Beau turned around just as she came sputtering up, gasping for air. “Are you okay, Allie Cat?”
He was grinning, and his blue eyes were absolutely ridiculous when surrounded by shimmering water.
“I’m fine. It’s a bit chillier than I’d thought it would be.”
“Come on,” Beau said. “You’ll warm up quickly. Let’s head to the deeper water.”
By the time they’d swum to the middle of the spring-fed swimming hole, she was smiling. This was exhilarating! And when Beau splashed her, she squealed and splashed him back. Before she knew it, she was laughing harder than she’d ever laughed in her life. It was the kind of laughing other people did while Alice stood awkwardly, watching the fun.
Holy guacamole, she didn’t feel like herself at all. And it was fantastic.
Beau dove beneath the water, yanked on one of her toes, and then popped up behind her. Alice squealed, and their voices rang off the limestone cliffs, echoing up and down the canyon.
Things eventually quieted down, and they treaded water, side by side, admiring the beauty around them. “Look, Allie. Isn’t that cool?” Beau gazed into the river. “You can see the bubbles from the spring.”
A lone ray of sunlight poked through a cloud, slicing the water and illuminating the sandy bottom where the bubbles popped up from the spring. It was beautiful. Indescribable, really. And to think, this bit of paradise was readily available, practically in her backyard, and she’d never taken advantage of it.
“Aren’t you glad you decided to strip down and, you know, fall in?” Beau asked. “I was going to say dive in, but that isn’t really what happened.”
Alice splashed him, laughing.
“I like the sound of your laugh,” Beau said.
“Do you? Well, I guess there are worse laughs than mine.”
“Yeah. Claire is a snorter.”
He wasn’t wrong, because Claire was a snorter. “I think I’ve laughed more today than I have in the past—”
“Week?”
“More like month.”
“Damn, Allie. We need to work on that.”
We?
His skin glowed. His eyelashes were all wet and stuck together. And his smile was so bright that Alice was afraid to look directly into his face. “Let’s see who can touch the bottom first,” he said.
“Wait—”
“One, two, three!”
Before Alice had a chance to take in a lungful of air, Beau had flipped over to dive. She caught a glimpse of fabulous butt cheeks and froze. But then her competitive drive kicked in. If Beau Montgomery could touch the bottom, so could she.
Alice took a deep breath and dove beneath the surface of the water. Everything became muffled and quiet, and she timidly opened her eyes, watching the bubbles from her mouth and nose float lazily up.
Then she looked down, kicking in earnest to catch up with Beau. But he was already at the bottom, grinning and holding both thumbs up.
And holy guacamole. Folks weren’t kidding when they said the waters of the Rio Verde ran clear.
Chapter
Fifteen
Beau swam behind Alice as they headed for the shore. He couldn’t help but take in the view, which had nothing to do with the limestone cliffs, crystal clear water, and ancient cypress trees, and everything to do with Alice’s shapely long legs kicking as she did the breaststroke.
And speaking of breasts . . .
Wait. Nobody was speaking of breasts.
But Alice’s bra was waterlogged. It had slipped around quite a bit as she’d swam and splashed and generally had a good old time. Beau hadn’t stared or anything even close to it. But he’d caught a glimpse or two of side boob. There had even been a possible nipple sighting, but he’d averted his eyes so quickly that he couldn’t be certain.
Alice hit the incline of the riverbank first, and stopped swimming to stand. The water came up to her ribs, and she reached around and squeezed the water out of her ponytail. “How are we going to do this?” she asked.
“Do what?”
“Get out. How are we going to get out?”
Beau looked at the bank, where their clothes waited. “I figure we’ll walk out since flying isn’t an option.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “I mean, which one of us is getting out first?”
He wasn’t modest at all. In fact, he’d make a good nudist if cowboying accommodated such a thing. He liked nature. Loved being natural in nature. But he sure didn’t want to make Allie uncomfortable.
“So?” Alice asked. “You? Or me?”
“I’ll go first. That way I can help you out if you need it.” He headed for the bank, and as he went to pass Allie, his inner fifteen-year-old came out, giving him the idea to play a tried-and-true Texas river prank. How could Alice have the full skinny-dippingat-the-dam experience without it?
With a sideways glance at Allie, Beau faked being startled with a little jump. “What was that?” he asked.
Alice shrieked and scanned the water with eyes as big as saucers. Beau was just about to clue her in to the prank by humming the theme from Jaws—no need to drag it out too long—when, with no warning at all, Alice screamed, “Snake!” and headed straight for him.
He was pretty sure he was getting a dose of his own medicine, but water moccasins were both venomous and aggressive. “Where?”
The next thing he knew, Alice was climbing him like a tree.
“Alice—”
His face was suddenly pressed between her breasts, as she was doing her best to shimmy up to his shoulders. He somehow caught himself from tumbling over and grabbed Alice by the waist. “Whoa there, Nellie.”
Alice glanced all around, and then after a moment, Beau felt her muscles relax. “Beau?”
“Yes, darlin’?”
“I think it might have been a stick.”
Beau stifled a grin. “Confession time. I was just pulling your leg. Playing a little prank.”
Allie slid down his body until they were face-to-face, and she wasn’t smiling.
“Are you mad?” he asked.
He liked holding her this way. Especially the part where her legs were wrapped around his waist.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think I am anyway. I feel
