...Her words ended on a cough as the wind whipped what felt like a gallon of water into her open mouth, down her windpipe and into her lungs.

Abby heard shouts behind her and knew there were others coming to help. But she also saw the panic in Billy’s eyes as she got closer to him. Although the life jacket was keeping his head above water, she could tell he was quickly losing the ability to stay afloat.

She finally reached him and wrapped him in her arms. “I’m here, darling. I’m here. Put your arms around my neck, okay?”

Billy nodded. She could see the tinge of blue around his lips from the cold and exhaustion and heard the rasp as he gasped for breath. Billy was asthmatic and she knew he was having an attack.

At that moment one rescuer reached them.

“Hurry,” she said to the man. “He’s having an asthma attack.”

Their rescuer nodded and took Billy from her arms, then turned and swam to the back of the Coast Guard boat, which seemed closer than it had been before. There were a man and woman wearing Coast Guard uniforms and one of them was readying emergency equipment. She opened her mouth to repeat her warning about Billy’s condition when the rescuer beat her to it.

“He’s got asthma, according to his mother,” the swimmer said as he handed Billy into the outstretched arms of a seaman leaning over the rescue boat. “I didn’t see evidence of any head trauma, but I didn’t check closely.”

“His name is Billy,” Abby called. She was paddling behind the rescuer, thinking it had looked so easy when he’d reached the boat with Billy. For her, it seemed as if the boat was getting farther away rather than closer. She was appalled at how much her strength had been sapped by the experience. Perhaps she should be actually going to the gym instead of just paying for the membership. “I’m not his mother. I’m his teacher. Please hurry.”

A strong hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way through the water. Her muscles felt like they weighed a ton. Okay, she was definitely going to have to lay off the ice cream and hit the gym. Starting tomorrow. She looked at the puckered skin on her fingers. Check that. She’d hit the gym the day after because it was going to take at least forty-eight hours to thaw out. Wanting to at least do something for herself, Abby tried to grasp the rail, but her hands were so cold she couldn’t feel the metal, and the material of her pants seemed to be wrapped around her legs like manacles, hampering her movements even more.

“Come on, lady, upsy daisy,” her rescuer said.

His voice seemed right behind her ear and his breath sent a fresh wave of shivers down her back. He seemed so warm and solid behind her, it was a temptation to rest against him and let him handle everything.

The water really was colder than she expected. Had she read somewhere that hypothermia could cause delirium?

Then she felt his hand cup her bottom and knew cold could affect someone’s mind because suddenly all she could think about was having that strong hand touch nothing but her flesh.