Freshwater Kisses: A Billionaire Love Story

by Lakes, Krista

  "It was great to see you, Sam," he said with a warm smile. "Have fun out there."

  "Always do!" I flashed him a bright grin and waved as I turned and headed toward the shack storing my equipment. The ocean was calling my name and I was ready to get out on the water.

  Chapter 4

  The water slipped silently under my board as I glided out toward the open ocean. A slight breeze tugged gently at the waves, promising a fun afternoon. I couldn't wait to really let loose and speed across the water, but I wanted to get out where I could practice some of my more flamboyant moves without looking like a complete idiot in front of the entire marina.

  Seeing Robbie brought back old memories, and I paddled through them as I worked my way out to where I could play in the wind.

  "We are going to get through this together, Sam." My older sister's voice echoed through my mind as I was transported back in time.

  It was three years after leaving Robbie and I had just had my fifteenth birthday. My sailing lesson was done for the day and I was out on the water by myself. I didn't want to go back in yet, so I sailed further out. There was a storm brewing, but it made the waves more challenging. I thought I could handle it.

  The storm caught me by surprise. I had managed to pull the mainsail before the boat flipped, but the mast was broken. The ropes were now wet and slippery. I couldn't handle it on my own. I wasn't ready for a challenge like this. I wished I had someone to help me.

  The waves tossed my little boat like a toy. This storm was past what I could handle. I clung to the rigging, praying that my tiny boat wouldn't capsize. I had radioed for help, but I wasn't sure anyone had heard me. Saltwater and tears burned in my eyes. I was going to drown because I had been stupid and gone out too far on my own.

  A horn sounded, heavy in the storm. Relief flooded through me as a beautiful white and red Coast Guard ship shined a light on my boat. I could hear sailors yelling as they threw me a line. I was saved.

  I tipped the sails on my windsurfing board into the light breeze, making me go faster as I stayed in my memories.

  The Valiant brought me home, cutting through the storm as though it were nothing. The sailors deposited me, blanket-wrapped and terrified, at the dock with stern warnings to never to do that again. It was raining at the dock, but the wind was gone. A parked police cruiser was waiting to take me home, only something was wrong. Grace was in the car, her eyes red and her cheeks splotchy. She took me into her arms, holding me close as she told me the news.

  When I didn't come home after my lesson, and the reports of the storm came in, my parents had gotten in the car to come look for me. There was a horrible accident. They were gone.

  I didn't believe her at first. I pushed her away and ran out into the rain. A police officer chased after me. I tripped and fell into a puddle; I didn't bother to get up. This wasn't how the day was supposed to have gone. I should have just gone home; I should never have gone into the storm. If only someone had been there to help me get the sails down, I would have made it back before they went out to look for me; if only I hadn't gone out into the storm...

  The wind sent a spray of water into my face. I returned my focus to the present, letting my memories and the hurt wash away in the ocean. From the corner of my eye, I could see a boat approaching, its sails full out as it glided along. It almost looked like the yacht that I had seen Robbie enter, but I knew it couldn't be Robbie. Robbie wouldn't be sailing drunk.

  My board caught a wave, stealing my attention away from the oncoming vessel. I had the right of way, so I focused on my own board instead of the boat, trying to keep from tipping over in the strong breeze. I concentrated on getting control of my sail and moving out of the way, knowing that the approaching ship could easily avoid me. The wind whistled in my ears, the ocean slapping at the board.

  I turned, thinking I was clear, but the boat had moved more quickly than I anticipated. The keel of the boat seemed bigger than I thought possible as it hurtled straight for me. Time slowed, and the details burned into my eyes: the white tips on the gray-green water, the yellow in my sail, the tiny barnacle trying to find a foothold on the keel of the oncoming yacht. There was no way to stop the collision now, and I let go of my sail, hearing it splash into the water. Robbie's eyes met mine, full of terror and recognition as his boat crashed into me, and everything went dark.

  Chapter 5

  A quiet beeping and a steady hiss woke me. The late afternoon sun was shining in through the windows, coating the strange room with a buttery warmth. I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision and make sense of where I was. My nose itched, and as I rubbed at it, my fingers caught the small plastic tubing.

  I frowned as I realized I was in the hospital. A large white-board on the adjacent wall proclaimed that my nurse was Jaime and my doctor was Dr. Robins. It took a moment, but I could remember his concerned face above me. He had nice eyes. I groaned and leaned back on the pillow, letting the memories of the ER wash over me. I recalled the kind brown eyes, the calls to the nursing staff and the glorious relief when they pushed some sort of liquid into the IV in my arm. The entire experience was blurry and surreal, but at least I remembered something. Grace would laugh when I told her about this.

  Grace. Avery.

  I sat up in a panic, adrenaline flooding through my system. I was supposed to pick Avery up from school! I glanced down at my wrist to check what time it was, but my watch was missing. The yellow late afternoon sunshine told me I was already late. Avery was probably standing on the front step of her school, little lunch box in hand, waiting for me to come get her with tears in her eyes. Grace was going to kill me.

  I ripped the oxygen tubing out of my nose and threw my legs over the side of the bed. A woozy rush went through me, and my hands tightened on the sheets. I really hoped the nurses' station was close by because I wasn't going to make it far. But I had to get to Avery.

  "Shh, lie back down," a soft voice said from the corner. I glanced over to see Grace starting to rise from her chair. She pushed away a hospital tray full of books and a laptop and walked over to the bed. "Avery's fine."

  Grace carefully picked up my feet and deftly maneuvered me back into bed. She wrapped the oxygen neatly around my ears and under my chin, her hands sure and steady. She was going to make a great nurse one of these days.

  "But I was supposed to pick her up! Grace, I'm so sorry! I..."

  "Shhh. Don't worry, little sis. They called me as soon as you were out of the water. I picked her up from school on my way here." She smiled and soothed my ponytail down across my shoulder. "One of the nurses is showing her where the vending machines are. She'll be up here in a little bit."

  The oxygen tickled my nose, so I tugged at it. Grace frowned and replaced it in my nose, giving me a look that told me to keep it there.

  "What time is it?" I asked. "And where's my watch?"

  Grace sat down on the edge of the bed. "I have your stuff in a bag in the closet. And it's a little after three in the afternoon. Don't worry, I called your boss and told them you weren't going to make your second shift." She paused and scrunched her nose. "Your boss is kind of a jerk, by the way."

  I gave a wry laugh and finally relaxed a little. "No kidding. I'll be lucky if I still have a job after this. I got run over by a boat, but since I'm missing the shift, it'll all be my fault."

  "Don't worry about it. That was a temporary job anyway. I'll be done with school in a few months, and then we won't have to worry quite so much," Grace said. She patted my leg gently.

  I groaned. "You had a test today, didn't you?"

  She shrugged as though missing a test was nothing. "Family comes first; you know that. Besides, the professor said I could make it up. At least it was the teacher that actually likes me. If it was Mrs. Burnside, I might have had to kill you."

  She said it with a straight face, but as soon as she finished she flashed me a grin. Grace was so close to finishing nursing school that she could taste it. She had doubled up on as many classes
as the program would let her to finish as quickly as possible, but even so, we were struggling to make ends meet. With her school schedule, she didn't have any time to work. It was my measly waitressing job that was keeping a roof over our heads and food on our table. Once she graduated and could work as an RN, life would be much easier.

  Except now, I was going to have to add whatever medical bills came out of this little trip. I pushed the thought away. The last thing I needed to be worrying about was how I was going to pay for this. My job didn't exactly offer health insurance.

  "The doctor let me look at your x-rays," Grace said. She grinned excitedly, her medical streak showing through. Her little sister was in the hospital, but she was excited that she got to see the x-rays. I couldn't help but smile at her. Such a medical nerd. "You are lucky, little sis. Just a concussion, a bruised rib, a strained wrist, and a bajillion little cuts and bruises. You are going to be black and blue for a while."

  "Just a concussion, a broken rib and a sprained wrist? Ugh, it feels like I got run over by a truck." I massaged the bandage around my wrist, noticing it for the first time. I also was noticing that breathing was actually rather uncomfortable.

  "Well, you did. A boat, but same difference," Grace said with a shrug. I swatted at her and missed.

  "Who hit me?" I gave a silent prayer that it wasn't Robbie. That it was just someone who looked kind of like Robbie. And drove a similar boat.

  "Robbie Saunders." Grace's petite features twisted in anger. "He was drunk."

  "No... He wouldn't..." I shook my head.

  "Well, he did. Blew a point two," Grace said. She closed her eyes and shook her head in amazement. "He managed to pull you onto his boat and get in to shore, thank heaven. You were out cold."

  "He wouldn't sail drunk..."

  Grace continued as though she hadn't heard me. "Only damaged two boats pulling into the dock. Would have been three if Sheriff Grinswald hadn't been there. He put him straight in jail. It will depend on if you press charges as to whether or not he stays there." She gave me a look that said I should press the charges.

  "Robbie Saunders wouldn't sail drunk," I said firmly. Grace took my bandaged hand in hers.

  "He did. And he nearly got you killed because of it. I know he was your friend when you were kids, but he's different now. I'm sorry, Sam." Grace looked at me, her pale blue eyes serious. My shoulders fell. I knew it was true, but I still couldn't believe it.

  The door to the room opened and a small form stood in the doorway for a moment before yelling, "AUNT SAM!" and running across the small room. She jumped up on the bed and gave me the biggest hug her small arms could manage. I hugged her back as tightly as my poor broken body would allow.

  The tiny blonde-haired child let go of me and regarded me solemnly, her big blue eyes taking in all my cuts and bruises. "Mommy said you got hurt and were sleeping. I'm glad you're not dead."

  Grace let out a strangled noise as she tried to keep her face straight. I grinned at my niece.

  "I'm glad I'm not dead, too. I'm sorry I didn't pick you up from school and get ice cream like I promised," I told her, pulling her into a more comfortable position on my lap.

  "Ice cream?" Grace asked, raising her eyebrow at me. I winced.

  "Yeah... it was supposed to be our special treat today." I gave Avery's mom an apologetic smile.

  "It's okay," Avery piped up. "They have lots of ice cream here! I've had three already!"

  Grace's mouth opened to tell her daughter something about ruining her dinner, but at that moment the doctor walked in. He was the man I remembered from the ER, with kind brown eyes and a cheerful smile.

  "Glad to see you up," Dr. Robins said as he pulled up a chair next to my bed. He pulled out a penlight, and shined it into my eyes, gauging my response. Whatever my eyes did seemed to please him, and he leaned back and smiled.

  "Am I going to live, Doc?" I asked. He laughed.

  "Yes, I think so," he replied. "I'm going to need you to stay overnight for observation, though. The concussion is serious enough that we want to make sure that everything is fine before we release you. Sometimes it takes a few hours for problems to appear, and we don't want any surprises."

  "But, Dr. Robins, I can't..." I started.

  "I'm sorry, Samantha, but this isn't negotiable. You really do need to stay here." He stood up from the chair so he could look down at me. I suddenly felt like I was a child. "You are very lucky to be alive. With the concussion and your injuries, you came very close to drowning. I don't want to scare you, but I need you to stay the night and make sure that everything is fine. If everything looks good, you can leave first thing in the morning, all right?"

  I nodded meekly. There was no way I was going to be able to afford another night. But what the heck? I thought to myself. There was no way I'm going to be able to afford the care I've received up to this minute; what was another few hours going to add to an already un-payable bill? The thought didn't give me much comfort.

  "Good." Dr. Robins gave a crisp nod. "I'll come check on you in the morning. Until then, I'd like you to get some rest. I'm sure Grace here has already filled you in on all your injuries, but do you have any questions for me?"

  "Nope. Even if I did, I'm sure Grace will take care of me," I answered. He laughed.

  "She is going to be a great nurse. You graduate in December, right?" he asked, turning toward Grace. She blushed and nodded.

  "My mommy said I can keep her nursing hat when she graduates!" Avery chirped from my lap.

  "I'm sure you will both look fantastic in it. If you need a recommendation for the scholarship, I'd be more than happy to write one for you. It's been a pleasure having you do your nursing rotations here," Dr. Robins said, a smile on his face. Grace laughed nervously.

  "I will be sure to do that. Thank you again, Doctor," she said. I could see her blush creeping further up her throat.

  "My pleasure. I'll come check on you in the morning, Samantha." Dr. Robins gave us all a big smile and turned and walked out the door, humming softly as he closed it behind him.

  "A scholarship recommendation?" I asked Grace, raising my eyebrows at her. Avery giggled.

  "Mommy thinks he's cute," Avery whispered.

  "Hey!" Grace's voice came out a squeak, which made Avery giggle again.

  "Oh, so 'scholarship recommendation' is the new code word for secret crush," I said, turning to Avery.

  "Quit it, you two!" Grace shouted, her face turning an even more delightful shade of red. "He just works on this floor and he is very nice. You two stop making insinuations!"

  "What's an in-sin-u-a-tion?" Avery whispered, sounding out the word carefully.

  "It's when you say one thing, but really mean another," I whispered back. She nodded.

  "So what is this scholarship? You graduate at the end of the semester—why would you need a scholarship?" I asked, wrapping my arms around Avery. The little girl leaned back into me, watching her mom.

  "It's a repayment scholarship. Kind of like a paid internship," Grace answered. "Three students of the nursing program get full tuition reimbursement and a job here at the hospital. It also puts them on the fast track for a nursing management position."

  "So it's a really-awesome-program-that-is-right-up-your-alley-and-having-cutie-doctor-give-you-a-recommendation kind of thing?" I teased. Grace rolled her eyes at me.

  "Yes. It's just that it's super competitive, and even with 'cutie doctor's' recommendation, I probably won't get it," she said.

  "So, you're not even going to try? Come on, Grace!" I gave her a stern look. "The cute doctor thinks you have a shot. At least have him write you a nice letter. If nothing else, you might get a date out of it. At best, you might actually get the dang thing."

  "But, Sam..."

  "No 'buts'! How come I am just hearing about this?"

  "Like I said, it's a really prestigious thing... I'm not the top in my class, and while I have some recommendations, I'm not the pick of the litter. I didn't tell you be
cause I knew you'd push me to do it and I didn't want to get your hopes up." Grace paused and looked down at her hands. "You've been working so hard to keep us afloat, and I didn't want to let you down."

  "I think you could do it, Mommy," Avery said quietly. The corners of Grace's mouth twitched upward at her daughter's comment.

  "Me too. Go get that doctor's number. Or something," I told her.

  Grace rolled her eyes at me and held out her hands to Avery. "We gotta get going, little girl. Your aunt needs some rest," she said.

  "And we gotta catch a doctor," Avery responded. I gave her a hug before she jumped off my lap.

  "That's my girl," I said as she landed on the floor and took her mother's hand.

  "You two are awful," Grace said. I could practically hear her eyes roll in her head. "Don't you worry about the money right now, little sis. We'll make it work somehow. We always do. You just rest and we'll figure things out later."

  I nodded.

  "Bye, Aunt Sam! I'll see you tomorrow. Maybe we can go get ice cream then!" Avery called as they walked out the door.

  I tried to settle down, but even so it was hard. Grace was right, though. There was no point in worrying at the moment since there wasn't anything I could do about it. But that didn't stop the trickle of panic from worming its way into my brain.

  ***

  I stared at the book the nurse had given me, but I wasn't really reading the page. It was some sort of romance novel, but I wasn't looking for love. I was looking for something to keep myself from freaking out. Despite Grace's calm assertion that we would somehow make it work, I was panicking. My boss was pissed, if the two voice-mails and three texts complaining about my not being there were any indication. He was probably going to fire me. Or at least reduce my hours for being "unreliable." I wanted to scream.

  My extra shift was supposed to make sure that rent and Avery's private school tuition were going to get paid without us having to skimp on groceries. It was going to be another lean month, especially since I knew my boss wouldn't schedule me for an extra shift ever again. Throw in the lack of health insurance, and this medical bill—I was going to be broke until I was a hundred and two.