Read A Texas Holiday Miracle Online
Authors: Linda Warren
“I’m...fine...” she insisted.
She certainly
was
fine, Liam couldn’t help thinking. Even looking like a partially drowned little rabbit, there was no denying that this woman was strikingly beautiful. No amount of wet, slicked-back hair could change that.
Still, Liam didn’t want her trying to run off just yet. She could collapse and hit her head—or worse. He hadn’t just risked his own life to pull her out of the rushing waters only to have her bring about her own demise.
He continued to restrain her very gently.
“I just saved your life,” Liam told her patiently. “Humor me.”
The rains had obviously stopped and the waters, even now, were trying, ever so slowly, to recede. Within a couple of hours or so, it would be as if this had never happened—except that it had and an out-of-towner had almost died in it.
Talk about being in the right place at the right time,
he mused. He was grateful now that band practice had run a little over. If it hadn’t, he would have passed the basin when the rains hit and he would have never been there to rescue this woman.
“Okay.” Whitney gave in, partially because she felt about as weak as a day-old kitten and partially because she was trying to humor the cowboy who had apparently rescued her. “But just for a few minutes,” she stipulated, her speech still a little slow, definitely not as animated as it normally was.
Whitney tried to move her shoulders and got nowhere. Whoever this man was, he was strong. Definitely stronger than she was, she thought.
She’d never trusted strangers—but this one had saved her life so maybe a little trust
was
in order.
“Does this kind of thing happen often?” Whitney asked warily. Because if it did, she couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live here.
Why not?
her inner voice mocked.
You live in the land of earthquakes. One natural disaster is pretty much like another.
Her expression remained stony as she waited for the cowboy to give her an answer.
“No, not often,” Liam assured her, removing his hands from her shoulders. “But when it does, I guarantee that it leaves one hell of an impression.”
The woman was trying to sit up again, he realized. Rather than watch her digging her elbows into the ground to try to push herself up, Liam put his hands back on her shoulders, exerting just the right amount of pressure to keep her down.
The look she gave him was a mixture of exasperation and confusion.
“Why don’t you just hold on to me and I’ll get you into a sitting position,” Liam suggested.
Having no choice—she was
not
in any shape to outwrestle him and she suspected that out-arguing this gentle-spoken cowboy might be harder than it appeared—Whitney did as he proposed.
With her arms wrapped around his neck, Whitney was slowly raised into a sitting position. She realized that she was just a few feet away from what had been angry, dangerous waters a very short time ago, not to mention her final resting place.
The scene registered for the first time. The man beside her had risked his life to save hers. Why?
“You dived into that?” she asked in semi-disbelief.
Liam nodded. “I had to,” he replied simply. “You weren’t about to walk on water and come out on your own. What happened?” he asked. “Did the water overwhelm you?” Then, before she could answer, he added another basic question to the growing stack in his head. “Why weren’t you swimming?”
She was about to lie, saying whatever excuse came to mind, but then she stopped herself. This man had risked his life in order to save her. She owed him the truth.
“I don’t know how,” she murmured almost under her breath.
Liam stared at her, still not 100 percent convinced. “Really?”
Her very last ounce of energy had been summarily depleted as she had devoted every single ounce within her to staying alive in the swiftly moving waters. If it hadn’t been, she would have been annoyed at his display of disbelief.
“Really,” she answered wearily.
“Never met anyone who didn’t know how to swim,” he commented.
“Well, now you have,” she answered, trying her best to come around enough to stand up.
Since the torrents had abated and she was now sitting on the ground, utterly soaked, Whitney looked around the immediate area.
That’s when it finally hit her. She wasn’t overlooking it. It wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“Where’s my car?” she asked the man who had rescued her.
Liam looked at her a touch uncertainly.
“What car?”
Copyright © 2014 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
ISBN: 978-1-472-07156-9
A TEXAS HOLIDAY MIRACLE
© 2014 Linda Warren
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
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