Page 28 of The Talk Around Town

A dip.She couldn’t swim to save her life.

Dog paddle, sort of. Swim? No.

“Darby?” Emma waited until Darby looked at her. “I can’t swim very well. Actually, not much at all, really. I’ll just sit on the edge of the jetty and paddle my feet, okay?”

Darby looked surprised for a moment, then smiled. “Sure. We’ll make sure to tell everyone. Who knows, by the end of summer we might have you swimming laps, eh?”

Emma grinned back, relieved that Darby didn’t care.

“Sure. I’d like to learn properly, just never really had the time.”

Emma set the basket down on the picnic table and peered inside. Everything looked good to go. The cold things had freezer packs stuffed around them to keep them fresh, the things not needing refrigeration benefitted from the cooler interior of the insulated basket as well.

Darby slid her shorts off and tossed them onto the back seat of her car, picked up her towel, then grabbed Emma’s hand and took off at a dead run down the jetty.

Emma laughed and yanked her hand away. The crazy woman kept running and vaulted from the end into the water. Emma sucked in a deep breath, undoing the knot on her sarong. She’d tied a matching sarong over her new white one-piece suit, feeling a little self-conscious and wanting to wear something over the top until she sat down.

She unwrapped it from her hips and draped it over the low wooden railing beside her.

Darby’s head surfaced and she sucked in a huge, gasping breath. “It’s bloody freezing! You were smart to stay up there!”

Emma laughed and shook her head. Bare feet slapping on the boards vibrated the jetty beneath her feet. Emma glanced over her shoulder as a strong arm wrapped around her waist from behind and hurled her up into the air, another arm coming up under her knees.

An ear-splitting squeal erupted from her lips. Her hat flew off and she felt herself fly through the air. She gasped in a breath before icy water surged up her body and enveloped her head. Their heads broke the surface of the lake amid loud peals of laughter all around.

“You might want to release your death grip a little, honey. You’re gonna choke me.” Ryan’s voice breathed against her ear, his observation spurring her anger.

Emma almost couldn’t breathe through the shock of the frosty water to her body. “Let me go, you brute! Who do you think you are, grabbing me like that?”

Ryan’s eyes clouded over in confusion at her tone. “I didn’t think you’d mind. I was just having a little fun. Here, let me—”

Emma struggled and squirmed in his strong arms, water lapping at and splashing on her face. Fear made her sharper with him than she’d intended but he’d scared her half to death.

“No, just put me down.”

“Dammit, Ryan! She can’t swim!” Darby called out as Emma yanked her arms from his neck and shoved herself away from him, backward into the waiting water. She reached down with a toe to touch bottom and her head slipped under for the second time when therewasno bottom.

She floundered, kicking and struggling to get her head above the surface. Panic rose in a wave. She couldn’t get her head above the water.

A hand brushed along her bare back, stopping when it reached her suit-covered bottom. The hand grabbed a fistful of swimsuit and heaved. Her head broke through. Her mouth opened to gulp precious air into her lungs.

Her arms snaked out and snagged around the neck of her rescuer, pulling him close. Her legs kicked furiously and wrapped around firm, lean hips.

Emma blinked and shook her head, trying to clear the water from her eyes, hacking coughs forcing her wet breasts into contact with the rock-hard, naked chest in front of her. She pressed her face into the warm, sun-drenched skin of his neck and breathed deeply.

I’m such an idiot!

Her arms shook with the effect of first the fright, then the whole debacle that followed.

She owed Ryan an apology, even though it was his fault she was in the water in the first place. It wasn’t his fault she’d acted like such a ninny, nearly drowning herself in the process.

“That was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen you do. You could’ve found out if she could swim first.”

Gabe’s husky voice rumbled in her ear, the low timbre washing over her, turning her frazzled nerve endings to mush.

Relief, that’s what it was.

She was just relieved to have her head out of the water and to be breathing.

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