Page 19 of Amelia and Her Prince Charming
Amelia hadn’t been there. It was one of the few games she’d ever missed. Quinn wasn’t feeling well—a minor ear infection, but it had given her a fever and runny nose—so she’d decided to stay home with her. I knew it ate at her that she hadn’t been there, but I was glad. That was one image she didn’t need to have in her head the rest of her life. It was bad enough to have heard about it.
Shiloh had been the best of brothers. And yet, here I was. In love with his wife. It was getting harder and harder to keep that off-limits box stuffed away where it should be. Distance was the only thing that would help.
And distance was the exact opposite of what was happening now. At least it was too loud to talk. I knew Amelia well enough to understand that she had come on this trip with me because she wanted to talk to me about something. I’d seen the determined look in her eye when she said she was coming, and knew there was no dissuading her. Once Amelia decided something, that was it. She never looked back.
On the horizon, the sky was looking darker. I blinked and took in the whole of the sky and the ocean around us. I’d been so lostin my thoughts of Amelia, and the feel of her arms around me, that I wasn’t paying attention to how the weather was turning.
I hadn’t even checked the forecast before leaving, which was an absolute necessity when taking a boat trip across the channel to these small islands. If it turned inclement, a person would be left vulnerable to the whims of enormous waves that could easily take out a dinghy like this.
I kicked up the dinghy’s speed with a protesting whine from the engine. We were closer to the Forresters’ island than we were to Winterhaven, even if it was taking us into the approaching storm.
Amelia’s arms tightened around my chest, and there was no way she couldn’t feel the wild thudding of my heart. Not just from her touch this time. The waves around us grew higher, from one- and two-foot swells, into three and four feet. If we got up to six, we’d be having major problems. I pushed the dinghy to max speed, feeling the entire boat shudder as it hit wave after wave.
The engine groaned like an overworked animal. This dinghy had to be thirty years old. I was sure my parents did regular maintenance on it—Dad wasn’t one to let things fall into disrepair—but an old engine, no matter how well-taken care of, was still an old engine.
Amelia shouted something to me, but the wind tore her words away and flung them back out into the ocean. As the waves grew, it felt like hitting cement as we ran through them, jarring us both with teeth-rattling intensity. Amelia’s fingers were white as she gripped the front of my life vest.
The sky was completely gray, and the mist that had been falling turned into a heavier rain. Finally, I spotted the Forresters’ island. I pushed the dinghy harder toward our destination. We were going to make it. It was going to be fine. We’d hole out on the island until the storm passed in a few hoursand then head back. It grew closer and closer, and some of my tension began to ease. We were on the opposite side of the island from the cabin, but we could hike through the forest to get there. I’d done it many times, and it wasn’t too hard. Harder in the cold, and while being wet, but possible.
While I was calculating the distance to the cabin, a wave came from our right side and crashed into the dinghy.
“Hudson!” Amelia screamed as the dinghy was flipped onto its side, and she flew into the dark, hungry waters of the ocean.
Chapter 13
Amelia
Iwassubmergedinicy cold water. My eyes were open, but I couldn’t see anything but darkness. Panic gripped me by the lungs as my dress tightened around my legs, making it impossible to kick. I frantically paddled my arms toward the surface. My hand brushed something–Hudson’s hand?–it gripped my fingers and then was torn away from me.
My chest burned for air, but my legs were in an impossible vice of twisted fabric. This dumb bridesmaid dress was going to be the literal death of me. I flailed my arms around, completely disoriented. It was too dark to see what way was up and which way was down. Air landed on my face, and I greedily gulped in as much as I could before I was flung back under the water. Panic clawed as violently at me as the waves, urging me to desperation.
“Amelia!” Hudson called out, but his voice sounded distant in my ears as another wave battered me back into the sea. Then air and another gulping breath mixed with salty water that made me cough and sputter. The pattern repeated. “Swim this way.”
The water crashed over me again, and again, and again. Until my life was a series of panicked breaths and trying to getoriented. How long could I do this for? How long until I breathed at the wrong time?
Quinn. I pictured my baby girl as I fought through the muscle cramps, the aching cold, the sense of helplessness washing over me.
“Amelia!” Hudson’s voice sounded farther this time. More desperate.
I kicked toward him. Or it was away from him. I was unmoored in this wild ocean, kept alive only by my life vest and the whims of nature. Water came from above, from below, it surrounded me. There. I spotted him not that far away. “Hudson!” I screamed. It sounded gargled, distorted, nothing like my regular voice.
He turned and our eyes met above the surface of the churning ocean.
It was the last thing I saw before another wave crashed into me from behind, and this time I couldn’t find my way up. This time, I breathed, and instead of air, water filled my lungs.
Chapter 14
Hudson
Idovedownwherethe ocean swallowed up Amelia and swam with every bit of energy I had. I squinted into the darkness of the water and frantically swam to where I’d last seen her, looking for any sign of her. Horror clawed at me, but I zeroed my focus on one thing only: finding Amelia. Movement caught my eye, and I kicked toward it.
I grabbed onto something soft. Her arm! I hauled her to my side, and I kicked upward with her in my grip. Her head bobbed forward, and her body was too still.
Terror gripped my heart. “Amelia. Come on, baby. Breathe.”
I had to get her out of this ocean before we lost this battle.
But she needed air. I held her head above the swelling waves as they hit me on every side. She sputtered and gasped, and water spurted out of her mouth. “Hud …son …” she said through her coughs and sharp inhalations.
