“Who are they all?” Merissa whispered, bumping into a nearby chair because she couldn’t stop gawking. She eventually collapsed into the lounge chair beside Jessie with a sigh. “I’ve changed my mind; I
am
moving here. Or am I still upstairs in bed, dreaming?” She looked at the pool again and sat up. “Hey, what’s Toby doing? He’s supposed to be glued to your side today.”
“He’s on break. But . . . oh, Mer, I’m not certain he can swim.”
Merissa snorted and stood up. “Of course he can swim; he’s a
dog
. Tobias Pringle!” she shouted, pointing her finger as she marched down the side of the pool. “You jump in that water right now, you big wuss, before I throw you in.”
Only she came to an abrupt halt when Duncan vaulted out of the pool in front of her. “You’ll be the one getting thrown in if ye so much as try.”
“Are you
threatening
me?” Merissa asked, taking a step back.
Duncan folded his arms over his massive wet chest and shrugged. “Call it what you want, so long as it gets my point across. Ye don’t bully a reluctant animal into doing something it’s not ready to do.”
Jessie had to use both hands to hold her mug steady as she took another sip, because honest to God, dripping wet and nearly naked, Duncan MacKeage made all the warriors in the movie
Braveheart
look like wimps. Forget the nineteenth century; she’d just bought a house in
medieval Scotland
.
“Go sit down, Merissa,” Duncan said quietly, “and leave Toby to Ian. The man has a way with animals.”
Clearly nonplussed, Merissa turned without saying a word, walked back to Jessie, and sat down beside her. Jessie handed her the toddy, then had to lift it up to her mouth to get her to take a sip—which turned into a long guzzle.
“I’ve changed my mind again,” Merissa said on a winded gasp, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. “I’m not moving here.” She looked at Jessie. “And I’m dragging you back to Atlanta with me.” She pointed at Duncan, who was now sitting on the edge of the pool with his feet dangling in the water, watching Ian quietly talking to Toby. “Did you see what just happened? The man actually threatened me.”
Jessie gave a nervous laugh, her attention divided between Toby and Merissa. “Now you know what it’s like being on the receiving end of your nurse’s voice. Oh, come on, Mer,” she said when Merissa glared at her. “If you can dish it out, then at least be woman enough to take it. You like alpha males, remember?”
“I like
civilized
alphas.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron,” Jessie muttered. Unable to stand it any longer, she carefully slid her feet to the floor, grabbed the closest arm of her wheelchair, and pulled it up beside the lounge chair. She didn’t care if
all
the men threatened her; she couldn’t just sit here and do nothing. Toby was always there for her when she needed him, and dammit, she could do the same for him.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Merissa asked in surprise, jumping out of her chair.
“I have to go help Ian with Toby,” Jessie said, gritting her teeth against the pain as she pulled herself to her feet.
“Just call it off,” Merissa snapped, helping Jessie turn to sit in the chair. “Tell Toby to come back to you.”
Jessie started wheeling toward the end of the pool. “Toby’s no more of a quitter than I am. He . . . he’s just scared,” she whispered, seeing the dog nervously creep down one more step, his dark eyes uncertain as he stood trembling in water up to his chest. “I want to help,” she said, causing the three men in the pool to turn to her and for Duncan to stand up as she rolled past.
Ian hesitated half a pounding heartbeat before he gestured at Robbie to stay with Toby, then waded to the side of the pool and silently held up his hands to her.
“No,” Merissa hissed, grabbing Jessie’s shoulder when she bent over and slid off her shoes. “You can’t swim. She can’t swim,” she repeated more firmly to Ian, only to turn to Duncan. “Make this stop,” she growled.
“Ian has Jessie now,” Duncan said quietly, wrapping his arms around Merissa and pulling her away. “Ye need to let her go, lass.”
Despite sensing far more than just a fully-clothed dip in the pool was happening, Jessie gave her friend an apologetic smile and slipped out of the wheelchair and into Ian’s strong arms.
“I’ve got you,” he said when she gasped at the feel of the water soaking through her clothes. “Ye truly can’t swim? Because of your injury or because ye never learned?”
“I-I’ve tried to learn,” she said, clutching his shoulders in a death grip as he waded toward the center of the pool. “But I sink like a lead balloon.”
Oh God, she really hadn’t thought this through. What if her prosthesis popped out of her bra and the damn thing floated to the surface? Or worse, what if Ian felt the ugly, puckered scar on her lower back?
He suddenly stopped when she twisted to pull down the hem of her fleece, and sighed. “Are we going to go through this again, Jessie? Because Toby
is
going to react to your struggling this time, and I prefer this be about him right now, not you.”
Nope, she hadn’t thought this through at all. Jessie turned away from his steady gaze to focus on Toby instead of her own predicament. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to have you stand here in the middle,” he said, wading away from Toby instead of toward him. “The water will support your weight,” he quickly added when she tightened her grip. He nodded to Alec, who came over and stood beside them as Ian dropped his arm from under her knees, holding her until she found her footing in the chest-deep water. “Alec will be right here to steady you. Then you call Toby to you, and I’ll stay with him the whole way.”
“You promise not to let him sink?”
“He can swim, Jessie, he just doesn’t know it or has forgotten. But he’s liable to splash at first, so don’t panic, okay?” He stepped away when she nodded, hesitating until she released him to clutch Alec’s arm instead, and gave her a reassuring smile. “Toby’s not a lead balloon, lass.”
“I’m calling his trainer first thing tomorrow,” she growled, deciding anger would serve her better right now, “and asking why in hell nobody taught him to swim.”
“You don’t know that he wasn’t,” Ian said, reaching Toby. “But it’s possible he had a bad experience involving water at some point before you got him, and he’s just taking his good old time getting over it.”
Oh God, what if that was true? “Then we should stop, because it’s better if he
doesn’t
remember something horrible,” she said, unable to keep her growing horror out of her voice. “The fear could
immobilize
him and he could drown.”
Jessie heard a loud gasp followed by a muffled yelp and nearly lost her footing when she spun to see Duncan striding out of the solarium with Merissa in his arms. “Hey!” she shouted, only to have Alec stop her from trying to go after them.
“Jessie,” Ian said firmly, drawing her attention again. “Do you want Toby to spend the rest of his life being afraid of water? Because it appears to me that he’s determined to do this.”
“But we could make it worse,” she said as she tried to go to Toby, only to have Alec stop her again. “He could start having nightmares,” she rushed on. “Or a flashback or something, and be traumatized all over again. Please, Ian,” she whispered, hugging herself as she dropped her gaze from his silent scrutiny.
“Do you trust me, Jessie?”
She snapped her head up. “I don’t even know you.”
His eyes turned unreadable, and he gave a barely perceptible nod. “That’s true. Then do you at least know Toby well enough to trust him?”
“With my life.” She dropped her hands below the water to ball them into fists. “The same way
he
trusts
me
to protect him.”
“Can’t you see he’s wanting to do this, Jessie? He wouldn’t have left your side if he didn’t, or allowed us to take off his gear. But animals loathe feeling helpless, and to stop Toby from conquering this particular demon will only give it more power over him.” He gestured at the trembling dog. “He’s just spent the last ten minutes slowly winning the battle; don’t make him leave in defeat.”
Jessie rubbed her palms up and down her thighs, torn between wanting to throw a hissy fit to make this stop and trusting that Ian was right. She finally sucked in a shuddering breath. “O-okay,” she said, watching Ian turn away before she could read his expression. Jessie took another deep breath and held out her trembling hands. “C-come on, Tobes. Swim to me, brave boy.”
Toby pawed at the water, yipping frantically as he worked himself into a terrible frenzy, until he suddenly gave a sharp bark and lunged off the step toward her. Jessie in turn lunged toward him as he immediately sank beneath the surface, and she would have gone under herself if Alec hadn’t caught her.
“Give it a second, lass,” he said next to her ear. “Ian’s got him.”
Toby resurfaced, although she couldn’t tell if it was under his own power or because Ian’s hand under his chest was lifting him up. Toby thrashed violently, wheezing and hacking as he eventually started moving forward, his big brown eyes locked on Jessie the entire time.
And so began their water dance, with Alec continuing to move her just out of Toby’s reach and Toby slowly doing more swimming than thrashing, until Alec led Jessie to the steps when Ian nodded and she sat down. Finally able to reach his prize, Toby scrambled onto the step beside her, his chest heaving with ragged pants as he licked her chin.
Jessie threw her arms around his trembling body and buried her face in his wet fur. “Oh, Toby, you’re so brave. You swam!” She gave him a fierce squeeze. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” she whispered. “But you know I—”
“Ye need to let him breathe,” Ian said with a laugh, pulling her arms away as he sat down on the step beside her. “And look, the poor beast is blushing to have ye coddling him like a baby in front of us. Why don’t you let him practice his new sport?”
Jessie threw herself at Ian. “I was so scared!”
“Hey now, don’t cry,” he crooned, lifting her onto his lap. He brushed his thumb across her cheek and turned so she could watch Toby paddling toward Robbie, who was swimming backward while softly calling to him. “See? The big man just needed a good reason to remember he can swim.” Ian tapped the tip of her nose with his finger. “And you gave him one.”
“But I wouldn’t have.” She dropped her blurry gaze to her hand clutching his arm. “If you hadn’t pushed me, I would have taken him upstairs and kept him from ever going near water again.” She looked up, blinking away her tears. “H-he’s all I’ve got. Toby means
everything
to me.”
Ian pressed her head to his shoulder. “And you mean everything to him,” he said, his lips brushing her hair. “Which is why he was so determined to do this for you.”
“I am such a coward.”
“Nay, Jessie. You’re the bravest woman I know.”
Suddenly aware that she was sitting on the lap of a nearly naked man—the same one who had kissed her quite thoroughly last night—Jessie felt her cheeks flush with heat. “I have to go save Merissa,” she said, trying to get up.
Ian folded his arms around her with a chuckle. “Are you sure it’s not Duncan who needs saving?” He sobered. “She’s having a hard time letting you go, Jessie, which makes me wonder if
Merissa
isn’t the one you need to prove your independence to.”
Jessie blew out a sigh. “It’s going to take an act of Congress to get her on the plane Thursday.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “We’ve been like sisters ever since she barged into my hospital room and turned her nurse’s voice on me four years ago.” She looked out at the pool, watching Toby paddling after Alec and Robbie, and sighed again. “I feel like I’m abandoning her.”
“Seeing the two of you together, I’m surprised she’s not moving here with you.”
Jessie wiped the last of her tears off her cheeks. “Merissa is expecting me to come to my senses any day now.” She snorted. “So are my parents and brother-in-law and my old boss. And to be honest, I think I’m more surprised than any of them that I’m actually here.” She gestured at the wall of windows facing Pine Lake. “I still can’t explain it, but from the moment I found that TarStone Mountain brochure four months ago, all I could think about was living in such a magical, powerful place.”
Jessie felt Ian go utterly still—as if he momentarily stopped breathing—before he softly chuckled. “You’ll definitely feel its power the first time a blizzard dumps two feet of snow in your driveway. Can Duncan and I take you and Merissa to dinner tonight? We can dine right here at the hotel,” he quietly added. “I’m afraid it’ll be a quick evening, though, as we’re headed out quite early tomorrow morning and will be gone all week.”
“I gather you’re all spending the week running through the woods with guns?”
He arched a brow. “Are you a vegetarian, Miss Pringle?”
Jessie turned to face the pool to hide her smile. “I’m not opposed to eating the Easter Bunny.”
“How about Bambi?” he whispered, giving her a gentle squeeze. “If I bring you a nice venison roast, would you invite me to your new home for dinner?”
“Only if you do the cooking.”
“Ye don’t cook?” he asked—although Jessie couldn’t tell from his tone if he was surprised or horrified.
She laughed. “I’m afraid if you were so hell-bent on my buying your cousin’s house because you thought I was going to coo—um, Ian,” she said, trying to slide off his lap. But when he only tightened his grip, she nodded toward the lobby door. “Your father and two other men just walked in, and they don’t look all that happy to see a dog and a fully dressed woman in the pool.”
He chuckled. “You’re about to meet the founding fathers of TarStone Mountain Ski Resort. The one on the left of Dad is his older brother, Greylen—Megan’s father. And on his right is their cousin Callum, who is Duncan’s father. Smile, lass; it’ll confound them.”
Oh yeah, there definitely was something in the drinking water, making Jessie wonder if she wouldn’t be an inch taller herself by this time next year. She plastered a bright smile on her face as the three older men stopped at the edge of the pool and Morgan MacKeage folded his arms over his chest and frowned—although she could see he was frowning at Ian, not her.