hands and feet, she had it all down the front of her. It was slowly beginning to wash away with the rain, and there wasn't much she could do to make it faster, nor could she just take off the gear.
But her gloves … shit. They were caked and that was no use. She didn't have an extra pair of the outer gloves. But it was time to let these go. Taking them off meant her hands were going to get wet and cold, which would be a huge problem. But as messy as the heavy gloves were, leaving them on would be worse.
At least the temperature had gotten above freezing. That would be a small consolation though, as the rain was still cold and stole body heat from all three of them. Still, she peeled the gloves, held them up into the rain to rinse them and then tried to figure out where to put them.
They were far too expensive to just throw them on the forest floor and walk away. But they were wet and muddy and … screw it. She shoved them down into a pocket as Leo handed an open water bottle over to Jason Ryder, who clutched it between his two covered hands still clenching the heating packets. The kid drank greedily, and Leo was trying to get him to slow down.
“If you drink too much too fast, you’ll barf it back up.”
Jo almost laughed. She wouldn't have expected Leo Evans to say the word ‘barf’ to anyone.
Then he looked up at her, those hazel eyes catching in a way she'd not expected.
“Do you want the good news?” he asked with a small smile.
Well, hell, she thought, if there was good news ...
“Luke and the ambulance are close. As soon as we get there, we can get Jason into it and get him warm.”
That was good news, she thought.
“And you,” Leo added even though she was shaking her head. She didn’t need an ambulance, just a warm bath and a few hours of sleep.
She thought how heavenly that would be even as she accepted the water bottle he was now holding out to her, already half empty. She realized they'd reached the point where they were sharing. Whether it was some level of intimacy, or necessity—maybe they’d already gone through their stash?—she didn't know. Jo didn't question it.
The water was slightly warmer than the air having been kept close to Leo's body heat the whole time. It shouldn't feel intimate out here in this mess. Nothing should. But it did.
“We have to get going again,” Leo said before she was ready.
She'd managed to eat half of a granola bar. And she shoved the other half into the pocket without the dirty gloves.
The ground was still wet and slick. The mud making the going slow. Leo kept them aimed, and she trusted him. He knew these woods and he wouldn't let anything happen to her or the child.
They kept Jason in between them for his own safety, though Jo wondered if maybe she wasn’t using the kid as a buffer against softer feelings that seemed to have sprung up.
She would have liked to have carried the poor kid, but he had to make his own tracks. One—because there might come a point when they needed to carry him, and they would need their energy saved for it. They were both tapped already. And two, because when he walked, he kept his blood circulating. It was the thing keeping the little boy warm.
But as they went further and further, she noticed the shivers racking his entire body. Jo became very concerned that they'd managed to save the boy, only to have him die out here on the trail.
She tried to be inconspicuous, but she called forward, “Leo. Leo!” in a soft voice.
It took several tries to get his attention, but at last, he heard over the sound of the rain and the wind that periodically kicked up the leaves, making rustling noises all around them in a sinister way. It sounded as though the forest were closing in, and it did seem to be claiming Jason.
Jo pointed to the back of the little boy's head as they all kept moving forward, hoping the kid wouldn't notice. But the sudden alarm on Leo's face, as he took in the boy’s condition, made her heart kick.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Leo checked the dash on the car. Though he was confident he could feel the heat on his feet, the engine temperature gauge