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“I can give someone a ride,” she called. “Or two people can take the kayak and I’ll swim.”
Jason was using one arm to tow the kid, the other to swim. He grabbed onto the bow of the kayak and worked on catching his breath. He looked exhausted, his breathing harsh and rasping.
The other man spoke between gasps. “Take Tyler. My son. He’s only eight and he’s a better skier than swimmer.”
Kendra caught Jason’s eye and saw him nod. She looked at the boy, whose face was drenched with both lake water and tears. “Are you Tyler? I’m Kendra. How’d you like a quick paddle back to shore? Does that sound good?”
He nodded, shaking and shivering. “What about my dad?”
“I’ll come right back for him. Shoot. I could have towed another kayak behind.”
“No, this is good,” Jason said hoarsely. “Quicker this way.” He pulled his way along the side of the kayak until he reached the front seat. The other man joined them and the two of them maneuvered the kid into the seat. Using her paddle against the force of the water, Kendra did her best to keep the kayak steady until he was safely onboard.
She handed him the extra life jacket. “Welcome aboard, Tyler.” She caught Jason’s glance again, and noticed that he too was shivering. His dark hair was plastered to his head, and his t-shirt clung to his tight muscles. This was the second time in one night that he’d performed a water rescue, and this water was still icy cold.
“Are you okay?” she said in a low voice, just to him.
“Good,” he said briefly, as if he was trying to save his breath.
“I grabbed some blankets for everyone.”
“Smart girl.”
His approving glance gave her a shiver of pride. Of her many competencies, she didn’t count emergency rescues among them. This was her first, in fact. He gave her a quick wink and slapped his hand on the hull of the kayak. “Giddyup. Get that kid to a blanket.”
“Should I stay with Tyler on shore or paddle back?”
“I can make it to the pier,” called the other man. Jason nodded in agreement, so she dug the paddle into the water and glided away.
Halfway back to shore, Tyler finally spoke. “Our boat burned down.”
“I saw that. That must have been scary.”
“It’s not even our boat. We just borrowed it.”
“Well, they’ll probably do an investigation and figure out why it happened. Was it just you and your dad onboard?”
He nodded. His thin arms were wrapped around himself and he was leaning forward eagerly as they came closer to the beach.
“Have you ever kayaked before?” she asked him.
“No. But I tried to Jet Ski once. I fell off. My dad said we could maybe try again in a few years.”
“That sounds like a plan. So what happens here is, I’m going to paddle straight onto the shore as hard as I can. That’ll beach us on the gravel. Then I’ll keep the kayak steady while you climb out. Can you do that?”
“It doesn’t sound very hard.” She was happy to hear some confidence in his voice.
“You might get a little wet.”
He gave a hoot of laughter. “I’m already soaking wet!”
“Right, right.” As if she hadn’t said it intentionally, as a joke. “Okay then, Tyler, are you all set? Ready to beach this bunny?”
All went according to plan, and a moment later they were both onshore. She dragged the kayak onto the grass, then offered the boy her hand. “Let’s get you warmed up, how does that sound?”
He clung to her hand, which proved how scared he must have been, considering he was an eight-year-old boy who probably didn’t do that sort of thing much anymore.
Once he had a blanket wrapped tightly around him, she scanned the water with the binoculars, which she’d left on the pier with the blankets. Jason and the other man weren’t far away, maybe a fifty yards or so. But when she aimed the glasses farther out, she saw that the boat was nowhere to be seen. All that remained of it was debris floating on the surface.
