Summer Secrets - Barbara Freethy [133]
Kate looked toward the other boat. Sean was almost there. So close. And then Tyler was leaning over. He grabbed Sean's hand and pulled him onboard. Together, they put the preserver around Duncan's body. But he seemed to be wrestling with them, arguing, shouting something.
Please, Dad, Kate prayed. Please, just let them save you.
A huge swell came up, crashing over all three of them. One minute they were on the boat, the next they were in the water, and the boat was gone.
Kate heard screams. She didn't know if they were hers or her sisters', but they echoed the screams of the past. The storm had returned. The day of reckoning had come.
"I don't see them," Ashley cried. "Oh, my God, Kate! I don't see any of them."
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was just like before. One minute he was there, the next he was gone, Kate thought. She shook her head, wiping the rain and tears from her eyes so she could see better.
"They can't be gone," Ashley sobbed. "I love Sean. I never told him."
She'd never told Tyler she loved him, either, Kate realized. She'd let the opportunity pass by, afraid to put her heart on the line, afraid to even admit to herself that she'd fallen for him. Now it might be too late. And what of her father? Had she protected him all these years, only to lose him now?
Then the clouds suddenly parted. The moon peeked through, lighting up the water next to them like a spotlight on center stage.
"There they are!" Kate shouted. The bodies drew closer, but she couldn't tell how many. Were there two or were there three?
Finally they reached the boat, and she could see Tyler and Sean, each with a hand on the life preserver holding her father afloat. She threw the rope ladder over the side and Tyler pulled himself halfway out of the water. Then, with what looked like a superhuman effort on his part, he managed to get Duncan to the ladder.
Kate and Ashley both reached out for their father. Duncan's movements were awkward and slow. His eyes were open, but he seemed barely conscious or aware of his surroundings, and his body was like a deadweight. With Sean and Tyler pushing him up, they managed to pull Duncan over the side and onto the deck of the boat. Caroline ran up the stairs from the cabin below, her arms full of blankets. While she wrapped a blanket around her father's shaking shoulders, Kate reached out to Tyler.
He grabbed her hand and she held on tight. She would not let this man go. He would not slip from her fingers. As he climbed up the ladder, their eyes met, and she almost burst into tears, knowing that she could have easily lost him forever. Then he was over the side of the boat and holding her in his arms, his cold lips touching hers in a passionate kiss that warmed them both from the inside out.
"Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?" she asked, pulling away from him long enough to take a good look.
"I'm fine." He turned toward Sean, who was wrapped up in Ashley's arms. "Thanks to your friend here."
Sean drew back from Ashley and stared at all of them, his gaze finally settling on Duncan, who was half lying, half sitting on the deck, his breath still coming in ragged gasps.
"You should have let me drown," Duncan said, looking at Sean. "It's what I deserved."
"Probably," Sean agreed. "But, unlike you, I don't let people die." He stomped into the cockpit, ignoring the blanket in Caroline's hand, and a moment later the engines roared to life.
Kate squatted down next to her father. "He knows everything. We told him on the way out here."
"And he still jumped into the water?" Duncan asked in bemusement.
"He's a good man."
"Just like his brother," Duncan muttered. "I never wanted Jeremy to die, Katie. It was an accident. I didn't like him, but I didn't mean to hurt him."
She'd heard it all before. But the words of forgiveness wouldn't come. "What about Tyler? Did you mean to hurt him when you brought him all the way out here? What the hell