She didn’t need advice from Mel or anyone else. She’d given him every chance, but he never said a word about how he felt about her, not a syllable about wanting a life with her. She had to make herself move on before she couldn’t. Tears gathered in her eyes. “Let me finish up here, Luke. I’m going to follow Mel and Cameron back to the clinic, help clean up the Humvee, restock it. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Are you crying?” he asked softly.
“I might be overwhelmed.”
He frowned slightly at the glistening in her eyes. “Sure,” he said. He kissed her forehead. “Take your time.”
Eighteen
A few days later found Shelby in the stable in the early morning. No one in the Booth family was riding; just walking from the house to the stable to tend the horses was torture. Walt had put a coffeepot in the tack room because he couldn’t keep a cup hot when carrying it from the house. Even though the stable was heated, Shelby wore heavy gloves, a scarf around her neck, her suede jacket…and her ostrich boots. She wore them all the time.