As soon as I clamber round to see what is happening, I let out a piercing scream.
Chapter 10
There’saman’sbodyfloating face down in the water, trapped between two rocks. His dog is jumping at the water’s edge, frantically barking and spinning round. Eyes wild and terrified. Without thinking, I jump straight in and pull the body away from the rocks. I turn him over and cradle his head in my arm. He's unconscious. I drag him to the edge but he’s too heavy for me to lift.
Out of nowhere, Oliver is heaving him up and lying him flat. He then reaches in to pull me out of the water as though I weigh nothing at all. If it wasn’t for the medical need to act urgently, I’d say it was immensely romantic.
I throw myself down to administer the sort of first aid that you see on Baywatch. Checking for breathing. No signs. Feeling for a pulse. Zilch. Pumping his chest, ‘One elephant, two elephant, three elephant… ‘
Oliver is staring at me with an alarmed expression. He’s gripped with fear. ‘Go get help!’ I yell at him.
He snaps out of it and runs off yelling, ‘Emergencia! EMERGENCIA GRANDE!’
The dog is frantically licking his owner’s face and making a whining sound like he’s crying. My heart lurches for it. This man looks as though he’s in his sixties or seventies. I’d bet the freezing cold water brought on a heart attack. I cover his cold, lifeless lips with my own and breathe some air into his lungs. I feel them expand beneath his ribcage. I do the same again and go back to pumping ferociously on his chest.
‘Come on,’ I pray, making eye contact with the dog. He stops barking as though he knows what’s going on and doesn’t want to distract me. His eyes are full of intelligence.
I turn back to the man and repeat the breathing. It seems to last forever, and just as I begin to lose hope of saving him, his eyes spring open and he gasps for breath.
Thank God.
The dog smothers his face, his mouth, his ears with licks of joy until the man makes sense of where he is and what happened.
‘Lie still,’ I tell him, popping my backpack under his head for comfort. ‘Help is on the way.’
A few minutes later, Oliver returns with a frightened-looking twelve-year-old boy holding a first aid kit. There’s a huge crowd behind him. He takes one look at me holding the old man’s hand and breathes a sigh of relief. Oliver is staring at me as though I have single-handedly saved the planet.
I try very hard not to act like I make a habit of saving lives, but it is very difficult. The group are making such a fuss, especially Oliver.
‘The way you took charge. You’re incredible,’ he says, respect shining from his eyes.
I nod modestly. After all, the entire campervan of Bunnies and Stress-heads are listening to his praise.
‘And the way you trusted your gut, followed your instinct. If you’d listened to Endless Cloud the man would be dead,’ he observes. We hear an embarrassed cough from the front of the van. ‘And the way you handled the crowd afterwards and organised us all into a human stretcher. It was like a military operation. So focussed. So efficient.’
I roll my eyes. Really, this adoration is too much.
‘Go on,’ I say, smiling cheekily at him. I’m hoping he repeats the part about me being an epic goddess.
Oliver catches my look and moves in close. He whispers in my ear, ‘I am hugely attracted to your strong sense of humility. It’s very endearing.’
‘And I am hugely attracted to your hero-worshipping.’
Oliver, looks at me intensely and allows his gaze to fall to my lips. He looks for all intents and purposes like a man desperate to kiss me.
At that moment, we are thrown forward by the campervan screeching to a halt and Gandalf ordering everyone to get changed out of our swimming things and to gather at the fountain in ‘twenty minoots for a surprise’.
Oliver and I scamper back to our rooms. I am as high as a kite with excitement. I feel bursting with joy at the levels of hashtag respect hashtag boss lady vibes that Oliver is giving off. He lingers at his door, turning the big iron key slowly. While his eyes wander the length of my body hungrily, a nod of his head towards the open door invites me to join him. I get a flashback to my sister and her pronounced pelvic girdle and before I can help it, my hips are shifting into a slightly more flattering angle.
‘We have twenty minutes,’ he says.
My heart is racing. I know what goes on under that big sack of a robe. I have seen his magnificence for myself and I want it.
I want it real bad. All twenty minutes of it.
‘Give me a second,’ I say, trying to keep from panting with lust. ‘I’ll be with you in just a moment.’
Jesus, I sound like a doctor doing her rounds.
