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Her gaze locks onto mine and her laughter falters. “Yeah?”
I step forward with my arms outstretched. She licks her lips and grasps my forearms.This is finally going to happen.
Then I cry out in excruciating pain.
Hazel tenses. “Jellyfish?”
I shake my head. I’ve been stung by jellyfish. This isso muchworse than that.
Chapter 11
Bishop
AndIthoughttheincident with Hank Heron was bad.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, ruins a romantic moment quite like a stingray. I’m sitting in the surf with my head between my legs, trying to not to focus on the excruciating pain or the blood gushing from the jagged wound on my calf.
My head feels like it’s been stuffed with cotton. I fear I may pass out.
Friendly Beach only employs full-time lifeguards for the busiest summer days, like the Fourth of July. Hazel screams for help.
Her voice sounds distorted to my ears. I can hear her, but it’s like she’s on the other side of an invisible bubble.
And the bubble is the only thing keeping me tethered to the earth.
I think I’m going into shock.
Someone leans over me to examine my wound. A man. He swears under his breath, and I recognize the voice.Tuck.
“Bishop, buddy? You okay?”
“Of course, he’s not okay,” Hazel shrieks. “Don’t you see his leg?”
“He’s had worse wounds,” Tuck argues. “Remember that nasty tackle in high school? He broke his ankle and it swelled up to the size of a Christmas turkey.”
“That wound didn’t have stingray venom in it!”
“Maybe we should try to staunch the bleeding?” Tuck says.
I try to shake my head, but it feels like I’m trapped inside a blender. The ground shakes. It takes a moment to realize that it’s not an earthquake. Only my body is trembling.
Hazel notices the trembling and wrings her hands. “I think he’s in shock. You have to find a doctor, Tuck!”
Tuck stands up and bellows, “Is anyone a doctor?”
“I am,” someone says in a deep, exceedingly manly voice.
When I muster the will to raise my head, I see a man with bulging muscles and a golden tan. He’s shirtless and wearing tiny swim trunks. His thighs are as thick as tree trunks.
I’m physically fit, but this guy is a beast. He looks like the star of that show Tuck and I used to watch in the nineties.American Gladiators.I half expect this guy to tell me his name is Turbo or something equally ridiculous.Hello, I’m Dr. Turbo Maximus.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tuck gaping at the guy. I bet he’s thinking the same thing I am.
Hazel makes a strangled sound and Tuck turns to look at her. It takes my brain a second to fire off the message to turn my head. But once the action is complete, I wish I hadn’t looked.
Hazel’s face is flushed and she’s clutching her stomach with her hands. “It’s you.”
Dr. Turbo Maximus laughs with delight. “I can’t believe it! I never expected the pretty girl from Friendly Beach to still be right where I left her twenty years later.”
