I'm back to writing and am pleased to say it's going pretty well. So well that I've got a novelette just about ready for release. Rescued By Love is a contemporary story about a young widow with twins and a divorced man trying to get over the betrayal by his ex. At just over 16,000 words it won't take long to read. CHAPTER 1
They would be fine. They had Kayla and Ryan as their godparents and guardians. They were young enough to forget the loss of their parents. They’d already lost their father. She’d not been much of a mother for the last ten months. Saige Garner looked back toward the beach one more time. She took a breath, moved from floating vertically in the water into swimming position and began slow arm strokes out to sea. Tears coursing down her cheeks merged with the salt water as Saige kept her eyes fixed on the horizon. In her mind she saw the sleeping faces of her four year old twins. Tyce, the older twin by three minutes, looked so much like his father except for his brown rather than blonde hair. Oval face with brown eyes. He looked just like Nolan’s baby and toddler pictures. He’d be so handsome when he was grown. Amie, her princess, was blonde like her father but with her mother’s blue eyes. She also had a heart shaped face with the same widow’s peak Saige had. Who would have thought that bit of hair peaked on her forehead would be so prophetic for Saige’s life. A widow at the young age of twenty-eight. ~~~~~ Normally the water had nothing breaking the surface as Logan Scofield rounded the peninsula which bounded the waterway into Jolly Harbor in the early morning on his wave runner. Another day in paradise; Antigua. He’d come three weeks ago to escape the cold of the US in January. The sun couldn’t be seen yet as it hadn’t topped the mountain to the east but the sky was light and Jolly Bay was smooth. It was his favorite time to rev the motor of the jet ski to maximum without having to be concerned that a wave or swell needed to be avoided or fought. Ahead something dark was floating on the surface. Logan would see what it was and pick it out of the water if it was garbage. It was out a long way from the shore in front of Jolly Beach Resort. No need for trash to wash up on the beach. As he moved nearer an arm lifted then returned to the water. It was a person. Why were they so far out and still swimming away from shore? There weren’t any reasons for someone to be so far out. The energy it took to get that distance from shore would make it difficult, if not impossible, to swim back to the beach. Logan aimed the bow of his wave runner toward the person and sped up. ~~~~~ A motor’s roar coming near made Saige look to her right just as a wave runner drew up beside her. Nooo. It was so early. She’d left the suite as the sky was barely lightening. “Are you insane or trying to kill yourself?” A man cut the motor and reached down an arm extending his hand for Saige to take. She ignored it and increased the speed of her strokes. She didn’t think about the fact that she’d never be able to out swim a wave runner. “No you don’t.” The man jumped off the runner and wrapped an arm around her waist. Saige swung her arm at him trying to push him away or knock him in the head. She didn’t care which. She only wanted to get away from him. Logan turned her body away from him and gripped his arm from her shoulder across her chest clasping her hard under her arm. It was obvious now that her intent had been suicide. He didn’t know or care why. At the moment he only wanted to get her on the runner with him and back to shore. First he had to get them to and on the wave runner. It wouldn’t do for that to get away from them. She continued struggling, futilely, until he grabbed onto the runner and heaved her up across it. Then he kicked hard and managed to mount it before she was able to slip back into the water. Logan pinned her crosswise on her belly between his legs with one knee and took off back toward Jolly Harbor. She was crying, her head in her arms now. The fight had gone out of her. Logan wondered if she was alone on the island and how he’d find out who to contact. He didn’t really want to involve the police. He didn’t know what the policy was for attempted suicide and didn’t want to find out. As they turned east into the harbor the sun rose past the mountain and twinkled off the gold wrist band on her arm. Tranquility Bay used those. He’d be able to find out if she had family or friends with her at the all-suite resort. Slowing as he entered the harbor, Logan pulled into the marina and up to the stern of the yacht he’d borrowed from a friend to stay on while in Antigua. Logan secured the wave runner to the swim platform and lifted his leg off the woman’s back. He moved to the platform and looked at her. He couldn’t tell much since he couldn’t see her face. She wasn’t sobbing anymore, instead she was trying to catch her breath, her head still on her arms. Then she looked up at him. “Why?” “That’s my question to you. Why?” She was a young woman, somewhere in her mid to late twenties he’d guess. Pretty, he guessed but with her red eyes and stricken expression it was hard to tell. Slim, in a flowered one-piece bathing suit she hadn’t moved and was still sprawled across between the seat and steering of the wave runner. Logan held his hand out to her. This time she took it and allowed him to aid her transfer to the swim platform. She was trembling all over. He worried that she might be going into shock. He grabbed a couple of towels from the railing above his head and wrapped her in them. Then he picked her up and carried her up the steps setting her on the bench seating lining the area just above the swim platform. He sat next to her and looked at her a moment. She was looking down, her shoulders slumped as if in defeat. “What’s your name?” Logan asked. “Saige Garner.” “Why were you swimming away from shore?” “Because I want to die.”
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