Page 1 of Hold Your Breath
Chapter 1
Jumping into a hole cut in the frozen reservoir was a stupid idea. In fact, of all the questionable decisions she’d made since abandoning civilization for her tiny mountain cabin seven months ago, this was probably the worst.
At least, Lou mused wryly, it was a beautiful place in which to do a dumb thing. The sun lit the snowcapped mountains circling like sleepy sentinels around them, and the wind chased powdery snow across the frozen reservoir. Despite the cold, it still smelled strongly of fish.
“Ready for some ice-rescue training?” Derek bumped his neoprene-covered arm against hers. He seemed much too cheerful for a guy about to dive into glacial water.
“No.”
“Aww, Lou.” When he tried to pat her head with one of his bright blue gloves, she ducked out of reach. “Nervous?”
“Of course not. Why would I be nervous about jumping into a hole in the ice and swimming around in thirty-two-and-a-half-degree water? Why did I join the Field County Rescue Dive Team and not the Jamaican Whatever again?”
“BecauseIwould not be on the Jamaican Dive Team,” Derek answered. “And I make it worth the cold.”
“Yeah, not really.”
“Hey!” He smacked her arm, she laughed and whacked him back, and then it evolved into a full-fledged slap fight. The blue-nitrile shade of their gloves made them look like life-size cartoons, and Lou couldn’t hold back another laugh.
“Sparks!”
Callum’s bellow froze her in place. She shot Derek a wry glance before turning to face their team leader. She took careful, deliberate steps in the clumsy dry-suit boots, as humiliation was better served in small doses. Being caught goofing off was bad enough. She didn’t need to fall on her ass, as well.
“Yes?” She eyed his scowling face. It was too bad about his surliness, since Callum was a joy to look upon otherwise, in a gladiator-meets-drill-sergeant kind of way. His blond hair was military short, and his eyes were a startling and beautiful blue against tanned skin. His jaw was square, and his body… Taking a deep breath, she carefully did not check out the neoprene-wrapped perfection below his neck.
Because…damn.
“What are you doing?”
Somehow, answering “Fooling around with Derek” did not seem like the best idea. “Uh…nothing.”
He stared at her, heavy frown still in place. “It didn’t— Never mind. You’re like a terrier with ADD. Why can’t you stand still for five minutes?”
“Because…” She shot a glance at Derek. The traitor had taken several steps back and was pretending to examine a seam on his dry-suit sleeve. “He… I just…Um, the gloves…”
Callum let the silence hang for several seconds. When he eventually turned away from Lou, she let out the breath she’d been holding and shuffled over to rejoin Derek. Once there, she punched him lightly—well, sort of lightly—in the kidney.
“Ouch.” He gave her an injured look. “What was that for?”
“Why am I always the one who gets in trouble?”
“Because you’re the one who starts it.”
“Do not,” she protested, realizing she’d gotten a little loud only when Callum’s eyes focused on her again. Dropping her gaze, she studied the half-frozen puddle in front of her boots. It seemed as if every single time she did something embarrassing, Callum was there, watching her withthe look—a mix of exasperation and irritated bafflement. The sad part was that, even after three months of gettingthe look, Lou still wasn’t able to smother the obnoxious butterflies that fluttered in her belly whenever she was the center of his attention.
“You done?” he asked. At her nod, he jerked his chin toward the icy reservoir.
Lou fell in line with the six other divers, taking slow, exaggerated steps to avoid tripping over her own neoprene-wrapped feet or slipping on the ice. As they reached the large opening that had been carved out earlier in the day for the training exercise, Lou peered at the water, frowning.
“What’s wrong?” Derek asked, stepping up beside her and following her gaze as if looking for the answer to his own question.
She shrugged. “All that ice around the edge makes the water look really cold.”
Bumping her with his elbow, he snorted. “Itiscold, genius. It’s literally freezing, which explains all the hard stuff we’re standing on.”
Lou elbowed him back. “Dork,” she grumbled.
He smirked at her.
