“I wanted to say I’m sorry about last night.”
He kept his gaze focused on the line of trees in the distance. “Yeah, me too. It doesn’t change anything, though. I’m leaving Virginia; you’re staying; end of story.”
“Have you thought any more about going to see your father?”
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket. The sound was sharp and sudden, and for once, he was grateful. Saved by the bell.
He pulled it out, answering without even glancing at her.
“Jack, we’ve got a big problem at the waterfall,” the golf course manager said. “The water has stopped flowing and we can’t get it working again. Should I call the engineers in?”
Jack bit back a curse. That pump had been wonky since the beginning, and he could only pray the entire waterfall wouldn’t need dismantling to replace it with an entirely new system.
“Hold off on that; I’ll be right there,” he said, then did an about-face to stride toward the waterfall.
Naturally, Alice had overheard and started following him. She was probably worried water might spill over into the wetlands around Saint Helga’s Spring, and if that happened, he’d end up with another environmental cleanup bill.
His annoyance ratcheted higher as he drew near the waterfall, his feet sinking into the soft soil of the fairway, leaving ugly footprints on the pristine grass. He plopped down onto one of the boulders lining the artificial pond to yank off his shoes and socks.
“Jack, time is growing short, and your father needs you,” Alice said. “Are you going to keep running for the rest of your life?”
He yanked off his second sock, balled it up, and threw it to the side. “You and your happily-ever-afters,” he groused. “How did that work out for you and Sebastian? Or your parents? Those two are drill sergeants, not husband and wife.”
“Yourparents were happy,” she retorted. “You said your father idolized your mother.”
“He did, and then he fell apart after she died and became a useless drunk. It taught me the value of self-reliance. I don’t need anyone, with the exception of a good doctor and an occasional lawyer.”
Alice rolled her eyes heavenward. “You are the most cynical man I know.”
He braced his hand on the boulder as he stepped into the frigid water. “And you’re the most naive woman in the solar system.”
The pump was near the base of the waterfall a few yards away. He carefully moved toward it, water saturating his jeans as it covered his knees, then his thighs. Water sloshed and cold droplets spattered his face.
“Shouldn’t someone else do this?” Alice said from the edge.
“I need to know what the problem is. If it’s what I suspect, I’ll be able to fix it.” He didn’t have a spare thousand bucks to call the fountain engineers again if it was a simple matter of a clogged intake valve.
He unhooked his watch, yanked his phone from his pocket, and handed them both to Alice. “Will you hold these, please?”
It would be better if he had a pair of goggles so he could go down and get a good look, but his arms were long enough to reach the intake valve.
Sure enough, the valve was blocked. If it was just silt or vegetation clogging the valve, it wouldn’t be a big deal—but this was a major problem. The synthetic lining from the bottom ofthe pond somehow got sucked up and dragged into the valve, completely blocking it. He yanked at the liner but was unable to make progress. This would require the pond to be drained and the installation of a new liner if he couldn’t get it out.
He tugged at the slippery lining so hard he fell backward, water reaching up to his shoulders.
“Jack, be careful,” Alice called from the shore, but he almost had that liner out. The sucking noise proved it. A few more good tugs and the water would be flowing again.
He got a firmer grasp on the lining and cleared it all out, grinning in satisfaction as the trickling water percolated through the lines again.
“Watch out!” Alice screamed, but a blast of water hit him in the head from above, knocking him down hard.
Alice shivered on the edge of the waterfall, listening to the wail of the ambulance siren in the distance. She was soaking wet from head to toe. Once Jack unclogged the intake valve, a blast of water came shooting from a pipe and hit Jack so hard he fell, smacked his head against a boulder, and lost consciousness.
She’d jumped in the pond to hold his face out of the water so he could breathe, but she wasn’t strong enough to lift him up the steep bank of the pond. Thankfully, a pair of men from the ground crew heard her scream and lugged him onto the grass.
Jack’s blood was all over her. He’d been unconscious for several minutes after they dragged him onto the green, but he was starting to come around.
“You’re going to be okay,” she said to Jack. “The ambulance has just turned on to the road.”
