Free Summer Shadows by Gayle Roper

he’s fine.”
    “Not him! You!”
    She frowned. “I was fine. I’m a very strong swimmer. Now be quiet a minute. I’m talking to Walker.” Her command lost some of its force when she shuddered with cold.
    Marsh glared at Walker. He opened his mouth to lambaste the boy, but Abby spoke first. “Do I have your word, Walker?”
    When he still didn’t respond, Marsh roared, “If she hadn’t come along, you’d still be floating off to Europe, boy!”
    Abby flashed Marsh a look. His kid skills were pathetic. She turned back to Walker.
    For the first time Walker looked scared. He moved away from Marsh and closer to Abby. “Don’t tell my mom,” he whispered.
    Abby raised an eyebrow. She knew a bargaining tool when she heard one. “Then give me your word.”
    “Okay.”
    “Okay what? Say it.”
    “I won’t go in the water alone.”
    “Ever again.” Marsh coached none too gently.
    “I won’t go in the water alone ever again,” the boy repeated to his feet.
    “Me neither,” said Jordan, his little face serious. “It’s too cold.”
    Abby smiled and ruffled the little boy’s hair. She turned to Walker. “You two go home. It’s dinnertime. And Walker, take a hot shower as soon as you get there. We don’t want you getting sick.”
    The last she yelled at the running boys as they streaked across the broad beach to their house. She grinned after them as a great shiver took her.
    When she turned to look for her shoes and cane, she found Marsh glaring at her.
    “Are you crazy?” he yelled.
    She blinked at him. “What’s your problem? Everyone’s fine.”
    “I heard you screaming. I looked up and saw you plunging into the sea. I saw you lose your balance and almost go under. I know the temperature of that water. No one in her right mind goes in when it’s that cold.”
    “Just little boys who are too independent for their own good.”
    “Yeah, well, it took me a minute to spot him.”
    Abby sat and shoved her wet feet into her sneakers. “What did you think? I was suicidal?”
    He didn’t answer. Instead he became very busy retrieving her cane from where she had dropped it earlier.
    Abby stared up at him openmouthed. Even when she’d been her most depressed, no one had thought her a danger to herself. “Why you—”
    “Yeah.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I am. Whatever it is you’re thinking. But you scared me to death.” He gave her a sickly grin. “I mean, where else would I find a renter for the whole summer?”
    “Very funny.” But she couldn’t help smiling back. Much as she hated to admit it, from his point of view things must have looked very strange, especially if Walker’s little head wasn’t easily seen. Okay, so he had run to her rescue. She had to give him full marks for that. But he was still grumpy.
    When he held out a hand to help her rise, she took it. Squirming around like a beached fish as she tried to stand was the last thing she wanted to do in front of him. Once on her feet she grabbed her cane from him and turned toward the house. She shivered hard enough to make her teeth chatter as water dripped from her clothes.
    “Where’s your jacket?” he barked.
    “What?”
    “Your jacket. When you left, you had a jacket.”
    So she did. She rubbed the goose bumps on her arms as she looked vaguely around. “There.” She pointed to the water’s edge where it bobbed in the incoming tide.
    He grabbed it and wrung it out. “Here.”
    She took it, holding it away from her. It drip-drip-dripped, making little indentations in the sand. She started in surprise when Marsh pulled his own sweatshirt off and dropped it over her head.
    “Arms,” he ordered. She obediently pushed first one arm, then the other through the sleeves, trading her wet jacket from hand to hand.
    “Thanks,” she muttered as she pulled the sweatshirt close. It felt warm and wonderful.
    “Um.”
    They reached the powdery sand, and Abby began her slow traverse. Her hip hurt like fury where