How odd that I could imagine the situation crystal clear without trying.
The determined frown set into Marlow’s face while his decision was made to go after his fellow rafter.
The near perfect form of him diving into the water, bobbing up to the surface moments later.
His study build cutting through the water easily as he paddled over to her.
The strain of his powerful shoulders jaw-dropping while he dragged them both back to safety.
I rubbed a hand over my face to clear my head. “How did any of this even happen in the first place?”
“We got beached on a rock. We were having trouble coordinating altogether, especially with the older couple. They seemed pretty freaked out for whatever reason. Caused us to overcorrect and she went overboard.”
And then Marlow went in after her.
Honestly, it wasn’t at all that far-fetched, given what I knew about him and his boisterous personality. He’d struck me as the hero-type before, yet seeing it put into action was more heartwarming than I expected.
Why I cared if that man was the type to put his money where his mouth was, was beyond me. And yet here I was, trying not to let my rapidly growing smile show while Talos continued to talk.
“I’ll call it in so we can have an ambulance waiting for us up there by the time we get them driven back up.”
I nodded for one of the golf carts. “Take the couple up. I’ll talk to Marlow and see how he’s doing.”
With that, my second nodded and stepped off to the side to call up to base camp.
Normally, I tried to avoid bringing ambulances down to the grounds at all costs—mainly because it tended to freak the guests out no matter what we said to try and calm everyone down. Worse case scenarios were a frequent topic of gossip whenever something like that happened and no amount of debriefing anyone stopped the rumor mill from churning.
Judging by how shaky the woman still was after she was helped back onto her feet, I’d have to agree with Talos that getting her to a hospital was the best case scenario. Even if it was overkill. In this instance, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
I waited until my staff had the woman and her husband loaded onto the back of the golf cart to head over to where Marlow was still sitting on the ground. His eyes were focused on the couple, a pinched expression pulling at his features.
His hair was still plastered to his head, though the ends of it were starting to curl from where it was drying. It made him look boyish, a stark contrast to the expression he was wearing.
“You doing okay?” I asked.
His head snapped over to me, eyes widening briefly before he flashed me a charming, dimpled smile. “Mr. Director. What a pleasant surprise.”
He rolled to his feet easily, a small hop in his step I wasn’t expecting but was glad to see nonetheless. Seeing Marlow so chipper after a, what could be argued,scaryordeal had my body relaxing instantly. Before this, I’d barely noticed how tense I’d gotten the entire way down from my office to here.
Now, though, the world felt right again.
“Don’t tell me you came all the way down here to check on little old me.” He grinned.
To save myself the embarrassment from admitting thatyes, I did in fact do that, I simply shrugged and said, “Part of my job is to make sure everyone survives long enough to leave my campgrounds.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. It wouldn’t exactly be fun to have a bunch of ghosts haunting this place.”
I quirked my brow. “You believe in ghosts?”
“Petrified of them. You’re not scared of being haunted?”
I narrowed my eyes. It was hard to tell if he was being serious or not. I had a hard time believing Marlow was scared ofanything,let alone something imaginary like aghost. Tangible fears were far more unsettling than a bedtime story told to kids to keep them from wandering out of their beds in the middle of the night.
“Can’t say I am,” I drawled. “But I’ll be sure not to invite you to the Halloween weekend we throw every year. Wouldn’t want to send you to an early grave by scaring you to death.”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Now, now, don’t be hasty. I’m always up for a good party. And slutty costumes.”
“Can’t forget those,” I mused.
