And then suddenly, the little girl stirred. Alex immediately sat her up and endless streams of water began spewing out of her mouth. A massive cheer rose from the crowd and the mother pulled her gasping daughter in to her arms. Alex reached for her wrist again and took her pulse once more, nodding as if he was satisfied.
“I need to examine her.” He placed a reassuring hand on the mother’s shoulder and then gently pulled the little girl from her arms. I watched in fascination as he began inspecting the girl’s body, running his hands up her legs, running his fingers over her ribs, checking and inspecting her head. He was so meticulous and I could almost see the cogs in his brain ticking. Finally, the little girl cried out in pain when he reached her left arm.
“Ssshhh, it’s okay,” he said to her gently. “I think you bumped your arm a little, let’s lie you down again.” He gently lowered the girl to the sand and then turned to her mother.
“I think she’s fractured her arm, she’ll need an X-ray, but she’s out of danger now.”
As he’d finished the inspection, the paramedics pushed through the crowd.
Alex immediately started talking. “Her pulse is strong and regular. Possible fracture in the left ulna, would order an X-ray and also get a chest X-ray too to rule out any residual water in the chest.” The paramedics nodded at him. They didn’t need to question who this man was, they could tell he was a doctor. And so could everyone else, that authoritative tone in his voice put him in charge and made you feel safe, as though everything was being handled by him.
And then as quickly as the whole thing began, it was over. The mother and paramedics disappeared with the girl, who was loaded into an ambulance. Everyone on the beach stared after them and watched as the ambulance disappeared around the corner—lights and sirens blazing.
I let out a long sigh, and it was only then that I realized I’d been holding my breath. I turned back and looked at Alex as people descended on him, clapping. Women hugged him, men smacked him on the back and shook his hand and for a moment, he was swallowed up in the crowd.
I stood there, waiting and watching for him to emerge again, and when he finally did, and started walking up towards me, some strange combination of overwhelming emotions rocked me to my core. I was crying. Uncontrollably. I couldn’t quite explain why I was crying; coming down from the shocking rush of adrenalin that had gripped me, the relief of seeing the little girl breathe again, the sheer pride and admiration I had for Alex. It was all just so overwhelming and intense.
“Hey, hey,” he said, approaching me, “she’s going to be okay.”
I threw my arms around him, pulling him into the hugest hug. I buried my face in his neck and continued to cry. I felt his hands come up to my back and stroke it in big, long, soothing circles.
“It’s okay,” he whispered into my ear.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before.” I finally pulled away from him and began wiping my tears. “Now that,thatwas rock-star,” I said, grabbing his face and without thinking, planting a firm kiss on his lips. “That was literally the most badass, rock-star thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. You just saved a child’s life, it doesn’t get more fucking rock-star than that.” I smiled at him, tears still streaming down my cheeks.
“Really?” His gray eyes lit up. “You think?”
“I fucking know,” I said, maybe a little too loudly.
Alex gave me another smile and then pulled me into a hug.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I don’t know how long we hugged for. It was getting to the point where one of us needed to let go. But for some reason, I just couldn’t let go of him. Everything about this hug felt good and I didn’t want it to end. Finally, after wrestling with myself, I loosened my grip. I pulled away slowly, but instead of moving off, I looked up at Alex. He looked right back down at me, our eyes locking.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to hug you for so long,” I said awkwardly and self-consciously, averting my gaze.
Alex shrugged his shoulders and a tiny smile pulled at the corner of his lips. “It felt good.”
“It did,” I agreed, a small smile tickled the corners of my mouth.
“Besides, hugging lowers your blood pressure, lowers your stress hormones and increases your sense of wellbeing,” he said.
“They should be prescribed by doctors,” I said, looking back up at him. His gray eyes looked paler in the bright light of the sun. A dark outline around the iris blended into something that was almost silver in color around the pupil. Apart from being obviously gorgeous eyes, they had such kindness in them too and I felt myself being drawn to look at them. So I did. I only stopped when two men dressed in suits appeared by our sides.
They introduced themselves as the hotel managers and were soon shaking Alex’s hand, grateful that he’d saved the girl’s life. Alex kept humbly saying things like “it’s just my job” but he did accept the complimentary dinner cruise on the yacht that they offered as a thank-you. After they left Alex turned to me.
“Well, at least we know what we will be doing tonight,” he said with a smile.
“You want me to come with?” I asked, surprised by the invitation.
“Of course,” he said sincerely. “But the question is, what should we do with the rest of the day?”
I looked around. “Well, to be honest, I’m not really feeling very beachy anymore.”
“Me neither,” Alex admitted. He picked up our empty plates, as well as my bag, and started walking back to the hotel. “Tell me,” he said over his shoulder, “would I drop in your estimation from rock star to total nerd if I said there was a museum that I wanted to see?”
“A museum?” I smiled to myself. “I’d love to.”
