Lily couldn’t move, except for the violent tremors that seized her body, threatening to tear her limbs from her torso and shatter the teeth out of her head. However, she knew the longer they lay on the rocky shore, trying to gather energy, the more they risked hypothermia. But she couldn’t seem to force her body to move.
With a groan, Ethan got to his feet. “We should get moving, get back to the rental place, into dry clothes.”
As he helped her up, she wondered how far the walk would be. Their journey downriver should have ended at the rental shop, but they hadn’t gone far before the raft sank.
He nodded toward the slope that would lead them up to the road. There was no trail, so she climbed at a gradual angle, picking a path that had the most trees and bushes to use as handholds. It wasn’t long before the sounds of the occasional car driving by replaced the constant hiss of water.
When they finally crested the top and the terrain flattened into a paved two-lane highway, she was ready to collapse, both from relief and fatigue. However, she kept going, because she knew that if she stopped, she wouldn’t be able to get moving again.
Gravel crunched under their water shoes. The quiet was striking after the constant rush of water. When she couldn’t stand it any longer, she glanced at Ethan. “I’m sorry about what I said earlier in the raft.”
She knew it was a talk best left for a hot tub or a seat in front of a fireplace, but after what had happened, it felt too important to wait. Besides, it helped distract her from how cold she was.
“Me too. But you weren’t wrong. Neither was Piper. I wasn’t there for my family. I … I wasn’t there when my dad died of cancer.”
He stared ahead as he spoke, but as she studied his profile, she could see the emotions fighting to come out.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “That must have been so hard.”
“It killed me. But it was for my family that I stayed away.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know that case I’ve been telling you about? The Phantom case?”
She would have shivered at the name if she hadn’t already been racked with them. “Yeah.”
“It was very early in my career when my firm invited me to sit third chair. I guess the partners thought I showed promise. For someone so fresh to be assigned to such a high-profile case … It was a real career maker for me, and it was an easy win. An open-and-shut case.”
“Or so you thought.”
He huffed. “Or so everyone thought. They still do.”
The sound of an approaching car made them both turn around. Ethan waved it down, but it flew past.
Lily sighed and trudged on. “So you were too busy with the case to be with your dad?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “It was because I started getting death threats. Against me, my family, my ex-fiancée.”
She drew a sharp breath. “From the Phantom?”
“Yeah.” He kicked a rock in his path, and it skittered across the road. “It’s not exactly uncommon in my line of work, but they’re usually bogus. However, this was no common criminal we were trying to put behind bars. He had a lot of friends in high places. And low.”
She recalled what he’d said about the Phantom burying his enemies alive. She hugged herself tighter. “That must have been so scary.”
“We were all put under twenty-four-hour surveillance. We couldn’t go to the bathroom without security knowing about it. They even kept tabs on the family farm. When I got the call that Dad had taken a turn for the worst, all I wanted to do was be by his side, but …”
Her next step faltered as the sad truth hit her. “You stayed away to protect them.”
“I was afraid that if I went, I’d bring the danger in my world crashing down on them. As if they weren’t going through enough already.”
She grabbed his hand and came to a stop, forcing him to face her. “You did the right thing.”
“When I had to hear about his death over a phone call, it sure didn’t feel that way.” His eyes met hers before dropping to the road. “I didn’t consider that my career could threaten my family from so far away. I guess I was too single-minded, hungry for success.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, knowing what you want and going for it, despite what others say, sounds brave to me.” She certainly wished she had a little more of that in her.
He raised his arm to flag down a silver Volvo coming up behind them. She’d been so focused on his story that she hadn’t even heard it approach.
This time, the vehicle slowed down, pulling onto the shoulder ahead. As they jogged to meet it, Lily could tell it was older because of the boxy style, maybe from the seventies.
Ethan approached the open passenger window. “Thanks for stopping. We were rafting down the river and our raft sank. Would we be able to use your phone to call the rental center in Shady Creek for a ride?”
The woman studied the two of them shivering on the side of the road. “I can give you a ride. I’m headed right through town.”
He made a face and peered inside her vehicle. “We’re still pretty wet. I’d hate to mess up a classic like this one.”
The woman patted the seat next to her. “That’s the beauty of vinyl seats. They don’t make ’em like they used to.”
Less than half an hour later, Lily and Ethan walked into the raft rental shop raftless, tired, and still wet.
Molly skittered across the floor to meet them, followed by a much slower Sully, the golden retriever. The dachshund danced with excitement to see them. Or else she had to pee—which was very likely.
Matt gaped at them across the counter. “What happened to you?”
“The raft sank,” Ethan said. “I don’t think you’ll be getting it back.”
Matt gripped his hair, messing up his man bun. “Wow, that doesn’t happen. Like ever. And it was only a class three run.” His wide eyes shifted between them, and he shook off his surprise. “That can all wait until later. I’m just glad you two are okay. Why don’t you go change? I’ll make you some coffee.”
“Make mine a tea, please,” Lily said.
He nodded and jogged into the back. They made their way outside to where the lockers were set at the back of the building. It wasn’t a changing “room,” since it was open to the outside air, but some wooden partitions blocked the wind.
Lily hopped from one foot to the other as Ethan tried to open the locker they’d crammed their clothing into earlier, but the lock shook in his hands. Molly danced at her feet, probably thinking it was some kind of game.
Suddenly, her right foot felt less cold. Even a little warm. It tingled as the sensation spread. Worried that her nerves were going haywire and she’d start dropping limbs, she glanced down to find Molly hunkered next to her foot.
“Really?” she asked the puppy. “Ethan, I think your dog peed on me again. And we’re literally outdoors.”
“It must mean she likes you,” he said.
“At least it will save one foot from amputation.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll get out of these wetsuits and into dry clothes as soon as I—” The lock finally opened. “There.”
He pulled out her sweatshirt and held it up like he was going to help her change.
She shook her head. “No. You first.”
He gave her a look.
She gave it right back. “Who’s the professional caregiver here? Me or you?”
“To take care of others, first you need to take care of yourself.”
Worrying about herself first went against every fiber of her being. And whenever she tried, her mother would call her selfish. But Ethan wasn’t selfish, despite what Piper thought. Lily had seen that firsthand when he’d put her life before his in those rapids. She’d never seen anything so selfless in all her life. And he’d done it for her.
As she reached up to unzip her wetsuit, her arms ached from the movement. She couldn’t stop her fingers trembling long enough to grasp the zipper.
“Here,” Ethan said. “Let me help.”
With his own trembling hands, he unzipped the front of her wetsuit all the way down. She gasped as the air hit her damp skin. It seemed impossible, but the soaked wetsuit had been warmer. She tried to speak, but it came out like a mouse squeak.
“It will get worse before it feels better,” he said. “But trust me, this is better.”
They peeled the second skin from her body, leaving her in only her swimsuit. He held up her sweatshirt, and she yanked it on. When she hopped on one leg to pull up her trousers, the other one gave out. She ended up lying on the concrete.
It seemed easier to fight with her clothes when she wasn’t battling gravity, so she wiggled the rest of it on, not caring how ridiculous she’d look to anyone who might pass by.
After she’d depleted all her energy, she lay there, unable to move. Then a damp nose wedged into her ear, snorting and huffing excitedly. Molly’s whole body jiggled with tail wags as she accosted Lily’s face with kisses.
She laughed and planted a kiss on top of the puppy’s head. “We missed you too. But trust me, you were better off hanging out here.”
Ethan grunted as he fought to get his own wetsuit off. Struggling to her feet, she helped him yank it off. It was the second time in two days she’d been this close to his wet, half-naked body.
The memory of her cheek against his chest, her hand accidentally groping him, warmed her a little despite the situation. Well … it warmed one part in particular. But that was definitely a part she didn’t want amputated.
Fishing inside the locker, she produced his sweatshirt. He yanked it on, and when his head popped through the hole, his face looked years older, creased with emotion. Was he still thinking about their earlier conversation?
She thought about Piper’s version of things and how different they seemed from his. All because of a few key details.
“Everything you told me earlier …” she began. “Does Piper know?”
“No. And I made my mother promise not to tell her.”
“But why?”
“Knowing that my job put our family in danger would have made things worse between us. At the very least, it wouldn’t have helped.”
Bracing himself against the lockers, he stood on one foot while trying to pull his joggers on over his swim trunks. Eventually, he gave up and sat on the ground like she had.
“The morning my father died was the day the guilty verdict was read. My mother waited until after the trial was over to call me with the news. When I went back for the funeral, things were tense with Piper. It only got worse after I spent the entire weekend on the phone with the security detail. I could barely get through a meal at Applebee’s without needing to check in.”
Lily handed him his dry socks and shoes before sinking down next to him to pull on hers. “But surely Piper would have understood if you’d just explained.”
“Piper was seventeen at the time, eight years younger than me. She was angry and grieving. I think part of her felt better having a target for that grief. I was okay being that target.” He leaned back against a locker, staring off into the trees behind the rental shop as he petted Molly absently. “Maybe … maybe I wanted to be the bad guy because that’s how I felt.”
The sadness in his voice morphed into something Lily could only describe as conviction.
“You weren’t the bad guy,” she said with as much conviction.
His hard gaze shifted to her and softened. “Piper wouldn’t believe me, anyway. She thinks I bankrupted my parents because they helped me pay for college before my dad got sick.”
“But lots of Americans try to do that for their kids, don’t they?”
“Yes, but I don’t think it helped when I showed up at the farm in a flashy car.” He hunched his shoulders. “After my dad first got the news from the doctors, I rented the latest BMW with all the bells and whistles and drove it back home so I could take him for a ride.”
“Why a BMW?”
“It was my dad’s favorite car. It was a status symbol to him, like if you drove that car, it meant you’d made it. He told me that one day he hoped to see me drive back to the farm in my own BMW.”
She tried to imagine Ethan’s pride as he drove up to the house that day and the look on his dad’s face. “I think that’s kind of sweet.”
“Not to Piper. She was always a lot more down to earth than I was.” He sighed. “She thought I was up in Seattle throwing money around. I knew things were tight financially back home. I worked my ass off to send every cent I could, but I wasn’t making a lot of money at first.” He huffed a tired laugh. “I think I’m the reason Piper worked so hard to pay her own way through school. She had three jobs at one point. Briefly, before she got fired from a couple of them, but still.”
“Everything you’re telling me sounds reasonable,” she said. “And if you told Piper all that …”
“She’d think I was making up excuses, over-dramatizing my big fancy job.”
“But it is big. It is fancy.” She squeezed his arm. “You put a crime boss behind bars. Or at least you thought so at the time. Your life was on the line, and you still did the right thing. You’re … amazing and brave. A lot braver than I’ve been.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t say all that. And you are brave. You just saved me from drowning in rapids. You’re good to have around in an emergency.”
“Thanks, but I’d prefer not to make a habit out of it.”
Laughing, he pulled her to her feet and picked up most of their rental gear. Lily carried Molly in one arm and her wetsuit in the other as they headed to the front entrance. She was looking forward to that warm tea.
“Just don’t let this accident ruin your vacation,” he said. “Or your sense of adventure.”
She snorted. But as she thought about it, she didn’t think it would. Her whole life, she’d known nothing but the safety of home and routine. She’d never known what it was to truly live. And now she did, thanks to Ethan. He made her feel alive.
As they walked past the parking lot, Molly gave her neck kisses. Too tired, she barely noticed, until Ethan chuckled.
“You’re not afraid of your allergy anymore?”
Jolting, Lily became aware of the tongue bath she was receiving. “I have bigger things to worry about. Like what outdoor sport are we going to do tomorrow?”
He blew out a breath. “I think we should take the day off.”
“Agreed.” Her smiled faded as her mind returned to that river. “But I can’t help but wonder. What if the raft sinking wasn’t an accident? What if it was those poachers from the Sacramento River messing with us? I mean, I know we’re an entire state away, but it seems too coincidental. And Matt said this has never happened before.”
She recalled the leer the poacher in the red cap had given her at the petrol station. She pulled Molly closer.
“I know what you mean, but coincidences do happen.”
As they approached the BMW to drop off their backpacks, she tried to shake off the odd feeling. However, when they got closer, Ethan hesitated. The tires lay flat on the pavement, gashes in the rubber walls. Silently, they rounded the car. All four of them had been slaughtered, reinforcing her suspicions about the poachers.
“Is this a coincidence too?” she asked.
“No. It’s not.”