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“I’m a marmot,” Marilyn finally said. “Spending half my life living in a hole, just trying to survive. That’s basically what I’ve done.”

She said it so softly there was no way anyone else could’ve possibly heard her.

But when Noah spoke again, he was looking directly at her. “I don’t think marmots are boring at all. I think they’re pretty amazing. They don’t really have any true defense mechanisms like other animals do, and it’s just sheer strength of will that keeps them alive during the winter. They survive because they are determined to. That’s something to be respected.”

Marilyn finally looked away from Noah.

“All right,” Tanner said. “Let’s get going. We’ve got about another mile until we get to the rafts.”

Everyone picked up their pace. The rafting was the highlight of the trip for Sam. He liked the tents and the wilderness and whatever crazy stuff Noah had told him about escaping bears, but rafting was truly exciting.

“We’ll only be on the water a couple hours,” Tanner said. “And there aren’t any real rapids until much farther down the river.”

Sam let out a disappointed groan. Tanner chuckled and ruffled his hair. “How about you get some rafting experience under your belt today and we’ll start building up from there. Everybody has to learn in the safe water.”

“I’ll bet you and Noah didn’t have to learn in baby water like this,” Sam said when they reached the area where the rafts were stored.

“Not only did we learn in water just like this, we learned in this exact water,” Noah said. “Lips wasn’t much more than your age, and I was just a couple years older when our dad brought us here for the first time. So don’t be talking junk about this water.”

Sam’s eyes grew big. “Really? You first went rafting here?”

“Yep,” Tanner said. “And a year later I was already doing class III rapids. So let’s get to work.”

Sam was a lot more focused after finding out this was where his two idols got their start.

Like they’d done everything else, Tanner and Noah carefully explained the logistics of rafting. Noah readily admitted that Tanner was the better raftsman, although Bree was sure he could do it just fine.

Tanner pulled the map out of his backpack and showed everyone exactly where they’d be going.

“At this second fork, we’ll take the left. Farther downriver is where the rapids get a little more exciting than what we’re looking for today.” He winked at Sam. “But maybe soon. If it’s okay, Bree Cheese and I and the two rug rats will go down with the majority of the supplies. Noah will have the honor of escorting the rest of the lovely ladies.”

Bree was going to offer to trade with Marilyn so she could be with her kids. But when she heard the other woman mutter “no marmot,” she held her tongue. Marilyn was trying to face her fears by allowing the kids to be away from her. Bree wanted to help.

And when Noah gave Marilyn a reassuring nod and a small smile, Bree was even more convinced this was the right thing.

Soon they were on their way. The first hour on the river Bree just sat back and enjoyed herself. The water was moving at a fast enough pace to keep everybody interested and it felt like nothing could go wrong out here. The kids kept demanding Noah and Tanner race, and they took turns paddling hard to get in front of each other. About thirty minutes later they came up on the second fork and Tanner let Noah pull ahead.

“Aw, man,” Sam said. “They’re beating us!”

Tanner just smiled. “Noah’s got to get ahead so he can help us dock and get the supplies out. And come on, you and I both know we could take them.”

“Yeah, we could!”

Tanner slowed them down further with his oar as Noah took the fork. Bree could see why he wanted to have Noah already stopped and ready to help them. The speed of the water had definitely picked up.

She was just about to ask him about it when an odd screeching noise came from the front of the raft. She looked back at Tanner, who was steering them with the paddle. “Do you hear that?”

When the sound got louder a moment later, everyone could hear it.

Tanner’s muttered curse was cut off when the raft jerked suddenly, the front end collapsing, throwing them all forward.

Both kids screamed as they were thrown forcefully into the water. Bree grabbed for Eva, but the rapids pulled her away, then pulled Bree under.

Chapter Eleven

Tanner didn’t even waste time trying to figure out what the hell had caused a large enough puncture in the PVC material of the raft to cause it to collapse so suddenly. They weren’t near any severely jagged rocks, and even if they were, the raft material should’ve been able to handle it.

Instead he pushed off the remainder of the raft that was still above water and dived forward into the water.