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Pushing his body almost beyond what he could stand, Surf powered through the water, one single thing on his mind.
Lila.
Had to get to her.
Had to save her.
Couldn’t lose her.
The words spurred him on, and he calculated where the currents would have dragged her since she disappeared and stopped moving and dived down.
His frantic gaze searched the water.
There.
Just up ahead.
Kicking harder with his legs, Surf propelled himself forward and if he wasn’t holding his breath would have let out a sigh of relief when his fingertips brushed across the soft cashmere of Lila’s sweater.
Yanking her closer, he fisted a hold of her clothes and pulled her up against his body. Then with her secured against him, he swam them both to the surface.
Lila didn’t move.
A glance at her showed her skin was so pale it was near translucent, and her lips were tinged with blue.
He had to get her out of the river before he lost her forever.
Again, his shoulder protested his vigorous strokes toward the bank, but it was absolutely nothing compared to his fears for Lila.
Failure here was not an option.
The river wasn’t terribly wide, and it didn’t take him long to reach the bank. Lifting Lila out, he laid her down and scrambled to his knees at her side.
One of his hands reached for her neck, searching for a pulse as he leaned his face down so his cheek was above her mouth looking down her body.
There was no puff of air against his chilled skin.
Her chest didn’t rise and fall.
Surf pressed his fingers deeper into her throat, desperate to feel the thump of her pulse telling him she wasn’t gone.
There.
Faint but detectable.
Lila had a pulse, but she wasn’t breathing.
Positioning himself at her side, he curled his hand around her chin. Tipping her mouth open, he pinched her nose closed, covered her lips with his, and breathed his own air inside her, willing her to live.
“Come on, baby, don’t do this to me,” he begged as he turned his head to check to see if she was breathing.
Nothing.
“Breathe, mama bear, don’t you dare leave me. Come on, you can do this. Keep yourself and our baby bear alive.” Surf didn’t have nearly enough medical knowledge to know if their baby could survive this. There was every chance that Lila would miscarry, but he was going to believe that life wouldn’t taunt them with this chance at happiness only to yank it away at the last second.
While they would both be devastated if they lost this baby, already they both loved it, and he knew it wasn’t all that was holding them together. They could survive this loss, he just prayed they didn’t have to.
Surf breathed into Lila again, willing her to take a breath.
