Page 89 of This Could be Love

It took me a moment to realize that he hadn’t addressed the question to me, but to his sister. Laurie was standing between us, trembling and pale, a residual look of shock in her blue eyes.

“She got caught in an undertow,” Chip explained.

You couldn’t see the strain on his face, but there was something in his gaze. A darkness. As if something dark had taken possession of his soul. The hairs on my arms stood up.

“Do you need a doctor?” Vince asked his sister. His tone was soft and concerned.

Laurie shook her head a bit apathetically. “I’m just cold. And I’m tired.”

“Let’s go home,” he said.

Chapter 37

“She asleep?” Vince asked as I came out onto the terrace.

He was sitting by the fire bowl with a bottle of beer, staring into the flames. His face looked pale, his gaze empty.

“Yeah,” I whispered and sat down next to him.

Once we got home, I had helped Laurie take a shower and get into bed and stayed next to her even once she’d fallen asleep, listening to her quiet breathing.

“I was scared shitless about her.”

“I know,” I said, leaning against his shoulder.

“If something had happened to her. If… Fuck.”

“Hey.” I sought his eyes. “Everything turned out okay. Nothing happened to her. Or to you.”

He tilted his head. “To me?”

I winked. “Yeah. Toyou. I nearly died of worry when you were out there.”

For a moment he seemed surprised, and I asked myself why.

“I’m a good swimmer.”

“I’m a good tennis player. All the same, sometimes I miss.”

“Not this afternoon.”

“Don’t change the subject.”

“From?”

“From it being a close call.”

“It wasn’t close. Not for me.”

“It was,” I burst out.

I pressed my lips together, felt him staring at me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was scared, Vince. For you. I was scared that you would drown and that I’d never see you again.” My voice rose. “That the last thing I said to you was something stupid about a bikini.”

A slight smile appeared on his lips. “That was me.”