by Keri Ford
He shook his head. “Dropping by at work is one thing. Knocking on her door feels a little creepy, especially at night.”
“You’re right. When she’s ready to talk about it, she will.”
At least he had the satisfaction of knowing he wasn’t crazy, because both Cindy and Violet agreed Lanie dodged his step. Unfortunately, Lanie wasn’t interested in telling either of her friends why. Or that’s the story he got. He eyed Cindy a moment longer and wondered if maybe she knew but stayed loyal to Lanie. Not that he could fault that either.
He saw nothing there and scrubbed over his face. “I’m going to lose my mind.”
She patted him on the arm. “You’ll figure it out.” She inhaled and stretched her arms in the warm sunshine. “I’m loving this early warm weather. Makes me want to get up to the lake and go swimming.”
Abrupt subject change, but maybe she was hiding something and didn’t want him to see. He wouldn’t press her because it really wasn’t her place to tell on her best friend.
“I haven’t been in the lake in years. I guess it’s still a summer hot spot?”
Being he should have died in Maiden Lake when he was eighteen, it wasn’t a place he tended to go to often. Or ever. The only reason he went there now was because Hank had bought a place on the lake for when he was in town. If Eriksen wasn’t in the area for that, he was only stopping by to check on the string of cabins Hank was renovating for tourists.
Her face saddened. “Not like it used to be. I don’t think it will ever be that way again, where people boated around at night and enjoyed the view. Not for several more years anyway. But during the day it’s pretty awesome. Lanie has a place—well, it’s her dad’s, but none of them go up there unless they’re fishing. She, however, goes every chance she gets, year round. She even keeps the cabin stocked and has extra clothes there.”
“Oh yeah?”
Cindy tugged on the back door and paused halfway in. “Her place is right there around a bend from the cabins Hank is restoring. Her dad put up a flagpole near the shore years ago. She loves to swim. Day or night. Crazy thing will swim along the banks of the lake, probably right in front of Hank’s place and the cabins too.”
With that, she slipped inside. He didn’t follow and instead stood there with the sunlight beaming down on his back. Hank would be asking about the status of the other cabins anyway. With the first round of guests coming soon, those needed to be on schedule. Also wouldn’t hurt to check on Hank’s house and his niece who was staying there. He flipped his phone, texted Belinda to let her know he would be in the area if she needed something.
There. He’d go check on things, drop in on Belinda, and if he happened to run into Ms. Lanie Lange in the process, good.
As he walked off, realization smacked hard. Today’s chat wasn’t a complete waste. When he’d asked about work, she had actually talked. He filed that tidbit away.
Chapter Three
Lanie flicked her feet underwater. The cool temperature of the lake rushed over her legs as she floated to the top. The early spring air may be warm, but the waters of Maiden Lake were still chilly, especially with the sun set. Not as cold as it could be though, but she kept a backstroke to stay warm while she caught her breath. Moonlight shone in the clear night, putting the usual brightly twinkling stars to shame. Little sparkling bits of light only hinted at the expanse hidden above, much like the entrancing shine in Eriksen’s gaze.
He was just so dreamy. A warm smile full of longing and wanting weaved through her limbs. Time had not been able to sever the connection she felt to him. It had only dampened it a little. Logistics of him moving away and marrying someone else had broken her feelings, but back in his presence, under the full heat of him, he all but consumed her and mended the rip. How was she supposed to concentrate and do anything when all she wanted was to seek him out?
It’d been a trial plaguing her all evening. Which was ridiculous. She was Lanie Lange. She didn’t need boys. Ha! Need, maybe not, but she definitely, absolutely, wanted this one. Looking back over the years, she didn’t suppose she ever really stopped wanting him. For a while she just accepted he wasn’t available anymore. Now he was back, and her feelings were too.
Pushing her arms together overhead, she dipped a back dive and dolphin kicked underwater for the length she could hold her breath. Normally there was some awful earworm song trapped between her ears. On that, she would stroke with the beat and maintain a time. Not on this swim. Her pulse thundered with her kicks and his seductive glances stored in her memory. The burn in her lungs pulled her to the surface for a spin to her belly and breaststroke.
There was just something about him. A spark in his gaze, the heat of his hand against her arm. Being male and a major crush of hers, that automatically slotted him as everything her dad and brothers wouldn’t approve of. There wasn’t anything specific about Eriksen they wouldn’t like besides he liked her.
Oh, but he was everything that made her want to sing. In public. Where people could see.
Or maybe in the quiet of the night. Her chest had a comfortable exercised-warm burn that put her pulse at a clipped pace, but not so much she gasped for air. She hummed into the otherwise-silent evening. A tune without lyrics that was full of wanting something she didn’t have. It was all on feeling and hope and desires. She cut through the water with ease while she lowly trilled across a music scale to a wordless song.
Water rippled against her sides and lapped on the shore, only the sound grew louder, smacking. She sat up and treaded, catching sight of a slim kayak cutting through the lake in her direction. She swam close enough to shore not to worry about boats with motors, but she didn’t really want to talk to anyone making a midnight paddle either. That was basically the whole point of swimming at night—avoiding people. She swished her arms wide, shoving herself toward the sand so not to get whacked by an oar.
The boat glided nearer. She ducked, sinking until only her nose and eyes were above the water to hide while trying for a glimpse of who may be out at this hour. With Hank working to put a new, tourist-friendly face on Happily, North Carolina, her laps may not always stay so private. Especially as he scooped up several old cabins along her swim route and was renovating them. The boat rowed closer, the paddle dipped and swayed in the moonlight, and she would know those shoulders anywhere. Unable to resist the magnetic pull, she lifted out of the water.
Eriksen started, rocking the boat, and she read the quick flash of panic, the stilling, and relaxing of his form as the kayak steadied in the water. “I didn’t see you over there. I thought I heard something but then didn’t.”
She swam forward, unsure if he knew it was her he saw, or if he’d just spotted a swimmer. Of all the people to be boating out on the water, he was the last person she expected to cross paths with. “What are you doing out here?”
“Checking on Hank’s cabins.” He gestured at the shore. “He’s renovating these.”
“I know.” She dipped and eased even closer.
This afternoon she’d craved an immediate exit, but she found it easier to be in his presence like this. Maybe because she was in the water, her element where she just did well. She swam faster than her brothers now, and if she felt cornered, she could escape Eriksen in the water before he knew what direction she would go. Or maybe it was because it was dark and she couldn’t see his face as well. Not that she needed light to intimately know his features. “You’re checking them in the dark? From the lake?”
He chuckled. “I already went through each one, then stopped by Hank’s place. I haven’t been on the water in ages and had time. Thought I’d paddle around a little. Where did you come from?”
“Just swimming.”
He glanced around. “Yeah, but from where? I heard your dad had a place out here but isn’t it on down a ways?”
She shrugged, and with her legs burning, she had no choice but to back a little in the water until her toes found the bottom. All she needed was to drown. Though he could rescu
e her and they could just come full circle. “Long distance swimming.”
“I didn’t know people did that.”
“When we’re not at the buffet line.”
“What?” He paddled closer to her.
“Never mind.” Ack! Lame joke alert. The water may make her feel bolder, but certainly not more intelligent. She needed to go before making a complete fool of herself, and she eased to her pretend lane. “I need to finish my round before my muscles get cold.”
“Okay.” He sat up with his paddle. “I’ll stay alongside you. Make sure nobody runs over you in a boat.”
“Nobody would do that.”
“But they might.” The tease had gone out of his voice.
Like that, she was back to that night, sitting on the back of a houseboat with the world just beyond her fingertips when a speedboat plowed into the side of them. Everyone had gone flying through the air and were thrown to the water. She blinked away the awful memory. “I guess you’re right.”
Best she could, she settled into a comfortable breaststroke, but he was just right there. Right arm in, left arm, paddle dipped to her right. Right arm, left, paddle. She rolled over, unable to concentrate, and returned to her back. “You really don’t have to follow me. If a boat did come, I can be on shore or out of the way. I can hear them coming, like with you.”
“I don’t mind. What if you get a cramp?”
Pft. Did he really think she would have jumped in the water without preparing her body first? She didn’t address it and continued with her casual backstroke.
“How often do you do this?”
“Not as often in the winter.”
“You get in the water in the winter?”
“Not if there’s ice and snow floating in the water, but yeah.” There was a long pause, and she found herself chuckling. She couldn’t see his face, but she pictured it was something similar to Violet and Cindy’s expression when they found out. “I have a wetsuit.”
“You must really like to swim.”
“It’s peaceful.”
“I can understand that. It’s what I like about flying. No drama in the air.” He sighed. “With the plane, there is just a woosh and you’re off. That’s all business. The helicopter has been fun. I can crack open a window, get the high cooler air in my face, and dip in the valleys around the mountain.”
It was easy to listen to him talk. He discussed their plans to help during emergency situations, flight plan options, and even turning Happily’s old regional airport into something functional. She normally just had whatever was going on in her head for company to swim. His voice was something else. Made her forget everything and numbed the intense burn in her shoulders and thighs as she kept her strokes. Perhaps that was why, as she glanced to the bank, the row of Hank’s cabins was so far gone they were out of sight and she completely overshot her standard path.
She made a turn and started the longer trek back.
He got his boat around and was back alongside her in only a moment. “Now you go all the way back to your dad’s place?”
“Yep. That’s where I get out, get cleaned up, and head back into town.”
“You ever stay there? At your dad’s cabin, I mean.”
“Sometimes.” Technically, it was her mom’s cabin. Everyone called it Dad’s, though Lanie had no idea why. It was Mom who had loved the place. It was Dad who abandoned it after she died. It was so quiet and lonely there, almost eerie.
“It’s been so long since I was here. I forgot a lot. I need to come up this way more often. I need to familiarize myself with the area too with business coming here.”
She rolled over, trying again to swim on her belly. The cadence of his paddles in the water along with the ringing of his voice set her in a comfortable pace. She just wanted to listen to him talk.
Plus with her face in the water, it was impossible for him to see how enthralled she was. His voice was deep, but strong enough she could hear him plainly so long as she didn’t sink so far into the water her ears were under. He went into detail about the cabins they passed, the potential they would bring, Hank’s immediate plans for them to begin drawing folks in. The more he went on, the more she wished she hadn’t turned around. With him at her side, she could have swum the entire outline of Maiden Lake.
She made it a little past half on the return length and paused for a break. She didn’t necessarily need a moment, only craved more time on this night. She took what she could. She hooked her arms on the edge of the low-sitting kayak and used it as an excuse to give her muscles a break.
He rested the paddle across his lap and leaned on it. “How often do you swim like this? Is it a three-time-a-week arrangement?”
She smiled, desperate to know if he wanted to join her. She let the fantasy carry on. Why not? Tomorrow would be a new day, he would be off somewhere in the sky, this evening nothing but a blip in the past to bring a smile to her face. “As often as I can get out here. The water really isn’t so bad. You get used to it fast, and moving keeps me warm. Maybe next time I’ll get you in here.”
He reached up and cupped the edge of his lifejacket. “I haven’t been in open water like this in a long time.”
The air hung stilted and heavy. He may not know she had been on the boat that night, but everyone knew what happened, who was there, and who had died. “When I was younger I wanted to be one of the cool kids on Hank’s boat. Dad would bring us up here in the summers to fish. I could see y’all go by and hear the music and excitement.”
His frown pulled deeper. “Be glad you weren’t.”
“I lost that dream.” In a manner of speaking, she had. Desiring to be something more than the coddled, protected daughter was lost. For those few fleeting months, she thought she’d been ready to shed the wallflower status, brave the tough, narrowed-eyed slant of her family, and actually try dating. Then the crash, the deaths, her own life put at risk. It left a cold shudder across her skin. The option of popularity was less desirable, but the craving for something else never died.
She’d never been able to place the restlessness within, and the disturbance lingered. It wasn’t that she was unhappy with life. Opposite, really. School had been acceptable. She grew up, her work was fun, creative, and exciting. Every day was a new challenge. She had amazing friends. A fantastic family. She mourned the mother she never knew, but a loss of something she never had didn’t seem like the answer.
There was just—she didn’t know how to explain it beyond what was her purpose here? In a sea of siblings, she’d been protected to the extent that sheltered really didn’t adequately cover her life. Even now she didn’t want for anything because she always had a brother ready to step in and take care of her like she was his daughter, but she never had a defining purpose. A sense of who she was beyond part of the sprawling Lange family.
Looking at Eriksen ignited something. It seemed illogical he would be the answer to the unsettled within, but she didn’t have any other ideas. Discovering him as she’d always longed to was appealing.
He leaned a bit closer. The boat gently rocked, and he stilled. “It’s not too dark to see you’re smiling about something.”
Heat flamed on her face, and she dipped in the cold lake. Even if she had him, what would she possibly do with him? As she released his boat, she found the greatest craving to tell him about that night when she saved him, but she needed proof.
With a mountain of evidence stacked against her, she returned to her swim, feeling the weight of her past trying to pull her under. She stroked with more determination for an answer. Something, anything she may have missed to be able to point out and prove, see! It was me! I saved you!
But it was for nothing. Because she had nothing. His ex was the only other person alive who knew the truth. Doubtful she would be willing to tell. After all, taking claim of Lanie’s rescue had given the woman local fame and won over Eriksen’s heart too.
The final jut of land before tucking in for a small inlet and sandbar was in sig
ht, and she swam around it with a new burst of speed fueled on her anger. She stood on the bank, fetched the towel she’d left by the edge, and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Already a sense of nakedness cloaked her as she stood out of the water, completely in his view. “Um, thanks for the company.”
“Sure. Maybe we can do it again sometime.”
“Maybe so.” She didn’t offer the next time she would be back. He didn’t ask either.
He used the paddle to press off the murky bottom to turn around. “See you.”
He’d just pushed off the bank when she remembered the main reason she liked swimming at night. For the privacy and solitude, and she couldn’t have him ruining that. “Hey, Eriksen? My family doesn’t know I swim like this. If you could not say anything?”
His grin in the bright full moon warmed her in ways the towel around her never would. “Lips are sealed.”
She didn’t know why, but she believed him. She hurried inside, not just because it was cold and she was wet, but because she had other plans for the evening. She swam because she liked it. Tonight she swam to kill time and burn energy off before she exploded out of her skin.
The feel-good energy, the old burst of giddiness, and that coupled with seeing the library sign in need of some tender loving care had been the final straw. Lanie was pulling her mermaid tails out of retirement.
She didn’t spend time on a shower since she was about to be deep in dirt. Instead she gave her hair a quick dry, threw on some jeans, and headed back into town. She drove around the library to check it was empty and searched for the best spot to park when she found it deserted. The cloak of darkness under the thick oak trees overhead had her biting her lip with excitement. She parked along the side of the building where none of the parking lot lights would give her away to anyone driving by and made quick runs back and forth to unload supplies.
Come morning a bed of vibrant red blooms would be circling the dark brown and brass sign of Happily Library. Lanie worked as quick as she dared without risking the flowers as she tended the small rounded garden space. Hank had thought to apply shine all across downtown for tourists, but the real charm of their city needed some attention too.