Killing Casanova by Traci McDonald

as he pulled his T-shirt over his head and jumped into the cold water beside the boat.
    The warm air and chilled water sent a shiver across his back. As he turned and climbed into the boat behind Kyle, he caught Jana’s wide-eyed stare. With the quiver of his flesh and a brief rekindling of his old confidence burning across his cheeks, he smiled into her dark brown eyes. She dropped her eyes into the rubber float, and Jake felt satisfaction. Women looked at him like that all the time; he hungered for that expression to cross a woman’s face, it meant he had her.
    The sound of Cassie and Heidi emerging with the horses from the trailer reminded him that Cassie had looked at him that way, too, when he had talked of his promise to Kyle. He had never seen that look on her face before, and she had discarded it as quickly as it had appeared.
    Jake consciously took stock of it as he started the motor and steered the boat out beyond the buoy, far enough away to keep Kyle entertained and near enough to jump to the rescue if necessary. Jake pointed out to Kyle the bubbles coming to the surface as the trout saw the flash of sunlight dappling the water and rose to nibble at its color above them.
    The afternoon sun shone on the placid water like lemon-drop diamonds against the deep blue of the mountain lake. The chatter of birds and excitement of screaming children broke the warm sky for the next two hours. Jake spent the time keeping an eye out for Miriam and Jana, but the majority of his long hours were spent focused on Kyle.
    He motored the small boat slowly around the reservoir, pointing out the lava dam and spillway, the intricate tangle of pipes and spigots protruding for the irrigation system, the rushing inlet of higher creeks and the marshy stretch of forest east of where the bold San Madera thundered through the canyon.
    While he and Kyle were catching frogs along a sand bar, Jake noticed Cassie and Heidi seated in a deep green meadow beyond the gray edge of the access road. Applesauce and Cassie’s Jackpot were bridled and saddled, but Jake could tell from Heidi’s pinched features that she wasn’t happy about it. Sighing in disappointment, Jake took an empty bait can from the bottom of the boat and placed Kyle’s newest bullfrog into the bottom. Scooping in a handful of water and handing it back to the bright-eyed boy, Jake turned his attention back to the shrieks of laughter from the flotation.
    Taking the frog and the boy back to the buoy, Jake settled back into the boat to watch the swimmers and chase the icy chill from his shoulders, where he had immersed them in the water for frog duty. He was tempted to lay his head back and close his eyes, but the boat rocked beneath the excited little boy’s feet as he played with the irritated swamp frog, and the splashing of his charges kept his mind too alert to relax into the summer heat.
    Heidi appeared at the edge of the dock before Jake had registered her movement, diving into the cold water and swimming to Miriam and Jana. Her formerly pinched features were smooth now and light as she splashed and dove beneath the float, tickling the feet of the children. When Jake looked back up again, the horses were tied to the fence beside the truck where Chris Barben fed and unsaddled them, and Cassie was making her way with her red-tipped cane down the dock. Kyle handed Jake the bait can, insisting he needed more water for Bullworth, and Jake leaned over the side to scoop some more into the can as he watched Cassie walk closer and closer to where the dock ended and the deep water of the reservoir began.
    Panic swelled through Jake as he saw her nearing the drop off. His mind never considered the idea that even if she went over the side, she could probably swim. She was blindly, literally, heading for danger, and Jake was about to jump to his feet to keep her from falling from the dock. Then he remembered he was in the boat with Kyle, too far away to stop her, and he watched