Page 37 of When Our Stars Aligned

“Keep it up, Aly.” He looks down between us. “You’re making it worse.”

I can only assume the vibration from my laughter is causing some extra sensations. Maybe Jacob was right and Jax is into me.

23

Jax

I’m screwed. I was still upset about Aly’s little date night with Jacob, the underwear model, and then I got pissed when I saw her in that tiny bikini for all the world to see. Now, here I am balls deep in the ocean with a hard-on that could hit a home run at the World Series. Aly is straddling me while laughing her ass off. There’s no way I can walk back towards the beach the way I am. Karma really is a bitch.

“The more you laugh, the more you vibrate against me,” I growl in her ear.

She begins to laugh harder, then everything stops. She stiffens for a moment and focuses on something over my shoulder. I feel her foot press off my hip and she dives into the water, heading deeper into the ocean.

I’m utterly confused. Aly hates swimming in the ocean; why would she be going in deeper? Then I see where she is headed. A blur of blond hair is bobbing in and out of the water. Shit! Someone’s drowning!

I quickly follow the same path she took towards the blur of blond. I can’t even see the victim anymore. I have no idea if it’s a girl, boy, child, or adult. I trust Aly’s instincts and continue towards her. Aly’s head goes under a wave and comes up with an unresponsive blond little girl. She couldn’t be more than five or six.

Aly throws the little girl over her shoulder. The kid is like a ragdoll and my heart drops at the sight; her coloring is not good. Aly starts firmly slapping the child’s back. I hear a gurgling noise and the little girl throws up water over Aly’s shoulder.

“It’s okay. You’re going to be okay.” Aly rubs the little girl’s back. The little girl starts gasping for air then begins to cry. Music to my freaking ears. She’s alive!

A flash of orange comes up next to me and two lifeguards try to grab the little girl from Aly.

“No!” the little girl cries. She wraps her tiny arms tightly around Aly’s neck. It’s clear that she is petrified and does not want to let go of her rescuer.

“I can bring her in,” Aly says to one of the guards. “Give me your buoy.” The lifeguard looks like he’s about to argue with her but then does as he’s told.

We all swim back to shore where a crowd of onlookers has gathered. A frantic-looking woman comes running out of the crowd screaming. The little girl Aly is holding finally breaks the death grip she has around her neck and leaps into the screaming woman’s arms. Aly turns to talk to the lifeguards. I stand in the background, soaking up the entire scene.

Gabby and Alex appear out of nowhere and begin examining the girl. “She needs to go to the hospital. I’ve never seen someone throw up that much water,” Alex says.

An ambulance comes screeching to a halt near the pier and two EMTs jump out and head towards the crowd. Alex, Gabby, and presumably the girl’s mom, stay with the little girl until they load her into the back of the ambulance. The crowd begins to dissipate, and I feel a warm hand touch my bicep.

“Hey!” Aly says, looking completely relaxed as if she didn’t just save someone’s life. I have no doubt the lifeguards who showed up after us would’ve been too late.

“Hey!” I swing my arm around her shoulders. “You okay?”

“I’m great! Although I’m dying to take a shower right now.”

“Were the lifeguards mad that you took over?”

“Not at all.” She chuckles. “They actually offered me a job.”

“Oh, I can only imagine how that conversation went!”

“I just politely declined. I didn’t want to tell them about my fish poop theory and have them quit too.”

“Was that the girl’s mother?”

Aly’s shoulders drop. “Yup. It’s your typical story. The mom got distracted and the girl wandered off and went too far.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Yeah, but she was taken to the hospital for observation. She took in a lot of water.”

“I can’t believe that happened! I didn’t even know someone was drowning behind me!”

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I have no doubt you would’ve done the same thing if you saw her first.”

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