Well, Ginny would just have to keep thinking whatever she wanted to, because Shelby didn’t have the energy to deal with Ginny’s speculations.
Ian finished his conversation with Kirk and slid into the pool next to Celeste. A heat of a different sort than Shelby had experienced under the waterfall flashed through her. She pushed it down hard. It didn’t matter to her what Ian did.
Ignoring Ginny’s questioning look, Shelby slid deeper into the pool so that the water came up to her chin. The heat of the water felt delicious on her skin but did nothing to ease the thoughts in her mind. She didn’t want the water to warm her up; she wanted Ian to. Shelby closed her eyes, forcing herself to remember how it had felt when she had been on the top of the ledge drinking in the beauty of the river and ignore how amazing it had felt to be kissed under a waterfall by Ian McLean.
CHAPTER 19
Shelby breathed in deeply and smiled as the canoe she was steering glided down the river. Despite a rough start, the day was turning out to be pretty great. She had rolled out of bed that morning at the last possible second, leaving only enough time to pull her hair into a rough ponytail. The crazy events at the Potholes had left her with another night of next to zero sleep, so when she stumbled into the Meeting Place as the morning fog was just starting to lift, she had felt just as rough as her ponytail looked.
She hadn’t been expecting an easy day. If she was going to be successful on this course, she needed to forget the ecstasy of being pulled into Ian’s arms under the waterfall and focus on the torment of the moment he pulled away. Anything else was a fool’s game. How many times did she have to be taught a lesson before she finally learned it?
In the end, the morning had been easy. It had started with mud facials on the beach. It was amazing how much perspective you could gain lounging on the beach, wrapped up in a thick flannel blanket, listening to the waves with mud smeared on your face.
The waterfall was nothing. It was just a bit of prematurely aborted fun. She was a grown woman, and she was single, and there was nothing wrong with fooling around with a man who made her salivate just thinking about him.
It was what any red-blooded woman would have done.
After the mud facials, they had done some more practice in the canoes and then headed out for a river adventure. The view on the river was stunning. The flowing water cut its way through clay and rock banks rising high above their heads. In many places, the river had undercut the trees clinging to the tops of the banks, leaving the trees in various stages of toppling into the water. The river was high and running fast, demanding her attention to keep the nose of the canoe pointed down river, and yet she still couldn’t keep her mind off Ian.
“Shelby?” Ginny said, with an edge of irritation that warned Shelby it hadn’t been Ginny’s first attempt to get her attention.
Shelby shook her head to bring herself back to the present. “I’m sorry. I missed that last part. It’s hard to hear over the river.” The lie slid easily off Shelby’s tongue, but there was no way she was going to tell Ginny she was too absorbed in thoughts of Ian’s smoking-hot body to pay attention to her.
“The river, my ass. You haven’t heard a word I’ve said all day. When we get off this river, you’re going to be spilling your guts to me.”
“Ginny—”
“No, you aren’t going to get away with denying it. Something’s gone on, and I’m dying for some girl talk. So—”
“Really. There’s nothing to tell.” Shelby could feel a blush rising again. It was like red was her new skin colour.
She simply couldn’t tell Ginny about what had happened with Ian. Ginny had known Ian since they were kids. He was like a brother to her, and Ginny already suspected Shelby of having more than a crush on Ian. Shelby didn’t need to supply her with any steamy details.
Ginny twisted in her seat, making the canoe rock slightly. Shelby automatically shifted her weight to steady the boat.
“Pffft,” Ginny exhaled in disbelief. “You’ve been weird all day. I would bet money it was boy troubles, if we weren’t in the wild. So, I’m betting on man troubles and one man specifically.”
Ginny’s spot-on assessment of the situation momentarily stunned Shelby, and she lightened her pressure on her paddle. Left unchecked, the bow of the canoe veered towards the shore, bringing Shelby’s focus quickly back to her job.
Panic shooting through her, she overcorrected, turning the nose of the canoe towards the middle of the flowing river.
Instantly, the unforgiving water snatched at the canoe’s bow slewing it sharply away from the shore. Shelby instinctively grabbed the edge of the canoe as it tilted heavily, trying to keep her balance. Then just as quickly, she let go to thrust her paddle back into the water, trying to counteract the river’s force and bring the bow back around before they ended up broadside to the river.
“Careful!” Ginny cried, clutching the edge of the canoe.
“Sorry,” Shelby hissed. She concentrated on getting the canoe back under control. Her heart was pounding at the near miss. “Hold on, I’ll have us sorted in a minute.” Her words suggested more confidence than she felt, as she struggled to correct the canoe without tipping it over.
When she once again had the canoe skimming along in the water under control, Shelby let her breath out. Her heart was still beating wildly. With relief, she saw a giant root stock up ahead. The roots of the giant trees blocked the corner and marked the spot where the take-out was. They were almost to the end. She would be able to get Ginny to the shore without drowning her.
“We’ve got to keep right over, so we don’t miss the take-out area. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to find out how the rapids got a name like Devil’s Spiral,” Shelby said, her voice quivering with adrenalin.
Ginny laughed shakily. “No kidding, but take it easy, okay? We don’t need to learn about Devil’s Spiral up close in person. We can just believe everyone that it’s to be avoided. Besides, I don’t want to go swimming.” Ginny cranked her head around to look at Shelby again, a twinkle in her eyes. “It’ll mess up my hair.”
“You’re a nut,” Shelby said, laughing, as the tension between the two friends was broken.
Ginny winked and then turned forward again.
Suddenly, Shelby couldn’t remember why she hadn’t just confessed the whole Ian debacle to Ginny. Instead of spending the whole ride in some weird awkwardness, they could have been laughing about how ridiculous it was. It was definitely time for some girl talk when they got off this river.
Shelby worked her paddle, gentler this time, to bring the canoe closer to the right-hand bank. As they approached, the submerged log they had been warned to keep right of became visible, making it easy to avoid. As the log slid passed, she worked to manoeuvre the canoe around the giant root stock. As they cleared it, she could see several canoes already beached on the sandbar.
The river was high, and only a sliver of the sandbar was visible—just enough to ground the bows of the canoes, leaving the sterns floating in the current. Shelby and Ginny were in the last canoe, and everyone on the sandbar was busy. Piper held the bow of a yellow canoe; Kirk was ankle-deep in the river helping Abe out of a blue one; and Waylon was holding the canoe steady with his paddle from the stern. Tyler and JP were muscling a red canoe up the narrow path that cut up the steep bank.
Shelby turned her focus back to her own canoe. Getting over to the shore would be just like in practice, except that the river was moving faster, and if she missed, they would be swept down into the rapids.
They wouldn’t have put me in the rear seat, if they hadn’t thought I was capable, she told herself to soothe her nerves. They would have put me with Ian or Kirk. Oh, for God’s sake, don’t think about Ian right now. It was going to take all her skills to land them on the crowded sandbar without looking like a fool in front of the others. She needed to concentrate.
Just as they fully cleared the root stock, bringing the rest of the sandbank into view, she saw Ian, stand
ing knee-deep in the river, swing a giggling Celeste into his arms to carry her to the shore. Shelby gasped and jammed her paddle hard into the water, instinctively trying to stop the canoe. The canoe reacted instantly, swinging its nose hard towards the centre of the channel. In a flash, the current grabbed hold of the bow and swept it further around, turning them broadside to the river.
A loud buzzing droned in Shelby’s ears as panic swept through her. The canoe heeled dangerously to one side, throwing her off balance. As Shelby shifted her weight, trying to stabilize the canoe, she dimly heard Ginny cry out. Shelby dug her paddle deep into the water, desperately trying to steer them away from the swift running current in the middle of the channel and towards the safety of the sand bar.
She plunged her paddle in again, vaguely aware of people shouting and that Ian and Luke were in the water reaching for them, but in her desperation, she overcorrected. The canoe veered, tilting wildly.
And then she was engulfed in frigid blackness.
Ian tossed his backpack into the canoe, not paying attention to where it landed. He began to push off, ignoring the activity behind him. He knew Ginny would be okay. She would be shaken up, but she would get warm, and she would be fine.
Luke had pulled Ginny from the river, and now she was safe. Paula was wrapping her in a blanket, and the others were crowding around her. Shelby hadn’t been so lucky. Ian hadn’t been able to grab her, and now she was freezing, alone, and in extreme danger. For a second, he had thought he had had her, but she was further out than Ginny, and his fingertips had merely brushed across her.
Moments later, she had disappeared around the bend.
“Let me get my pack and go with you,” Kirk said. Placing a hand on Ian’s arm. “It’ll only take a second, and you shouldn’t go alone.”
“She doesn’t have a second,” Ian growled. “This is my fault, and I need to fix it.” He jerked his arm away from Kirk’s hand and continued pushing the canoe out into the river.
“It wasn’t your fault, Ian,” Kirk said, grabbing the canoe.
“I’m the one who made the decision to go ahead with the canoe trip.” Ian tapped his chest for emphasis. “I’m the one who put Shelby in the rear seat of that canoe,” he said, harshly tapping his chest again.
What he didn’t say was that he had chosen her because he had wanted to give her a chance to prove herself. Once again, he had let his personal feelings cloud his professional judgment, and someone was in serious danger. Except, Shelby was competent. She was more than capable of handling that canoe in these conditions. So what had happened? He hoped he wasn’t going to end up spending the rest of his life asking himself that.
“I need to go after her.”
“Okay, but just wait for me. Jade isn’t going to like it. You know how she feels about going solo.” While he spoke, Kirk took a second to move Ian’s backpack out of the water in the bottom of the canoe. “Look man, you’re in no condition to be charging down the river. This is dangerous.”
To the hell with Jade. Ian rounded on Kirk. “You know what’s dangerous? A student on her own in the water. If by some miracle she doesn’t drown, then she’s going to freeze to death. It was me who gave the okay for the canoe trip. I’ve got to get her.”
It took every bit of control he had not to punch Kirk. Every second he stood there debating with Kirk was one more second Shelby was in the water. He needed to get moving, and he needed to get moving now. It didn’t matter that he knew Kirk was right; the last thing he should be doing was racing down the river after her. He wasn’t thinking clearly and that was dangerous.
But if she died...
“Look Kirk, I’m going. You can get in the canoe, or you can get out of the way.”
“Just let me get my pack. It’s up in the truck.”
“Fine.”
As soon as Kirk began to ascend the path to the top of the bank, Ian gave the canoe one final push and leapt inside. The force of his movement caused the canoe to tip precariously, but with practised moves, he quickly restored the balance and got the nose pointing downstream. He didn’t have time to wait while Kirk dicked around with his gear.
He couldn’t believe that only minutes had passed since he had watched helplessly as the bow of Shelby’s canoe had suddenly veered towards the centre of the river, heeling over dangerously. He had instinctively known it was going over, and without thinking, he had virtually thrown Celeste at the sandbar and dove towards the canoe. But, even with his quick action, it had been too late. The canoe had gone over, dumping both women into the fast-moving, frigid water.
It was reckless to go charging after her on his own. He knew that—especially as he was soaking wet. He knew he should have waited for Jade to arrive with the rescue gear and a plan for who would accompany him—or at the very least, waited for Kirk to get back down with his gear. But he couldn’t get the sight of her head disappearing under the water out of his mind, and any delay could mean her head might never resurface again.
Who was he kidding? There was no way he could save her from drowning. He was too far behind her. As long as she was still in the river, he would never be able to catch up. His only hope was that she would remember what he had taught her about getting out of the current. If she didn’t get out of the river quickly, she would die, and if he didn’t find her soon, she would die any way.
“Ian! Don’t be an ass. You need to get back here and do this properly before someone else gets hurt.”
Jade’s voice rang out clear from the top of the riverbank. She must have come to meet them as they came off the river; otherwise, how had she gotten there so fast? Ian ignored it. He would claim later that he hadn’t heard her.
It wouldn’t really make any difference, but it would be the excuse he would offer when she was firing him.
Besides, the current had already grabbed hold of the canoe, and he was zipping down the river at a good clip. He couldn’t have steered back to the sandbar, if he had wanted to. And he certainly didn’t want to.
The air was pushed from Shelby’s lungs as the frigid water engulfed her. She fought to bring her head to the surface, but in the chaos of the water, she couldn’t find which way was up. She felt something grabbing at her, but whatever it was failed to stop her.
Finally, the buoyancy in her life jacket forced her to the surface, and she gasped frantically for air before her head was sucked beneath the water again. She was at the mercy of the rapids. Her life jacket continually forced her body to the surface, but it couldn’t seem to keep her there, as again and again the roiling, frigid water pulled her beneath.
Every time her face broke the surface, she gasped for air, fighting to breathe around the spray. I’m going to die, she thought, as visions of her sons flashed before her. Why hadn’t she said a proper good-bye to Bryan? Why had she let him blow her off, instead of insisting? Why had she come?
Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more and her heart would stop, the rapids spit her out. The river smoothed out, and she no longer had to fight to keep her head above water. She stopped fighting the river and let her body go limp, floating along while she sucked air into her aching lungs. She needed to get out of the water fast. She was already freezing, and the water was rapidly leaching the remaining heat from her body. She struggled to swim towards the shore, but her arms didn’t have the strength to fight the current and pull her free.
She couldn’t fight for long. Defeated and exhausted, she gave up struggling, and just let herself drift with the current. She was bone-deep cold, but that wasn’t her only problem. The river stretched on for kilometres before it let out into the ocean. Much of the riverbank wasn’t even accessible without hiking through dense, almost impenetrable, underbrush.
How would they ever find her?
Fighting despair, Shelby’s mind began to drift to all the things she regretted in her life. The list was long, and other than her children, there wasn’t much she could look back on with pride or satisfaction. She had wasted her life on Bl
ake. She had been too young when she had married him. Why had she let him make his dreams into her dreams? She swore to herself that if she ever got out of this, she would never let anyone tell her how her life was supposed to be.
But, if any of it was going to matter, if she was going to get back to her kids and fix her life, she couldn’t give up. She needed to survive this river, so she could get back and show Bryan and Kevin that their mother was a strong and capable woman. She needed to get back so she could stand up to Blake. She needed to fight. She couldn’t just lie here and let the river take her. She had things to live for.
And she needed a chance to confront Ian and tell him to uncross all the crossed signals.
At the thought of Ian, something flicked in the pit of Shelby’s stomach, and she swore she heard Ian say, “You’ve got this.” She could almost see his face with his steady eyes refusing to let her look away. Despite all the other crap, he believed in her, and if he believed in her, then maybe she could believe in herself.
Renewing her efforts, Shelby fought to swim for the shore, but she was tired, and the cold water was quickly sapping what little energy she had left. It was futile. No matter how hard she swam, the current held her fast.
The river didn’t care that Ian believed in her; the river didn’t care that there were two little boys she needed to get home to; and the river didn’t care that she had dreams to chase. The river had her in its power, and it wasn’t ready to let her go.
Defeated, Shelby stopped swimming. She was too tired to fight, but she couldn’t give up so easily. She needed to think. There had to be a way out of this. Frustration clawed at her, as she tried to remember what Ian had taught them about escaping river currents. She had been so distracted.
Why couldn’t she have bothered to learn the materials? Couldn’t she get things right just once in her life? She was ready to give up again, to just submit and let the river take her, but then Ian’s words were there in her ear.
Saving Shelby Page 17
