Page 93 of Big Island Summer
She would wait it out… or she would let him go. And they would be okay.
At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
A group of siblings came down to the water with enough floaties to fill a drug store: pink flamingos and inner-tube doughnuts and pineapple rafts, all neon-bright against the inky ocean water. They made instant friends with Cassie and Daisy, and their chatter flowed brightly above the low crash of the waves.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
One moment, the girls were playing in waist-deep water.
Then, faster than Nell would have thought possible, a swift current dragged them out to sea.
“Mommy!” Cassie realized the danger the same instant Nell did. Even from the beach, she could see the whites of her daughter’s eyes as they went round with fright.
In the distance, Dio barked frantically.
“Help!” she cried.
“I’m coming!” Nell tried to keep her voice bright and soothing, even as terror seized hold of her. She ran into the water, tripping over a wave in her hurry to reach the girls. “You’re okay! Here I come!”
“Nell?” Emma stood down the beach, taking in the scene.
In between them, the other kids and their floaties were floating quickly up the shoreline, approaching the same outward rip that had grabbed hold of the girls.
“Get those kids out of the water!” Nell shouted.
Emma ran up the beach towards the other kids, and Nell dove into the waves.
She surfaced a few yards away from the girls, swimming as hard as she could, but the current was pulling them farther away.
“Kick, Cassie!” Daisy urged. They both clung to the same floatie, a pineapple the size of a kindergartener. “Kick to the beach!”
Cassie swam as hard as she could, using both legs to kick and an arm to paddle as she clung to the floatie with one hand, but it was no use. Even kicking together, they couldn’t fight the current. They were moving backwards, and fast.
Nell swam at an angle until she hit the same current that had snatched the girls, and it gave her the boost of speed that sheneeded. She closed the gap and reached across the raft, closing her hands around each of their arms.
Only then did the terror finally let up.
They were still in danger, still caught in a rip current with a flimsy floatie, but she had them. She could keep their heads above water for as long as she needed to, even if the drug-store pineapple sprang a leak.
“Mommy, I’m scared.” Cassie’s voice shook with unshed tears, and Nell blinked tears and seawater out of her own eyes.
“You’re okay. I’ve got you.” She paused for just a moment to catch her breath, and then she looked between the girls with an encouraging smile. “Let’s go back to shore.”
“I want to go home,” Cassie said.
“Do you remember what we do when we’re caught in a rip?” Nell asked, already kicking her legs as hard as she could. Her arms were full, balanced on the raft as she held the two girls by their wrists to make sure neither one of them slipped off.
“Swim sideways,” Daisy said.
“That’s right! We swim sideways along the beach until we escape the current that’s pulling us out to sea. Can you help me kick?”
Even swimming at an angle, their progress was incremental. They weren’t being swept out to sea anymore, but for each full minute of maximum effort they only gained a few inches towards shore.
And then Hugh was there, standing above the surface of the water.
He knelt and lifted Cassie, who was closest to him. He set her on the inflatable paddleboard and then immediately pulled Daisy out of the water. Then he slipped off the board and into the water with Nell. His arm was warm around her waist as he pressed a kiss to her temple.
“That was fun!” Daisy said. Cassie was wide-eyed and trembling, but the older girl was grinning. “I like this boat!”
