Butterflies in Honey (Growing Pains #3)(117)

“I had to learn fast. The waves earlier in the day weren’t nearly the size you saw, but they were still bigger than I was used to.”

“You are an idiot. A brave idiot.” A tear leaked out of Sean’s eye again. He didn’t turn away.

“When you came up again and started swimming,” Sean shook his head, “I heard snatches of conversation when I was making my way down the beach. You had been caught a while. You aren’t the strongest of swimmers. Then you were trying to swim out…”

“So you ran in to save me.”

Sean slumped into a chair. “I saw that wave wash over you and thought, ‘there goes the woman I love.’ I thought I just saw you alive for the last time. I knew you couldn’t swim out of those waters. I should have been there with you. How scared you must have been. All alone.” Sean bowed his head and suddenly Krista knew the fear and pain from it was overwhelming him, like that wave had her.

“I stopped thinking,” he went on after a pause, “I went in after you. I didn’t think about my chances of reaching you in time. I didn’t give up hope when I dove down and couldn’t find you. And if it came to the worst, I couldn’t let you die down there all alone.” Sean wiped his face, still shaking his head.

“Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou, Romeo…” Krista muttered. It would have been a romantic story if Sean’s emotions weren’t so raw and bleeding. Ben was right. Like Kate, he had thought her dead for a time, and it played hell on him.

“On the third dive, I felt something that might have been an arm. I clamped my hand on it and started yanking it toward the beach. The arm was limp…” Sean took a deep breath, small sobs escaping from his clenched jaw. “But I couldn’t swim straight up or we would never get out of the waves. I had to chance you had a little bit longer. Once you broke surface and didn’t take a breath…” He shook his head for the hundredth time.

“I swam you in as fast as I could. Someone came out to meet me. We performed CPR and, for a while, I thought I was too late. Then you started coughing.”

Sean put his head in his hands and his body heaved.

“Krista, what if I didn’t catch your arm? Seconds. All you had were seconds.” Sean pleaded.

She knew she had to go to him. He wouldn’t come to her. She couldn’t stand the hurt he was in. She tried to disentangle the wires connecting her with the IV and struggled to sit up. Man, she was sore.

Sean was at her side in an instant. “What are you doing?”

“Going to put my arms around you.”

He chuckled and muttered, “Stupid.”

Krista was wrapped in the solid, safe arms of Sean McAdams.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Krista was sitting on her deck, watching the ocean roll in, when the next wave of pain washed through her torso. She was about three hours in and gently floating with the tides of pain as they flowed and ebbed, hinting of stormy seas ahead.

She and Sean had been married a little under three years. They had a small ceremony in Hawaii, and then flew to France for their honeymoon. Only the closest of their friends and family attended, which was exactly what they both wanted. Sean would have gone bigger, and almost did, but scaled it down at the last minute. He had never said why, but it became clear when, a week before the wedding, he got notice that his father wasn’t planning on attending. Business. He didn’t elaborate as to what kind. Sean was devastated, but he covered it well, muttering that he knew it and glad he didn’t have many people to witness it.

His mother, a gracefully aged lady with expensive taste and a legacy of beauty, spent the whole time asking Krista if she was pregnant and bad mouthing Sean’s dad. Krista didn’t talk to her much. The woman could really throw a black cloud into a person’s day.

Krista’s parents were there, of course—plain, sometimes frumpy, but reliable. Her mom was ecstatic that one of her children was getting married and her dad was constantly trying to wrestle the bills from Sean’s grasp. “The father always pays!” he would yell as Sean bought him another drink.

Cassie, who had moved to L.A. shortly after ‘The Incident,’ fell in love with Krista’s parents and was adopted immediately. She didn’t like them half as much as Sean did, however, who became the favorite. Sean and Cassie’s desire for a close family melded with the Marshall parents’ desire to keep their family close. The four went together like mashed potatoes and gravy. The Marshall daughters were quickly and effectively forgotten.

Although, and as a surprising turn of events, Cassie and Samantha, Krista’s sister, got on surprisingly well. Cassie got free reign to be villainous and took advantage of it. The two of them played practical jokes on everyone, much to Sean’s dismay. They both got scolded by the parents. Everyone else just shook their heads.

Sean and Krista left for France straight from Hawaii. Describing their time there would be impossible. Simply put, it was the best time either of them had ever had in life. They tasted wines, they ate impossibly good food, and saw breathtaking countryside. With Sean knowing a word or two of French, and Krista speaking a little more, plus their love of good food and wine. all helped. It also meant they didn’t get as many snobby comments about stupid Americans. Krista had yet to meet Sean’s grandparents on either side, but Sean said they would work them into a trip the following year.