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“… will be here soon. You’ll be okay.” She gently rubbed Jordan’s arm.
“Oh, thank you, thank you.” Tears filled Barb’s eyes, and Hank drew an arm around his wife. “I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
“I’m glad I was here.” Then Lexi smiled.
Somehow her gaze drifted up to meet his, holding, connecting, as his gut kicked and his pulse roared. So that’s what a genuine smile from Lexi looked like. He smiled back, and she startled, blinking, breaking the connection, turning as Ellie draped a towel around her shoulders.
A siren wailed through the air, flashing lights signaling the ambulance’s arrival. Twenty minutes later, Jordan and his folks were headed to the tiny Trinity Lakes’ hospital. Even though he seemed fine, Jocelyn and the other paramedic wanted to keep him in for observation.
Couples and singles traipsed to the door, leaving Jackson and Jasper to pick up the last of the party detritus. Having refused medical attention, Lexi sat on an outdoor lounge in the corner, her admirers from earlier having mostly faded away. Her offer to help clean up had been dismissed, with Jasper and others treating her like today’s prom queen. But Jackson had noticed the way she’d stacked plastic cups anyway, as if sitting still was as much an anathema to her as it was to him.
“This is a party we won’t forget in a hurry,” Jasper muttered. “Thank God Lexi was here, huh?”
“She knew just what to do.” Which, to be honest, kind of floored him. She certainly hadn’t given off any cool, calm, collected vibes until now. His gaze sprung back to her, on the opposite side of the pool, out of hearing—he hoped. Judging from the expression she was now showing as Ellie continued talking, she was out of her comfort zone too.
“She was amazing,” Jasper said.
Jackson glanced at him. Did the hardware heir have an interest there?
“But did you notice the scar?”
“What scar?”
“You probably didn’t because you were too busy being an action hero.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “What scar?”
“On her neck, about here.” Jasper drew a line across his throat. “It’s not exactly little.”
A scar? Is that why she wore scarves and high-necked tops? What had happened to her?
“Jackson?” Ellie tugged at his sleeve. “Would you mind if we go now?”
“Uh, sure.”
“And can we take Lexi? She drowned her phone when she jumped in the pool, so I promised her I’d take her home.”
Why did his heart leap at that thought? He strove for nonchalance. “Sure. Is she ready now?”
“I think she was ready to leave before she arrived,” Ellie said wryly.
He’d noticed that reluctance as well. “Then let’s go.”
Maybe he’d learn some more clues about this increasingly fascinating lifesaving Australian.
CHAPTERFOUR
“Oh my gosh, Lexi. You were amazing! How did you know to do all that stuff?”
Lexi closed her eyes, glad Ellie couldn’t see her from the front seat. “I’m a nurse, remember?”
“You were awesome.”
The pickup slowed, and Lexi peeked to see Jackson was waiting at a red light while two pedestrians crossed the road.
“I still can’t believe none of us noticed him,” Jackson muttered.
Lexi swallowed and steered her gaze to the darkened park, the obelisk commemorating fallen soldiers lit in the night. Yeah, she couldn’t believe that nobody had noticed Jordan either. But thank God she had. Maybe that was why she’d had that strange compulsion to stay. Her lips twisted. Far better a God-prompting than some wrong compulsion to see Jackson again. How could she have smiled at him like that? Especially when Ellie had proved to be so kind. She shivered and drew Ellie’s borrowed jacket more firmly across her as he resumed driving.
