Just For You (Escape to New Zealand), page 12
THE KINCAIDS SERIES
Mira and Gabe's story: Welcome to Paradise
Desiree and Alec's story: Nothing Personal
Alyssa and Joe's story: Asking for Trouble
THE PARADISE, IDAHO SERIES (MONTLAKE ROMANCE)
Zoe and Cal's story: Carry Me Home (June 2015)
Book Two: Take Me On (December 2015)
Book Three: Turn Me Loose (2016)
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Read on for an excerpt from
JUST THIS ONCE
Available now.
“Wow. Welcome to New Zealand.”
Hannah said the words aloud. There was nobody around to hear her, after all. Despite the chill lingering in the morning air, she stood where she was for a few seconds more. The turquoise sea beckoned, its border of golden sand strewn with pale scallop shells left behind by the receding tide. It was exactly where she’d longed to be, these past weeks. And it was everything she’d hoped.
She dropped her towel and sandals and stepped into the cool water. Aiming towards the point at the far end of the bay, she delighted in her steady progress. Her mind settled down into the familiar rhythm, focused only on her strokes and her breath as the minutes went by.
Looking up at last to check her position, she felt a twinge of alarm. Had she not been swimming straight? The point was in the wrong place, wasn’t it? She treaded water, turned in a circle. Realized with shock that she’d come much farther than she’d expected. What had felt like her own fast pace had in fact been a powerful current in the outgoing tide. One that was doing its best now to pull her out to sea.
No need to panic, she told herself firmly. All right, she was in some kind of rip tide. Now that she had stopped swimming, she could feel its strength. But she knew what to do, didn’t she? She had to swim across it, that was all. This happened to people all the time. She would aim for a course parallel to the shore rather than trying to force her way directly back against the current’s full power. Once she escaped the band of rip, she could turn back toward shore again. Back to safety.
She changed directions deliberately, swam strongly and steadily, working on maintaining her parallel course. Her progress, though, seemed discouragingly slow. The rip was wider than she had anticipated. It might even have shifted, a nervous little voice whispered in the back of her mind. She had heard that could happen.
She forced that treacherous voice back with an effort. She couldn’t do anything about it now, other than what she was already doing. Keep swimming parallel, she told herself fiercely. She could swim for an hour without stopping, she knew. That meant she could swim even longer if she had to. Eventually, she would get out of this. Willing herself to stay calm, counting her strokes, she made it to one hundred, then two hundred.
And felt the change as she was caught by another, stronger rip. She had swum straight into it, and was once again being pulled out inexorably with the current.
The first stirrings of real panic shortened her breath. She forced the fear back, focused on breathing with her strokes, and began to count again. One hundred strokes, she told herself. Count. Breathe. But as she counted off sixty, then seventy, she could feel herself tiring, and knew she was losing the battle.
Where were the people? She hadn’t seen a soul when she entered the water. Nobody knew where she was, and there was nobody to see her struggling. Nobody to help her. Nobody to save her.
How could this be happening?
All she had wanted was a vacation.
Just This Once: Escape to New Zealand, Book One
Available now.
James, Rosalind, Just For You (Escape to New Zealand)
