She had a kid with her? “Was the baby in the basket?” he asked in a moderate tone, struggling to keep the panic from his voice.
She studied him with sandy brows drawn down over confused eyes. Then she laid a hand on her belly and smiled. “It’s in this basket.”
Both relieved and shocked, his gaze shot to her slender hand now curved protectively over her abdomen. “You’re pregnant?”
She pushed her damp hair away from her forehead and exhaled slowly. “Yes.”
Great. Just great.
“Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” he asked, genuinely concerned. “No pain or anything?”
She sat a little straighter. “I’m okay. Kind of tired, but overall pretty good.”
Jack decided she looked pretty good all over. Healthy, he corrected. Her still-flat abdomen encased in plain white capri pants, the soaked yellow T-shirt adhering to her torso, made Jack hard-pressed to believe she was actually going to have a baby.
Obviously she wasn’t very far along in the pregnancy. Obviously she couldn’t lay claim to much common sense, either, which made him really want to shake some sense into her. But she’d been shaken up enough for one day, so he settled for a little subtle chastising. “Now let me see if I’ve got this straight. You decided to go off in your balloon to tour the ocean at the risk of harming your unborn child?”
She hugged her knees to her chest and glared at him. “For your information, ballooning is a very safe mode of transportation. I’m more at risk driving on a Miami freeway. I would never do anything, anything, to hurt my baby. This was a fluke.”
A bite of guilt nipped at Jack. He had no call to judge anyone when it came to taking risks. God knew he had taken more than his share, with much more devastating consequences.
He sent her a half smile, a feeble attempt at an apology. “I suppose it’s a lot like sailing. Once it’s in the blood, you can’t consider giving it up.”
She glanced away but not before he caught a hint of sadness in her eyes. “Actually, it was my last trip until after the baby’s birth. I was leaving a festival near Miami. I’m not sure what happened. I think I might have passed out or something. The next thing I knew, I woke up out here, wherever here is.”
“We’re about twenty miles off the coast near Key Largo. You couldn’t get back to shore?”
“By the time I came to, the wind was unstable and I started losing altitude.”
He supposed that made sense, as much sense as it could to a man who preferred water to air. Sometimes the elements couldn’t be controlled. How well he knew that concept.
She gave him a sheepish smile, revealing a glimpse of white teeth and a dimple at the left corner of her lower lip. “Pretty lucky I happened upon you, huh?”
That remained to be seen, Jack decided. “Did you hit the deck when you were trying to land?”
“Not exactly.”
“It sounded like you hit something.”
“More like grazed.”
“The deck?”
She pointed upward. “The mast thingy. I aimed for it on my descent. I wanted to make sure I got your attention.”
It had definitely gotten his attention, then and now. And admittedly a smart thing for her to do, not that he cared for it much. No telling what kind of damage she’d done, but at least she hadn’t brought the mast down. At the moment he didn’t dare examine the thingy, fearing what he might find. Right now he was barely hanging on to some semblance of calm. Right now he had to deal with another pressing matter.
Coming to his feet, he asked with a great deal of benevolence, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Really. Promise.”
“Okay. I’m going to go see where the balloon went. I’ll be right back. You rest.”
Her expression reflected gratitude. “Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”
He decided not to tell her that his concern was for his boat, not her balloon. And he hoped like hell the damn thing had changed course.
But it hadn’t. He realized that the moment he arrived at the rear platform. The massive fabric billowed portside; the basket was lodged on the end of the swim ladder.
Tethering himself to the platform railing, he lowered to his stomach and inched down until he could reach the rig. With the set of bolt cutters stored aft, he started to work. First he dislodged the gondola and began cutting away the cables attaching the balloon to the framework that housed the burner. He fought the current’s pull, fought the sea spray jetting into his face. Fought his desperation and impatience. He continued practically blind but knew he was making progress when the fabric began pulling away.
Finally, the last cable snapped. His fingers ached, his eyes burned, but he supposed he should feel lucky that the rig hadn’t made its way underneath the boat. That could mean certain disaster.
“What are you doing?”
He hadn’t realized she was standing behind him. Right behind him. Without looking at her, he said, “I’ve freed your balloon.” Gave it a nice burial at sea, he almost told her but thought better of it.
“Why did you do that?”
“So it didn’t get caught up in the prop.”
Standing, he turned to face her and met the most melancholy expression he’d ever seen on a woman’s face. He couldn’t really blame her. He’d felt the same way when he’d lost his last boat to a cutthroat competition coupled with a relentless storm. He’d lost more than that.
At least he had saved her. At least she was alive, unharmed, in charge of all her faculties….
“Can you go get the envelope…the balloon itself? We could roll it up and store it on deck.”
Obviously she was crazy. Certifiable. “Not unless you expect me to swim for it.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle as she visually followed the flattened balloon now barely perceptible on the horizon. “Of course, that’s a stupid thing to ask considering what you’ve done for me. But that balloon is my livelihood.”
When this ordeal ended, he’d buy her another balloon. Hell, he had enough money to buy her fifty balloons, not that he had any desire to tell her that. The less she knew about him, the better. “I’m sorry, but I had no choice.”
She gave him a one-shoulder shrug and a surprisingly bright grin. “I’m sure it will all work out somehow. I’ll think of something.”
Great. A blond optimist, Jack thought. A tall, blond optimist, not without some fairly liberal curves that were more than obvious beneath her clinging clothing. Admittedly, she was pretty darned cute, even if she was a little scattered. Scattered and sexy. She was also shaking.
Turning
