Family to the Rescue

That was no glob of kelp!

Seth’s stomach dropped and a heart-stopping chill of dread cut through him. “Someone’s out there,” he said, already stripping off his T-shirt. He looked at Drew as he threw his shirt to the sand. “Call 9–1–1 and let the others know what’s going on. I’m going in.”

Drew didn’t argue. He immediately pulled out his cell phone and started dialing, then turned and headed toward the other people from the Moonlight Cove Community Church singles group.

Seth made a break for the ocean. Just as his feet hit water, a voice called to him.

“Seth!”

He turned.

A soaking wet Lily Rogers, a former neighbor whom Seth had known for most of his twenty-eight years, came staggering down the beach toward him, her long, blond hair plastered to her head and shoulders. “The new gal, Kim, is out there,” she screamed, pointing a rigid finger toward the waves. “We went in together to jump waves and got too far out. I made it in farther down, but she’s caught in a riptide!”

“I’m on it!” Seth shouted, still moving. He now remembered seeing Kim—a cute brunette about his age—when he’d arrived at the cookout earlier.

Lily lurched past him and up the beach toward the bonfire spot, though she was obviously exhausted, waving her arms and yelling at the top of her lungs to alert the others to the problem.

Seth ran into the water full bore, then dove headfirst into the brine.

His breath left him in a rush as he hit the water, which was icy despite the warm July day, and he almost froze up as the ocean shocked his body. But through sheer will and physical and mental discipline honed by a few years playing pro baseball and being physically active, he managed to keep going.

About twenty yards into his rescue he stopped and lifted his head to be sure he was on the right track. Thankfully, he’d judged the direction to swim correctly. He saw the woman directly in front of him, about ten yards away, when she flung up an arm again. She hadn’t sunk yet.

But she would, unless she knew what to do, which it looked like she didn’t. Seth, however, had been born and raised in the coastal town of Moonlight Cove, Washington, and he knew the drill. He couldn’t struggle against the rip; he had to swim parallel to the shore, not toward it.

Just as he reached the woman—Kim, Lily had said—she went under. Ignoring his own growing exhaustion, he grabbed her arm and pulled her up, noting when she surfaced that her skin was the color of snow. Her eyes fluttered. Good sign. She wasn’t unconscious yet.

“Kim, I’m here to take you in,” Seth told her in a firm, calm voice. “Do exactly what I say, okay?”

She nodded sluggishly.

He wrapped an arm around her narrow shoulders. “We’re going to swim parallel to the shore to escape the rip, and then swim in, all right?”

Another nod, more feeble this time. She was clearly worn out. He’d arrived in the nick of time.

Seth moved his other hand beneath her arm, grasping her body in a more efficient hold. He began to swim, pulling her with him as best he could. To her credit, she made an attempt to swim with him, but she obviously didn’t have any gas left, and she wasn’t much help.

Neither was the riptide; he could feel the force of it swirling beneath them like a living being, pulling with a grip of steel that surprised even him. He’d always respected the power of the ocean, but this…this was unlike anything he’d ever imagined.

He sent up a prayer for the first time in ages.

God, let me be strong enough to do this.

Focusing on moving forward with each stroke, Seth tried not to notice how his hands and feet were growing numb. He did his best not to fight the current—that was a battle he would not win. He had to outsmart the deadly undertow.

Drawing on reserves of strength he didn’t know he possessed, his movements aligned with the shore, he waited for the current to loosen its grip. His strength ebbed out of him with every moment that passed.

Seth kept swimming, hoping God would listen to a man who had a distant relationship with Him. A few long moments later, the pulling current eased a bit, but he swam about fifteen feet farther to be sure they were out of the rip—yes! Finally.

His breath burning in his lungs, his legs and arms aching with effort, he turned at a ninety degree angle and swam for shore. Which, at the moment, looked as if it were about a hundred miles away.

Was he close enough to make it?

Just as his strength was almost spent and he could barely lift his arms or kick his legs, he tentatively put his foot down to feel for the sandy bottom.

And felt sand.

Wow. For once, his prayer had been heard. And answered.

Groaning with effort, Seth put both feet down. “Hang on to my back,” he managed to shout to Kim through tight lips. “I’m gonna walk us in.”

She obeyed and wrapped her ice-cold arms around his neck and hung on, piggyback style. With the last of his waning strength, he hauled her to shore.

Just as he was making headway, he stubbed his toe on a rock hidden in the surf. Pain streaked up his foot. He paused, looking for more rocks, but he couldn’t see beneath the churning water. So he felt around with his other foot, hoping for safe sand.

But instead his foot encountered another rock. And another. He was surrounded. He looked to the shore and could see people congregated there, a frantic-looking Lily among them. If he could just make it a little farther…

Seth inched along, trying to avoid the rocks, his legs now completely numb. The rocks spread out a bit and gave way to more sand, and he thought he was home free, especially when he saw someone—he wasn’t sure who—splash into the water, running toward them.

Thinking they’d cleared the rocks, he forced himself to move forward without feeling the terrain first with his feet. He took a step, staggered and struggled to catch himself.

All at once, out of nowhere, a bed of rocks rose in front of him as the tide swelled out. He couldn’t avoid the first black and green mass and he ran his shins right into the thing. Feeling as if his legs didn’t belong to him, he toppled over into the thigh-deep water like a fallen tree, Kim going with him.

As he hit the water, and what was hidden below, pain exploded in his head. And then a glacial blackness engulfed him and he knew no more.

Kim Hampton blinked her burning eyes, the taste of seawater in her mouth, her skin as cold as ice. She was surprised to see blue sky above her.

Was she in heaven?

If she was, the place looked an awful lot like earth….

An older man with a round face, curly brown hair and kind blue eyes came into her line of sight as he hovered above her. “Miss,” he said. “I’m a paramedic. We’re going to give you some oxygen, so just lie back and try to relax, all right?” He slowly covered her mouth and nose with the plastic apparatus he held.

Definitely not heaven.

She breathed deep and the oxygen flooded her tired lungs. Instantly, her brain cleared and reality kicked in. She felt the hard, cool sand beneath her, smelled the ocean.

Joy spread through her.

Thank You, Lord, for not making Dylan motherless! Her precious son had already essentially lost his dad when her ex had walked out on them a year ago; at age seven, losing her would be more, she was sure, than Dylan could ever hope to deal with.

The enormity of what had almost happened to her, of what she’d almost lost, began to sink in and she started to shake.

Someone took her hand and squeezed it. Kim shifted her gaze and saw her new friend Lily seated on the sand on her other side, a fleece blanket covering her shoulders, her eyes red rimmed from crying.

“Oh, my goodness,” Lily said. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

Kim couldn’t speak with her mouth and nose covered, so she just nodded. She was very tired. And so cold her veins felt frozen.