LITMIR.BIZ

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sigh and stopped in the middle of the path. She smiled and shook her head. Ben was Kylie Germaine’s active son, and she’d agreed to watch him for a few hours. Kylie was spending this Saturday afternoon doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, along with a final fitting for her wedding dress, in preparation for her New Year’s Eve wedding to Seth Taylor, one of Cedar Bluff’s Emergency Department physicians.

      Kylie would make a beautiful bride, she thought with a pang of envy. The couple radiated happiness. When Alyssa had been young, she’d always wished for a big family. Kylie and Seth were planning to have more kids, and Seth already treated Ben like his own son.

      She was glad to help out, even for a couple of hours.

      There was an inch of snow covering the ground and she was looking forward to a white Christmas. In spite of the chill in the cold December air, she’d thought a trip to Cedar Bluff Park would be a good way to keep Ben occupied. Much better than sitting around in her small apartment.

      An apartment too small for her expanding family.

      The dark, heavy clouds overhead indicated more snow might be on the way. She picked up her pace, more so to keep warm than to catch up with Ben.

      “When are your babies going to be born?” Ben asked as she met up with him on the path. There was an upper path leading to the top of the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan, but they’d taken the lower path leading directly to the lakeshore. Climbing the upper path in her current condition had been too daunting.

      “Not for another eight weeks,” she told him, smoothing her hand down over her stomach. At least she hoped she wouldn’t have them too early. With twins, nothing was certain. Not only was she facing the fact she was pregnant with twins, but that she’d need to raise them alone, since their father, an emergency department physician named Jadon Reichert, had vanished in a disappearing act over four months ago.

      She’d tried to call him, to let him know she was pregnant, but after the first couple of messages his cell phone had announced the number was out of service. According to Seth, Jadon was on an extended personal leave of absence from Cedar Bluff Hospital. In her opinion, a personal leave of absence was nothing more than a euphemism for gone and never coming back.

      Which meant she was on her own. Exactly how she would manage to raise two kids alone was something she hadn’t quite figured out yet. But, no matter what, she was determined to succeed in providing her babies with a secure, loving home.

      “Mom says you’re gonna need our help when the babies are born,” Ben said, skipping up the path. He picked up a large stick and poked it into the snow.

      She was going to need help all right. And lots of it. Luckily the close-knit, family-like atmosphere of Cedar Bluff, the town and the hospital where she worked as an ED/trauma nurse, meant she was surrounded by friends. People like Kylie and Seth had already offered their support.

      Alyssa knew she wasn’t alone. Not really. But having friends who were willing to chip in and help wasn’t exactly the same as having a full-time father for her babies.

      Wishing for the impossible was a waste of time, so she quickly pushed thoughts of Jadon aside. She’d gone into the affair knowing it wasn’t going to last, so it was her own fault if her heart had gotten bruised when he’d left. If he didn’t want to be a part of her life, fine. Her focus needed to be on taking care of herself and the babies.

      Besides, her favorite holiday of all, Christmas, was only a few weeks away.

      The path opened into a small clearing near the lakefront. Ben dashed forward, heading straight for the rocky shore.

      “Don’t go near the water,” she warned.

      “I won’t,” he hollered over his shoulder.

      She told herself not to worry so much. Kylie brought Ben down to the lakefront all the time; surely he would abide by his mother’s limitations. The wind kicked up, blasting frigid air into her face, whipping her long dark hair over her eyes and stealing her breath.

      Jiminy Cricket, it was cold.

      She turned to face the wind, pushing her hair out of her eyes. She pulled the scarf around her neck a little tighter and looked for Ben. Where had he gone? Impatiently she scanned the area, finding him standing precariously on the rocks above the water.

      What part of Don’t go near the water hadn’t he understood?

      “Ben? What are you doing?” she called in exasperation. “Get down and come back here.”

      He didn’t seem to hear her, poking intently at something between the rocks. She had no idea what he’d found—surely all the marine wildlife was in hibernation by early December. She quickened her step, intent on dragging him back to safety, when suddenly there was a loud crack and a shrill cry. His walking stick had snapped in two, throwing him off balance. His small arms made windmill motions as he hung for mindnumbing seconds poised above the water.

      “Ben!” Alyssa broke into a run just as his body toppled into the icy lake with a horrifying splash.

      She scrambled up and over the rocks, helplessly scanning the water for his body. Could he swim? Had he hit a rock? Could he survive in the dangerously cold water?

      There, his tiny head bobbed in the water, his arms flailing as he tried to stay afloat, his heavy winter coat dragging him down. Quickly, she shrugged out of her coat and pulled off her scarf. Remembering some of her old lifeguard skills, she wound one end of the scarf around her left hand and leaned out as far as she dared before tossing the other end into the water toward Ben.

      “Grab the scarf!” she shouted. “I’ll pull you in.”

      Ben reached for the end of the scarf, but missed. Her heart lodged in her throat when his head disappeared beneath the water for a couple of long seconds. Thankfully, the tide pushed him a little closer as his head cleared the surface again.

      “Ben!” She reeled in the scarf and this time took careful aim before throwing it again, hitting him in the chest. “Grab the scarf!”

      In slow motion, his numb fingers grasped the end and she nearly wept with relief as she towed him the short distance to shore. “I’ve got you. It’s all right, I’ve got you.”

      When he was close enough to the edge, she reached down to pull him up.

      Her center of gravity shifted. She’d forgotten all about her pregnant belly and her miscalculation made her lose her balance. She plopped with a thud into the water next to Ben.

       Her babies!

      Shockingly cold water surrounded her, sucking her down into the murky depths. For precious seconds she couldn’t move, stunned by the cold water, and she idly wondered if she and Ben were both going to drown. The thought spurred her into action. Frantically she strove toward the surface, her fingertips brushing against something soft. Ben. Her head cleared the surface and she coughed, grabbing hold of the boy and holding him upright in the water.

      “I’ve got you,” she repeated, gasping and clenching her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. Poor Ben had already been in the frigid water too long for a child his size. She tried not to think about the potential harm to her unborn children as she shucked off Ben’s watersoaked coat so he’d weigh less and then used every ounce of her strength to lever him upright, literally pushing him up and out of the lake, onto the rocks. “See my coat up there? Use it to get warm.”

      Ben crawled over the rocks, falling facedown onto her coat. He may have been out of the water, but he still wasn’t safe. Hypothermia was deadly. He needed to get warm, and soon.

      Alyssa struggled to follow him out and over the rocks, but her fingers slipped and she fell back into the water, her strength seeping away. Desperately, she lunged upward, clutching a boulder while also trying to find a toehold so she could climb out. The task seemed impossible. She didn’t have the upper-arm strength to pull herself out of the water.

      Her legs were numb. She focused on Ben’s too-still body lying on

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