Dangerous Waters Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the stretches off to be as wild as ever. Megan had loved him the most of all her siblings, and had the least in common with him. Sometimes she wondered if she wasn't to blame for his wildness. If the whole family hadn't sacrificed too much to make her dreams come true.
    But choices made couldn't be taken back, so she didn't think about the past again in the next two hours. Instead, she ate until her stomach whimpered, then cuddled her sister's six-month-old baby and got soundly trounced at the game of Memory by her six-year-old niece.
    "Better watch it or I won't play with you again," she threatened, but the little girl with the dark curls only smiled impudently.
    "You just don't pay enough attention."
    "Beat Uncle John," Megan suggested. She grinned at her brother. "It'd be good for his character."
    When she made her excuses a few minutes later, her father insisted on walking her out to the car. He was a tall, slow-moving man who liked to think before he acted. In his typical fashion, he was silent until they stopped on the cracked sidewalk.
    "Megan, you'd be welcome to move home for a while."
    She smiled. "Thanks, Dad. But I don't think there's anything to worry about."
    The toothpick protruding from his mouth bobbed as he chewed slowly. There wasn't any special urgency in his voice. "The man you pulled out. What'd he say about it?"
    "You mean you haven't heard on the grapevine?" she asked wryly. When her father didn't answer she sighed. "He claims not to know anything. He's been working for Jim Kellerman this summer. I guess he's a carpenter."
    Mr. Lovell looked thoughtful. "I'll give Jim a call. Hear what he thinks about the fellow."
    "Does it matter?"
    He met her eyes squarely. "I don't like the idea of you mixed up in something dirty. Don't be too proud, Meg."
    Something curled in her chest and she impulsively hugged him. "I won't be, Dad. I promise. But I really didn't see anything."
    His expression was troubled. "Sometimes I think you're too independent."
    She had been thinking the same, wondering how she would have reacted today if she hadn't learned too thoroughly how to be on her own. Would she have gone running home? Linda would have. Even Bill all too often wanted to be bailed out of trouble. And John took his dirty laundry to Mom. It was an irony that she had come back to her hometown because she needed her family, but she couldn't let herself take too much from them.
    Fortunately, business proved to be slow at the beach that day. In the late afternoon, dark clouds massed over the ridge and the mountains beyond. The lake still lay calm, but the air had an indefinable tension.
    "I'll bet we're in for a thunderstorm," Megan said.
    Rick, the oldest of the teenage lifeguards who worked for her, nodded. "Yeah. Shall we get everybody out?"
    Megan studied the clouds. "Let people stay in the water for now. But keep an eye out. Don't wait for my order if you feel nervous."
    Nods answered her. Megan turned to limp back to the boathouse. One large, noisy group of teenagers played volleyball on the grass court while a few families lingered at the picnic tables. The first crack of thunder and she'd send them all home, Megan thought.
    Because there were so few people at the beach, she noticed him right away. One shoulder propped comfortably against the clapboard side of the boat-house, he was idly watching children shrieking on the merry-go-round. He wore faded jeans and an old green sweatshirt with the sleeves pushed up. He looked completely relaxed, unaware of Megan's approach, but she hadn't made a sound when he turned his head and their eyes met.
    Wary, she stopped a few feet from him. "I thought you'd still be in the hospital."
    "They gave me some pain pills and sent me home."
    "I'm glad." She hesitated. "Is there something I can do for you?"
    For a moment he didn't answer. Instead, his gaze moved down her body, and she was suddenly and embarrassingly conscious of how little she wore. The sleek, one-piece red Speedo