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He seems to consider that for a moment before he nods. “All right. But we’re going to have to buy something bigger than a van. I’ll need an office space to work remotely, and I’d love Pippa to have a little room of her own. One with a door we can close when we’d like privacy.”
As the meaning of his words penetrates, a wave of joy surges inside me, making my entire body tingle with delight.
I’m about to tell him that I’ll move into a truck shaped like a giant hot dog if that’s what he needs to feel comfortable on the road with me, but before I can speak, an ominous groan vibrates through the air.
A moment later, the balcony shifts sharply beneath our feet.
I grab a handful of his jacket sleeve. “Inside!” I shout, starting toward the door as a loud cracking sound explodes from the side of the house.
A beat later, Theo has his arms around my waist and is on the move. He practically throws me through the open sliding glass door and into the house. I stumble but manage to find my feet at the last second and spin back toward the balcony.
As I turn, I expect to see Theo charging inside behind me.
Instead, he’s crouched beside his boat, reaching through the railing slats for a bright orange backpack as the balcony splinters away from the house, ripped away by the surging current.
“Leave it!” I cry, starting for the door.
“Stay inside,” he shouts. “I’ll be right there.”
And hewouldhave been right there…if his jacket hadn’t snagged on the railing as he lifted the bag out of the boat.
But it does snag, costing him precious seconds. By the time he frees himself and transfers the bag from the hand between the rails to the one on top, the porch has become a raft drifting downstream.
“Theo!” His name rips from my throat in a terrified sob as he shrugs the bag onto one shoulder and jumps into the raging water, his hands outstretched.
Our eyes lock, time slows, and in those two seconds that seem to last an eternity, I promise the universe I’ll do anything, anything at all, if the powers that be will just let Theo live.
I’ll devote my life to service and donate every penny in my bank account to my favorite rescue farm. Hell, I’ll even give up my rambling ways and move back to Bad Dog, putting down roots in this place that’s always made me feel like an outsider.
No price is too great because no amount of money or stretch of open road holds a candle to him, this precious man I’m about to lose only seconds after finding him again.
Hell, no, you aren’t,my inner self bellows in her Take No Prisoners voice.
It’s the same voice that gave me the strength to leave Bad Dog the first time, as a scared eighteen-year-old kid with nothing to my name but a beat-up old van, five hundred bucks in gas money, and a head full of dreams. It’s the voice that knows what really matters and isn’t afraid to go after it with everything she’s got.
It’s never steered me wrong, so when it shouts, Jump!I listen.
I dive toward Theo, hitting the floor hard enough to bruise my elbows, but I’m there in time to lock my hands around his wrists, holding him in place when his fingers start to slip off the slick edge of the sliding glass door.
“I’ve got you!” I shout over the rush of the water and Pippa’s panicked squeals as she realizes I’ve managed to get myself in trouble all over again. “Try to climb up the side of the house with your feet.”
Shifting his grip to lock his fingers around my wrists in return, Theo starts to walk up the wall. But he’s so much bigger than I am that he drags me forward, until my head and shoulders are out in the rain and he’s back in the water.
“Take the backpack and let me try by myself,” he says.
“No way,” I shoot back.
“I’m too heavy. And you should have the backpack, just in case. It has food, water, and medicine.”
“I’m not taking the backpack! I just need to brace my feet against something,” I insist as Pippa appears beside me, nuzzling my armpit with a worried snout. “Give me a second to get my legs under me and we’ll try again.”
“I’m not dragging you in here with me, Macy,” he says, his grip loosening on mine. “And if this is it, it’s okay. I got to see you again and make things right between us. That’s the only piece of unfinished business I had left.”
Tears springing to my eyes, I shake my head. “No! This isn’t how it ends between us, Theo McGuire. As soon as this storm blows over, we’re going to drive off into the sunset and have a beautiful life together. So you’d better hold on tight and let me pull you out of the river or I’ll never forgive you. Do you hear me?”
He nods. “I hear you.”
“We can do this,” I say, willing him to believe me.
