A Hummingbird Christmas by Karen Foley

Author:Karen Foley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2017-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

Cole tied a rope around a tree trunk, and used it to control his descent. Climbing to the bottom of the ravine was the hardest thing he had ever done, and it had nothing to do with the physical challenge of negotiating the steep embankment. He desperately needed for Piper to be alive, but she looked so small and still that his heart contracted painfully in his chest. He dreaded what he would find. If anything happened to Piper, it would completely destroy Joy.

It would destroy all of them.

“Please be okay, please be okay,” he said beneath his breath, as he half leaped, half skidded down the steep incline, until finally, he was at the bottom of the ravine.

Montana whimpered in joy and leaped against him as Cole crouched beside the little girl. He used his teeth to pull his gloves from his hands, and spared the puppy one swift pat, before he gently turned Piper over. Her eyes were closed, her lips had started to turn blue, and her freckles stood out starkly against her pale skin. He pressed his fingers against the side of her throat and nearly wept with relief when he found a pulse.

“She’s alive!” he shouted up to Joy and Eldon.

Joy collapsed against Eldon, and he heard the older man talking to her. Carefully, he began examining Piper for injuries, looking for a head wound or broken bones. But it wasn’t until he ran his hands along her right arm that she cried out, and her eyelashes fluttered open. She stared at him in bemusement.

“Hey there, pipsqueak,” he said, and smiled reassuringly at her.

“My arm hurts.” She whimpered. “I fell down the hill.”

“You’re safe now, and I’m going to bring you home.”

Cole could feel a suspicious lump in her forearm, and Piper whimpered when he probed the area. He was pretty sure the bone was broken, but it was difficult to tell through the winter coat.

“Okay, sweetheart, does it hurt anywhere else?”

“No.”

Her teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. He needed to get her warm, and quickly. Swiftly, he pulled off his backpack and pulled out several hand-warmers and gave them a good shake to activate them. Then he pushed them inside Piper’s coat, packing them all around her torso.

“Okay, pipsqueak, let’s get you out of here.”

“What about my puppy?”

Her speech was slow and slurred, sure signs of hypothermia. Cole scooped up the shivering puppy and placed him inside the backpack, on top of Piper’s blanket, with only his head poking out the top. He put the pack on, and then lifted Piper in his arms, taking care not to jar her arm.

“Your puppy is just fine, and your mommy is waiting for you at the top of the hill,” he said as he carefully made his way up the ravine, using the rope for balance and digging his boots into the snow as he tested each footstep. The going was slow, but then Eldon and Beth were reaching down to take Piper from him, so he could use his arms to pull himself the last several feet.

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