The teens hurried their way, the girl swiping at her cheeks and the guy putting away his phone. As they got closer, Olivia realized the guy was soaked to the bone, cropped black hair and all. The girl only seemed wet from the waist down.

“Robby tried to go in after the dog,” the girl said, her voice shaky and uneven, “but the water gets really strong about ten feet in. It isn’t that deep, but I thought he was going to get swept away.”

“It’s a good thing you turned around,” Gabe said. “Water moving this fast has undercurrents, and you never know when you’re going to step into a strong one.”

The dog let out a giant bay that stabbed straight into Olivia’s heart. She clamped her hands together and scoped out the path to the pen. The unflooded strip of yard between the house and the water seemed to fall in a steady decline, and out in the rushing water, there were areas with more ripples than others. With any luck, it was only three or so feet deep, but Gabe was right. There was no denying that it was moving fast.

“Did you guys bring a boat, or are you going to try to walk it?”

“There’s no boat.” Gabe’s free hand locked around Olivia’s arm for a second or two. “Would you want to stay back and hold the rope for me? I think we could use that tree as a pivot joint.”

Olivia frowned. If she went in and the water knocked her off her feet, four years of high-school swim team might enable her to reach the pen, but there’d be no carrying out a dog that size through the water. She was willing to bet he was seventy or eighty pounds. Pushing through rushing water while holding a gangly, heavy dog would be a challenge even for Gabe, and he probably had half a foot of height and fifty pounds on her.

It was Olivia’s turn to squeeze Gabe’s arm, and even in the stress of the moment, some instinctive part of her responded to the solid feel of his biceps. “Just promise not to get into anything you can’t handle.”

“I’ll do my best.” He pulled out the gloves tucked into his back pocket and offered them to her along with the rope. “You’ll need gloves to hold the rope if I end up fighting with that water.” To the teens, he added, “Back her up, will you, guys?”