Taking Chances: A Donnelley Brother's Novel by Alannah Carbonneau

arms of the jacket. I let him dress me the way no man had ever done before as I watched the hardness in his guarded expression fade. When he’d zipped up his jacket over my lifejacket and stepped back to look at me, he grinned.
    My heart fluttered. I really was growing dependent upon seeing this man grin.
    “You’re beautiful.” He said in low tones. “You look cute in my jacket.”
    I looked down and gasped in horror. “Yeah, cute.” I snorted. “I’m wearing a plastic dress.”
    He laughed, placing his hand on the small of my back to steer me toward the river. “Let’s get on the river, Hadley.”
    “Yeah.” I nodded, feeling slightly star struck as I watched this beautiful man walk so confidently toward the raging river. “Let’s get on the water.”

Chapter 9
    Icy water hit my face as the raft jolted sharply atop the waves. My fingers gripped the handles on the slightly raised floor of the raft where I was sitting in front of Collin at the back of the raft. His firm voice continued commanding steady orders to the others in the raft.
    “All left.” The paddles on the right lifted out of the water as those on the left remained in the water. The raft obeyed the paddles unspoken command and began turning right at the fork in the river.
    Not long after the turn, we were on calmer waters and my heart, although it was still racing, began to slow its rapid pace. Relieved adrenaline infused laughter spilled out of the raft as the group cheered our making it down the river without losing someone to the waves. Paddles were dropped against the inflated rubber, dangling in the calm river water. I was truly surprised how deep the river was in some places, while in others, we had had to struggle not to catch the bottom of our raft on a rock. I’d spent the entire ride centered at the back of the raft where I figured Collin felt he could best watch over my inexperienced ways. Despite the constant face full of chilled water, I’d had a blast and knew that this was an entire different kind of adventure than those I had experienced with my brother. This was an adventure he would have found himself addicted to. I know that like I know I’ll never have another adventure with my brother.
    I wish, so deeply, that he could have experienced this rush before he saluted this world. Knowing he never ridden the waves of a river was like being told he’d never finished all he was supposed to complete. I felt so confidently, in this moment, that he had been taken before his time. Because this rush, right here, was one his soul had lived for and failed to find.
    Yet, for some reason, my very caged entity - my uncertain and routine soul - had found this place - this experience. And I knew, that no matter how long I lived or where I went, this activity would be one I forever craved.
    The man in front of me turned around with a blinding grin. “You swimming?”
    “What?” My voice turned high-pitched and a new rush of excitement bloomed in my belly. “Swimming?”
    “Yeah, this is where we swim.” He nodded matter of fact. “It’s cold as Hell, but the experience isn’t complete until you swim.”
    “In that case...” I glanced behind me to find Collin looking down at me. “Are you swimming?”
    “Are you?” He countered.
    I nodded. “I want to.”
    “Then I’m swimming.” He stated before standing. “Take off the jacket and jump on in.”
    I did as he said eagerly, leaving my helmet and lifejacket on as we were still in a very unstable river and I had no desire for my head to find one of those hidden rocks. Suddenly, the man who’d been sitting in front of me jumped into the water with another girl. Her shrill scream of shock made me tense for a moment before I shook off my uncertainty, and I did the crazy thing. I jumped.
    Needles of ice stabbed at the entirety of my body as I bobbed in the water, unable to go under with the life jacket I wore. Wiping my eyes of the drops, I looked up at the raft to find Collin