Rescue Me(22)

"I'm not avoiding you," she said, pursing her lips and staring down at the sand.

"Like hell you aren't." He angled his chest in closer to her, needing to see her reaction to him. To know he wasn't the only one feeling this way. He tilted his head so he was only inches away and placed his fingers under her chin, gently lifting it so that she would look him in the eyes. The anger that had been there dissipated instantly, replaced with need so intense he had to smile. "That's what I thought."

"You're an arrogant ass, you know that?"

He shrugged. "Maybe."

Meredith threw her hands up in exasperation. "I don't have time for this."

"For what? Acknowledging that you want me as badly as I want you?" That got her attention. "You can't deny it. What happened yesterday—"

"Should never have happened. It can't happen again. We can't let it."

"Not even if you want it to?" He paused. "Don't tell me you don't want it to."

She took a shaky breath and fiddled with her ponytail. "What do you want me to say?"

"I want you to admit that you want this." He ran his hand down her neck to her shoulder and felt her pulse kick up a notch. "And this." He brushed the pad of his thumb across her lips and a small sigh escaped. He smiled. "See?"

She shook her head as if to clear it and opened her mouth to say something, but the moment was broken by screams coming from the beach.

Cole jerked his head around.

A crowd was gathering along the shore and he followed the pointing fingers out to sea where he saw a pair of water skis and a life jacket floating a few hundred yards away. Their owner was nowhere to be found.

Without a second thought, Cole took off, bounding into the surf, adrenaline and pure instinct taking over. Someone was in trouble.

He dove into the water and was a hundred yards out before he felt it. A riptide. It was strong. He could handle it, but anyone with less experience than him would have a slim chance of fighting it. He pressed on further, searching for a sign of the distressed swimmer. There was no one in sight.

***





Meredith ran to the water's edge, barely breathing. Something was wrong. Bad wrong.

"Riptide," she heard someone say.

No. That was more than bad. She knew from spending time at the beach growing up that riptides could be fatal. What was he thinking running out into it like that?

The crowd was growing and she could hardly make out Cole's body getting deeper and deeper into the sea.

"Someone needs to help him!" Meredith cried, feeling her legs buckle. She grabbed on to the nearest person for balance, and realizing it was Taylor, clenched his arm, digging her fingers into his skin. "Someone has to do something."

"He's the best one for the job. It's what he does." Noting Meredith's confused expression, he said, "He's a search and rescue officer with the Coast Guard. He knows what he's doing."

That only made her feel a fraction better. It didn't make it any less dangerous. She still didn't see the other person out there. She also knew that a drowning swimmer could be just as dangerous as a deadly current, and Cole was out there alone without any equipment. He may have known what he was doing, but he could get pulled under and out to sea just as quickly as anyone.

She squinted against the bright sun, trying to make out what was going on. Cole had just made it to the life jacket that had somehow fallen off the skier and he grabbed onto it for a moment, looking around. He disappeared under the water and came up twenty yards down the beach, still empty-handed. He dove under again and Meredith felt her heart drop. He wasn't having any luck.

A woman nearby struggled against the restraining arms of two men. "My daughter! I have to help my baby," she was screaming. Meredith couldn't imagine the fear the mother felt if she was even half as terrified as her. She ran up to her as she continued to struggle to get free.

"You can't go out there, no matter how much you want to." Meredith spoke softly to her, trying to calm her down. "He's going to find her." He had to. She remembered the pain of losing her parents and didn't want to think about what this woman would go through if something unspeakable happened to her daughter.

She continued speaking softly to the woman, then cried out and pointed as Cole reappeared above the water, this time with something in his arms. "He has someone!"

The crowd on the beach was frantic. Meredith could barely see from the distance, but she knew he had a body.

She wasn't moving. Oh, God.

The woman sank to her knees in the surf and Meredith knelt beside her, whispering consoling words while they watched Cole wrap the life jacket around the girl.

They were drifting further down the shore, but it didn't seem as if they were being pulled further out. She reminded herself that Cole knew what he was doing. He didn't fight the tide, but went with it, slowly making his way inland until finally they were waist deep in the water.

Cole stood, carrying the limp form in his arms, and walked the rest of the way to the shoreline. The mother broke away from Meredith and ran down the beach to where they had come ashore. Meredith ran after her, her relief at seeing Cole safely emerge from the water replaced with fear that it was too late. She arrived in front of them as Cole began pumping the girl's chest, trying to expel water from her lungs, breathing deep breaths into her lifeless lungs.