None of it mattered because he had already headed down himself. And grasping Chloe in a life-saving hold, he managed to wrench both women away from the drain and spring to the surface even as the lifeguard appeared, ready to take Sally from his hold and get her quickly to the side of the pool.
At first, Wes feared she wasn’t breathing.
But even as the young lifeguard moved to begin his lifesaving techniques, Sally coughed and sputtered, sending a spray of water over all of them.
She sucked in a deep gasp of air, opening her eyes, staring at them all incredulously.
“What the hell?”
By then, of course, the lifeguard had been joined by others belonging to the ship’s crew; the pool had already been cleared and now they were asking the guests to please leave this area until the problem could be solved; the other pool remained open and they were beset now with a mechanical problem that had to be investigated and cleared as quickly as possible.
Always on board, the safety of the passengers was the most important element of any cruise!
George Garcia had momentarily left his charge, hurrying over to make sure Sally was all right, but Sally was a trouper.
She was already reaching for Wes’s hand to rise, thankinghim, thanking Chloe effusively, then turning to assure George that she was fine.
“Sally, you came close to drowning—” George told her.
“I sure know how to hang around the right people!” Sally said lightly, looking at the young lifeguard and assuring him. “I know, young sir, that you would have been there in seconds, too, and I’m just fine and I don’t want to ruin the cruise—”
“Ma’am,” the lifeguard told her solemnly, “I can’t begin to tell you how grateful we are that you’re fine, but now you surely understand that such a thing should have never happened, and we must investigate and make sure we’re not going to put any other passengers in danger! And thank you for being so amazing. We’ll file an incident report, of course, and due compensation will be made—”
Edward had made his way to them by then, apparently pushing his way through the crew personnel emptying the deck area by insisting that he was “family.”
“You can sue, that’s what the young man means!” Edward told her. “Sally, Sally, are you really all right? You poor thing! It was all so fast, we barely saw what was happening and...” He paused, looking at Wes and then Chloe. “These guys! They do see everything, they seem to be... Wow! You two should be sainted! That’s the second life you’ve saved!”
“Others would have done the same. We just happened to see that there was a problem with the drain and the suction!” Chloe told him quickly. “And you know—”
“Right. College lifeguard,” Edward said, looking at Wes.
Wes shrugged. “As long as ‘all’s well that ends well!’” he quoted.
“I still want my frilly drink!” Sally said, grinning. “Um, maybe not at the pool. I was thinking of heading to my cabinand then maybe to that lovely little deck bar just below us! So, I do think I’ll shower quickly—”
“I’ll head there, too,” Edward told her, smiling. “Though—”
“We’ll still need to file an incident report,” the lifeguard told him.
“Naturally,” Wes said, feeling sorry for the young lifeguard, a man who couldn’t have been more than mid-twenties. He’d probably never expected he’d be doing more than cleaning cocktail glasses out of the pool or clearing his throat and telling adults that intimacy was for the cabins, not by the water.
Chloe looked at Wes.
And he knew that she was thinking about the night before.
About the fact that he’d thought he’d heard something in the water.
“So, let’s do it, huh? Get that incident report going so that we have something of the afternoon and evening left!” Wes said. “Okay, so a few of us are a bit wet, but plenty of towels around here! Let’s do it.”
“And,” Sally said, smiling and setting a hand gently on the young lifeguard’s arm, “I don’t sue people. Something wacky happened here, but I’m fine! Everything is fine!”
“Sally! At the very least, let them get you on another of their great cruises for free!” Edward said.
Sally laughed.
Wes saw that they had emptied the area; the only other people visible were crew members. The pool, the bar and the deck area had been quickly cleared and closed.
Edward and Sally and George were with them.
