“Cows,” Lizzy squealed. Two black cows stood lazily by the river.
“Where? Where?” the other couple said simultaneously, reaching frantically for their phones.
“They’re behind us now.” Lizzy returned her attention to the river ahead of them.
“All right. I need everyone to pay attention,” Nathan said when the couple continued swiveling in their seats. “We’ll be hitting the rapids soon.”
Jack saw it happen in slow motion. The man behind Lizzy lifted his ass off the raft to get a better shot of the rapids ahead of them, fumbled with his phone, and lost his balance. He used Lizzy to regain it, and she tumbled into the quickening water.
It wasn’t until the cold water hit his body that Jack realized he’d gone in after her. His mind had gone blank with shock, and he did the one thing he shouldn’t have done. Fuck. He located the chicken string around the raft and held on before he searched the water for her. Fear clutched his heart when he saw her head dip in and out of the water a few feet away.
“Lizzy,” he screamed, and swallowed a mouthful of river.
She quickly got her bearings and swam toward him, keeping her feet out of the water and away from the jagged rocks beneath.Good girl.She remembered her safety training. He stretched one hand toward her while hanging on to the rope with the other. When her fingertips at last grazed his, he wrapped his hand around hers in an iron grip and hauled her to him. She reached his side with a gasp, and he guided her hands to the chicken rope.
“Hang tight,” he yelled over the roar of the water.
They held on to the side of the raft with the water crashing over them until the river quieted around them. The woman watched the ordeal with a hand over her mouth, and the man sat looking miserable. Once the raft was stable, Nathan pulled Lizzy aboard with her kicking the water to assist in the process. She laughed breathlessly as she righted herself on the raft.
Jack felt like a monumental jackass as his friend hefted him out of the water next—especially since his logical side knew all along that Lizzy wasn’t in any real danger. But he hadn’t felt particularly coolheaded when she’d toppled into the river.The thought of her getting hurt froze his blood in his veins. The whole ordeal had lasted less than five minutes, but it had stretched on like a nightmare until she was safely aboard the raft.
“Sorry, man,” Jack said with a sheepish grimace. Whatever his reasons, jumping in after Lizzy hadn’t been his finest moment.
Nathan just shook his head at him.
Jack turned his focus on Lizzy, saving his mortification for another time. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Her eyes still twinkled with laughter, but there was something else there. Something that made Jack’s heart thump with the force of a boulder dropping from a cliff. “I’ll thank you later for coming in after me.”
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he muttered.
“No shit.” Her smile lit up her face brighter than sunshine. “I’ll thank you nonetheless.”
“Well, that was an adventure,” Nathan said, putting on his guide voice, but he directed a stern gaze at the cell phone couple. “Let’spleaseremember to respect the river and enjoy the rest of this tripsafely.”
Once the other couple apologized profusely to Lizzy and put away their phones at last, the trip indeed became more enjoyable. The serenity of the nature surrounding them and the exhilaration of the rapids helped Jack put the incident behind him… for the most part. The inescapable realization that he didn’t know how to be sensible when it came to Lizzy stayed at the forefront of his mind.
He’d been fooling himself this entire time. He thought he could stop himself from falling in love with her if he convinced himself that they wouldn’t last forever. He thought if he insisted on taking things slowly, then he could fall back to the comfortablenorm of loving her from afar when things ended. All of that was nothing but wishful thinking.
Jack was in love with Lizzy. He had fallen hard for her. This was nothing like the amorphous infatuation he had carried with him for the last two decades. He’d loved Lizzy without hoping for anything in return. He didn’t want. He didn’t fear. He was safe in his secrecy. But now he wanted. God, how he wanted.
He wanted to love her with everything in him. And he wanted to win her love in return. He wanted more than these couple of weeks with her. He wanted to build a future where he was hers and she was his. He wanted forever.
And because he wanted, he was terrified. This wasn’t the kind of love that he could hide away inside him. It burned too hot and bright—keeping it a secret would turn his heart into ashes. That meant he had to risk getting his heart broken. He had to risk losing her.
It was a risk he had no choice but to take. Nothing other than a lifetime with her would be enough anymore. If he couldn’t love her with all his heart—the way she deserved to be loved—then his life would always be incomplete.
But not yet. It was too soon.
He’d told her he wanted to take things slowly. And she’d agreed. Lizzy had just begun to see him as a man—a man she desired. Confessing his love to her after a week of dating was the opposite of taking things slowly. It would probably freak her out. He needed to take his time and woo her properly. If he got the job with McBain—hehadto get that job—he would have plenty of time to convince Lizzy that he was worthy of her love.
Besides, he wanted to cherish the rest of their “trial period” in Weldon. It was a slice of time removed from the real world—a sweet, warm cocoon. No matter what happened, he would always have this to remember. And he intended to make the most of it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Where do you want this?” Jack pushed the freshly painted three-tier rolling cart into the bookstore, looking mighty fine in his handyman mode. Then again, he always looked mighty fine.
“Right over there.” Lizzy smiled up at him from her perch on the floor, surrounded by used-book candidates to go into the bright yellow cart.
