“You saved me,” Hallie breathed, wincing slightly as a nurse pulled out her IV. “I would have drowned!”
“Don’t think like that.” Dakota squeezed her hand. His hair hung damp in long dark strands almost level with his chin, shirt clinging to his torso under his leather jacket. And those eyes. . . . Hallie gazed at him happily. God, he was beautiful.
“Are you sure she’s OK to leave?” Dakota asked the nurse. “Is there anything we need to do?”
We. Hallie thrilled at the word.
“Just take it easy for a few days, keep warm.” The nurse gave Hallie a thin-lipped look. “No more midnight swimming.”
“I promise!” Hallie clasped her hands fervently. “I’m so sorry for all the trouble!”
The nurse moved off. Dakota turned to Hallie with concern. “How are you feeling?” he asked gently. “Do you need me to get you anything?”
“I’m OK,” she said, shivering slightly. They’d taken her wet clothes, and given her baggy hospital scrubs to wear. She just hoped she looked good in aqua.
Dakota whipped off his jacket and slung it around her shoulders. “Is there anyone you need to call?”
Hallie blinked. “Oh, my God, Grace!” She’d been so caught up in the romance of her dramatic rescue that she’d forgotten all about the people waiting for her, back at the party. “My sister,” she explained hurriedly. “She won’t know where I am.”
Dakota offered her his cell phone. Hallie dialed, then hesitated. “She’ll be really mad. . . .”
“I’ll handle it, don’t worry.” Dakota took the phone back. “Hey, is this Grace?” He gave Hallie a reassuring smile, and then retreated to the hallway to talk.
Hallie waited until he was out of sight and then leaped up, dashing to the tiny bathroom. Dear Lord. She blinked in horror at her bedraggled reflection. This was her destiny out there, and she was looking like a drowned stray cat! She spun into action: finger-combing her no-longer-so-relaxed hair and swiping under her eyes to clear the streaks of mascara.
“Hallie?”
She gave her hair a final pat with the paper towels and reemerged. “I told her what happened,” Dakota said, tucking his phone away. “I said I’d take you home.”
“Thank you. I mean, for everything. If you hadn’t been there . . .” The thought of those cruel, insistent waves, and how close she’d come to death, was overwhelming. She felt her legs buckle. In an instant, Dakota was by her side.
“Everything’s going to be OK,” he promised, holding her upright. “I’ve got you.”
Hallie sank against him, banishing the dark thoughts to the very back of her mind. It was over now, the darkness before the dawn. Her pain had served its purpose, and brought him into her life.
Destiny.
“So I’ve got to ask,” Dakota said as they headed toward the exit — Hallie leaning close against the warmth of his body. “What were you doing out there?”
“You’ll think I’m crazy.” Hallie blushed.
“Never. Go on, tell me.” His face was open, curious, and in that moment, Hallie was flooded with a strange sense of reassurance — like she could tell him anything and he’d understand.
“I was doing a kind of ritual,” Hallie explained. “Like a baptism, to start my new life here.”
She waited for the laugh of derision, but instead, Dakota gave her a conspiratorial smile. “Venus rising from the ocean . . .”
“Exactly!”
Dakota led her through the main doors, then paused a moment on the asphalt, as if he were deciding something. “I burned it,” he told her finally. “I drove cross-country, moving out here, and when I reached the ocean, I burned the map.”
“Because it didn’t matter how you got here,” Hallie said, understanding completely.
“A fresh start,” Dakota finished. Their eyes met. The fluorescent lights overhead cast sharp shadows across the angle of his cheekbones; his hair dried in a halo of dark curls. Hallie had to stifle a sigh of pure longing.
“I better get you home,” Dakota said, and Hallie could almost convince herself that was regret she heard in his voice. “Come on.”
She followed him to his beat-up Camry. She would have followed him anywhere. It was past two a.m. by the time Dakota pulled up in front of Uncle Auggie’s. Inside, every light was blazing. “I’m sorry.” Hallie braced herself for what was to come.
“For what?” Dakota helped her out of the car.
“You’ll see.”
They hadn’t even stepped more than a foot inside before Hallie’s mom raced out to meet them in the front hall; Amber hurrying behind.
“My baby!” Her mom clutched her in a frenzied hug. “What happened? Are you OK? If I lost you too . . .”
“Grace called and said you were missing,” Amber added, wide-eyed. She was wearing a tiny pink negligee, her curves barely concealed under a sheer white robe. “We didn’t know what to think. Auggie’s on the phone with the police now. He was about to have them send divers out!”
“You should have told someone before you wandered off.” Grace’s voice came from behind them. She was loitering at the back of the hall with Brandon, glaring at Hallie accusingly. “Didn’t you stop to think for one moment we would worry?”
“Are you OK?” Brandon asked, moving to her side. He looked at her with bloodshot eyes, clearly exhausted. “We searched the party for hours.”
“She’s fine,” Dakota told them as Hallie detached herself from the anxious hugs. “The doctor checked her out, everything’s OK. She just needs rest and recovery.”
They all turned.
“This is Dakota,” Hallie announced, beaming. “He saved me.”
Dakota gave a self-deprecating shrug. “Anyone would have helped, it was just lucky I heard her —”
“Nonsense!” Uncle Auggie came bursting through the crowd. He clasped Dakota in a hug, slapping his back enthusiastically. “You’re the hero of the hour! We owe you.”
“No, really, it’s nothing.” Dakota turned to look at Hallie. “It’s enough that she’s OK.”
Hallie felt her legs buckle again. This time, it had nothing to do with her ordeal, and everything to do with the intensity of his expression. “Do you want to stay?” Hallie asked hopefully. “Have some coffee, maybe, or —”