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“You did it!” Bean jumped up and down, and another sickening crack sounded beneath them.
“Everyone to shore,” Billy yelled.
Billy snatched Bean into his arms and sped away from the crack. Every second, he expected to plunge through. He glanced behind him and saw Zack and Lacey racing toward the eastern edge of the pond. Smart move—it was the closest and they wouldn’t have to cross the widening crack.
As he skated, he kept his head on a swivel, checking on Zack and Lacey until he saw them make it safely to shore.
Then, just feet away from solid ground, he felt the ice give way under him. He tossed Bean onto the shore just before he plunged ass-first into ice cold water on his way to hitting the lake bottom.
Ten
Wrapped in towels, giddy from adrenaline, Zack couldn’t stop talking about his heroic moment at the pond. “I wouldn’t let go no matter what, even though she was really heavy!”
“Towel incoming,” Jenna warned as she dried his hair. She didn’t need him saying anything else about Lacey’s weight. The look in the reporter’s eyes as they all trooped through the door, wet and shivering, made her fear for the reputation of herself, Lake Bittersweet, and perhaps the entire upper Midwest.
Everyone had taken turns in the shower, and Jenna had emptied out her linen closet of towels. She’d supplied Lacey with a set of comfy sweatpants and a hoodie. Apparently the reporter had been too shaken up after her experience to drive, so Billy had brought her along with them.
Which meant that along with the shock of seeing her entire family wet and bedraggled, she had to remember to make a good impression on Lacey. Plaster on a smile. Bustle around making hot chocolate and distributing towels. And not, definitely not, yell at Billy for putting the kids in danger. After all, he’d kept Bean out of the water, which was a minor miracle.
“There wasn’t any real risk,” Billy muttered to her as she heated milk for more cocoa. “That pond is two feet deep.”
“You don’t know what’s in that pond.”
“What are you afraid of, a baby Loch Ness monster?”
“Bacteria, you—Hey, Lacey, are you warmed up?” She plastered a smile on her face as the reporter padded into the kitchen wearing Jenna’s slippers. “Would you like some brandy in your cocoa?”
“Oh hell yes.”
She added a splash of brandy to Lacey’s mug, but not her own. She wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
They all trooped into the living room and huddled around the fire, as close as they could manage without getting singed. Snuggled in a blanket, Bean rested his chin on his knees and glowered at the fire.
“I could have been a hero like Zack, but Daddy didn’t even let me move! And then he threw me!”
“Sorry, bud. I really am. Did it hurt when you landed? You rolled perfectly, just like I told you.” From his position on the rug, back propped against an armchair, Billy reached over to ruffle his hair. But Bean pulled away.
“Mom checked and I didn’t even get a bruise! No fair!”
“I got a bruise!” Zack held up his right arm in triumph. “From pulling in the lady!”
Jenna winced as she surveyed his arm. Then she reminded herself it could have been worse. No broken bones. No frostbite. There could still be colds or sniffles on the horizon, but she could deal with that. Any day that Bean came home unscathed was a good one, even if his ego was slightly damaged by being a bystander to his brother’s heroics.
“How are you feeling, Lacey?” she asked the reporter, who was on her second mug of spiked hot cocoa. She tried a mild joke. “Are you getting cold feet about this story?”
Billy snorted. At least he got her jokes.
“Good one.” Lacey lifted her mug in a toast. “I admit this cocoa is helping. I might need the recipe.”
“It’s pretty simple. Make cocoa, add alcohol.”
“Genius.”
Jenna exchanged a glance with Billy, and saw her own amusement reflected on his face. Maybe they should have dunked Lacey in ice water and then fed her brandy ages ago.
“I am grateful to young Zack here.” Lacey tipped her mug toward him and took another sip. “He really stuck with it. My hero.”
Zack glowed, his hair sticking out in all directions as a result of Jenna’s toweling. “I want to be a fireman when I grow up, like Uncle Thomas. They rescue people all the time.”
