Page 38 of All For You

I’d have to look away most of the time. At least the water was going to be cold—this was England after all—and I could douse myself if I got too wound up.

Emma and Lizzy both cried out in excitement at the sight of the river, scrambling along the path. They threw off their shoes and socks and, with a happy shriek, took a running leap, doing expert cannonballs into the water. Knightley waited until they landed and ran after them, leaped even higher, sailed through the air, and hit the water with a thunderous splash. Lizzy and Emma laughed, and Knightley emerged with a curse. Lizzy called to Oodles, and he waded right in and furiously paddled in circles with a delighted howl.

I trudged toward them, my heart sinking. I swam in the lake at home, but I’d known that body of water all my life. And here I was with people who were basically strangers. I edged up to the water. Took off my shoes. Dipped in a toe. Hell. It was freezing, as predicted, even though it was midsummer. I cautiously waded up to my knees. That might do me. I didn’t have any way of knowing how deep it was, how strong the flow. Even though the three of them seemed to be floating around without any concern of being swept swiftly downstream, I held back.

I checked down at Max. He was tongue out, tail wagging, seeming to be keen to go in.

I waded up to my waist and dunked under slowly like I did at home. Then I played with Max, throwing sticks into the water farther out, but not too far, because I was still worried about the current. The others yelled and screamed and splashed in the distance. I realized I was doing exercises with Max as if I were training him to be a water dog. But I was grateful for being occupied in the river, besides grabbing sneaky looks at a watery Lizzy.

She was kicking around on her back with Oodles too, her play more unstructured than mine. More like a kid, carefree, singing a popular song in a loud, slightly off-key voice.

Max, maybe tired of the discipline game, swam to Oodles. The two dogs set off in large circles around the water hole, seemingly paddling without a purpose, squealing and snuffling with delight. I smiled, imagining what they were communicating to each other.

I swam closer to Lizzy and emerged knee-deep, smoothing my bunched shorts and the sleeves of my wet shirt. I focused on the dogs, not knowing what to say. Most of my conversations were about facts—giving facts or debating facts, as emotions were the enemy of business.

“They’re having…fun,” I finally managed. God, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had fun.

Lizzy went to stand beside me. “They—ah!” She lost her footing, sending her arms flailing.

Without thinking, I reached out, grabbed her around her waist, and pulled her to me. I shuddered at the soft feel of her.

“You okay?” I asked as she lifted her face from where it was flat against my chest.

“Yes,” she said, her hand gripping tighter around my bicep.

“Good,” I murmured.

She was safe from falling now. There was no reason for us to be wrapped around each other, our faces close enough to feel the warmth of her breath, the air between us tugging, electric, and heavy.

“Lizzy, let’s do the rope swing,” Emma called, now climbing onto the riverbank.

Lizzy blinked, then looked over my shoulder. “Coming.”

The moment was quickly broken. Lizzy stepped out of my arms, and I held her elbow as she climbed out of the water. But seeing her in those wet clothes didn’t help how the thought of touching her again slid through my mind, sudden and dangerous. I tried not to stare at her lush shape, the way her waist dipped in enticingly, the flare of her feminine hips.

I swallowed hard, got out of the water and sat on the riverbank.

The women ran over to a rope swing I hadn’t noticed wound around a hook in a tree. Lizzy held on to it as Emma climbed onto the stick on one side.

Shit, was that safe? Would that stick hold two people’s weight once Lizzy got on too?

“Five, four, three, two, one,” Lizzy called out as she jumped onto her stick’s side.

“Here we go,” Emma yelled.

The rope swung away from the land, and they screamed. Then, when they dangled over the river’s deeper area, they simultaneously let go.

“Bombs away!” they both yelled, as though they’d done this many times together. They leaped out into the air, arms and legs everywhere, and tumbled down into the water below.

“Warm enough for you?” Lizzy cried out to Emma when they surfaced.

“Tropical!” Emma called back.

There was more yelling about the cold, and then they caught the stick at the end of the rope and swam it back to the little platform by the big willow tree.

After Lizzy and Emma swung a couple of other times together, Knightley had a go with Emma. Somehow, they even managed to squabble midair, before they hit the water.

Knightley went on by himself and did all sorts of twists on the rope and backflips, which drew applause and laughter from the two women.