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“Oh, my God,” Maire whispered. “Do you see him? What do we do?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Samuel said, still clutching her hand.
A clawlike hand burst out of the water and clambered to grab on to the lip of the ice.
“Help me,” Damon cried, his voice thick with cold as he went down again.
Maire looked at Samuel and her question hung heavily between them. No one would ever know about the crash or what they had done behind Lina’s back. If Damon died, their secret would die with him.
Maire stared into the abyss until she couldn’t stand it any longer. She couldn’t do it. She plunged her arm into the black, watery hole, but Samuel pulled it back. She looked at him in surprise and disappointment. Samuel was willing to let another person die tonight. He wasn’t the person she had hoped him to be.
“Wait,” Samuel said, “he’ll just pull you in. When I lie down, just grab my feet.” When she opened her mouth to question him, Samuel stopped her.
“Just trust me, we need to distribute our weight,” he said, lying on his stomach and grasping one of Damon’s flailing arms. “I’ve got you,” he told him. “Hold still. Maire, grab my feet, but if I go under, get to shore.”
Maire moved behind Samuel, carefully lowering herself to the ice and wrapping her hands around his ankles, hooking her fingers into his bootlaces.
“Now pull!” he shouted. Maire yanked with all her might. She had visions of Damon dragging them into the water, pulling them down to the rocky bottom. But to her surprise, the ice didn’t break and Damon was somehow with them atop the ice, panting and shivering.
“We need to get to shore,” Samuel said. Maire knew he was right. The lake could collapse beneath them at any second. “We need to crawl, spread out our body weight. He’s going to need help.”
They army-crawled slowly and methodically across the ice with Damon between the two of them, urging him forward. The snow began to fall harder, the wind growing in intensity. The cold penetrated Maire’s jeans and her coat until her entire body was numb. They didn’t speak. Each second felt like an eternity, but finally, they reached the bulrushes and collapsed.
“Thank you,” Damon said, through chattering teeth. “You saved me. I could have died.”
“Of course,” Samuel said. “We would never have left you behind.” Maire was too relieved, too cold to answer. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Damon’s shoulders. They sat there for a moment, catching their breath.
“I won’t tell,” Damon said, through chattering teeth. “I won’t say anything about what you did. I promise.”
Maire and Samuel looked at one another. During the trek across the lake, Maire had resigned herself to the idea that she would lose everything. Her future was gone.
“About what?” Maire asked to be sure.
“About the man who died. That you’re cheating on Lina,” Damon said. His lips had taken on a bluish tinge. “That I saw you two together. I thought I was going to die. You could have let me die. I won’t say anything about any of it. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Samuel said softly.
Maire couldn’t find words big enough to tell Damon how grateful, how relieved she was.
“I can’t feel my feet,” Damon said tearfully.
In the distance, they heard voices. It was Figgy, Lina, and the twins running toward them. Maire struggled to her feet. “Hurry,” she cried out. “He fell through the ice. We need to get him to the car and to the hospital.”
Wes and Wade peeled off their coats and wrapped them around Damon’s shoulders. With Figgy’s help, they began carrying him toward the car.
“Are you okay?” Lina asked with concern. “What happened?”
“Damon fell through the ice but we’re fine,” Samuel assured her. Maire nodded in agreement but was unable to meet her eyes. “Go on ahead, help him. We’re coming.”
Lina bit her lip uncertainly. “You sure? You’re not hurt?”
When Samuel and Maire both shook their heads, Lina gave them both a tight squeeze. “I don’t know what I would have done if something happened to one of you.” With that, Lina ran off toward the others.
“What do we do?” Maire asked when Lina was out of earshot, her teeth chattering.
“Nothing,” Samuel said. “We never lay in the road, never saw the man crash into the tree.”
“We never kissed,” Maire added.
