Playing to Win (Summer Beach Vets 2) - sweet contemporary romance by H.Y. Hanna Read Free Book Online Page B

be tempted to swim out.”
    Will nodded and stood up. Dan helped Ellie to her feet and the three of them made their way slowly back to the clump of palm trees and the remainder of their belongings. Milo was already bouncing eagerly around Will, brandishing the ball in his mouth, obviously hoping for another game of fetch. Ellie was glad to see that the boy seemed to have recovered from his traumatic experience already—chattering and laughing with the dog. Certainly a lot better than herself! She hugged her towel around her. Her wet clothes were clinging to her body now in a really unpleasant way.
    She stole a glance at Dan. He was wearing nothing but a pair of board shorts and the water droplets glistened on his bronzed chest, trickling down over the muscles of his flat stomach. His wet shorts were clinging to him too, but they simply highlighted his muscular physique and toned legs.
    Wow, she thought, I was right. As a male beach model, Dan took some beating. Then she flushed and looked away. She couldn’t believe what she was thinking. What was wrong with her? She had just nearly drowned and here she was leering over some guy’s hot body? Not just “some guy”, the little voice in her head said coyly. Dan. Dan’s hot body.
    “Are you feeling better?”
    “Oh. Uh… um… yeah,” Ellie stammered, going bright red. She saw Dan look at her curiously. She wondered wildly if he could read her treacherous thoughts in her face. She scrabbled for something to say. “Uh… are there really sharks out there?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, there are about a hundred and eighty species of sharks in Australian waters.”
    “ A hundred and eighty ?” Ellie stared at him. “My God, if I’d known that, I’d have thought twice about diving in the water!”
    “Most of them aren’t dangerous. In fact, most shark attacks on humans along this coastline only come from three species—the tiger shark, the bull shark, and the great white.”
    “That’s three enough for me,” said Ellie, making a face
    Dan laughed and shook his head. “People get so worked up about shark attacks when, actually, you’re more likely to be killed in a car coming to the beach! There’s been about one fatal shark attack per year in Oz in the last fifty years—compared to like fifteen hundred deaths a year on Australian roads. In fact, at the beach, you have a greater chance of dying from skin cancer or drowning than from a shark bite.”
    “Really?” Ellie gave him a sceptical look.
    He nodded towards the open sea. “About three hundred people a year die from drowning in Oz—and a lot of them get caught in a rip current, like you did.”
    “Was that what it was? It just felt like something was pulling me out to sea and I couldn’t fight it,” Ellie said, shuddering at the memory.
    “That’s where most people go wrong—they try to fight the rip current and they become exhausted and drown. The most important thing is to stay calm and keep floating… easier said than done, I know,” he said wryly. “On the patrolled beaches, the surf lifesavers will come and rescue you if you wave to attract their attention. If there’s no one around, then your best bet is to try and swim parallel to the shore, towards the breaking waves, and hopefully you’ll be able to swim out of the path of the current.”
    “How d’you know all this stuff?” asked Ellie in amazement. “Were you one of those beach lifeguard people?”
    Dan chuckled. “No, Craig did a lot of that when he was younger. Volunteered as a surf lifesaver. I haven’t… but like most Aussies, I guess, I’ve been around beaches all my life. Was taught all this stuff about beach awareness and water safety from the time I was an ankle-biter.” He reached forward to ruffle Will’s hair again. “Which is why you should have known better, mate!”
    Will gave them a sheepish grin. They had reached their original spot near the palm trees now and Ellie wondered if Dan would leave them. She felt