Some Bright Someday (Maple Valley #2) - Melissa Tagg Page 0,63

grin he could feel taking over his expression. Still, he leaned close to the door. “You’ve got paint by your ear, by the way.”

The door muffled her voice. “Go back to the cottage, Danby.”

He did. With a newfound energy that assured he wouldn’t sleep a wink tonight.

12

Lucas plunged under the river’s windswept ripples and into its frigid, unwieldy depths. The water grasped at him, its shocking cold the stimulant his sore muscles needed after that cramped ride to the airport and too many nights sleeping on the floor.

Or probably, more accurately, all those hours at the gym yesterday.

He really had gone soft. He tilted and pushed to the water’s ceiling.

“You’re insane.”

Noah’s voice reached him from where he lingered at the river’s edge. Lucas kicked his legs, treading to keep his head above the surface. “You were so proud of lifting forty pounds heavier than me yesterday. I’d like to see you try swimming in water this cold.”

On the way home from dropping the rest of his team off at the airport, he’d stopped at his old swimming spot on a whim. He’d never had the bulging muscles and brute strength of Doug—or even Noah—but he never failed to outlast the others on a run or in the water. His superpower had always been perseverance.

No, not always.

He hadn’t persevered in Afghanistan.

That’s why he’d really stopped at the river. Because he’d had the same old nightmare again last night. Because donuts at the bakery with his friends this morning, a cramped ride to Des Moines, half the group in Lucas’s truck and the other half in their rental car, handshakes and hugs and goodbyes—none of it had dissolved the aftereffects of the dream.

Not even the thought of spending time with Jenessa tonight had entirely dispelled the nightmare, the images. A blaze, bodies . . . Tashfeen.

He dove under again. Shoots of pain sliced down both arms even as they strained against the river’s current, his lungs heaving for release inside his chest. He propelled himself upward, just long enough to crash through the surface and gulp for air before plummeting into the murk once more.

The cold stung his skin and seeped inside of him. This was an ache he could bear, unlike the memories his nightmares never let him forget.

Underwater, he felt a shake and heard the muted splash of Noah crashing in nearby. Lucas’s feet connected with a jagged rock and he pushed himself toward the hazy light bobbing at the surface. He broke through and breathed, blinking the water from his eyes just in time to see Noah rise.

And hear his squawk. “I m-mean it. You’re seriously insane.”

“Swimming against a current is a better workout than anything you’ll get at the gym.”

Noah’s teeth chattered. “When it’s not thirty-five degrees maybe.”

“It’s thirty-eight.” He’d checked the display on the dash in his truck. He pushed a floating branch out of the way. “Race you to that sandy area. See it?”

“Wait—”

But Lucas was already lunging forward, arms laboring against the force of the water. He reached the riverbank a full minute before Noah. But the younger man gained on him the second time. Three more races. By the fifth, their arms reached for the shore at the same moment.

And even Lucas had to admit he was ready for a break. He climbed onto the grass and jutted his hand toward Noah.

Noah grasped it and came out of the water gasping. “C-can you get frostbite from the inside out?”

“Dramatic much?” Lucas shook the water from his hair.

“D-did Flagg put you up to this? One of the guys? Or was this one all you?”

Lucas swiped his shirt from the grass and yanked it over his head. “All me, proud to say. Tell me that wasn’t more fun than bench presses.”

“It was definitely not more fun than bench presses.”

Lucas grinned and started toward the truck. Yes, the windy cold felt like an assault at the moment, but it actually had sort of done the trick. And Noah could complain all he wanted, but Lucas didn’t miss the animation in his eyes now. He really did owe Court, Doug, and the rest of them. Yes, Noah had begun to loosen up before they’d arrived, but two days around the team and he’d actually become pretty congenial. Lucas might even go so far as to say he was fun to be around.

Did that mean Lucas was doing an okay job as a mentor? He genuinely didn’t know. He’d talked to Jamar about it a little last night after