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Sophie hasn’t woken.
“Oh, shit!” I scream, yanking open the door.
Chapter 15
Sophie
ThelastthingIrecall doing is reading on the recliner by the pool. I’d been there, and then...
Nothingness. Darkness and sleep.
Release.
Now, not so much. I’m sputtering and choking on water, and it’s burning my lungs with its chlorine taste. It feels like someone dragged a bag over my head too. I can’t breathe and my vision is blurring more and more. The bubbles become terrifying white spheres of precious oxygen that I’m just screaming away …
Suddenly hands are grabbing me and someone is lifting me. I don’t try to fight it because I’m trying to understand what is happening. Am I drowning?
Then I gasp and it’s like being born. We’re out of the water and I’m coughing up the water I’ve just had inside me.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Luca says.
It’s him who’s saved me. Him and his strong hands and kind heart …
“What the hell happened?” he asks.
But I’m not really responding. I’m dazed and really a little kind of—fuzzy? I’m not sure. I’ve never felt shocked like this.
Luca pulls me towards the edge of the pool and helps me out, I’m weak and defenseless. He props me up into a sitting position, then holding me still, he climbs out. I thank God that this was actually a lap pool, what would’ve happened with a proper pool?
Luca brings his head under my shoulder and picks me up easily. I sense the force in his body and frame and feel safe. I don’t know what he’s doing or where he’s taking me, only thathe’staking me. The sun feels hotter than before. Maybe I’d been asleep for a while? Am I burning up? My head feels boiling.
The light dims and we’re inside somewhere. I can’t tell which way he took me. But a light comes on and then we’re going through a small open planned room. There’s a bed ahead of us, lovely and soft by the looks of it. Luca lays me on my side and then props me up against him.
“We’ve got to keep you on your side but I don’t want you choking, so I’m going to hold you.”
I nod like that’s completely understandable. I’m so weak that I just lie there, clinging to him and taking the warmth that is in his body. I don’t feel drowned or bad, or anything, just so shocked. I squeeze him tighter and listen to his heart. It’s so calming. It’s so enthralling and loud. I’m drawn to it. The shock is that not only would I have died, but also the baby… He’s talking but I can’t really hear him. I’m too tired. I just listen to his heart instead. It’s so strong and powerful. Just like him. Just like his child inside me.
That wakes me up a little bit.
Then it becomes suddenly apparent that he’s almost naked.
He’s in a speedo.
He must’ve been coming to swim.
“We have to be careful, you seem fine now, but you can never be sure,” he says. “You didn’t cough up a lot of water. So either it’s still in you or you didn’t take in too much, but sometimes—”
His voice fades out again but not because I’m not listening. I open my eyes and look up at him. He stops talking. “You saved me,” I say.
He looks at me like I’m an idiot.
“You saved me when I fell in,” I add.
Luca blinks in confusion, then chuckles slightly. “Well, yeah, I wasn’t going to let you drown.”
“But we hate each other?” I say.
Luca smiles slightly, a small dimple on his left cheek. I hope our kid gets it.
