Free Lifeline Echoes by Kay Springsteen

helped me through a bad time and
I'm—grateful."
    Sandy swallowed hard past the tightness in
her throat. She didn't know what he'd been going to say but she got
the feeling "grateful" had been a last minute substitution.
    He reached for Sandy's hand and held it
gently in his. "I've been thinking of taking her out of here."
    In silence, Sandy searched his face. Maybe
not so much in the past as he liked to think. She was still very
much in his heart. So, apparently Ryan hadn’t returned to Orson's
Folly as unattached as the grapevine thought. Maybe not even as
unattached as he thought himself. Didn't it just figure?
    "No," she said, warming her voice against
the chill of disappointment that had settled in her heart. She
liked the tenderness she was seeing in his eyes. She touched the
pretty bit of crystal with the tip of her finger, sending it into a
gentle swing. "She's exactly where she should be."
     
    ****
     
    Absently stroking his thumb over her
knuckles, Ryan immersed himself in the eyes he found so compelling,
finding he liked what he saw of the woman behind them. He enjoyed
the glimpses she occasionally let him see of the inner beauty
beneath the sexy packaging. Would she understand his feelings for
the angel who had saved his life?
    He thought about kissing her, really wanted
to. But his emotions were suddenly raw with thoughts of the past,
and it wouldn't be fair to Sandy. He wasn't certain if, in that
moment, he would be kissing her or the woman who had once given him
the will to live. Nor was he certain which woman he really wanted
to kiss.
    No, this wasn't the time or place to indulge
in another kiss. But oh, he did want to; almost more than he wanted
to keep breathing.
    He realized she had gone quiet, watching him
intently, and he looked up. In the golden light of early morning,
her features were soft, the innocence in her smile almost angelic.
And her eyes . . . he could spend forever looking into them and see
something different every time.
    Ryan gave Sandy's hand a light squeeze.
"Ready? I'll get us a couple of horses. You can load your kitchen
sink pack into a couple of saddlebags."
    "You'll appreciate my efforts when lunchtime
comes around," she called after him. "Unless you want me to throw
together some trail mix and you can rustle us up a
rattlesnake."
    Ryan kept walking, tossing her a wave and a
thumb's up sign over his shoulder without looking back.
    This was going to be one interesting ride .
. . if he could get through it in one piece. He picked his hat off
the peg just inside the tack room, deliberately ignoring the
off-white Stetson in favor of the black.
     
    ****
     
    Sandy stood by the bank of windows
overlooking the parking lot. The normally busy freeway beyond was
completely empty, probably impassable at some point and closed
down. Giant angry plumes of smoke rose in the distance, an
appalling beacon marking the place where lives had been lost . . .
where even now life was making a futile attempt to hang on in the
face of impossible odds.
    The light above her workstation popped on,
indicating radio activity. "I'm here, Mick."
    "Got some time to keep me company?" he
asked.
    Sandy looked around the dispatch office,
noting every dispatch station was occupied, every operator talking
and writing. "I've got some time. It's slowing down a bit here,"
she lied.
    "Do you know how long we've been down
here?"
    Sandy checked her notes, though she knew
without looking how long it had been. "A couple of hours," she
said. "You should turn off your radio, save the battery."
    "It'll be all right for a while yet." He was
obviously reluctant to let go of the human contact. "It's black as
pitch down here, Angel. It's disorienting. Knowing you're out there
helps some with that."
    "You just stay strong and hold onto me.
We'll get through this together."
    "Will you talk a bit?"
    "What do you want to talk about?" asked
Sandy.
    "What do you do for fun?"
    "Mmm, lots of different things. I read just
about anything. Go