Read Online Kristen Blooming by Jenny Penn - Free Book Online Page A

flailing about while everybody laughed as she went under. Brandon wasn’t laughing. He didn’t think Kristen would be either when she came back up…if she came back up. It hit him after about ten seconds that she probably didn’t know how to swim, and then he was moving on instinct, diving into the pool and going down after her.
    The chlorine stung his eyes, but he could see Kristen clearly still kicking and fighting to make it back to the top. Her motions were like that of a deranged animal, desperate and panicked. She wasn’t going to make it. Not without his help.
    In an instant, Brandon was on her, wrapping an arm around her waist and hoisting her back to the surface. He got kicked and hit for his effort but barely took note of the blows. Kristen didn’t have the strength to do any real damage. Neither did she have the breath left to fight as they finally broke through the water to a circle of concerned faces.
    Everybody had caught on that there was trouble, just not as quickly as he had. That was particularly true of Duncan, who he would be dealing with later. Right then, Brandon’s first priority was to get Kristen out of the water. She was clinging to him now, coughing up water as she still fought to clear her lungs.
    She was so small and frail in his arms, and Brandon’s anger grew with every painful-sounding retch coming from her lips. By the time they made it to the edge, where Dylan waited to help haul Kristen out of the water, Brandon was fuming.
    He didn’t say a word, though, simply allowed Dylan to take Kristen’s wrists in his hands and lift her straight out of Brandon’s arms. He followed her right out of the pool and had her back in his arms before Dylan could object, and then he was cutting a path through all the concerned looks and questions that started to circle around him.
    Brandon ignored them all, not even bothering to talk to Kristen as he carted her into the house and cut through the kitchen to aim for the bedrooms down the hall. He’d been to Duncan’s rental enough to know the layout. There were four bedrooms, but Brandon carried Kristen into Duncan’s, figuring she at least owed him the wet sheets.
    Kristen didn’t ask where they were headed, didn’t make a single sound as she buried her head in his neck and clung to him. She didn’t say a word. The way she was trembling said it all. She was in shock. He set her down on the bed gently, only to turn around and realize he’d picked up a trail.
    Kristen’s friends, along with Dylan, Duncan, and several of the other guys, crowded around, flowing past Brandon as he headed toward the bathroom to collect a towel. By the time he got back, she was surrounded, flanked on either side by two women with Jimmy Mathews kneeling before her, taking Kristen’s pulse.
    A paramedic by trade, he checked Kristen completely over before declaring she’d be fine. As he rose up and stepped back, Duncan stepped forward to offer an apology.
    “Listen, Kristen, I’m sorry.” Duncan sounded and looked sincere, but that didn’t buy him a pass in Brandon’s book. “I didn’t know you didn’t how to swim.”
    “Well, maybe you should have asked,” the dark-haired woman sitting beside Kristen snapped back before Kristen could say anything.
    Coming off the bed, the woman actually poked Duncan in the chest, backing him up toward the door as she lit into him. That didn’t buy Duncan a pass in Brandon’s book either. They’d be having their own words later.
    Right then, Brandon took advantage of the situation to sit down next to Kristen and wrap her up in the towel he’d brought back. He wrapped it around her and left his arm slung across her shoulder. Without a word, he tucked her into his side, and they sat like that in a silent moment of perfection.
    Words weren’t needed. Brandon just knew. This was where he belonged, by Kristen’s side watching the world with her as everybody started to slowly migrate back outside. Eventually even Kristen’s