Page 47 of Serenity Harbor

“Not learning how to swim was for your own safety?”

Why had she opened her big mouth? She wished she had never started on the topic. Since she had opened the door, she didn’t know how to avoid telling him about the whole StupidKat thing.

As soon as she did, everything would change. She had seen it too many times before.

Might as well get it over with.

She looked out at the lake, one hand clenched into a fist on her leg. “I had a seizure disorder when I was a kid. It was mostly controlled by medication and diet, but occasionally I would have a breakthrough seizure. Once when I was about five or so, it happened while I was on a boat in the middle of the lake with my uncle Mike and his wife at the time. I had a seizure out of nowhere and ended up falling overboard.”

“Scary,” he murmured.

She avoided his gaze. “For them, definitely. Not so much for me. I didn’t know what was happening, if you want the truth. When a seizure hit, I would check out. Apparently that particular time, I had a life jacket on but wasn’t cognizant enough to turn myself over so I could keep my face out of the water. My uncle managed to fish me out and did mouth-to-mouth until his wife could motor back to shore and call an ambulance.”

That had been a critical moment for her family—one she didn’t even remember. Through family lore, she had always seemed to know Uncle Mike had saved her life that day and there had been a special bond between them ever since.

After that day, Charlene’s protective gene had gone into hyperdrive. On some level, Katrina couldn’t blame her. Now that she knew a little about that maternal love, she understood the desire to protect, no matter the cost.

“I’m glad you didn’t,” he said, his voice gruff. “Drown, I mean.”

She finally glanced over at him, wishing she could read his features better in the gathering darkness. To her relief, she didn’t sense any shift in his voice that might indicate his perception of her had changed.

Did he feel the awareness shivering between them, the sudden seductive tug?

“Me, too,” she said.

“Do you still have seizures?”

“No. I was lucky. They started to trickle down in frequency when I was about eleven and seemed to shut off altogether a few years later. That’s not uncommon, apparently, when hormones change and nervous systems mature.”

What a weird time that had been. For her entire childhood, her condition had completely defined her. Then, suddenly, she was someone else.

“That couldn’t have been easy to deal with as a kid.”

She shrugged. “Everybody has something. I try not to throw too many pity parties for myself. I had a medical condition that limited my activities somewhat when I was a kid, but it’s since resolved itself, allowing me to live a normal life as an adult. Not a bad trade-off. I’m fully aware I could have been dealt a far worse hand.”

She had been raised by two parents who had adored her. Maybe Charlene had loved her a littletoomuch, but her intentions had been good and Katrina had never doubted she was loved.

“Anyway. Enough about me. We were talking about swim lessons for Milo. I suspect he would do best in a one-on-one situation, without the distraction of other children. There’s a woman in Shelter Springs who teaches lessons in her home pool. I’ve heard good things. Do you mind if I give her a call and talk to her about enrolling Milo?”

“Go ahead. It’s a good idea.”

“If the swim teacher has room for him in her schedule, the autism specialist you’ve hired will have to continue with the lessons after I’m gone.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” he promised. “I don’t see a problem.”

He was the only one, then. As she sat in the dark next to Bowie, listening to his commitment to his little brother and fighting the tug of attraction seething between them with everything inside her, Katrina saw a problem so slippery and so big she didn’t know what to do with it.

How on earth would she be able to spend the next few weeks in his house and not completely fall for this man who had opened his heart and his life to his troubled brother?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“IDOHAVEone question for you,” Bowie said when Katrina didn’t immediately answer.

“Oh?” she said, her voice sounding oddly breathless.

“Yes.” Bowie kept his gaze on Katrina as he asked the question—or the shape of her, anyway, since he couldn’t make out the fine details of her features in the darkness. “How are we going to get along without you?”

He didn’t even want to think about her leaving. She had been working with Milo for less than a week and she had already made incredible progress with his brother. Milo was saying words! He couldn’t quite believe it.

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