Falling With Grace

He frowned and shook his head, returning to the phone call made in the middle of the night.

Setting my cup on the table, I strode to the towering window, dividing the sitting area from the patio and pool.

Soft ripples lapped against the decorated walls with a subtle splash.

Odd.

Giving Javier a tap on the shoulder, I navigated around the corner and made my way through the double doors to the poolside—an area where the once-steaming water now settled into a quiet calm.

Strange.

No one entered the pool anymore.

Mamá used to swim when Papa was alive, but she hadn’t stepped foot into it since his death. Nadia would dip her toes in, but that was the furthest she’d go, considering she couldn’t swim.

Mamá was sleeping.

Nadia wasn’t here.

Which left…

Grace.

I pulled my hands from my pockets and stepped closer, scanning the rippling water, then stopped dead in my visual tracks—the storm in my mind surfacing like a Category 5 hurricane.

Her butt bobbed on the bottom, her limbs floating at her sides. A tranquil serenity painted her face, her eyes sealed shut.

A surge of panic gripped my chest as I sprinted over, pulling my shoes off.

“Javier,ven rápido.” I yelled before diving into the deep pool headfirst, my hands clasped before me, carving my path through the water.

I kicked my legs, pumping them as fast as they’d go, my arms moving water out of my way as though it were fallen pieces of rubble blocking my path towards her.

The moment my fingertips touched her wrinkled skin, her eyes snapped open, her mouth gaped as she expelled a gargled scream, her knees pulled up, and she pushed away.

My arms encircled her waist, and I propelled us off the bottom. Our heads emerged from the surface, and I exhaled while she coughed, her arms coiling around my neck as I guided us closer to the edge.

Javier loomed above us as I transferred her to him. He pulled her out of the water, and I hoisted myself over the edge, my clothes clinging to me like a load of bricks tethered around my ankles, Luca Moreno style.

He kneeled beside her, her body heaving the water from her lungs as he patted her on the back, then moved out of the way as I picked her up.

I carried her to the sitting area, her limbs turbulent.

“Javier, grab some towels and blankets.”

He moved as instructed, vanishing through the pool house doors while I settled onto the two-seater couch, Grace in my lap, my arms enveloping her.

“Are you okay?” I pushed the sticky hair off her face. “Let me look at you?”

“I’m fine.” She coughed, moving her hands over mine as if to calm me. “What were you thinking?”

“What wereyouthinking?” I frowned. “What if I hadn’t gotten there in time? Do you even know how to swim?”

The chill of the night air cut through my skin as I cradled Grace’s trembling form in my lap, her wet clothes clinging to every luscious curve.

Itwas the second time I was certain I had lost her, and with it, a prime opportunity to capture Andrés. A disconcerting sensation settled in my gut, but I pushed it away, unwilling to entertain the forbidden feeling.

“I wasn’t drowning.” She gripped my wrist and halted my hasty movements. “I just needed to clear my head.”