This Time Forever (48 page)

Authors: Rachel Ann Nunes

As Mickelle remembered from several prior visits, the kitchen and adjoining family room were immense, full of windows, deep hues, and quality furniture. Today, she had little time to take in any details, except a huge bowel of fat red grapes spilling over onto the counter. Belle grabbed a few and popped them into her mouth on her way by. “Dad says these are to eat in the hot tub,” she announced. “I don’t know why. I think it’s something romantic.”

“Belle,” Tanner warned, but he flashed Mickelle a smile, silently telling her he approved of her relationship with his dad.

Bryan glowered at the reference, but Jeremy skipped blithely ahead. “I don’t care much if the pool is cold,” he announced. “I’m going to jump right in.”

“I’ll have to change first.” Mickelle had felt awkward about wearing her swimsuit over to the house. Besides, she would need clothes for afterwards.

“Damon can watch me until you get changed, can’t he, Mom?” pleaded Jeremy.

“I suppose. If he’s willing.”

“He will be,” Belle said.

The group went outside, over the back patio and along the covered walkway to the pool house, which was nestled behind a row of pink dogwood trees on the far side of the yard. Behind the pool house lay a tennis court, too, according to Belle and Tanner. Mickelle had always meant to challenge Damon to a game, though neither of them really knew how to play. Perhaps today they would have time for Tanner to show them a few moves.

The warmer air of the pool house hit them as they opened the door. Mickelle wrinkled her nose at the strong chlorine smell.

“Yippee!” yelled Jeremy, gazing at the pool. While not as large as the public pool in American Fork where Mickelle lived, this one was certainly more than adequate for several families to swim in comfort.

Damon was nowhere in sight. Mickelle looked around, eager to be with him after so much waiting. Through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows on the right side she could see the outdoor pool, covered now, and an area for barbeques. Damon wasn’t on any of the lounge chairs there.

“Daddy!” Belle shouted.

“He must have gone upstairs or somewhere.” Mickelle shot a glance over her shoulder at the main house through the open pool house door. She knew the house had two separate wings on the top floor and an entire basement where Tanner and their live-in maid had their rooms, but where Damon slept in all that hugeness was still a mystery.

“He just came out here,” Tanner told them. “He said he had something to do before you got here—
besides
checking the water temperature. He acted nervous.”

Mickelle’s heartbeat, which had finally settled to a normal pace after expecting Damon at the front door, resumed thumping again erratically. Goose bumps covered her skin, and her stomach felt queasy. She pushed past the children, searching the pool with her eyes. “Damon!” she called forcefully.

No answer.

Something wasn’t right. She could feel it in the tingling of her spine, in the thundering of her heart.

“You kids check the house,” she ordered. She hurried along the side of the pool, praying as she went.

Then she saw him, floating face down in the pool under the diving board. She must have screamed because the children hurtled toward her. Not waiting for them, Mickelle forced her fright-frozen limbs to work, and rushed toward his unmoving body.

Not Damon, please not Damon!

This wasn’t happening! This wonderful, attractive, alluring man couldn’t leave her too!

Like Riley.

She heard a splash and realized that Tanner was in the water, swimming at high velocity toward his dad. Spying a lifesaving hook on the wall, she lunged toward it and reached for Damon at the same time Tanner arrived at the inert form. Together they pulled him to the side. Belle and Jeremy were sobbing and clutching at Mickelle, making her job more difficult.

“911!” she shouted at Bryan. He glanced at her, eyes wide with shock, as though he couldn’t hear. Reaching now for Damon, Mickelle caught Belle’s tearful gaze with her own. “Belle, call 911. Your daddy needs help—now!”

Belle galvanized into action, racing for a phone on the wall near where Mickelle had found the hook.

With great effort Tanner and Mickelle pushed and dragged Damon from the water. She knelt beside him, trying to remember what to do.

“Heartbeat!” yelled Tanner. He was pale and shaking as he pulled himself out of the pool.

Mickelle felt for a pulse, and nearly cried with relief. “Yes! He’s got one.”

Together they rolled him onto his stomach, trying to force water from his lungs. A flood of liquid gushed onto the cement. Still, he didn’t start breathing. Mickelle willed him to open those intriguing amber eyes, but they were unmoving beneath the thick, expressive eyebrows.

“Mouth-to-mouth,” she said faintly.

With a quick nod, Tanner helped her roll Damon to his back. He was on the tall side for a man, with broad shoulders, but she had never dreamed he weighed so much. She tipped back his head as she had seen people do in the movies, and pinched the end of his slightly hooked nose.
Please let me be doing this right!
Why had she never taken a course on lifesaving?

She put her mouth to his and fleetingly recalled those other moments when their lips had met—firmly, passionately, sending heat throughout her body. The heat was utterly missing now. His lips were slack and cold. Oh, so cold! Deathly cold. The coldness slammed into her, made her shiver and gasp for breath. Above all there was the blind urgency and the terrible, looming fear.

“Someone’s coming!” Belle called from her place by the phone. “They said to keep doing mouth-to-mouth.”

Mickelle didn’t look her way, but continued forcing air into Damon’s lungs.
I can’t do it,
she thought. But she didn’t quit.

She hadn’t been able to keep Riley from dying. Where had she been when his truck went off that cliff?

It wasn’t my fault.
She knew that, but sometimes the guilt still ate at her. She’d threatened him with divorce.

“Dad! Dad!” Tanner cried, losing his composure. “Don’t die! Oh, it’s too late! We’re too late! Oh, no! Oh, no!”

Mickelle wanted to soothe him, to tell him what a good sign it was that his dad’s heart still beat in his chest, but she couldn’t stop breathing for Damon long enough to explain.

In. Out. In. Out. Never faltering. While she worked, she prayed.

END OF SAMPLE.
If you would like to purchase
Bridge to Forever,
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Ann Nunes (pronounced noon-esh) learned to read when she was four, beginning a lifetime fascination with the written word. She still reads everything she can lay hands on, from children’s stories to science articles.

She began writing in the seventh grade and is now the author of over thirty published books, including the popular
Ariana
series
, The Huntington Family
series,
Eyes of a Stranger,
and
Saving Madeline
. Her novel
Before I Say Goodbye
won the 2011 Whitney Award in the general fiction category.
Imprints, An Autumn Rain Novel
(2010
), Fields of Home
(2008), and
The Independence Club
(2007) were all Whitney Award Finalists.

Rachel and her husband, TJ, live in Utah Valley and are the parents of seven awesome children—three boys and four girls. Rachel writes Monday through Friday in a home office, taking frequent breaks to read or swim with her kids.

To read about upcoming books, visit Rachel’s website at http://www.RachelAnnNunes.com.

BOOKS BY RACHEL ANN NUNES

Autumn Rain Novels (Paranormal Romance)

Imprints

Shades of Gray

Final Call

Line of Fire (Sept 2012)

Romantic Suspense

Eyes of a Stranger (Autumn Rain series prequel)

Tell Me No Lies

Women's Fiction

Flying Home