The Challenge by Danielle Steel

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 Harvey’s announcement on the radio. He burst into tears, and sat there sobbing in relief. He called Beth immediately, to make sure she’d heard it, and she was crying too. She had stayed in her hotel room to avoid the press, but she wasn’t dressed yet anyway.

“They all made it. They all survived,” Tom sobbed. It was a miracle, and had been an enormous effort on the part of the Park Service and the National Guard. “I’ll drive you to the hospital if you want,” he offered. It felt like the war was over between them too. They were no longer together, but they weren’t enemies anymore. There was nothing left to fight about. Their daughter had survived, which was all that mattered.

“Where’s the hospital?” she asked him.

“In Billings. About an hour from here.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.”

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. “How do you feel?”

“Elated, thrilled, grateful. So happy and relieved that they all made it.” She was smiling at him, and when she turned off her microphone, she looked at him, embarrassed. “I’m 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. I’m so happy it all worked out, for all of them. And fuck what it cost the taxpayers.” She smiled at him. “That’s what we pay taxes for. Better that than nuclear arms. What else matters except kids’ lives?”

He was smiling at her and leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Thank you. It’s a reminder to us all about what does matter. I’ve got to go pick my daughter up now.” 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 wouldn’t be harassing him again with dumb, offensive questions.

Beth was waiting for him outside her hotel, and there were no TV vans there. “You took twenty minutes, not ten,” she said tartly, and he smiled. Same old Beth.

“I got waylaid by a reporter whom I insulted the other day. She apologized.”

“You insulted her, and she apologized?” Beth laughed.

“Something like that,” he said, looking amused.

“She must want to sleep with you,” 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.



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