Page 32 of Come to Me

“Dunk her!” Tate called out.

She turned her head back to look up at him. “What are you going to do now?”

“I’ll help you.” Tate jumped on Patrick’s back, knocking him off balance. Still on his knees, he couldn’t move his legs fast enough to keep from going over. All three tilted, going under the water. He released Michaela and righted himself. As he broke through the surface, Michaela and Tate were laughing. Before he knew it, he was laughing too as he put his hand in the water, shoved it forward, until water splashed both Michaela and Tate.

CHAPTER 9

Micki walked with Tate and Patrick back toward the lodge. She glanced at Patrick, wondering if he thought she and Tate were nuts. Of course he did. She saw it in his expression when they jumped into the lake. She also saw a man who didn’t know how to have a good time. Didn’t he go swimming as a kid? Or was it a case of having lost that part of him. His inner child.

“Wait until we tell Paw Paw that we fixed the dock. Can I tell him, Aunt Micki?” Tate rushed to the stairs.

“You sure can.”

Tate clambered up the steps to the house.

“What about you Dr. Patrick? What are you going to do now?”

“Change out of my wet clothes. Then…I don’t know. Read maybe.”

Reading was a great past time while relaxing by the lake, but Patrick needed to take in the beauty of his surroundings, not hide in a book.

“Be ready in two hours. Wear something cool and good shoes.” She started up the steps to the house.

“What happens in two hours?”

She stopped, turned to look over her shoulder with a coy smile. “I’m going to blow your mind, Dr. Patrick.” She winked and then returned to the house. She glanced at him through the window wondering if he was shocked or confused by her statement. Her intention was to take him on a hike up to the ridge. The day was clear, which meant the view would be spectacular. Not that she wouldn’t be interested in blowing his mind another way. Her skin heated up remembering how it felt when he wrapped his arm around her body and held her against him. His chest was warm against her back, and she wouldn’t have minded staying there for a time.

“Oh lordy, did you two jump in the lake with your clothes on?” Micki’s mother pursed her lips at a dripping Tate standing in her kitchen.

“And Dr. Patrick too,” Tate said excitedly. “We fixed the doc, Paw Paw.”

“Dr. Andres didn’t do that too, did he?” Disapproval shone on her mother’s face.

“He did.”

“Goodness, Mick, he’s supposed to be relaxing.”

“The poor guy doesn’t know how,” her father said. “He outright told me so. Still…I could have done the dock.”

“Now you don’t have to. Tate, let’s go change.”

“’k.” Tate zoomed out of the kitchen.

“I’ll clean this up.” Micki grabbed a towel to wipe up the water Tate dripped onto the floor. She didn’t want any hazards to her father’s already tenuous mobility. “Then I’m going to work on business until lunch. Then I’m going to take Dr. Andres to the ridge.” She knelt on the floor, cleaning up the water. When her parents didn’t respond, she looked up at them. They were watching her with curious expressions. “What?”

“You’ve never been the social director for a visitor before,” her mother said.

“Sure, I have. I do the fourth of July party, I arrange?—”

“Not hikes or swimming with your clothes on.”

“I suppose we should be glad you weren’t skinny dipping,” her father quipped.

“There’s an idea.” Micki hoped that by leaning into her father’s comment it would stop them from speculating on why she was spending time with Patrick.

Her mother’s eyes widened. “Micki?—”

Micki held a hand up to stop her mother. “We agreed that he could be an important visitor to get more people to come here. That won’t happen if he doesn’t figure out how to relax. I’m just making sure he enjoys himself so he can tell as his rich friends about us.”

---