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“No way am I letting you carry that.”
“I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”
He shrugged. “Makes no difference. You’re not carrying it.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Ty’s mother stopped them.
“You can’t leave without saying goodbye to William. He’d be heartbroken.”
Yeah, well, his nephew wasn’t the only one who was going to be heartbroken when Ellie left.
“He’s in the pool. I’ll go get him if you’ll wait?”
Eleanor nodded.
She and Ty stood in silence, then she sighed.
“We should have just walked out to the pool instead of her having to drag William inside.”
She nodded, sure he was right.
“Ty!” His mother’s scream echoed through the house.
Both Ty and Eleanor took off toward the door that led out to the pool.
What met their gazes made Eleanor’s stomach tighten into a nervous ball.
Ty’s father was in the pool, holding a lifeless little body to his chest but apparently frozen with fear and unable to move further.
Ty immediately jumped to action, crossing the distance and jumping into the pool.
“Give him to me,” he demanded of his father.
His pain-filled eyes dropping to the lax body of his grandson, he did so.
Ty took William, prayed he wasn’t too late, assessed him while carrying him from the pool.
As best as he could tell, there wasn’t any trauma or neck injuries. God, he hoped William hadn’t dived into the pool, injured his neck, been paralyzed and drowned.
But his nephew had drowned.
No heartbeat. No respirations.
A pain unlike any Ty had ever experienced slashed across his chest, but he drew on years of experience with dealing with medical emergencies to move automatically.
“Oh, Ty,” Ellie cried, as he laid William’s tiny body on the concrete and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Ellie pulled her cell phone from her purse, dialed 911 and realized she had no idea what Ty’s address was.
“The Triple D Ranch,” she told the emergency worker. “We’re at the Triple D Ranch.”
Behind her, Ty’s mother gave the address and Ellie carefully repeated it to the voice on the other end of the phone line.
She handed the phone to Ty’s mother and bent beside him, meaning to help him with the CPR, but her gaze caught on Ty’s father.
The man still stood in the pool. She didn’t think he’d budged since he’d handed William over to Ty.
Worried that more might be going on than just shock, she called out his name, but he didn’t even look her way.
