levity into his voice. “I think we’re gonna be fine. We just need to keep our heads. We can’t panic. I’ve read a lot about caves, so I’m not completely in the dark about this.”
Her response was a sarcastic snort.
“Okay, so I’m in the dark, but not completely.” He sat down and patted the area bedside him. The way she hobbled over and plopped down so quickly alerted him she needed medical attention. “Let me see that ankle.”
Kyndal pulled up her pants leg again, exposing an ugly purple-and-black area where an ankle should have been. He couldn’t tell where her calf ended and her ankle began. It appeared to be broken—and painful from the way she chewed her bottom lip. Although he tried to be gentle, she flinched at his touch.
The foot needed stabilizing. His first aid kit lacked any adhesive tape, and the tiny gauze bandage wouldn’t go very far. “Do you have any first aid supplies in your bag?”
She shook her head. “I’ve got some masking tape.”
“That’ll work. I can wrap the ankle. But it would be better if we had a splint of some kind.” He scanned their surroundings with the light, looking for anything useful. Just a mass of smooth limestone and dirt as far as the meager light reached.
The beam fell on Kyndal’s lamps. “How much do those lamps cost?” He flashed the light over the bent frames, evaluating their usefulness.
“A couple hundred apiece. But they’re not mine. They belong to— Chance, you can’t—”
Before she could protest again, he’d grabbed one of them and snapped off a leg.
Kyndal gasped as if she’d been slapped.
“I’ll buy a new one.” He grunted and broke off another one.
A quick shuffle through the photography paraphernalia in Kyndal’s bag produced a sizable roll of masking tape. A strategically placed rock kept the flashlight aimed at her foot as they worked, but he had to keep pumping it up.
A penknife allowed him to rip her jeans leg to the knee, then he stripped her hiking boot of its shoelace and spread the tongue area as a cradle for her foot. The padded top was a good support around her ankle. He slipped the sock over her toes and up to the arch to keep her foot warm. Following his directions, she held the two broken lamp legs on either side of her leg as he secured them with the shoelaces and rolled the tape around until he’d fashioned a makeshift splint.
“With no ice to keep it from swelling, we’ll likely have to remove the tape eventually. I don’t want to cut off the circulation.” He pumped the flashlight and spotlighted the area, eyeing their handiwork critically. It would have to do. “Does it hurt much?”
She shook her head. “Not too bad.” When the light reached her face, her eyes said she was lying.
“I’ve got ibuprofen.” He indicated the first aid kit.
“I’m okay. I’ll save that for if and when I really need it.”
“We need to keep it elevated as much as we can.” For lack of anything better, he located a boulder of manageable size and eased it under her foot. She winced and his stomach rolled. Knowing she was hurting was almost more than he could take.
“Thanks.” Her face was in shadow and he couldn’t see her expression, but her voice was soft with gratitude.
“It’s not great, but maybe it will help.” He sat down beside her and pumped the flashlight up again to its max. She shivered against him. “Are you cold?”
“A little.”
“It stays fifty-three degrees in here year-round, so we won’t freeze.” But they wouldn’t be comfortable, either. Unless he could convince her that sharing body heat in a time of crisis was necessary.
He put his arm around her and pulled her close. She didn’t protest but instead leaned into him, and he heard her quick intake of breath. “Take some of the ibuprofen, Kyn. There’s no use sitting here in pain.”
She turned her face toward him when she spoke. “I’m okay. Really.”
Her mouth was, what? Two inches from his? All he had to do was angle his head downward a little more and he would kiss her lips.
His eyes moved upward from her mouth and their gazes locked, brought together by this trauma, held by memory. He touched his forehead softly to hers. And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, their noses met, and then their lips. It wasn’t a kiss of passion as much as one of compassion and support.