Two Alone by Sandra Brown

Two Alone

By Sandra Brown

249 pages

Published by MIRA Books (1987)

I actually had to do a Google image search for “hot guys with moustache” when I read Two Alone. This novel had an unconventional-looking hero: one who had thick, wide moustache that somewhat obscured parts of his lips – and so I had to get help from Google search to build my imaginations on how he would probably look like 😜.

Rusty Carlson was a Beverly Hills career woman who really had no interest in a hunting trip, but she felt the pressure to go just to please her father, the property tycoon Bill Carlson. Rusty and Bill went to a hunting lodge in Canada for a father-daughter bonding session by doing Bill’s favourite pastime, hunting wild animals. Rusty soon found that she did not enjoy hunting at all, and she left the lodge earlier without her father.

Rusty took a small airplane – the only transportation available to and fro the hunting lodge – to go home first, but tragedy struck midway. The plane was caught in a storm and crashed in the middle of nowhere, killing everyone on board except Rusty and a man whom she remembered as quite unpleasant. Rusty nevertheless revived the man from his concussion, for she was afraid to be there all alone and not knowing what do.

When he came to his senses, Cooper Landry seemed to confirm what Rusty had initially thought him to be: unfriendly, grumpy and rude. Cooper even had the guts to blame Rusty for the plane crash! According to Cooper, if Rusty had not delayed her boarding (she was the last to board the plane), the plane could have had a chance to pass through before the storm worsened.

Rusty put up with Cooper anyway. It could take some time before any rescue team found them, and Cooper knew much better than her about surviving in the thick forest they had crashed in. So Rusty would rather withstand Cooper’s biting comments than being left alone to fight for her own survival.

As the moments went by, Rusty slowly realized that Cooper did care for her despite his cold behaviour. Rusty had injured a leg in the accident, and her movements had been heavily hampered. Cooper had all reasons – and multiple chances – to abandon her, but he never did. Cooper tended to her injury, helped transport her to a safer place, and find food and water for both of them.

Before long Rusty began to develop strange feelings towards Cooper. On the other hand, Cooper welcomed the physical attraction, but drew the line at emotional attachment.

A veteran from the Vietnam war, Cooper was practically an emotional wreckage. His former fiancée had given him the ultimate heartbreak when she betrayed him and aborted her pregnancy without his knowledge. Ever since, Cooper was unwilling to give anybody his heart in the name of love. And he began to develop an aversion towards beautiful women like Rusty, for she reminded him of his ex.

When Rusty was helplessly falling in love with him, Cooper dismissed her feelings. He assured her that what she felt for him was not love, but rather a temporary attachment. Such feelings were considered normal in such circumstances where someone who went through a trauma felt attracted towards the rescuer.

Rusty and Cooper were eventually found and rescued about two weeks after the crash. Rusty returned to her home and reunited with her father in Los Angeles, while Cooper returned to his ranch in Sierra Nevada. Life was supposed to return to normal and they should be able to continue their lives as before – but both could not.

Rusty missed Cooper so much and she was very sure that her feelings for him had truly been love. And it took not long after that for Cooper to realize that Rusty had meant something in his life, too. He himself could not concentrate on anything he does, for he felt something was missing from his life without Rusty, too.

Both eventually acknowledged the fact that they were really in love with one another. Not a few months later, Rusty and Cooper got married and were expecting a baby soon.