“Yes, honey.” Spotting the white hanky sail on the tiny pine boat, she hugged Toby close. “You stay here while I go after it. I can’t watch you and your boat at the same time. Okay?”
“It’s my fault. I want to help get Grant’s little man back.”
Jami pressed a kiss on the child’s hot, damp forehead. “You’re my little man, my only little man. If you want me to get your boat, I can’t be worrying about you getting too deep in the water. Stay here.”
“But, Mom...” Toby protested, his brown eyes pleading.
“No buts.” Jami gazed down at him, making her voice stern and not allowing her apprehension to bleed through. “Stay. That’s an order.”
“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed, rubbing away tears with his fists. “Please try to save the captain, and I promise I’ll be really good.”
Caught in the current, the tiny craft bobbed bravely, spinning this way and that way toward the swirling current, floating farther away from Jami and closer to the sapphire whirlpool. Determined to rectify her son’s mistake and retrieve Grant’s heirloom, Jami didn’t bother to take off her already wet sneakers as she splashed through the shallows.
As soon as the water was deep enough, she glided out, swimming toward the whirling sapphire depths. At first the lake current resisted, buoying and teasing her strokes, but as she neared the boat, she felt the frightening tug of the spinning waters. Shutting out the threat of peril, she focused on the toy’s location each time she took a breath. Thankfully, the boat had not capsized.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Toby wading into the shallows. Her movement was momentarily arrested with one arm churning air, the other dipping into water. Should she turn around? Would Toby go too deep?
Just as she began to twirl around and swim back to keep her son out of trouble, Grant crashed out of the woods. Relief flooded Jami, along with a fresh surge of resolve. Grant would keep Toby safe. She had to recover the charm.
“Toby!” Grant called, bursting out of the woods onto the lakeshore.
“Grant?” Toby hollered back.
“What are you doing?” Grant asked in exasperation as he found the six-year-old splashing through the shallows. “Everyone’s searching for you.”
“We gotta get my boat.” The child kept plowing through the water, the lake now up to the pockets of his sodden jeans.
“Get back here.”
“I can’t.” Toby marched deeper, not turning back to Grant.
Grant swore, wading into the water to make his way toward the stubborn child. Toby slipped and came up sputtering. “I’m stuck! Help!” The child went down again.
Heart in his throat, Grant sloshed through the water to grab Toby, who had tangled with driftwood and started to sink. The boy came up choking, water streaming off of the youngster’s head and shoulders.
“Can you breathe? Are you hurt?” He boosted the child up into his arms, water squirting between them.
“I’m okay.” Toby shook his head, his small arms and legs clinging to Grant. “That water tastes yucky.”
“You are okay,” Grant said with a relieved chuckle. “I’m planting you back onshore, and you’d better stay put, slugger.”
“But I have to help Mom save my boat.”
“She’s here?” Grant plopped Toby onto dry ground. “Where?”
“There.” The boy pointed toward the churning, swirling dark blue region of Frost Lake.
Grant’s lungs squeezed shut, his chest and heart aching as he caught sight of Jami’s copper hair. A mermaid in blue jeans, she undulated dolphin-style through the lake water chasing the tiny boat.
Cupping his hands around his mouth, Grant called Jami’s name, to no avail. She kept swimming toward danger, gaining on the damn boat. He turned to Toby. “Don’t you dare put one foot back in this water, partner. Not for any reason. I’m going after your mother.”
“Yes, sir!” Toby replied, plopping down to sit in the dirt and pull off his wet socks and sneakers. “I’m sorry about your teeny gold man.”
“What?”
“I used it for my captain because it fit just right.”
“We’ll talk about Cupid later,” Grant snapped, as Jami disappeared underwater for a heart-stopping moment. “Right now your mother is my priority.”
“I didn’t mean to be bad.” Toby’s freckled face scrunched. His eyes sparkled with unshed tears, and he bit his trembling lower lip.
“Just stay put,” Grant cautioned too harshly, caught in his own concern for Jami’s safety.
“I promise.”
With that, Grant launched into the lake. A vigorous swimmer, he swiftly cut through the water, his mind, muscle, and heart consumed with one