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I tilt her head and press my lips to hers. Her lips are cold as ice.
No, please don’t be dead. Please don’t!
I offer up two quick breaths before I resume the chest compressions. Seconds pass by, and still, she doesn’t respond.
“Emily! Wake up!” I scream as tears start to well in my eyes. “Wake up!”
I keep up the work, alternating between chest compressions and manual breathing. Suddenly, she coughs up a mouthful of water. Then another. And another. She takes a deep ragged breath, turning over, and I slump in the boat beside her, panting.
“You’re alright,” I whisper as I help pound her back to get the remaining lake water out of her lungs. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”
Warm relief floods through my body, and I hold her close to me. She shivers and coughs, driving her tiny frame against me witheach movement. Her body is enveloped in mine, and my clothes collect the water from hers until I’m just as wet as she is.
Groaning, Emily pushes herself back from my embrace. Long strands of her chestnut hair dangle and stick to her neck, and cheeks. She blinks at me with water droplets collecting on her eyelashes like diamonds on tree branches.
In the setting sun, she looks breathtaking.
Like a water nymph that has emerged from the lake.
And here she is, in my arms.
I forget what I was doing … or why I’m in the boat.
Nothing exists but her.
My hand rises up to cup her face. The confusion in her expression morphs into something bitter, and she pushes me away, scooting as far as she can in the tiny space of the boat and curling into a tight ball.
She flips her middle finger at me and spits out another mouthful of water.
“I amnothaving your babies!”
It takes everything in me to not start laughing at her bravado. She barely survived a brush with death, and yet she’s still willing to fight me at every turn.
This girl is beautiful. Unpredictable.
Irresistible. Wild.
She almost died trying to escape me.
“You saved me …” she finally says as we near the shore.
“Of course I did,” I reply.
“Because you need me to marry you?” Her voice is weak, but there’s no hiding the strength of her anger towards me.
“No, Emily.” I shake my head. “Because I made you a promise that I’ll keep you safe. And when I make a promise, I keep it.”
I force myself to stop staring at her nearly transparent clothes. The only sound between us is the sound of the paddles scraping across the water and her labored breathing and occasional cough.
When the boat touches the shore, she turns to me again. “What’s so funny?”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“You’re smiling.”
I respond with the only thing that comes to mind. “Because you’re safe.”
And that’s the goddamn truth.
