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He can’t be dead. He was there, just seconds ago. Please, God, please don’t le
t him be dead, just because he was playing the fool for me.
“Toni?”
She was about to comfort Graydon when she saw it. About fifty yards farther out to sea than the point where Toni had been looking, a dazed swimmer bobbed to the surface.
“There!” she screamed at the lifeguards, waving her arms hysterically. “Over there!”
She needn’t have bothered. As one, the rescue boats converged on Billy, scooping him out of the water. Watching from his speedboat, Charles Braemar Murphy finally broke down in sobs.
It was over. The nightmare was over.
Less than a minute later Billy was on the beach, smiling through the pain as a paramedic bandaged his head wound. Several people came over to shake his hand and inform him (as if he needed telling) how lucky he was to be alive.
“It was all for her, you know,” he told his admirers, nodding at Toni, who was striding over toward him, an Amazonian goddess in her tiny bikini, with her long wet hair trailing magnificently behind her. “My princess needed a pea. What could I do? Her wish was my command.”
Toni, however, was not in romantic mood.
“You goddamn fool!” she screamed at Billy. “You could have been killed! I thought you’d drowned.”
“Would you have missed me?” Billy pouted.
“Oh, grow up. What happened out there wasn’t funny, Billy. Poor Charles is in pieces. He thought he’d hit you. We all did.”
“ ‘Poor’ Charles?” Now it was Billy’s turn to get angry. “That dickhead was piloting his boat like a maniac. Didn’t you see how close he came to crashing into those poor kids in the rowboat?”
“They should never have been in the lanes,” said Toni. “And neither should you.”
Graydon Hammond had followed Toni out of the water and was tugging at her leg again, making whimpering noises.
“Graydon, please!” she snapped. “I’m talking to Billy.”
“But it’s important!” Graydon howled.
“Go ahead,” Billy said bitterly. “It’s clear you don’t give a damn about me. Go comfort Graydon. Or better yet, Charles. He’s the real victim here.”
“For God’s sake, Billy, of course I give a damn. Do you think I’d be so angry if I didn’t care about you? I thought . . . I thought I’d lost you.”
And to Toni Gilletti’s own surprise, she burst into tears.
Billy Hamlin put his arms around her. “Hey,” he whispered gently. “Don’t cry. I’m sorry I scared you. Please don’t cry.”
“Toniiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Graydon Hammond’s wails were getting louder. Reluctantly, Toni extricated herself from Billy’s embrace.
“What is it Graydon, honey?” she said more gently. “What’s the matter?”
The little boy looked up at her, his bottom lip quivering.
“It’s Nicholas.”
“Nicholas? Nicholas Handemeyer?”
Graydon nodded.
“What about him?”
Graydon Hammond burst into tears.
