Kelly Jo (6 page)

Jack raised the painting and held her gaze in amused challenge.  "Think so?"

"Yes," she insisted.  "What would your mother think if she knew how you've been acting?"

"She'd be surprised that I haven't already dug a hole, thrown in you and the painting and covered the hole again."

"Hardy har har," Kelly Jo mocked.  "Why don't you just throw me out into the creek then and be done with it?  What better way to wash your hands of me, so to speak?"

Jack grinned, but his eyes said he was about at the end of his patience.  "What a great idea," he agreed.  "Why didn't I think of that?"

He pulled his hand back in a pitching motion, like he was about to hurl the painting.

Kelly Jo gasped.  "Don't you dare!"

But Jack was enjoying her discomfiture, her unsureness of whether he would or not and he wasn't about to relinquish the upper hand.  "Oh, yes, I do dare!" he stated and pitched his arm forward.

To his horror, and to the sound of Kelly Jo's blood-curdling scream, the painting went flying through the air.  It landed with a loud KERPLUNK in the middle of the peacefully moving creek.

Jack was frozen in shock as the painting popped to the surface with Kelly Jo sputtering and coughing.  Then the painting listed and began to sink.

Chapter Eleven

Jack waded into the water, splashing from left to right, fighting panic that he'd have to dive down and search for the painting before Kelly Jo drowned.

Without warning, the water churned, roiled and nearly erupted in the exact spot where the painting sank. 

 Was this Kelly Jo's way of letting him know precisely where he needed to get to in order to rescue her?

Jack sucked in a deep, choppy breath for courage and struggled his way into the deeper water, his gaze riveted on where the water suddenly stilled.

A head shot through the surface and Kelly Jo gasped for air.

Shocked, Jack stumbled backward, lost his footing and went down.  Seated on the creek bottom, the water was to his chest, but he couldn't take his gaze from the beautiful woman thrashing in the water yards out. 

Right where he'd thrown the painting.

"You're...you're...free..." he stammered.

"Jack, help me!" she cried frantically.  "I can't..." she went under and then popped back up... "swim!"

Neither could he.
  

Panic drenched Jack, but he fought his way to his feet and ripped off his shirt.  "Stay calm," he ordered in a voice that shook.  "When I throw my shirt out there, grab it and I'll pull you to shore."

Kelly Jo fought to keep her head above water, but went under again and Jack wondered if she'd heard what he'd said.

"I'm coming, Kelly Jo," he reassured her as he moved further into the water, aware that the terror in her eyes had nothing on the terror in his own heart.

He resisted giving in to fear and forced it at bay, focused only on reaching Kelly Jo. 

"Your...pants," she gasped, spitting water from her mouth.

"What?"

"They're longer.  Hurry, Jack..." she went under again.

Jack realized she was right and surprised himself with the speed in which he was able to toss his shirt to the side and struggle out of his sneakers, then his jeans. 

Kelly Jo came up again, sputtering and choking.  When her gaze met his he saw in summer-sky blue eyes that she knew she'd lost this battle.

Red hot fury pulsed through Jack.  At himself for causing this, at her for giving up.  He lunged forward into neck-deep water, compressing his own apprehension. 

"Grab hold," he demanded and threw one end of his pants unerringly to within her reach.  

Her fingers clutched onto the bottom of the jeans, but Jack had to dig his heels into the sandy, rocky creek bottom to stop her from pulling him forward when she again went under.

He jerked forward on the jeans, praying that he didn't pull the jeans out of her grip.  He was overcome with joy when he saw her head break the surface as she was pulled toward him.

"Relax," he soothed as he slowly pulled her through the water to where he stood.  "You'll be back on shore in a minute."

She nodded and Jack saw her gagging from the water she'd taken in during her battle to stay afloat.

Jack started walking backward, still pulling Kelly Jo, afraid to let the jeans go slack and have her again go under.  He spoke soft, encouraging words the entire time, his gaze staying locked with her still frightened blue one as he made his way toward shore.

The water was between his waist and his knees when he stumbled.  When he fell backward, his grip still tight on the jeans, the tumbling motion of him falling combined with his strength on the jeans inadvertently jerked Kelly Jo directly toward him.

When she landed on him in the water, she wrapped her arms around his neck, her naked body flat against his nearly naked one.  Jack's boxers and his socks were the only things between him and Kelly Jo.

Thoughts and feelings Jack didn't expect were normal to feel for an angel coursed through his now on-high-alert body.

Kelly Jo's arms stayed around his neck and she laid her forehead on his.  Her breathing was ragged, ragged, Jack hoped, from her experience and not from the intimate proximity they shared.  Heaven would not be pleased, he was sure.

Kelly Jo's blue eyes smiled into Jack's and her warm breath was soft against his lips.  "Thank you, Jack," she said quietly.

Jack knew he was on dangerous ground, even if he was in the water.  Heaven was tightly in his arms, tempting him, whether it was an intentional temptation or an accidental one.

To his chagrin, all he could think of after clearing his throat was, "I guess you won't be needing those Barbie clothes after all."

Chapter Twelve

Kelly Jo's head snapped up and her eyes widened.  "Oh, NO!" she cried and pulled away from Jack's grasp to squat in the water, in the pose he now found all too familiar.  Arms crossed over her chest to hide her charms from hazel eyes that found the battle to not appreciate them unwinnable.

Jack's body had seared into his brain just how definitely it appreciated cozying up with those charms.

Jack shook his head to clear it, realizing the heat in his face probably alerted Kelly Jo that she'd concealed what he'd already enjoyed, even if enjoyed only through his currently very happy sense of touch.

Good thing the water was cold.

Or not,
Jack thought when Kelly Jo shivered.

Through teeth that chattered, she stated, "I need your shirt."

"Sure," Jack said instantly.  "Just let me get my..." he looked around the water..."pants". 

"Hurry," she pleaded.  "I'm freezing."

Jack glanced at her.  Funny, she hadn't felt at all cold when she'd been pressed up against him.  Of course, there was no reason to mention that.

Jack was only in his boxers so he didn't want to stand to search for his jeans. 

Now what?

"Do you see them?" Jack asked.

Kelly Jo stared at him.  "See...who?"  Her eyes widened and she moved toward Jack, furtively looking around.  "Are there
people
here now?  Oh, no," she breathed, closing, then opening her eyes.  "Hide me..."

"Stop," he commanded, moving toward shore and away from her, his heart racing that this naked angel was about to sit on his lap.  "I meant see
them
...not see
who
.  'Them'...as in...
my pants
."

Kelly Jo expelled an annoyed sigh.  "Did you have to scare me like that?  And, no, I haven't seen your pants.  Why didn't you keep track of them?"

"Keep track of them?"
 he exploded in disbelief.  "Are you for real?  I took them off to drag you back to shore...at your request, by the way.  And then when you launched yourself at me I guess I lost track of where they were floating."

Kelly Jo's teeth chattered and her lip quivered from cold.  "Well, I'm guessing they're not floating now.  Heavy denim sinks."

"Oh, really?" Jack asked sarcastically.  "And you know this...how?  Because I'm not the first one you've put through this routine?  How many others ended up with no pants because of your shenanigans?"

Kelly Jo giggled through her shivers. 

Jack offered a sheepish grin, but his voice was stern.  "You know what I meant."

"Jack, the air is warm but this water is ice cold."

His sarcastic, "Noooo.  Really?" was greeted by her frown.

"You have to fix this," she informed him.

"Why, sure," he said.  He waved a hand over the water and said, "
Voila!
  Icy water is now bath temperature."  He ignored the dirty look she shot him, waited with an expression of anticipation, then shook his head in disappointment.  "Aw, sweetie, I'm really sorry.  I tried to warm it up, but," he added with a shrug, "I guess your personality cooled it off a little too much."

Kelly Jo lifted her chin and gave him a haughty, "You're not the least bit funny."

Jack smiled, even though he was keenly aware that it wasn't right that he took delight in her situation.  Right now he didn't care.  He wanted his pants. 

At the sound of scurrying, they both looked just in time to see a raccoon grab Jack's sopping wet shirt from further down the shoreline and scamper off into the woods with it.

"Great," he muttered.

Kelly Jo started to laugh.

Jack looked at her like she had finally jumped from the edge.

"Now you have no choice," she told him.  "You have to go to one of the houses here and get me something to wear."

He stared at her.  "I certainly do not!"

"I can't stay in the water forever," she reminded him.  "You have pants to wear...they must be here somewhere...but I needed your shirt.  I have nothing to cover myself."

Jack's increased enjoyment at her plight should have shamed him.  It didn't even come close.  "Why don't you just walk the same way you were posed in that painting?"  He shrugged, then grinned.  "Works for me."

To his surprise, Kelly Jo blushed, then offered a haughty, "Let's just look for your jeans, shall we?"

Half an hour later they hadn't found them.  They'd dragged their feet along the creek's bottom to no avail.  No jeans. 

They were both very, very cold and Jack was a little concerned at the wrinkly turn to Kelly Jo's skin, the slight purple tinge to the lips that quivered from her chill.

Finally, Kelly Jo sighed.  "You have to go, Jack.  You have no choice."

Jack stared at her.  "Go where?"  He extended his arms to expose his bare skin.  "I'm almost as naked as you.  Going...
anywhere
...isn't a good idea."

Tears filled Kelly Jo's eyes.  "It's getting dark, Jack.  I don't want to stay in this water any longer than I have to stay in it.  I'm cold.  Very cold.  I'm asking you," she said quietly, "to please help me.  Just this one last time."  She blinked to stop her tears from falling.  "Please?"

Jack groaned and his hands smacked the water.  How did he get himself into scrapes like this?  He turned toward Kelly Jo.  No,
he
 hadn't gotten himself into anything. 
She
had done this.  But right now she looked so vulnerable, so frightened, he found it hard to offer anything but a soft word of assurance.  He didn't like it, but he knew what he had to do.

"You'll have to tell me everything you know about the houses, including which is the one most likely to have what we need."

Two minutes later, Jack pulled off his sopping socks and was making his way through the woods and back to the road in the rapidly descending dusk. 

In his boxers.

Chapter Thirteen

Jack made good progress through the woods, but stopped every few yards.  To pull the wedge of wet boxers from his butt and to gently tug wet boxer material away from where it tightly, clammily, conformed itself to delicate front areas. 

He couldn't remember ever being so uncomfortable, so unfixable chilly in areas not used to such treatment.  From his short curlies to his other parts, which threatened, if exposed to further maltreatment, to go from normal size and shape to very short and hibernating.  Those parts wanted, no, needed, to hide from this unwarranted and very rude assault, no doubt about it.

As Jack walked, always cognizant of where he placed his bare feet on the leaf-and-debris strewn path, he tried not to think of Kelly Jo, of what, despite his haste, would be a lengthy stay for her in that cold water.  He squinted toward the sky.  Sundown had already begun so he had, at most, a little over half an hour to find something for each of them to wear and then get back to the creek. 

He guffawed.  He had a half hour only if there was no dog involved.  Jack knew he shouldn't grin at the memory of Kelly Jo's drenching by the dog.  He didn't care.  His grin spread ear-to-ear as the memory filled and warmed his brain.