The Challenge by Danielle Steel
Author:Danielle Steel [Steel, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-08-16T00:00:00+00:00
Chapter 9
Tom was alone in his house when he heard Harveyâs announcement on the radio. He burst into tears, and sat there sobbing in relief. He called Beth immediately, to make sure sheâd heard it, and she was crying too. She had stayed in her hotel room to avoid the press, but she wasnât dressed yet anyway.
âThey all made it. They all survived,â Tom sobbed. It was a miracle, and had been an enormous effort on the part of the Park Service and the National Guard. âIâll drive you to the hospital if you want,â he offered. It felt like the war was over between them too. They were no longer together, but they werenât enemies anymore. There was nothing left to fight about. Their daughter had survived, which was all that mattered.
âWhereâs the hospital?â she asked him.
âIn Billings. About an hour from here.â
âOkay.â
âIâll pick you up in ten minutes.â
When he left his house, the same blond reporter headed for him with about thirty others, snapping his picture, and she put the mic in his face first. âHow do you feel?â
âElated, thrilled, grateful. So happy and relieved that they all made it.â She was smiling at him, and when she turned off her microphone, she looked at him, embarrassed. âIâm sorry I pushed so hard the other day. Sometimes you lose perspective in this business. I listened to the recording of our interview after, and I felt like an idiot. Iâm so happy it all worked out, for all of them. And fuck what it cost the taxpayers.â She smiled at him. âThatâs what we pay taxes for. Better that than nuclear arms. What else matters except kidsâ lives?â
He was smiling at her and leaned over and kissed her cheek.
âThank you. Itâs a reminder to us all about what does matter. Iâve got to go pick my daughter up now.â She nodded and waved as he walked away and got in his truck, and she went back to the van from her TV station. She still had some wrap-up interviews to get, but he could tell she wouldnât be harassing him again with dumb, offensive questions.
Beth was waiting for him outside her hotel, and there were no TV vans there. âYou took twenty minutes, not ten,â she said tartly, and he smiled. Same old Beth.
âI got waylaid by a reporter whom I insulted the other day. She apologized.â
âYou insulted her, and she apologized?â Beth laughed.
âSomething like that,â he said, looking amused.
âShe must want to sleep with you,â Beth said.
While they drove to Billings, Harvey was giving a press conference in his office about the recovery of the seven young people who had been recovered from the mountain that morning, after having been lost for three days. In winter, they would never have survived it, and in summer they might not have either, for a number of reasons: the treacherous mountain, the ravines, hostile wildlife, their health. But all had ended well. He wrapped up with the press, consulted a bulletin about the progress of the fire, and headed to Billings himself.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire by J.K. Rowling(2984)
Unfinished: A Memoir by Priyanka Chopra Jonas(2902)
Never by Ken Follett(2841)
The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman(2273)
Machine Learning at Scale with H2O by Gregory Keys | David Whiting(2185)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King(2035)
Will by Will Smith(1989)
Rationality by Steven Pinker(1747)
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl(1636)
The Dark Hours by Michael Connelly(1550)
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber & David Wengrow(1540)
The Stranger in the Lifeboat by Mitch Albom(1513)
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr(1414)
The Becoming by Nora Roberts(1306)
Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson(1302)
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner(1295)
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry(1288)
A Short History of War by Jeremy Black(1287)
New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional by Paul David Tripp(1249)