Denali Dreams (26 page)

Mr. Tsosie laughed and slapped Logan’s shoulder. “Knew I liked you. Now if I can just—” His gaze slammed into something. His jaw went slack. “No. It can’t be.” His hand went to his heart.

Logan reached for Mr. Tsosie as he felt a dark shadow drop over them.

“Dad.” A man the size of an elephant embraced Mr. Tsosie.

Logan automatically took a step back. With that guy around, there was no such thing as personal space because he ate it up.

“Son! You came.” Tears streamed down Mr. Tsosie’s face. “You came.”

“Easy, Dad.” Tsosie Junior—okay, that was just downright wrong—eased his father back. “They said you needed someone to keep you in line.”

Dad?

Mr. Tsosie thumbed away his tears. “Did they?” he snorted. “When did you ever listen to them?”

“This time.” For a guy the size of Foraker, the younger Tsosie had an incredible gentleness about him. An ache twisted inside Logan for the family he didn’t have. The family that rounded out Thanksgivings and Christmases. Family that came to the rescue when things went south.

Smiling, Logan turned to the big guy again.

Fierce, narrowing eyes nailed him.

Logan shrank back.

A meaty hand thrust toward him.

Half expecting to feel an impact against his gut, Logan tensed.

“Enli Tsosie.”

Deline’s brother. As if to confirm the thought, she snaked around in front of the guy. “Logan, this is my brother. Enli, this is Logan Knox, a friend. And a mountaineering ranger.”

A friend. The knife of that word severed his hope that she’d see him as anything but a ranger and a
friend.

“If he finds out you like Deline, he will tear you apart faster than a grizzly.”

So maybe
friend
had been a safe word and Deline saved Logan’s life. Because the guy’s grip felt like a vise. Logan prayed Enli wouldn’t break anything. Thanked the Lord the grip wasn’t around his neck. He was heading up to 9500 for the next month to relieve Mario. He’d need everything—including the limb—for that stint.

“Mr. Tsosie,” Logan finally managed, wading through his morbid thoughts.

Enli didn’t release him. “Saw you watching my sister. You like her?”

Visions of him laid out in the snow—bleeding, eyesight fading, dying—danced through his mind. Where was the gentle giant who’d just addressed his father?

Deline spun toward him. “Enli, stop it!”

The grip tightened. Logan felt the flicker of a frown. Surely he wouldn’t …

Maybe he would. “Yes, I like her.” Logan swallowed the adrenaline spurting into his throat. “Liked everyone I’ve met since arriving in Talkeetna … till now.” He flicked his gaze to the death grip.

“You don’t like me?”

“Depends on what condition you leave my hand in. Breaking it sort of ruins things for me.” Logan raised his eyebrows when nothing shifted, not the grip, not the tension, not the posture. “I’d have to take that personally, since it’d put my job at risk.”

Enli released his hand with a loud laugh then slapped Logan on the shoulder. “Welcome to Talkeetna.” He turned back to Mr. Tsosie then went to retrieve glasses of punch.

Welcome? He’d been here two years!

“I’m sorry,” Deline said. “He’s a little overprotective.”

He shrugged. “He’s doing what big brothers do best.”

David waded over to them. “Wow. I thought I was going to need to put some field medic training to use.”

“You and me both.” Logan laughed.

Deline gave him a look.

“What?”

She shook her head. “Nothing.” But she kept watching him as the evening wore on. Though he didn’t hover—not technically—and didn’t try to constantly engage her, Logan had a finger on her location for the next two hours. He couldn’t help it. Something about her served as a beacon in the midst of a storm.

He hoped for some time to talk with her, break down another protective layer. “Hey, so you think—”

“I’ll be right back.” She hurried off.

And did another three times. Every time he tried to engage her, in fact. Frustration pinched his shoulder muscles as the party wound down.

“I’d better get him home,” she said to David and Jolie, then her gorgeous eyes skittered over to his. “Sorry. I just think he overdid it.”

“Want help?” Logan offered, tossing his plastic cup into the trash.

“No. No, it’s okay.” She smiled at him. “Enli will help us.”

“We’re heading over to Jolie’s for a movie in a bit. Logan, why don’t you come over.” David lifted a crate of drinks from the table and started for the back.

Logan watched as Deline hooked her hand beneath her father’s elbow and walked with him out the door. Out of his life. His relationship with her felt like one step forward, two steps back.

A solid thump against his chest startled Logan. He jerked. “What …?”

“It’s not polite to stare.” David grinned as he bent down and caught a table, nodding to Logan. “Grab the other end?”

Logan sighed and moved into the tedious process of cleaning up. Anything to get his mind off the hopelessness of his attraction to Deline. He was better than this. Bigger than this. He was a mountaineering ranger, for cryin’ out loud!

Hollow but distant, a noise rocked through the air.

What was that? Maybe … Jolie and David. No, they were in the kitchen, laughing and talking. The sound repeated, and only then did he realize it was a scream.

Logan started toward the front.

Light flickered and danced along the curtains. Not bright enough for someone to have pulled up in front of Tsosie’s. He pushed open the door. It looked a lot like—

“Fire!” a woman who stood in the street screamed. “Their house is on fire! Kuzih and Deline’s—the Tsosies’!”

A
drenaline surged. Logan sprinted across the road. Flames roared into the dark night. His heart cramped as he rounded the corner and saw the Tsosie home. Cracking and popping beneath the consuming fire, the two-story structure groaned.

“Deline!” Logan shouted as he palmed her Jeep. Hoping against hope they were inside that and not in the house. Front—empty. Back—same. Logan pounded on the hood. “Deline!”

A growl came from somewhere.

He rushed toward the steps that led up to the front porch.

Flames erupted, as if attracted to his presence.

He threw himself backward. His boots slipped on the gravel walk. “Deline!” Shielding his face and eyes from the glare of the fire, he searched for a sign of her. “Deline!” The veins in his temples competed with the fire for oxygen.
“Deline!”

Small and entirely too weak, a voice came from … somewhere.

Bright and angry, the fire roared. Licked the walls. Ate the wood.

“Help!”

The voice jolted him out of the stupor. From the right. He lunged toward the side deck. There, legs still inside the house, lay Mr. Tsosie. Collapsed, his large frame blocked Deline, who was bent, trying to wrangle her father. Hair framing her ash-coated face, Deline looked up at him. “Logan!”

He propelled himself up the steps. Flew the four feet to them. “Go, go! I got him.”

Scrambling a safe distance away, Deline struggled to make herself stay, to stop coughing. Logan scooped her father up and started forward.

A fiery beam slammed down in front of him.

Hands over her mouth, Deline froze.

David darted in front of her and raced to help Logan. He lifted her father’s feet, and the two shuffled his unconscious form to the side. Helpless. He looked helpless. She felt helpless. Nothing she could do …

Have to do something.
She’d always been able to take care of them. Fix things. Make things better. Stay in control when others couldn’t.

With her dad on the ground Craig and Jared, two volunteer EMTs, raced into the fray. They knelt on each side of her father, taking his pulse, strapping on an oxygen mask. Jared threw a question over his shoulder to the man behind him.

Logan.

Holding his knees, he muttered something as an IV slid into her father’s arm. Yes, Logan. He’d been there. Saved her father.

He saved my father.
The thought rang like a dinner bell in her ears. Over and over.

He’d put his life in jeopardy to save her father. To save her.

Of all the men she’d met, of all the mountaineering rangers she’d known … Logan was the only one who unnerved her. She didn’t know what to do with him, with his kindness, his quiet strength. The other guys were loud, boisterous, full of themselves. Like David.

Logan was … Logan. Confident. Quiet. Strong.

Like Daddy.

She hauled in a breath—smoke and ash caught at the back of her throat. She coughed.

Logan’s gaze snapped to hers. “Where’s Enli?”

Around another coughing fit, she said, “Hotel … back at the hotel.”

He frowned as he straightened, his brow knitted.

Though she tried to stop the coughing, the taste in her mouth felt like sandpaper scrubbing her tonsils. More coughing. She turned away. Eyes burning. Limbs aching. Heart tearing.

“Here,” came Logan’s deep, strong voice as he produced a water bottle. “Drink slowly.”

Fist over her mouth, she nodded as the urge to cough continued. She lifted it to her mouth but instead of swallowing, she swished and spit. Then took another gulp and let it slide down.

Lights swirled and a siren squawked. The crowd broke up and moved away as two more EMTs hopped out of another vehicle.

“Need a board,” Jared shouted.

Attention back on her father as they transferred him to a board, Deline panicked. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. “He’s a fighter. He’s going to be okay.”

Logan said nothing, just watched.

“Mom used to always say he was strongest man she knew, inside and out. Thickheaded, too.”

Rocks crunched as Logan shifted toward her.

“She said I was just like him, thickheaded and all. He’ll be fine. I know he will. He has to …”

“Deline.” Logan’s voice was softer this time.

She snapped her gaze to him. “He will. I know he will.” She smiled, but it warbled like the heat plumes that had erupted from the kitchen when they’d entered. “Right? He will, won’t he?”

“Yes. He will. Just overcome with smoke. You got him out in time.”

She didn’t know whether to nod or shake her head. She did both.

“Deline, we’re going to take him up to Mat-Su to make sure he’s clear, since he just had the stroke. Do you want to come?” Jared asked.

“Yes!” She surprised herself with how loud that was. They led her to the ambulance. But it felt like a draft, a chilling, death-enshrouded emptiness cocooned her. What …? She turned.

Logan. He hadn’t moved. He swallowed. “He’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. You’re tough, Deline.”

“Will …” If she did this, things would change between them. At least, for her. “Will you follow us up there?”

His hands came out of his pockets. No smile. But there was a distinct realignment of … something. “I’ll meet you there,” he said with a nod. “And I’ll get hold of Enli.”

Her heart thumped. “Yes. Please.” How could she have forgotten her brother? Staying at the hotel, he was probably already asleep. “Thank you, Logan.”

When she thought of a handsome mountaineering ranger before her own flesh and blood … Definitely changing.

Logan trekked into the ER, having seen the ambulance parked outside that had taken Deline and her father away from Talkeetna. Inside, he made his way to the waiting room. That’s where she’d be, right?

As he strode the long, sterile halls, Logan whispered a prayer. That God would keep Deline’s father safe. That He’d keep Deline safe. And that He’d help Logan be whatever Deline needed right now, though he hoped it was more than just the “friend” she’d introduced him as to her brother.

He turned the corner and entered a small waiting area. A family huddled close, arms around a woman who sobbed uncontrollably. Heart in a knot, Logan swallowed and diverted his gaze—right into Deline’s.

Her expression went from exhausted and weighted …

Oh, he so didn’t want to go there. To think that she had hope in her eyes, and relief—it meant too much to him to hope and find out he’d misread it.

“Hey.” His heart felt a thousand pounds lighter as he joined her.