“Oh, God,” she said. “This is my fault.”
“Ma’am, it appeared to have been an accident. The boat capsized.”
“No, it’s my fault,” the distraught woman repeated. “I shouldn’t have let him have that boat. I should have known better.”
The boy’s mother was blaming herself for what happened, Kate realized. Guilt seemed to go along with motherhood, didn’t it? Whatever happened to a child, even an unborn child, a mother would forever be haunted by feelings that she should have known better or tried harder, or that if she only had another chance things would have turned out differently….
Kate forced herself to focus. She was doing that a lot lately. “Mrs. Genero, do you remember the Navy officer who spoke with you on the phone earlier?”
“Who?”
“Lieutenant Coburn. He and I are coordinating the naval search for Ursula Chambers. He was in the helicopter with me when we found your son.”
Mrs. Genero looked around. “Yes?”
“I thought you might like to know that Lieutenant Cob-urn is a Navy SEAL. He jumped into the water from the helicopter in order to see to your son’s welfare until the paramedics could reach him.”
The woman spun to Kate and clutched her hand. “A SEAL? Like in the movies? And he saved Armando?”
Kate nodded, pleased to see that Mrs. Genero was taking comfort from her words. The boy had been on the verge of slipping under, so Sam very likely had saved him from drowning. The search and rescue launch had arrived less than fifteen minutes later, but it had been an agonizing wait. All Kate had been able to do was watch helplessly from above as Sam had clamped one arm around the boy, anchored his other arm around the broken mast and let the waves toss them about in the gathering dusk.
There had been no guarantee that the rescue boat would get there as quickly as they’d hoped. Furthermore, a sudden gust of wind could have buffeted the helicopter and knocked its searchlight off Sam and the boy, leaving them to drift off alone into the darkness. They could have been run over by another boat, or they could have encountered sharks. Anything could have happened, and in her anxiety, Kate thought of every nerve-racking possibility, no matter how far-fetched.
Sam had risked his life to save the life of a strange boy. It had been a heroic act, but he hadn’t hesitated. He’d even made light of what he had been about to do. Considering the dangerous missions he must have been on during his years with the SEALs, he probably hadn’t blinked an eye at the risk he was taking.
What he had done today proved he hadn’t changed. He was still the same impulsive, adventure-loving man who had left her five years ago. Witnessing his heroism should have reminded Kate of the reasons she needed to keep away from him.
But it hadn’t worked that way. Seeing him drifting on the swells, so near and yet so far, opened a crack in the wall of duty she’d struggled to keep between them. She’d wanted to stand in the doorway of the helicopter and scream at him for taking the chance he had. And at the same time, she’d wanted to weep over the wonderful, selfless gesture he’d made.
God, she was a mess.
“I can see the lights from the rescue boat now, Mrs. Genero,” she said, pointing to the left of the pier. “If you’d like I could take you—”
There was no point completing the sentence. The boy’s mother was already racing to the edge of the pier.
Armando was conscious and was talking with two policemen as he was wheeled on a stretcher toward the ambulance. His mother stayed by his side, grasping his hand and stroking his hair. The tears on her cheeks glistened in the flashing lights.
Sam was one of the last people off the launch. He had draped a gray blanket over his shoulders, his hair was wet and his feet were bare, but otherwise he seemed no worse for wear. He spoke with the policemen who had questioned Armando, then scanned the crowd. As soon as he caught sight of Kate he started toward her.
She wanted to hold him. There was no logic to the reaction. It came straight from her heart. Her arms felt so empty, it was almost a physical pain.
She hadn’t realized she was running until she saw the surprise on his face.
She slowed before she reached him, stopping a yard away. Oh, God. Now what? “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re sure? You hit the water hard, and the surface temperature that far from shore would have been in the fifties.”
“Kate—”
“Shouldn’t you be getting checked over by a doctor?”
“What for? I just took a little dip, that’s all.” He looked at her carefully. “Why? Are you worried about me, Kate?”
“I…” Oh, God. It was no use pretending to herself that she didn’t care. Even now that she’d stopped herself from barreling into his arms, she still wanted to kiss him. Right here, right now. Despite the people who milled around the pier, despite everything she’d told him and herself, she wanted to grab his wet shirt in both hands, haul him toward her and press her lips to his.
Damn it, she should have run the other way. “I just don’t want you coming down with pneumonia on me,” she said. “We’re partners, and we have a lot to do.”
Sam rubbed his hair with a corner of the blanket, trying to stem his disappointment at her reply. What had he expected? When he’d seen her race across the pier to him, for a crazy moment he’d hoped she would fling herself into his arms.
Yeah, right.
“I noticed the Genero boy was conscious,” she said. “How is he doing?”
“He’ll be okay. He got hit on the head by the boom when the cat went over, so he’s going to have a headache for a few days, but otherwise he should recover.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Yeah.” Sam watched the ambulance pull away. “He was lucky.”
“Thanks to what you did,” Kate said.
He returned his gaze to hers. Was that concern he saw in her eyes? Worry? Or his own wishful thinking? “It was no big deal. Haven’t you heard? SEALs are—”
“Tough,” she finished for him. “You mentioned that before.”
“So I did.”
She continued to regard him with an expression he couldn’t identify, then held out the shoes she’d been carrying. “How tough are your feet?”
He smiled crookedly. “No match for the pavement. Thanks, Kate.” He slipped his bare feet into his shoes, rolled the wet blanket into a bundle and started forward. “Come on. I’m going to get rid of these wet clothes.”
She didn’t move. “I think you can manage that on your own.”
He had a sudden memory flash of a hot night, with Kate peeling his damp shirt off his body one inch at a time, her lips brushing each inch of skin she uncovered….
She’d been good at undressing him. She’d been good at everything.
He glanced over his shoulder to where she was still standing. She was also good at her job, he reminded himself. “I thought you’d be interested to hear what I learned from Armando Genero. Seeing as we’re partners and have a lot to do,” he added, giving her own words back to her.
She strode after him, falling into step as he resumed his progress down the pier. “What did you find out?”
“First of all, it’s certain that the woman Armando met on the beach was Ursula Chambers. The police who met the launch showed him her photograph, and he positively