Page 41 of We Thought We Were Invincible
Jamie dropped knees first into the sand by my head.
“I'm just over there if you need me,” Freya said, pointing toward the other end of the beach before heading that way.
“Are you okay?” Jamie ran his hands over me, checking for injury and finding the gash on my leg. “We should get this taken care of. I'll take you to the hospital. We need to call Kat and Colby, probably Morgan too. It's going to be fine. You're fine.” He pressed a hand to his forehead. “You're fine.”
His words broke me, the terror of the last few minutes becoming real.
“Jamie.” I started to cry. My leg throbbed. My lungs burned. I was shaken.
He wiped at the tears off my face, and I gripped his leg to tell him not to leave me. It was irrational because I knew he wouldn't, but the thought still gripped me. I couldn't stand to be alone after that.
I pushed myself up on my elbows and he pulled me to him.
“It's okay,” he whispered in my ear. “You're fine.” It was the third time he'd said it, and I got the impression he was reassuring himself just as much as me.
More tears fell my chest shook.
Jamie kissed my forehead, his lips soft on my skin, then moved down to my cheek as if he could kiss away the tears. He lingered there, his breath warm, before pressing them to the corner of my mouth. His hands brought me closer to him, pressing me up against his chest, as I turned to kiss him back.
He hesitated. I slid my arms up around his neck and wound my fingers into his hair and that broke any last restraint he had. His next kiss was hard.
“I was so scared,” he whispered against my lips.
I kissed him, drawing my teeth against his bottom lip.
He broke away for a moment, his hands now digging into my hips. “I…”
“Jamie.” I put a hand over his mouth. “You're ruining it.”
I felt his smile, and he kissed my fingers until I replaced them with my mouth.
I couldn't seem to care that we weren't alone on the beach. All I cared about was the fact that I may have almost died and now it was time to grab on to the nearest life-raft, consequences be damned.
My breath shook as we shifted and broke apart. A stab of pain wound up my leg, and I flinched. Jamie saw it, his eyes going wide.
“Shit, we need to get you to the hospital.” He stood, bending down to lift me, his eyes refusing to meet mine.
My mind spun out of control as I touched my tingling lips, the feeling mixing with the pain in my leg to create a cloud of confusion.
What had just happened?
* * *
Kat rushedinto the room as I was helped off the table.
“Callie, are you okay?” she asked, pulling me into a hug. “Jamie said you'd had a pretty bad spill off your board.”
“Not going to yell at me for skipping school?” My joke fell flat.
She pulled me into her arms.
“Just a few stitches,” I reassured her.
“Jamie said it was serious. You had to have help from some nurse at the beach?”
“Is Jamie still here?” I looked past her. He hadn't come into the exam room with me.
“No,” she said, holding my face between her hands to look at me. “He had to go take care of something.”
