Eve turned her head and saw the jacket lying some distance away in the grass among the leaves.

"Chief! Bring it!" Eve ordered and pointed the dog towards the jacket.

The sheepdog obeyed immediately, leaped off, and brought the jacket in a matter of seconds. The fabric fell into her lap, and Chief wagged his tail expectantly.

"Good dog," she quickly took the time to give him a quick pat on the head. The dog seemed content with his world as he shuffled back to Liam and rested his head on the boy's legs.

"Pill... Box!" Ray pressed out between clenched teeth, and Eve couldn't help but remember their first encounter. She immediately remembered the silver tin in the leaves and pressed it against his chest. Did he mean this one?

Her fingers rummaged in the brown and green jacket pockets and found the pillbox with the raven. When Ray reached for it, she let him, but she quickly realized that he couldn't open it himself in this state.

Behind her, Liam wrapped his arms around himself, coughing occasionally while looking worriedly at Ray.

"Liam?" the soaked handyman croaked.

Even now, he was worried about their son, and Eve felt the bitter stab of guilt in her heart.

Gently but firmly, the young woman reached for his hands, which trembled like his life depended on them. The rough fingers felt ice-cold beneath hers. She could feel how cold she was, even though, unlike the others, she wasn't soaked through to the tips of her hair. Only her wet trousers and shirt were sticking to her skin. It was freezing cold, and every breath of wind stung like tiny needles.

"Let me do it," she said, seeking his gaze.

He looked ... horrible, as if he was in pain. His hair was curled into wet strands from the water and stuck wildly and messy all over his forehead. Drops came loose, ran in tiny rivulets over his skin, and dripped from his chin.

"Ray. Please." There was an urgent plea in her expression. From the looks of it, he didn't have the energy to fight back at the moment, had she tried. Nevertheless, she waited until his fingers loosened. Then she took the can from his trembling hands.

Evelyn opened the slightly jammed silver, revealing small tablets inside. Her brow furrowed, but they couldn't talk about what they were or what they were for now.

Instead, the blonde fumbled out one of the pills and held it out to Liam, who popped it into his mouth and choked it down despite his cough.

"Liam's fine," Eve finally replied. Then her gaze flew like a bird from the man before her to Liam and back again.

"He's... okay," she repeated as if she needed to convince herself as much as him. It took those moments, a few heartbeats, for her to understand her own words. This time, a new shock ran through her as the realization hit her full force.

Liam was fine.

Everything came crashing down on her: worry that had run through her veins like ice. Anger because Liam had disobeyed her, but she couldn't take it out on the boy.

Not now. Despair that had paralyzed everything inside her a moment before was now left behind like snow that needed time to melt in the spring sun. Panic almost suffocated her because she couldn't have lived with herself if something had happened to Liam. Gratitude ... infinite gratitude. And it all crashed over her like a wave.

Tears welled up in her eyes again, but they were tears of joy and boundless relief this time.

"Thank you... Ray... Oh God... thank you!"

She felt like she had risen out of the water, and the weight had lifted off her in one fell swoop. A feeling of heaviness remained, but... It was nothing like what she had felt just a few minutes ago. A jolt went through her body as she wrapped her arms around the man who had just saved her son. Overwhelmed with emotion, she turned her head and, without thinking, placed her lips on his cheek in a lavish kiss. The shadow tickled... and she only realized what she was doing.

Eve sucked in a sharp breath, her body stiffening under the realization. For a second, she didn't dare move. Wide-eyed, like a deer in headlights, she stared at him ... and saw that he was looking at her just as perplexed.

"Oh! I..." If her heartbeat had just calmed down, that brief moment was over. Instead, her pulse stumbled like a young foal taking its first steps while she opened her mouth, and only stuttering sounds came out. Nevertheless, her body did not want to obey and jump away from him at that moment... Instead, she saw his gaze move from her eyes to her lips as if he couldn't believe where they had just been. Then, slowly, a slight smile crept into the corners of his mouth.

She could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Her ears were probably flaming red, and inside, she wanted to sink into the ground. Her fingers twitched on his shoulders.

"I ... I'm sorry ... I just... it was just..."

"Mum, I'm cold."

She winced as if she'd been thrown back into the lake. Now, she quickly detached herself from Ray, took her hands off his broad shoulders, and stood up hurriedly.

Suddenly she wasn't as cold as before, instead...

Eve cleared her throat and mentally grabbed her shoulders to shake herself.

'Pull yourself together! What are you doing?'

She had to think about Liam now and nothing else. Liam was the most important thing. He was all that mattered. Accordingly, she grabbed Liam's upper arms and rubbed them to warm him up a little. That suited her fine because she didn't have to look Ray in the face.

"Of course, my darling. Come on, we'll go straight in and warm you up." She gently stroked the boy's hair and glanced at the house before helping him stand up. Only then did she turn to Ray and helpfully held her hand to him.

'Act normally. Don't embarrass yourself anymore now!'

"Can you walk? You really need to get warm."

It tingled when he took her hand. From the cold, of course, what else? Of course, she wasn't strong enough to pull him up. He probably weighed as much as she did - only in muscle mass and not, like her, from too many sweet bits.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said, sounding as hoarse as she was.

Eve nodded and pulled her hand back to hold her arms out to Liam.

"Come here," she said softly, lifting the boy into her arms with a soft groan. Liam clung to her shoulders as she retraced her steps back to the cottage. Her socks were dirty and discolored from the wet earth. A few leaves complained under her footsteps when she suddenly heard the loud hum of the old engine.

As if waiting for a sign, the old pick-up rolled out of the woods and over the gravel in front of the house. It braked too abruptly, and Ri jumped out of the truck.

"Oh shit, what's happened?" she shouted and ran towards the small group.

On the way back to the house, Riona discovered what had happened. The first thing she did in the house was to calm the worried Edana down and then clear away the breakfast. She promised to bring her something new immediately, but the old woman was too upset to eat.

Meanwhile, Eve peeled Liam from his wet clothes and sat him by the warming fire in the living room. Meanwhile, Ray changed upstairs and returned downstairs, where Eve wrapped Ray in the warm woolen blanket. She took the opportunity to bring both of her boys a hot cup of tea.

"Drink up. Both of you!" she instructed Ray and Liam, giving them the particularly stern look that only mums had.

"Maybe we should take them to hospital after all? Just to be on the safe side?" Riona asked thoughtfully, and Eve swayed uneasily from one leg to the other at the thought. You could see her face lose a little color before she lifted her thumb to her lips and pinched the tip.

"He'd find us if we did that," Eve whispered. "But if it's best for Liam..."

Riona sighed and ran her fingers through her curly hair. "How about we call Dr Taylor? Surely he can examine them or tell us if we should go to the hospital?"

Eve wanted to slap her forehead. This thought had never even crossed her mind. Had her brain completely shut down? Nodding, she immediately agreed and was already on her way to the phone.

"I'll call him right away!"

A little embarrassed about being pestered so soon after his last visit, she called Dr Taylor and asked him to come over. However, he understandingly promised to be on his way immediately. The young woman breathed a sigh of relief before turning her attention back to her sweetheart.

She didn't have to reprimand Liam, even if some of her wanted to. He had more than learned his lesson; she was sure of that. Instead, Eve kissed him repeatedly, telling him how much she loved him and how glad she was that he was okay. It was the overcompensation of a mother who had thought for a moment that she would never be able to tell him that again.

Fortunately, her thoughts were too preoccupied with her son to think back to her embarrassment at the lake.