She slipped it over her head.
“What did you say?”Eric called and added something she didn’t hear.
“Huh?”she asked when her head popped through the hole.“I didn’t hear you.”She slipped one arm in and struggled to get the other in.It was ridiculously hard to put on a pullover hoodie in a moving boat.She probably should have chosen a different sweater, but this one was snuggly and warm.
“I said, rock!”Eric shouted.“On the left.”
“Yikes!”With her hoodie half on and half off, she scrambled for her paddle, nearly knocking it into the water.“Paddle!Paddle faster,” she screamed.Thank heaven he was on the correct side for pushing them out of the rock’s path.
“Hang on,” he shouted, “we’re going to hit.”
She grabbed the gunwale with one hand, clutched her paddle with the other, and prayed for a glancing blow.They’d already survived a few of those.But this rock was big!
The bow slipped past the rock, and she thought they’d make it by.She let out a whoop.And the canoe careened off an unseen rock on the other side and then ricocheted back into the first rock.The boat jerked upward and slammed back down.
Chapter Ten
Theskyflewby.
SPLAT.
Wanda landed in the water with a bone-jarring sploosh.“Ah!”she grunted and groaned for a moment until she regained the breath the hard landing had knocked out of her.“Eric?Are you okay?”She pushed her sodden hair back off her face and blinked away the water streaming into her eyes as she struggled to untangle herself from her disheveled hoodie.
“Crap,” he muttered.“There goes the boat.”
She jerked to her feet, struggling to stand on the rounded rocks in the rushing water.“Grab it!”She trudged toward the boat as it slipped further downstream, sinking slowly into the water.
She’d almost reached the boat when her left foot hit a rock at the perfectly wrong angle.Her foot twisted.And rolled with a crack.Nauseous with agony, she dropped to her knees, uncaring that the water rose to her chest.
Eric was beside her in a second.“What happened?”He held out a hand to assist her to her feet.
“Twisted my ankle.”Gingerly, she tried to set it down.Pain overwhelmed her, and black spots danced in front of her eyes.“Or maybe broke it,” she muttered.
“Let’s get you to shore.”
“Get the boat!All our stuff’s in there.”
“The boat doesn’t matter.You need to sit.”He wrapped one arm around her shoulders and said, “Ready?”
“For what?”She squealed in alarm when he bent, wrapped his other arm around her knee, and scooped her up like the hero in a romantic comedy.
“Geez, give a girl a bit of warning.”She cussed and groaned as the jostling jarred her ankle.
He splashed his way to the far bank.
“You’re going the wrong way!”
“Nope.If the boat’s done for, we’ll have to hoof it to camp, once we get your ankle figured out.That means we’ll need to be on the shore side, not the island in the middle.”
“Good point.”She looked around.“Put me on that rock, right there.I can sit and soak my ankle.The icy water has to help with any swelling.I hope it’s just a twist and will stop hurting right away.”
“Doubt it.It’s bruising up already.”
She wiggled around, trying to see it, but the angle he held her at made it nearly impossible, especially with her bulky life jacket.
“Hold still, or I’ll drop you and make matters worse.”Another six steps and he set her gently on a large rock.He kneeled before her and lifted her foot.
She winced and groaned.She bit back a string ofcursewords.
