Page 17 of Protecting Kelli
She saw Flash’s tube heading straight for a huge rock in the middle of the rapids and before she could blink, heard a huge popping noise.
Right in front of her face, Flash disappeared beneath the rolling waters of the river.
“Flash!” she cried.
But he was already underwater. And there was nothing she could do, not with how fast she was floating down the river.
Still, Kelli frantically searched the waters around her for Flash. She didn’t see him anywhere. Panic threatened to overwhelm her, but she did her best to stay calm. Her first instinct was to bail out of her own tube, but that would be dumb. She hadn’t lied, she could swim, but in water like this she’d be completely out of her element.
“Flash!” she yelled again, hoping against hope he’d somehow be able to answer.
Long minutes went by, minutes during which Kelli didn’t know if Flash was dead or alive. He could be still under the waves, trapped against a rock by the current, with no way to break free from the water’s grasp.
Just as the rapids began to peter out, she saw something ahead of her.
Squinting, Kelli strained her eyes, trying to spot whatever?—
There!She saw it again.
Flash! He was now ahead of her.
The relief that whipped through her body made her weak. Without his tube, he’d obviously moved much faster through the water. She saw him moving toward the bank of the river, and Kelli frantically used her arms to try to steer herself closer to his location.
Her muscles were screaming within seconds, but she somehow managed to get her tube to the left side of the river. She thought she’d float right by Flash, until he saw her. He’d crawled out of the water and was coughing hard, but he immediately waded back in and grabbed her tube right before she would’ve gone sailing past.
With her frantic movements, Kelli felt like a fish flopping around on the ground, but she managed to get herself out of the tube as soon as the water was shallow enough for her to stand.
“Oh my God, Flash, are you all right? What happened?” she asked, holding onto his arm as he walked them, and her tube, back to shore. It hadn’t escaped her notice that for a man who’d been hacking up a lung a minute earlier, and who’d had what would’ve been a life-or-death experience for her, he was walking just fine and no longer coughing. He was even smiling now.
“Damn tube popped,” he said.
“I knowthat,” she said a little impatiently. “But after? What happened?”
“The rapids turned me upside down for a bit, but I got my feet in front of me and rode the current downstream. And here I am.”
Kelli’s gaze moved up and down his body. He had some scrapes on his torso, a kind of nasty-looking gouge in his bicep, his hair was hanging in his eyes…but he was still smiling.
“Let me guess, you thought that was fun,” Kelli said.
Flash shrugged. “Kinda.”
“I thought you were stuck underwater,” she admitted in a small, shaky voice.
“Aw, I’m okay,” Flash said. Then he surprised the hell out of her by pulling her into his arms. Kelli gripped him hard, so relieved he was all right, she felt weak in the knees.
After several moments, she took a deep breath and pulled back, but she didn’t drop her arms from around Flash’s waist. For the first time in her life, she didn’t feel self-conscious about being around someone in her bathing suit. Not only being around him, but being in his embrace. Flash felt far too comfortable.
“What now?” she asked with a small frown.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we only have one tube. And we’re who knows how far from the pick-up point.”
Flash shrugged. “No biggie. I can swim.”
“No, you can’t!” Kelli exclaimed.
“Yeah, Kelli, I can. It’s not a big deal.”
