Okay. Okay, she could do this.

She approached the edge of the ice, crawling when she was ten feet out and then moving to her belly and sliding across the last yard. Swinging her legs around, she dropped feetfirst into the water, careful to keep her face above the surface this time. She looked back at where Callum stood on the ice. He bumped his closed fist on the top of his head, the signal for Are you okay? She answered in the affirmative with a matching fist-to-head bump before heading toward her “victim.”

Holding her face out of the water, she swam toward Phil, who clung to the ice on the other side of the opening with melodramatic panic. Lou had to bite back a groan when she saw how he was putting every ounce of community-theater experience into his role of drowning victim.

Coming up next to him, she tried to get her legs underneath her as she spoke. “Hang on, sir. I’m Louise Sparks with the Field County Dive Team. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Phil’s pretend struggles increased, and his thrashing hand slapped the water, splashing it into her face. Air left her lungs again at the breath-stealing cold, and her legs floated up behind her. Damn it. When she could move her body again, she drew her knees up and pushed her feet straight down, glaring at her grinning victim.

“Oops,” Phil said. “Sorry, Lou.”

“Uh-huh,” she muttered as she moved around behind him. “I’m hooking this harness around you, sir, so the team on shore can pull you out.”

She struggled to reach around Phil’s wide girth, wishing she’d gotten skinny Wilt as her victim instead. The dry-suit gloves made her fingers thick and unwieldy, and she fumbled with the carabiner. To make matters even more silent-swear-worthy, Phil had resumed his melodramatic struggling.

“Don’t make me drown you,” she snarled, jerking her head back so his flapping elbow didn’t connect with her eye.

“Where’s your compassion, Lou? I’m a panicked, hypothermic tourist here.” The bastard sounded as if he were about to laugh.

“I’ll show you compassion,” she muttered through gritted teeth. “And if you’re hypothermic, shouldn’t you be getting tired and sluggish?”

“That sounds threatening.” Phil was definitely laughing, the ass. “As soon as you save me and I get out of the hospital, I’m going to file a complaint with your superior.”

“That’s where you’re wrong—there is no one superior to me,” she said, letting out a relieved grunt when she finally succeeded in hooking the carabiner through the metal loop of the harness.

Phil laughed and then wiggled several feet sideways, pulling his slick, neoprene-covered body free of her grip.

“Never let go of your patient!” Callum yelled. “Once you put your hands on him, you do not let go until he is being lifted into the ambulance, understand?”

With a heavy sigh, Lou tried to maneuver behind Phil again, but he was surprisingly agile for such a big guy. Plus, the training had been tiring, and she still had to help hoist Phil’s bulk out of the water. Clenching her jaw, she lunged toward him, managing to latch her arms around his waist.