Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Though it sounded as if something had fallen into the water.
I turned up the headlights on my boat, glancing around to see where the ripples were most intense. I waited a few seconds, uncertain what was happening until I heard more splashes.
Something didn’t fall into the water.
Someone did.
Without much thought, I shot into action and started on my way toward the noise in question. If someone needed help, I wasn’t going to be the dick who looked the other way at two in the morning. Especially when I knew it was probably some dumb high school kids from town drinking and making idiotic choices. A lot of that happened in Westin when the weather finally started to get nice out. Booze and dummies.
As I approached the area, I slowed my boat at the sight of a figure floating in the water.
“Jesus,” I muttered to myself before calling out. “Hey, you all right?”
No answer. I inched my boat closer to take in the figure better. A plump ass was poking out of the water on a completely nude woman. The moon wasn’t the only thing full that evening.
Her head was in the water, and she wasn’t moving at all. I shot into panic mode and went to pull her out of the lake. As I flipped her over, I noticed a nice gash on her forehead. Glancing around, I saw the rope tied to the tree at the top of the cliff.
“Fucking teenage kids,” I grumbled to myself. I’d cut that rope down repeatedly because it was such an unsafe place for people to dive into Westin Lake due to the rock formation that sat beneath the water. I’d repeatedly taken that complaint to Westin Lake community meetings, but nobody gave a damn about what I had to say.
After dragging the woman onto the boat and getting myself soaked from head to toe, I checked for a pulse. It was there, thank goodness. Still, she didn’t look great.
I started with CPR compressions, followed by mouth-to-mouth in case she’d swallowed any water. Luckily, she began coughing and spat up what was stuck in her lungs. I rolled her over to her side, trying my best not to place my hands anywhere inappropriate on her body as she regained consciousness.
She kept coughing, trying to find her breath, before she groaned and touched the gash on her forehead. “Ow,” she murmured to herself, sitting up a bit more. “Where am I?”
“On my boat.”
Those words were enough to terrify her. She leaped with fear at the sound of my voice. As she turned to face me, pure panic filled her eyes. “Who are you?!” She glanced around to find it was just me and her on a boat in the middle of the lake. At two in the morning. In mostly pitch darkness. To be fair to her, it wasn’t a great look.
She went to stand, and the boat swayed a little, then the realization settled in that she was, indeed, naked in my boat. “I’m naked!” she shouted, her voice bouncing off the water. I turned away from her to give her a bit of privacy.
“That you are,” I deadpanned. “Just to be clear, I didn’t take your clothes off. You had none on when I found you floating in the water.”
“Gosh, my head,” she groaned. “What happened?”
“I’m guessing you went for a cliff dive off Rocky Pier up there. That shit is a dangerous jump. I should know. I lost a tooth when I was a kid doing that. Hit my head hard on a rock.” I headed over to my gym bag that I always kept an extra set of clothing in, in case a fall-in took place. I grabbed a towel from the bag, too.
“Here,” I said, still looking away as I held the sweats out toward her. “Something for you to cover up in.”
“Thanks,” she softly said, her voice sounding as if it were dipped in honey. Shockingly sweet. She even sounded sweet when she screamed somehow.
Who the hell was this woman?
I’d lived in Westin my whole life, and I’d never seen her in all my time. I knew everyone from our town, and they all knew me. Based on how wide her eyes grew when they locked with mine, it was clear we were nothing more than strangers.
I gave her time to get dressed, and she announced when she was fully clothed.
When I turned back to face her, she smiled an uneasy grin. She was still nervous, rightfully so, but it was also clear her head was killing her based on how she kept touching the cut.
“Might need stitches,” I mentioned, moving over to the steering wheel. “Where are you staying?”
“In Big Bird,” she replied.
“You’re staying…in Big Bird?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. This was not how I wanted my evening to go. “You must have a concussion, too. The doctor’s office doesn’t open until after the long weekend, and—”