Chapter 1

Waking up in a cold sweat, the nightmare the same every night since the accident, the doctors said in time they would go away and that life would return to normal. How could they possible understand her life would never be the same again; everything she loved was taken from her. Lying back on her pillow she tried to close her eyes to get more sleep, desperately trying not to break down and cry. Never successful at falling asleep again after one of those dreams she finally roused herself out of bed when the sun started to show through her drapes.

Shelly had come to the Mountain Brook Guest Ranch to get away from everyone who knew her. She was sick and tired of everyone being sympathetic and telling her she needed to rest and most importantly she needed to eat if she were to get her strength back. What they didn't realize is that she didn't want to get her strength back, that she should never have survived the accident in the first place.

The cast she had on her right arm and leg had been removed about 2 months before coming out here and while they still bothered her enough to require pain medication Shelly never let anyone see how much pain she was in. While she could hide most of it with her smile, her eyes held despair that most were unable to see. There was one person at the ranch who could see the despair in her eyes and wanted so much to comfort her and take that despair away. Justin Winters, one of the ranch hands and second in charge of the ranch was tall around 6' 2" with emerald green eyes that flashed with his mood, his body lean and strong from years of working with horses and on the ranch, women flocked around him all the time, trying to vie for his attention, driving him crazy with their noise and constant stares. Justin had been secretly watching Shelly Withers trying to figure out how someone so tall and pretty could have such sad eyes. Shelly at 5' 10" with hazel eyes that seemed to change with her mood were almost always a dark brown. Only once or twice in the month she had been at the ranch had Justin seen Shelly's eyes lose that darkness and become almost green with passion and life.

Getting up and ready for the day, long before most of the other guest, and even the majority of the staff were even up; that's how Shelly liked it, quiet and with no one to give her a hard time about not sleeping or eating well. She had no reason to do either anymore. Quietly she left her room and headed for the stables, Shelly had brought her horse Shadow with her hoping that at least having something that cared for her while she "recovered" would keep her from doing the one thing that would go against her faith and prevent her from going to heaven when her time finally did come.

As Shelly looked around for her riding gear she noticed it was nowhere to be found, thinking back to that fateful day two weeks ago, then it dawned on her were her gear was stowed. Her money was that it was either locked in Justin's office or in his cabin; he was going to make sure she didn't have a repeat performance. With a shrug of her shoulder's Shelly silently went back to the main house and decided to climb back into bed. As she lie there the past came to her waking memories not just her nightmares...

On numerous occasions over the first month of Shelly being at the ranch, Justin had taken her out over the trails to get her and Shadow accustom to the terrain. The last time Shelly's eyes and face had a lightheartedness to them was two weeks ago when he took her the route towards the beach. Surprising him, when she reached the beach both she and Shadow headed straight for the water line; before Justin even realized what was happening both of them where in the water and before his jaw could even drop in shock, Shelly executed a perfect dive off of Shadow's back and into the water. Shadow after making sure his owner was okay headed out of the water and found some grasses to munch on, never letting Shelly out of his sight. Shadow knew Shelly had changed in the last year and had become very protective of her. All Justin could do was dismount Azura and let her munch on the tall grasses that were between the forest and the beach with Shadow.

Justin watched Shelly out in the water surprised at her strength and endurance. Watching her swim was like watching one of those Olympic hopefuls only instead of a swimming pool she was doing it in the ocean. As she got further and further out Justin became more and more concerned than all of a sudden sheer panic hit him, a feeling that both surprised and shocked him, he never had feelings like this for anyone, granted Shelly had to be about 8 years older than him at least that's what he figured not that he was that young but definitely didn't look like he was 33, but something about her made him wonder if he just might have found the woman of his dreams. All of a sudden Shelly stopped at what appeared to Justin to be out past the breaker, he saw Shelly look out into the wide blue wonder out there then back at shore like she was debating whether or not to continue out or go back to the safety of the beach, he could see the redness in her face and his logic told him she was getting tired and wasn't sure if she had enough in her to even return from the point she was out at.

Without even thinking he removed his cowboy hat and boots, next his jeans and shirt came off leaving him in his boxer briefs only, without another thought or hesitation he head straight into the ocean after her. He knew he didn't have the strength or swimming skill she just unknowingly showed him, but now that he found the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, he wasn't about to give her up.

Shelly had contemplated not going back to shore she was tired and in more pain then she would care to ever admit, but when she looked back at the shore and saw Justin the look on his face kept her from going out any farther, she did look back behind her and told herself it would be so easy to continue on until she cramped up and would never be able to make it back, as is she wasn't sure if her beat up old body could handle it. Not that Shelly was old at 35 she was still young, but her body had been through hell in her 35 years on this planet. When she looked back the sight she saw shocked her and made her for an instant think maybe life was worth living after all. She saw Justin stripping down to just his boxer briefs (and what a body he has too thought Shelly) and the look of horror and concern on his face as he went running into the water and started to swim towards her. When he was about half way out he started to slow, Shelly could see he was tiring, not used to swimming like she was, what no one knew was that many years ago Shelly was a kick ass swimmer, her childhood instructor was a bronze medal Olympian who had taught her competition style swimming and now that all the weight had come off of her, thanks to a Lap Band surgery and then after the accident not having a desire to eat anymore, Shelly was back down to below even her lowest competition weight, which made swimming out so far so easy.

Once Justin was about halfway to her he yelled at her the fear in his voice evident, begging Shelly to come back in. "Please Shelly come back in, it is not safe out there, I see that look in your eyes the one you so desperately try to keep others from seeing, I see your pain, please come back, I wouldn't survive if anything were to happen to you, Please come back."

Shelly was in total shock and started crying, could she have heard him right, was he actually saying he wanted her and that her death would kill him? She was so confused but when she saw his head go underwater panic filled her. It was one thing to let herself fade away and let the water claim her, but how could she let another go to their watery grave because of her. Ignoring her pain and exhaustion Shelly swam like she never had before, all those years ago when she was a lifeguard, she never swam like this.

Keeping a trained eye on Justin; he did come back up and went down 3 more times before she could get to him, getting to him in record time to say the least. When she reached the spot he should have been it was clear he had went under again. Despite being out of breath and ready to collapse Shelly took in a long breath and went under determined not to come back up until Justin was safe in her arms. Luck was on their side and Shelly was under for only 15 seconds when Justin came into view, his eyes just starting to close, Shell grabbed him and quickly got them to the surface. She checked his pulse and thank God there was one, although he didn't appear to be breathing, Shelly did the only thing she could, she placed her lips to his and hoped that she could get air in, out in the ocean treading water is every lifeguard, or former lifeguards, worse nightmare, knowing you could end up getting more water then air into their lungs. As soon as Shelly's lips touched Justin's his eyes opened and a look of relief and love quickly filed his eyes as he held on to her and kissed her with all the pent-up feelings he had buried deep inside. Shelly had a hard time keeping them both above water, when her mind and body were on that wonderful kiss and the sensations coursing through her body. Once, they broke off their kiss both still in shock at the feelings that were going through their bodies, Shelly heard Shadow whining, Shadow knew something was wrong with her and was standing in the water. Shelly slowly and deliberately made her way back to shore with Justin in tow knowing that if she pushed herself to hard she would never be able to get him back safely. As Shelly got closer to the shore, Shadow tossed his head at her in a scolding manner, but was glad to see her safe, he waited for her to grab his reins then he slowly pulled them the rest of the way out.