Page 54 of Almost Ours
I could feel my brows shot up. “Wait–what?”
“Oh, yeah,” Nina grinned. “Didn’t end well, did it, O’Connell?”
Shane huffed. “I was thirteen. It was a solid plan.”
“You ran straight into a goalpost,” Nina deadpanned. “Knocked yourself out cold.”
I couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Jesus.”
Harper pressed her lips together like she was trying not to smile. “And you’re judging the boys?”
Shane sighed dramatically. “Fine. Maybe I get it.”
Laughter still lingered in the air as we moved toward the door, jackets in hand, when a sound–distant but sharp–cut through the warmth of the kitchen. A splash. Then a scream.
“CONNOR!”
Everything inside me went cold.
I didn’t think. Didn’t hesitate. My jacket hit the floor as I tore out the back door, socked feet slamming against the frozen ground. The cold air sliced through me, but I barely felt it. All I saw was Liam, standing on the bank of the pond, face white with panic, arms flailing as he pointed at the jagged, gaping hole in the ice.
“Oh my God–oh my God–Connor!” Harper’s screams shattered the air behind me, raw with terror.
I hit the pond at full speed, the ice groaning beneath my weight. I didn’t stop. I didn’t think. I just ran.
The second I reached the hole, I dropped to my knees, my hands instantly submerged in freezing water as I started punching at the ice, breaking it apart with everything I had. My fists stung, the sharp edges cutting into my skin, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t care.
A loud crack sounded beside me, and suddenly Shane was there, his own hands tearing at the ice.
Behind us, Harper’s breathing was ragged, uneven. “Hurry! Please, hurry,” she begged, her voice thick with panic. “He’s just a kid–oh my God, Ryan–please.”
The water was dark. Too dark. I couldn’t see him.
Panic clawed at my throat, and I forced it down. Focus. Keep going. Get to him.
The hole widened. Not enough. Not yet.
“Come on, come on–” Harper’s words blurred together. I could hear her breath hitching. She was crying. She was terrified.
I had to get to him. I had to bring him back.
“Ryan!”
Harper’s voice. Desperate. Terrified.
I didn’t look up. Didn’t stop.
The moment the opening was big enough, I launched forward, plunging into the freezing abyss.
The second I hit the water, it stole the air from my lungs.
The cold wasn’t just cold–it was agony. A full-body shock so intense it felt like knives driving into every inch of my skin. My chest seized. The instinct to suck in a breath slammed into me, my body screaming for air that wasn’t there.
Panic clawed at my throat.
I couldn’t move.
For a split second, everything in me wanted to thrash, to claw my way back to the surface–to survive. I forced the instinct down.
