He kicked off his own shoes. He’d worn shorts today, knowing that he would have to wade out into the river. Moving in behind her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. “You okay?”
Laughing, she nodded. “Yes, Phillipe, I’m fine. Let’s go.”
As they both walked out into the water, he could feel the cool liquid creeping up his calves. Her dress was starting to rise and float to the top.
She gasped softly. “Oh! It’s cool.”
Gently, he squeezed her shoulders. “Want to leave?”
“No, it’s already starting to feel nice.”
“Okay, let’s go out a little bit farther,” he told her.
He could feel some branches that must have fallen into the river. They brushed his legs as they moved farther out.
When the water lapped around the top of her legs, he stopped her. “Here. This will be perfect.”
She turned in his arms and grinned up at him. “I like this. Maybe we should strip and go for a swim.”
“If we strip, we will never leave. Okay, I’m going back to the edge. Are you all right here by yourself?”
She arched a brow. “I’m fine. It’s only to my thighs, and I’m pretty sure I can rest against this huge boulder if I get tired.” She paused as she reached into the water. With a mischievous grin, she lifted her hand to splash him. “Go already, or the sun will go down.”
“I’ll get you for that,” he promised as he started making his way back to the bank. “And Chantel? Move away from the boulder. I need you to float, not sit on the rock like a mermaid.”
When he got to the edge, he turned around to face her. She was standing almost at the halfway point between the two banks, and the water was moving slowly around her, shifting the white dress back and forth as it floated on the surface.
He smiled to himself, knowing his vision would be perfect, but at the same time, he felt a niggling fear because she was out there on her own.
“Is this far enough?” she called out.
He didn’t answer right away, as he was starting to second-guess himself. He was about to go to her and bring her back in when, with a loud shout, she told him, “Would you quit worrying? I know you’re worrying, Phillipe. I’ve been swimming for years, plus it’s only up to my thighs.”
Smiling at her smart little mouth and the constant reminders she kept giving him, he nodded slightly as if she could see him.
“Okay, fine. Can you float?”
She lowered herself into the water. “Yes, I can float.”
As she stretched out, he looked up to the sky and noticed that several clouds had started to shift in overhead.Damn it.
Wondering how much time they had before they lost the light, he picked up his sketchpad and started to draw. Her dress drifted all around her as she held out her arms to the sides of her body. He sketched her for a solid thirty minutes. He captured the outline of her hair, the yards of material, and the water. He figured he’d fill in the violin and other details tomorrow.
He couldn’t help adding her lips, though. They were parted, and she looked peaceful as she lay there in the water. As heshaded from her hip down to her legs, he noticed her ankles had started to fall beneath the water. She was getting tired.
Smiling, he figured that she didn’t even realize it. And she thought she could float.
“Chantel,” he called out.
When he got no answer, he placed the charcoal on the sketchpad and called out again. He figured that the water was covering her ears or she had zoned out as she lay relaxed in the warm afternoon sun.
“Chantel!”
He was about to stand and go to her when a fat raindrop hit the page he was working on. Looking up to the sky, he saw the clouds were darkening and moving at a more rapid pace. Placing the pad on the ground, he stood and made his way out into the water.
He didn’t know if he was imagining it, but it seemed like the current had picked up. Chantel was exactly where he had left her, but he knew he was right about the current because her dress was shifting much more with the water streaming all around her.
When he got closer, he called her name again, feeling that the water was now to his waist. It had definitely risen in the last thirty minutes. All of a sudden, that sliver of fear started to slide back in.
