He could simply ignore her and wade into the water. She couldn’t stop him, and they both knew that. But last night . . . last night had either forged a bond between them, or it hadn’t. If it had, he would acknowledge that she needed to have a signal to look for. If it hadn’t, she needed to know that too.
She could feel herself getting chilled inside, waiting for his answer. Okay, so she wasn’t completely zen. This wasn’t an ultimatum though; whatever he answered, she would still enjoy him while he was here. The only change was that she would know it was temporary, and somehow she would manage.
He stepped closer and cupped her chin in his palm, his thumb rubbing along her jawline. She looked up at him and had one of those moments of acute awareness of how big he was, over a head taller than she was. The blue of his eyes darkened as he studied her face. Leaning down, he brushed his mouth over hers, light as a whisper. “I’ll hold up a clenched fist,” he said, then released her and turned away.
When he waded into the water, Tricks bounded in beside him with a surplus of enthusiasm that sent up a huge splash, then she began swimming strongly for where she was certain Bo would throw the ball. Obediently Bo threw the tennis ball so it landed just ahead of her; Tricks grabbed the ball in triumph and started back for the bank, but then her golden head turned sharply as she noticed that Morgan wasn’t coming with her. Instead he was stroking smoothly through the water, his dark head sleek as a seal’s. His arms pistoned steadily, but there wasn’t a lot of splash, just the flash of his skin and a small bit of turbulence in his wake.
Alarmed, knowing what was about to happen, Bo called, “Tricks! Here!”
Ignoring Bo, Tricks turned and went after him, swimming as hard as she could. She even dropped the tennis ball and left it floating in the water.
“Crap,” Bo said sharply to herself. She knew exactly what Tricks was doing, but a dog couldn’t swim as fast as a human who was fairly good, and Morgan was more than fairly good. He wasn’t going for speed, but his strokes and kicks were powerful and smooth, eating up distance.
She began jerking off her shoes and jeans, steeling herself to go into that cold lake, because her in the water was the only thing that would pull Tricks away from Morgan in the water. Trying again, she cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Tricks!” as loud as she could.
Morgan was already over a hundred yards away, maybe two hundred, but he must have heard her because abruptly he stopped and turned in the water to face her. She doubted he paid any attention to her, though, because Tricks was coming right at him, swimming so hard she was leaving a wake.
Tricks reached Morgan, and though Bo didn’t have binoculars, she didn’t need them to know what happened because she knew her dog. She gripped her head with both hands as Tricks latched on to Morgan’s arm and began towing him toward the bank. She was “saving” him. She’d done the same thing to Bo the first time Bo had gone swimming with her, and it had taken several trips to the lake before she relaxed her vigil.
“Oh, good Lord,” Bo muttered. She could only imagine what Morgan was thinking.
After living with Tricks for two and a half years Bo was seldom surprised anymore by anything that the dog did, but there was still the occasional mind-boggling moment. In retrospect, she could follow Tricks’s reasoning: when Morgan had arrived, he’d been weak and unable to take care of himself. Therefore, he was someone Tricks needed to watch over. Seeing him in the water, without realizing how much he had recovered, had triggered her protective instinct and she had gone after him thinking he was literally in over his head.
Bo waited anxiously for them to reach the bank. That was a long way for Tricks to swim without a rest; she could retrieve her tennis ball thrown in the water for hours, but that was with her feet touching ground at the end of every retrieve. As they got closer, she could see that Morgan was helping her, stroking with his free arm and keeping an eye on her. If Tricks got too tired, he’d make sure she didn’t get in trouble and made it safely back.
Finally they reached shallow water and he stood, but he kept Tricks close until she was touching the bottom too. Tricks kept pulling on his arm, insisting that he get out of the water. When they waded out onto the flattened weeds, Tricks finally released his arm so he could straighten. He wiped the water out of his face with his free hand, then Tricks showered him again as she vigorously shook and slung water everywhere.
His chest was rising and falling with deep breaths as he looked at Bo. She shrugged and willed herself not to get teary-eyed, but really, Tricks’s valor made her feel misty. “Such a good girl,” she crooned, bending to pet Tricks and praise her.
Morgan petted her too, telling her thank you, then he shook his head as he met Bo’s eyes. “I’ve been saved,” he said wryly. “Reckon she’ll let me go back in?”
CHAPTER 20
BEFORE BO COULD ANSWER, TRICKS REALIZED SHE’D left her ball in the water and went charging back into the lake. Bo started after her, taking two steps into the water—damn, it was cold!—but Morgan put his hand on her arm. “She looks okay. If she gets tired, I’ll go get her.”
Bo stepped back out of the water but kept her gaze on Tricks. Morgan stood beside her, keeping watch too. He said, “Has she done that before?”
She nodded. “The first time I swam with her. She got such a look of horror on her face when she saw me in the water. She was only about four or five months old, but she swam like a champ. Thank goodness I wasn’t very far out, because she was still just a puppy. I don’t know if her strength would have held out.”