Secret Desire by Gwynne Forster

Author:Gwynne Forster [Forster, Gwynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2008-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“Get up, Mom. I wanna go swimming.” Kate rolled over and looked at her watch. Nine o’clock in the morning. Saturday morning.

“Randy, I’m sleepy. Can’t you find something else to do until I get up?”

“Oh, all right.”

She dragged herself up an hour later, dressed and went into the kitchen. “What did you eat?” she asked Randy.

“Milk and cereal. Now can I go swimming?”

“Seems awfully windy.” She went to the back porch and looked out toward the ocean. “It’s too windy. Too rough out there. Wait till the wind dies down. I’m not going out there now.”

She hadn’t expected him to have a tantrum, but his almost sullen quietness disturbed her. “We’ll go out this afternoon,” she assured him. “So why don’t you go in your room and work on that watercolor until lunch? I’m going to write a letter, and then I’ll paint the woodwork in the kitchen.”

She wrote a short letter to her father, something she did at least once each week. Then she covered the floor with newspaper, put a shower cap on her head, got her work gloves and went to work.

Luke got his lawn furniture out of the garage and carried it around to his back lawn. He loved lying on the old chaise lounge late evenings and nights listening to the water and the night sounds.

He looked out toward the ocean, and stopped cold. Where was Kate? Surely, she wouldn’t allow Randy to swim alone in the ocean, and especially not in windy weather. He looked toward her house, but didn’t see her following the boy. Randy had reached the water. He stared in horror as the boy plunged in and began to swim.

“Of all the knuckleheaded—” He jerked off his belt, emptied his pockets and raced to the water. Where on earth was Randy? Calm now, he told himself. Then he saw him, already too far out, fighting the wind and the tide to get back to the shore. He kicked off his sneakers and dived in, glad he hadn’t eaten because he’d never been able to swim with a full stomach. He swam as fast as he could toward the spot where he’d last seen the boy, pulled himself up and looked around. He didn’t see him.

“Help.” Though faint, the sound was not far away. He turned to his right, swam a few paces, and caught Randy trying to keep his head above the water.

“Do as I tell you, or we’ll both drown.”

It seemed as though hours passed before he got them back to shore. Randy could hardly stand, so he picked him up and carried him home. Not to Kate’s house, but to his. He had a few things to say to that boy, and he didn’t want to be interrupted.

He handed Randy one of his T-shirts. “Go take a shower, dry off and put this on. Then come back here.”

“Yes, sir.”

He washed himself down with the lawn hose, dried off, put on a T-shirt and a pair of Bermuda shorts and waited for Randy.

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