“I don’t do anything halfway,” Emmaline called back, a little muffled because she’d given up on lifting her head every time she needed to say something. Her neck was seriously getting a crick in it.
“We’re gonna have to cut it,” James announced. “Only way to get her out.”
Well, fabulous.
“Where’s Jim? Or Sam?” Mom said, her voice already trailing away. “Tell them we need the saw. Sam’s the best with it.”
Emmaline resigned herself to waiting when Ethan’s head came into view from the opposite side of the tube, illuminated by a flashlight.
“Hi,” Emmaline said, her cheek resting against the plastic.
“Hi.” He did that thing where he sort of grinned, but not really. She’d really grown to like that expression.
She studied his gaze and the way he stared at her like the rest of the world didn’t matter when they were sharing the same space.
“I found Annie.” She smiled brightly.
Ethan didn’t come all the way in. Probably because he’d get even more stuck than her. But she could see his eyes and understood the depth of what he meant when he said, “Thank you.”
“Um. Do you want to pull this way?” she asked.
Because maybe that might work better? It seemed like that would be a good idea right about now.
“I thought, actually, maybe we could talk for a sec,” Ethan said, reaching in to trace her jaw with his fingertip. “While I’ve got your attention, and you’ve got mine.”
“You’re soaked,” she said, but at least the rain had stopped so he wasn’t getting more soaked.
“I don’t care.”
She wriggled and made some forward movement. “You’re crammed in a tube with me.”
An uncomfortable tube.
“I don’t care,” he said, again.
Well, that made one of them.
“I’m hungry,” she said, appealing to his inner chef.
“Lucky for you, I have a ripper set of skills that’ll help with that when you’re off the playground equipment.” With that, he full-on smiled.
“Hah.”
“Unless you want me to yank you by the head, it’s not going to work from this direction either,” he said.
Unfortunately, he was correct.
“I was wrong to put you after everything else on my list. It wasn’t fair. I need you to know how grateful I am that you were my partner tonight.” He lifted a hand to the side of her cheek. “Thank you for finding Annie.”
She would’ve nodded, but space was tight. “You need to talk to her. She’s got a lot more going on in her head than I think she ever told you.”
He nodded. “Yeah. I got that. Her mum hasn’t been involved in ages, and I guess I thought that meant the wounds were healing. But I think it’s only making them deeper. I’ll be making some calls tomorrow. Getting her some help.”
Speaking of help…
“Ethan.” Emmaline wished she could scrub her hands over her face. “I’m figuring out who I am and what I want to be. That’s the journey I’ve been on.”
“That makes me happier than you can know.”
