ChapterThirty-One
Trying notto cry from the pain in her leg, Lexie struggled to swim. She wanted Owen. Owen, the hero, Owen, the rescuer abseiling in from a cloud and plucking her from the water, but she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She was on her own this time, and she had never felt lonelier.
A surf had been building up, pushing her forward and then sucking her back to deeper water. She’d bobbed like a cork – in and out, first nearer, then further from land. It seemed like she would never reach the beach.
Another massive wave lifted her in the air, propelling her forward again, but this time, she was raised higher and faster than before. She rode the surf until she was within yards of the beach. This time surely, she would make it to the shore. The roller crashed. Multiple pains shot up and down her injured leg. Lexie tumbled through the sea foam. Surfacing, spluttering with a mouthful of water and sand she arrived in the shallows. She felt heavy, already the tide was dragging at her again but with what remained of her strength, she struggled to the beach and lay there, the tide still covering her ankles, flat on her back staring up at the sky, washed up in every sense.
* * *
Did she pass out?Lexie wasn’t sure. But when she opened her eyes again, she was staring up at the blue sky, noting that the sun’s position had changed. I want Owen, she thought. He’ll be worried. She took a breath, flipped over onto her side, and pulled herself into a sitting position.
‘Ouch!’ Her leg damn well hurt. She checked it, expecting to see a great gash spouting blood. There was none. Her thigh was red, swollen with maroon blotches and boiling hot to the touch, but she hadn’t been bitten. She’d been stung. Her attacker, it seemed, was the mysterious marine wedding veil.
‘On the plus side, I’m not about to bleed to death,’ she muttered. All she had to do was rest a while, and then she could walk home to Owen. Flopping back, she smiled at the thought of Owen and closed her eyes. She wanted so much to see him.
