by Rebecca York
Oh-oh! Reed and everyone who had ever swum in that lake were aware that the shore was dangerously uneven. One minute you’d be safe walking on ground in low water, and the next step would take you down. Dead, rotting vegetation on the lake’s bottom made it slimy and greasy in some places, dangerous in the extreme. Unable to balance, and with a wriggling puppy to contend with, the boy went under, taking the dog with him. Reed dropped the ball and ran faster than he ever had before.
Chapter Two
“Hollie?”
Belinda was furious at herself. One minute she’d played the polite stranger to tourists looking for the closest restaurant, and the next, was repaid by her naughty daughter taking off—God knew where.
The child was a terror, never listening to her, always thinking she could do as she pleased. A constant battle went on between the two. Only this morning, she’d been forced to bribe Hollie with a walk in the park if she’d go to her daycare after lunch and behave like the other children in her class.
Hollie had wrinkled her nose and looked disgusted. “The girls play with dolls and stuffed animals. And they giggle about everything. They’re goofy, Mommy. And the boys fight over the same toys. Or whine. Those goofballs whine a lot.”
“Hollie, baby, you’re exaggerating. They’re nice children. I spent my assigned afternoons helping out at the daycare, and I never saw a goofball in the crowd.”
“You don’t have to play with them. I don’t want to. But whenever I try and go off on my own to read, Miss Dummy makes me stay with the others.”
“Hollie!” Belinda hid her smile and remonstrated with her daughter over the mispronunciation of her teacher’s name. “You know darn well her name is Miss Dumry. Please don’t make that mistake in school or she’ll send you home again.”
“I know.” Hollie lowered her face, but not before Belinda had seen her tears. “She doesn’t like me. I guess it’s ‘cause I don’t like her neither.”
“Of course she likes you, sweetheart. She’s just very busy. There’re so many children that she hasn’t any time to pay special attention to just one.”
“No! It’s ‘cause she’s always checking her phone for messages and texting her boyfriend.”
“I’m sorry, baby. Mommy’s working really hard to try and save enough money to get you into a better school, one you’ll love.” Belinda was careful to call it school rather than daycare, knowing that would appeal to her disruptive little genius a lot more.
With an advanced curriculum, Hollie’d behave better. A grin broke through Belinda’s worries. She decided she was probably the only parent who had a four-and-a-half-year-old child suspended from the relaxed, public daycare system.
Thank goodness she’d managed to sweet-talk them into only making Hollie stay away for a week and not forever. They’d taken her daughter’s disappearance on an unaccompanied walk in the empty grounds as a serious matter and used terms like ‘uncontrollable’ and ‘single-minded’. This daycare had been the third placement Belinda had arranged for her high-strung little rebel and she’d begun to run out of options.
Hollie’s problem was that she was just too intelligent. Bored easily, she found the other kids to be babyish and silly. Belinda felt heart-sick every time she thought of the private school she had in mind where the program included all kinds of activities that would appeal to her baby’s cleverness. Stuff like painting with water colors rather than crayons, working in plaster making leaves and other realistic impressions, and not doodling with colored plasticine.
They taught them a lot more about the world around them and her baby would soak that all up and beg for more. Plus, the teachers were highly qualified and the class sizes realistic. Unfortunately, who had the kind of money to pay their ridiculous rates?
Lately, overwhelmed with the sole responsibility of Hollie’s welfare, Belinda wondered if she’d done the right thing in choosing to keep her baby. Friends who’d strongly suggested an abortion were no longer people she hung around with. Her family, struggling to put her two older brothers through college, had no extra money to help. Instead, they’d advised her to go the adoption route.
She’d done neither. And now, she was pretty much on her own—same as always—and left to deal with the outcome of that choice.
“Hollie!” Where was that child?
A scream tore through her worry and Belinda stiffened with instant panic. The hairs on the back of her neck began doing that creepy thing they did when a person’s instinct told them there was trouble. Her pulse tripled and distressing heart tremors quickly followed. Breathing normally became inefficient and she panted instead. That was Hollie screaming. Belinda, throat clogged with fear, began running. Oh, Lord, what now?
Chapter Three
Once Reed hit the water, he knew he had to get to the little guy. But since the puppy had wrenched away from the reaching arms, he figured the best way to gain control would be to grab the pup and take it along with him. Lunging for the animal, he hit a low spot and his feet lost purchase. One minute he was wading through the cold lake, and the next, he was in over his head.
Knowing it was too late to change his mind, he dove for the pup and grabbed its thrashing hind leg, and then turned for the boy. Except that the kid had somehow managed to snag his neck from the back and was choking him so hard that panic gripped Reed’s senses.
Fighting to remain calm and not let go of the distraught pup, he tried to flip the boy onto his front where he could better control his movements, except the boy was having none of it. And instead, sensing that Reed was trying to dislodge him, he squeezed even harder. In trouble, Reed went under again. He swallowed a mouthful of water and came up choking.
Knowing he only had seconds to take control, he let go of the pup and wrenched the little hands away from his neck. Once unlocked, he yarded the frenzied thrasher over his shoulder and hugged him close to his chest.
“Calm down, son. I have you. You’re okay now. Stop fighting me.”
Whether the kid heard him or not, Reed didn’t know for sure. What he did know was that the boy had seen the pup on its own, and not understanding that animals could swim, he thrust away from Reed and threw himself toward the mutt yet again.
Bellowing so he’d be heard, Reed followed. “He’s okay, boy. The dog can swim.” Reed hauled the sopping wet little body back in his arms, only to have to physically subdue the child. “Listen to me.” Reed shook the body to get his attention. “I’ll get the puppy.”
Finally having his feet on the ground where he could stand, he lifted the kid high over his shoulder. Then, to make sure there would be no further argument, he grabbed the bedraggled puppy, swimming for all he was worth in his free hand, and waded to shore where a group of people now waited.
Dripping with water and fury, Reed glared around him, hoping to see someone who would claim both daring little monsters.
The woman who ran forward, reaching for the mischief-maker, was reasonably rational, or so Reed thought until he saw the luminous terror glinting in her drenched brown eyes.
A feeling of déjà vu hit him like a sucker punch in the gut. Lindy? Before he could say a word, she’d wrenched the child out of his arms, lowered them both to a crouching position as if her knees didn’t have the strength left to keep them upright and was kissing the tiny face nonstop, hugging the body and rocking them both from side to side.
Sobs broke from her, excruciating sounds of fear and self-reproach. “Baby, oh, Hollie. You scared Mommy so much. Never, ever wander away from me like that again.”
“Mommy, I found a puppy. He’s mine.”
Reed, watching the two, felt a shifting in his heart region and unfamiliar soft emotions flooded.
Dazed and obviously half out of her mind, the woman he knew as Lindy agreed. “Yes, okay, honey. I love you, baby.”
Since everyone’s attention was on the re-joined family, the canine mischief-maker who’d started the whole spectacle shook herself hard to get rid of the water and fell over from the exerti
on. Then she wiggled her way to the woman’s knees, scrambled between the clutching pair and jumped up to add her kisses too.
Both the woman and, as it turned out, little girl, opened their arms in welcome to include the canine into their circle of love. The pup craved the attention and squirmed so she could lather both their faces in a frenzy of adoration.
Just then, Reed’s brother, Harley, approached. After making sure Reed hadn’t suffered unduly, he commented, humoring everyone in the crowd, “It’s just a mild case of puppy love, folks. Thanks to my brother, hero of the day, it looks like both babies are fine.”
Chapter Four
Reed’s middle brother, Terry, had had the forethought to fetch blankets from the car and appeared, passing the dry wraps to Reed.
“Thanks, bro.” Reed took the blankets and approached the small family. He dropped the smallest cover over Hollie and Lindy made sure it enfolded the tiny body. She’d calmed somewhat and instead of kissing her baby, she now had the child by the arms and was doing what all mothers did in dangerously stressful moments; she was mothering.
With her expression full of tempered wrath, she wrenched the child away from her and shook the thin shoulders to get the attention she needed. Her eyes drilled the little girl’s and the words she used would not be misunderstood. “Baby, what have I told you over and over? You left me. You must never do that. I need you to stay beside me all the time.”
Pitifully, the little head hung from drooping shoulders. “I’m sorry, Mommy. I didn’t know I went so far away. I only wanted to play with my puppy. But then he fell into the water and he needed me to help him.” Her chubby hand reached forward and gently patted the woman’s face, while big earnest melting brown eyes stared out from under a mass of curls that spiraled like a ginger halo around her little pink-cheeked face.
Lindy visibly melted and her control broke. Reed figured that her love and the recent worry for her daughter must have taken the starch out of her backbone. As if she needed some support, Lindy glanced up and caught his stare. “Tell her what she did wrong. I don’t know how to make her understand.”
As all eyes turned in his direction, Reed felt the onus shifting to his shoulders. Not knowing what the hell Lindy expected from him, nonetheless, he crouched down and faced the stubborn child still gripping the listless pup hanging over her arm.
Small but fierce, the kid looked defiant. Her bottom lip protruded and her brown eyes revealed anger and resentment. Yet he saw the fear she hadn’t the ability to hide and that made the damn nervous tick explode in his right cheek. A warning bell clanged in his head. Be Careful!
The pup snapped out of her daze and took his measure also. The two stared at him. It was like nothing he’d ever faced before. Uneasy, he smiled at them and both pair of eyes looked wary, yet waited trustingly.
A second emotional deluge caught him unexpectedly. A mind that in a flash could answer any medical question put to him had nothing in its banks to deal with this dilemma.
What the hell did this woman expect of him? Given that he was the Carlton brother who never had much to say, the situation left him panicking. In fact, his family had often joked that their reserved brother had chosen the best possible route as a surgeon because most of the time his patients would be unconscious.
Without meaning to, he reached out and wiped away some drops of water from the child’s face. They had escaped from the damp spiralled curls that bounced around as if they had a life of their own. Her eyes measured him, watchful, but she didn’t flinch.
He heard the pup’s pleading whine. Slowly, kindly, so as not to startle the little girl, he took the uncomfortable creature from her hurting grip and gently lowered her to his own knee. His big hand almost enveloped the small body as he petted the wet quivering animal. “You mustn’t squeeze so tight. It hurts her.”
When the first sob broke, not a sound could be heard. “I didn’t mean to. I love her.” As if she couldn’t handle any more of the stressful situation she’d found herself in, the kid threw herself at Reed, her arms strangling as she blubbered her sorrow against his neck. “Don’t be mad at me. I didn’t mean to be a bad girl. But I had to help my puppy.”
From the second he felt her tiny body melt against his, Reed’s arms reacted. He hugged her to him, whispering brokenly, “Shush, sweetie. We’re not mad. But you have to promise your mom not to ever run away from her again. Okay?”
“Okay.” A reedy voice answered, but the arms still clung and the face still burrowed, seeking his warmth.
“Promise?”
“Okay.”
“Uh, huh. You have to say the words. Then you have to mean them.” Suddenly, a thought interrupted. Separating them, he watched her wary expression, “Do you understand what a promise means?”
“Yes.” She tried to look away but he didn’t allow it.
“What does it mean?”
“It means I’m going to be in a lot of trouble if I say those words.”
Chapter Five
A lot calmer after she’d seen Reed laugh, Hollie left his arms and was now working on Belinda. “The puppy’s mine, Mommy, she loves me.”
The creature began to whine pitifully. First she stared at Belinda and then Hollie, her little black eyes full as if tears were brimming.
“Look, she’s begging. She’s saying, please keep me.”
As soon as Hollie had flung herself in those male arms, the pup, lowered to the ground to leave his hands free, had begun bouncing up and down, yipping her consolation. Now she was plastered against Hollie’s side, gazing at her with pure worship.
Because of her daughter’s pointing finger, automatically Belinda’s glance fell on the now fluffed-out white canine, and damned if those black eyes and grinning snout weren’t beseeching her just like Hollie had said.
“No, baby, you can’t keep the puppy. She must already have an owner.” Hoping someone in the crowd would step forward, she deflated when no one did.
Belinda couldn’t believe the manipulation her little genius was working on her. And at a time like this when she was particularly vulnerable. Hollie had even added those magic words to include the puppy’s make-believe appeals. Please keep me! Really? Weakness overcame her usual refusal. After all, she’d just watched her child survive a dangerous, near-death situation.
“She loves me, Mommy.”
“No, Hollie. You know we can’t look after her.” Proud that she hadn’t been swayed, Belinda recognized the hint of weakness in her tone and hoped her smart daughter hadn’t caught it.
What made the situation worse was that this was a constant argument between them. Hollie had pleaded for a pet non-stop, and though Belinda would love to cave, she couldn’t. So she always used the same argument. “Not yet, honey. We can’t look after a pet because we’re never home. But one day, I promise.”
Belinda forced her eyes away from the entreaty in Hollie’s, and noticed that most of the bystanders had faded from the scene. Only Belinda, Hollie and her savior were left to hear the puppy’s heartrending whine.
Suddenly, the furry body scooted over to Belinda to snuggle as close as possible. Now it was two against one. Oh, God!
Belinda’s heart dropped. First she looked at Hollie, and then at the puppy. Two pairs of eyes begged the impossible. She couldn’t bear taking on any more responsibility. Her hands covered her mouth, but not before a moan broke loose.
“Sorry, sunshine. The pup belongs to me.” The commanding male voice saved her ass and an overwhelming urge to do the same as her daughter had done just minutes earlier took hold. If only she could throw herself into his arms, wrap hers around his neck and sob with relief.
Instead, she shot him a look of gratitude and for the first time since the incident happened, she paid attention to Hollie’s good-looking rescuer.
Short dark hair damply clinging to his head only created more focus on the soft brown eyes of the handsome devil. She recognized regret in his expressive face and knew he had stepped in to save her over t
he puppy—that he wasn’t the real owner. How sweet was that?
Endearingly, he didn’t try and hide his disgust at his lack of control. His stance revealed his annoyance. But when he saw her searching, he grinned lopsidedly and shrugged.
It was the grin that struck a chord. Memories long buried fought to be more than a fleeting vision, but faded almost as quickly as they started. One thing was for certain, she’d never met the man before because he wasn’t someone any woman would be likely to forget.
Chapter Six
What the hell are you doing? His soft-hearted rescue, a position he’d never experienced before, had appeared and spoken before passing the words through his brain. And now that organ was laughing hysterically at his blunder. Too late, you idiot! You can’t take the words back. Look at Lindy’s relief.
It was true. Overwhelmed with gratitude, the woman wore a huge smile. “I’m sorry, baby. The dog belongs to this gentleman. You must give her back. And then thank him for rescuing you.”
Hollie looked at her mom and then at Reed. Her wobbling lip almost unmanned him, but he waited to see what she would do. Shoulders again drooping, blanket now laying on the ground at her feet, she bent over and kissed the furry head. Then her little hands pushed the uncooperative dog toward him. “She’s too little to know she’s yours. Don’t be mad at her. I guess she likes me.” Sniffing audibly, she finally picked the puppy up and handed her over.
Reed looked at Lindy, whose eyes were still begging for support. He’d felt low before in his life but never like his belly was scraping the gravel. Still, the relief shining from his former one-night-fling’s eyes couldn’t be ignored. He had to carry on with the lie.
