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The cold of it stunned him for second. It might have been May, but the water flowing down from the Rockies was still damn cold. And Bree and the kids were in it with not nearly the muscle mass he had to fight the cold.

All of them were wearing life jackets, but someone could still drown in one if they fought it or got pulled under the wrong way.

Out of the corner of his eye the fork where they needed to have turned floated by. There was no way they could make it over in this current, and now there was no way Noah would be able to get here to help them out. It was all up to him now.

Bree’s voice reached him over the roar of the water. “Tanner... I... Sam... Find Eva!”

Praying that meant Bree had Sam, Tanner propelled himself as high up in the water as he could in his sopping clothes and boots to try to see. Two bright life jackets were closer to the shore. The other one, smaller—it had to be Eva—was still flailing in the middle of the rushing water. Tanner began to swim toward her with every bit of strength he had. If Eva got washed too far down the river, she’d be in the serious rapids.

He pushed himself hard, shoving away the fear that even though Bree and Sam were closer to the shore, they could still be in danger. Bree had become quite the outdoors woman, but this could be more than she could handle.

Saying a silent prayer on his bride-to-be’s behalf, he swam the last dozen yards between him and Eva.

“Eva, I’m coming, sweetheart!”

“L-Lips? I’m cold.”

Her scared voice tugged at his heart, but she was alive. That was the most important thing.

“I’m coming up behind you and then we’re gonna swim together to the shore.”

“I’m not a good swimmer.”

“You’re doing just fine. Doing perfect, considering none of us had planned to be swimming down this river today, did we?” He closed the last yard, his fingertips grabbing the back of her life vest. “Got you.”

“I—I didn’t know what to do. I’m cold.”

He pulled her up against his chest, wrapping his arm under her armpits, and began swimming toward the shore. “You did perfect. Absolutely perfect.”

“Where’s Sam?”

“He’s with Bree. They are probably already on the shore. Let’s go find them.” Tanner prayed that was true.

Eva really was a little trouper. She didn’t panic, didn’t cry, just used her little legs as best she could to help propel them toward the shore. He’d known grown-ass adults who hadn’t kept as much composure as this five-year-old girl did in the face of danger.

They made it to shore a few exhausting minutes later. Tanner made sure Eva was all the way out and safe before standing to see if he needed to go back into the water for Bree and Sam. His heart began thumping harder in his chest when he didn’t see any sign of either life vest on the shore or in the water.

“Bree!” His voice came out much weaker than he wanted it to.

He wasn’t even sure what direction he should look. He hadn’t seen either of them after catching them out of the corner of his eye when he first went after Eva. Maybe they hadn’t made it to the shoreline. Maybe they had gotten sucked back into the water and were rushing downstream.

“Bree!” he called again. When he didn’t get an answer, he ran toward a boulder that would give him a better vantage point of the riverbank and the water itself. He scrambled up the rock, cursing as he fell, movements uncoordinated from the cold, scraping his hands. He ignored it. There would be time for first aid later.

From this higher vantage point he spotted Bree and Sam immediately. A relieved breath shuddered out of his chest when he saw they were alive and conscious. They were both hovering over one of the side whirlpools the rapids made, reaching for something.

Tanner scrambled back down the rock to get Eva, and they made their way over to Bree and Sam, Tanner carrying Eva’s shivering body most of the way.

“Oh, thank God,” Bree said when she saw them. She then tried to stand, clutching the emergency bag that they’d obviously fished out of the whirlpool to her chest.

“This bag has rope,” she said between chattering teeth.

“Smart,” he said, pulling her to his chest and letting Eva slide to the ground. If Bree had needed to get him out of the water, that rope would’ve been the best way to do it. Possibly the only way to do it.

“That bag has emergency supplies—Mylar blankets and waterproof matches. If we could only save one backpack, that’s the one we want.” He turned to the kids. “We’re going to build a fire and we’re going to get warm. I know this sounds weird, but I need everybody to strip down to just your T-shirts and undies.”

He knew they were cold when nobody gave him any complaints. Tanner and Sam began gathering firewood while Bree helped the shivering Eva off with her wet clothes.

“I can get this, buddy, if you want to go get your wet clothes off. I know you’re cold.”