HeroAdrift_PRC (2 page)

For a second she was afraid she'd be pulled to the bottom--the bottom she couldn't see and certainly couldn't feel under her feet. But the life jacket she was wearing did its job and popped her to the surface. The water was cold--much, much colder than she'd expected for this time of the year. Abby's teeth begin chattering within seconds of being in the river. She couldn't imagine what Billy, who weighed maybe forty-five pounds versus her one hundred and twenty-five, was feeling. Abby put the cold out of her mind, however. She had only one thought--reaching Billy. Although the thick jacket made movement awkward and Abby wasn't the strongest swimmer in the world, she started kicking and stroking her way to where Billy was bobbing away from the
Belle
at an alarming rate.

Abby felt the combination of the strong current and the cold begin sapping her strength almost immediately. She had to reach Billy. She kept her eyes on him and yelled, "I'm coming, son."

Her words ended on a cough as the wind whipped what felt like a gallon of water into her open mouth, down her windpipe and into her lungs.

Abby heard shouts behind her and knew there were others coming to help. But she also saw the panic in Billy's eyes as she got closer to him. Although the life jacket was keeping his head above water, she could tell he was quickly losing the ability to stay afloat.

She finally reached him and wrapped him in her arms. "I'm here, darling. I'm here. Put your arms around my neck, okay?"

Billy nodded. She could see the tinge of blue around his lips from the cold and exhaustion and heard the rasp as he gasped for breath. Billy was asthmatic and she knew he was having an attack.

At that moment one rescuer reached them.

"Hurry," she said to the man. "He's having an asthma attack."

Their rescuer nodded and took Billy from her arms, then turned and swam to the back of the Coast Guard boat, which seemed closer than it had been before. There were a man and woman wearing Coast Guard uniforms and one of them was readying emergency equipment. She opened her mouth to repeat her warning about Billy's condition when the rescuer beat her to it.

"He's got asthma, according to his mother," the swimmer said as he handed Billy into the outstretched arms of a seaman leaning over the rescue boat. "I didn't see evidence of any head trauma, but I didn't check closely."

"His name is Billy," Abby called. She was paddling behind the rescuer, thinking it had looked so easy when he'd reached the boat with Billy. For her, it seemed as if the boat was getting farther away rather than closer. She was appalled at how much her strength had been sapped by the experience. Perhaps she should be actually going to the gym instead of just paying for the membership. "I'm not his mother. I'm his teacher. Please hurry."

A strong hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way through the water. Her muscles felt like they weighed a ton. Okay, she was definitely going to have to lay off the ice cream and hit the gym. Starting tomorrow. She looked at the puckered skin on her fingers. Check that. She'd hit the gym the day after because it was going to take at least forty-eight hours to thaw out. Wanting to at least do something for herself, Abby tried to grasp the rail, but her hands were so cold she couldn't feel the metal, and the material of her pants seemed to be wrapped around her legs like manacles, hampering her movements even more.

"Come on, lady, upsy daisy," her rescuer said.

His voice seemed right behind her ear and his breath sent a fresh wave of shivers down her back. He seemed so warm and solid behind her, it was a temptation to rest against him and let him handle everything.

The water really was colder than she expected. Had she read somewhere that hypothermia could cause delirium?

Then she felt his hand cup her bottom and knew cold could affect someone's mind because suddenly all she could think about was having that strong hand touch nothing but her flesh.

Before she could do much more than wonder at the thoughts rushing through her, she was shoved out of the water and over the rail onto the deck.

The next few minutes were a blur of activity for Abby. Someone threw a heavy blanket to her and she managed to wrap it around herself as she watched the crew working on Billy. They already had him hooked up on oxygen and were taking his vitals.

"His name is Billy Borrelli," she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. "His parents are William and Cheryl Borrelli. I believe his father works at the
Buffalo News.
"

Even though no one responded to her information, she knew they heard it because they were relaying it to the emergency room with which they had established contact. Abby shivered but was happy when she saw the litter Billy was on being lifted and then passed onto another, smaller craft from the Erie County Sheriff's department. One of the Coast Guard crewmembers went as well and soon the boat powered up and sped away to the shore. Abby could see several rescue vehicles parked and ready to ferry any victims to the hospital.

Taking her first easy breath since she'd discovered Billy was overboard, Abby turned and met the icy-blue gaze of her hero. He was, without a doubt, the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. His black hair, now visible since he'd removed his diving head gear, was damp and dark as midnight. His nose was long and sculpted like a Greek god's. There was a small, uneven bump midway along the bone, as if it had been broken at some point. His face was deeply tanned, not a tan she was used to seeing this early in the spring in Buffalo, so she guessed he'd recently moved here from somewhere southern and warm.

She had an instant vision of him and her lying side by side, the sand beneath their bodies not nearly as hot as the feel of his fingers running over her aroused flesh.

She shook her head. The cold water must have knocked more than a few circuits loose. Sure it had been a while since she'd had a boyfriend--okay, more like an eternity--but she didn't usually have an erotic fantasy while awake and facing a life-altering emergency.

She looked away from his face and noticed the rest of him, outlined perfectly in his wet suit. Oh, my, she thought.

His body was hard and leanly muscled as if he had been carved from stone. If his hair hadn't been so military short, he'd have been a dead ringer for the actor Eric Bana in the movie
Troy.
Abby felt like every speck of saliva in her mouth was drooling from her lips. She swallowed and tried to get her tongue to do something besides pant.

"Thank you for rescuing Billy and helping me." She finally managed to form coherent words.

"You're welcome. But, lady, that was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Don't ever jump in after somebody like that again. You could've both drowned."

"You're right. Thank you again for being there for us," she said.

Abby watched as her boat took her back ashore. Her hero and the other members of the
U.S.S. Comfort
were still onboard their boat. It looked as if the Coast Guard was going to tow the
Belle
back to shore. Probably to be inspected or whatever it was the Coast Guard did after incidents like this. She turned her back and looked at the shoreline. The deputy from the sheriff's department told her they would be returning her to the dock where the tour had started. She was glad. She needed to reassure the rest of the children she was fine, as well as make sure they were all returned safely to their parents.

After that, she would go to Children's Hospital, where Billy had been taken, to check on him and talk to his parents. She looked back over her shoulder. She really should forget all about her hero. She'd probably never see him again. Women like her didn't come in contact with heroes often, though, and she couldn't stop thinking about him. Nor could she pass up the chance to look at him one more time as the boat sped her further away from him. She just wished she knew his name.

Oliver cruised the narrow parking lot behind the apartment building looking for an empty spot. According to the guys at the station he was fortunate to have found an apartment with off-street parking because, when the snow started flying next winter, he'd be happy to get his car off the streets. He shivered a little and pulled the collar of his USCG-issue parka higher on his neck. The guys had said the worm had turned here weather-wise and that summer was around the corner. He didn't know about that. He felt like he was freezing and it was the middle of May. His last shift in Miami had been early April and it had already been a sultry eighty degrees. He bet it hadn't even reached fifty here today.

When he saw an opening a few feet ahead of him, he punched the accelerator and eased into the spot, with inches to spare. Well, Buffalo may not have been on his top ten garden duty spots for transfer six weeks ago, but he guessed it could've been worse. Here he'd only been on watch for four days and he had already had a rescue. Some of the Group Buffalo veterans predicted that, shortly after Memorial Day, things would really get hopping as all the recreational boaters would be out in force.

As he put the car into park and turned it off, he thought about the rescue yesterday. Truth told he had been a little shaky going into it. He hadn't really known how well his shoulder would hold up to the stress of rescue work. The surgeons had said all the major muscle masses in his shoulder and upper arms were healed, but he figured that was easy for them to say since they weren't the ones using them. Now he knew he could handle anything.

As he reached behind him for his seabag he felt a little pull and amended that thought. Well, maybe not anything. His thoughts returned to the round woman who'd showed more guts than brains when she'd jumped into the water after that little boy. The boy was fine. Oliver had checked with the hospital before leaving the station. He hadn't dropped by the hospital--he'd had more than enough of hospitals lately--but it was good to know the kid was fine. So was the woman.

He whistled softly thinking about her. Oh man, she was a package all right. After the too-thin bodies that seemed to be everywhere in Miami, this woman had been a sight for his hungry eyes. And, after taking the dive into a river, her figure had been clearly outlined in the pants and blouse she'd worn. He'd never seen a fully-clothed person who actually looked good wearing a regulation P.F.D., but this woman had been close. When he'd boosted her up on the deck of the
Comfort
, he'd had his hands full of the softest, roundest piece of ass he'd seen in years. Even now, nearly forty-eight hours after the incident, just thinking about it almost gave him a hard-on.

If that was the kind of action awaiting him here in Buffalo, he could see how this duty was going to be no hardship at all.

Abby opened her apartment door and stomped out into the entrance hall of her building. What a truly shitty forty-eight hours. First she got wet and cold trying to rescue one of her children, and now it seemed she was on the verge of losing her job.

One of the parents was threatening to sue the school district over the incident on the boat. It wasn't Billy's parents. They had been more than thankful and grateful for Abby's actions. Even after she told them that she didn't actually rescue Billy--the real hero was the dreamy Coast Guard swimmer--the Borrellis had insisted on playing up her part of the rescue.

That's what made the lawsuit threat so disheartening. The parents filing the suit claimed they hadn't given permission for their son to go on the trip, and neither had they signed a permission slip. Abby had double and triple-checked the sheets to make sure all the children had signed permission forms, but now those forms couldn't be found. Abby was uncertain if they were still on board the
Belle,
which was being held for investigation by the Coast Guard, or if they had fallen out of her trip folder on the bus.

The school board was worried other parents would be jumping on the litigation bandwagon, and Abby knew the board would be meeting tomorrow night in a closed session to discuss the issue. If she'd had a few more years' teaching experience, she could probably weather this storm. But she hadn't been tenured yet, so she didn't have much say in the whole thing.

It just wasn't fair. She was a great teacher and she loved her job. She'd just been trying to do what was right. She really needed a hero now, but she knew the likelihood of finding one was small. She'd had her brush with true bravery and she still didn't know his name.

She stepped across the small hall to where the building's mail boxes were and sighed. Maybe there was a way to least learn her hero's name. What would it hurt to call the Coast Guard and see if they'd tell her who he'd was? She had her key in the lock when she felt and heard the swoosh of the outside door opening, followed by the inside foyer's door.

The man that came in was not one of regular neighbors. Perhaps her prayers would be answered after all.

It was her Coast Guard hero in the flesh, and he looked even better dry than he had wet. Abby tried to smile and hoped he wouldn't realize she was creaming her panties.

"It's you!" she said. She hoped he wouldn't think the grin she knew was on her face was sappy.

He stood strong, tall, proud and, Abby felt like she was two seconds away from being a puddle at his feet.

"Yes," he said. "I just got up off my shift. We work four days on and four off."

Abby nodded. She felt she had to say something. But what could she say? She didn't think it would be a good idea to ask him to marry her. Not yet anyway.

"Do you live here?"

"I'm 1C," he said, shifting the duffle bag he was carrying and setting it on the floor. He was wearing a parka, which he unzipped now he was inside. She thought it weird to be wearing such a heavy coat in May. It reinforced her thought that his tan didn't look like he had been living here very long. "Moved in last week, but then I reported immediately to the station. This will be my first night actually staying here."

"Oh, 1C is right next to me. I'm 1B," she added.

He smiled and Abby felt her as if her insides were not melting now, but were molten lava rushing down the inside of her body like magma moves to the sea. "Now that's handy, isn't it? B being next to C and all."