Page 115 of Fish out of Water
I grabbed one of the towels Collette was hoping we didn’t have and used it to wipe down my face and neck. I needed a shower, a steak dinner, and maybe one of Sylvia’s ice-cold White Claws.
And then a nap.
“Jules?” Collette straightened, her eyes coming my way.
Something about the look on her face caught my attention, dragging it to the sudden paleness of her skin and the width of her pupils. I stabbed one finger her way. “Andrew, grab her.”
He lunged just as she started to wilt toward the ground. It was graceful as hell. Enough that I might have thought it was staged had I not seen the fear and confusion in her eyes the second before she went down.
“She’s burning up.” Andrew dropped to the mucky ground, holding her across his lap. “Dunk one of those towels into the cooler.”
I grabbed two and shoved them into the partly-melted ice before wringing most of the water out and passing them his way.
Andrew took one and draped it across her head. “Get her shoes off.”
I didn’t ask any questions. Just dropped to my knees in the mud and went to work unlacing her sneakers and yanking them off. Once Collette’s shoes and socks were off he passed me the other towel. “Put that on her feet.”
I wrapped the icy towel around the sticky heat of her sweaty feet. “Is she okay?”
Andrew had his phone pressed to his ear. “We need an ambulance at the gardens. We’ve got an employee down with heat stroke.”
Heat stroke?
I crawled to Collette’s side and pushed her blonde hair out of her face. “Collette?”
She didn’t move.
Her arms were sagged at her sides, falling down to the dirt. Her mouth hung open and her lids hovered partially open, revealing unseeing eyes.
“Collette?” I picked up one of her hands, staring down at it as the heat of her skin hit mine. “She’s so hot.”
“I should have sent her back inside.” Andrew flipped the towel on her head, turning the cool side inward. “She had no fucking business out here.”
My attention snapped up to my work buddy.
I’d never heard Andrew say that word before and it was a little stunning. “She was just trying to help.”
“We didn’t need her help.” He was clearly mad at her and it pissed me off.
“We needed all the help we could get. In case you missed it we’re fucking drowning here.” If he thought he got to be mad at Collette for busting her ass out here then he was about to end up with one of my dirt-caked sneakers shoved up his—
Andrew flipped the towel on Collette’s head again, but this time I noticed something I’d missed the first time.
He was careful as he moved the wet terry cloth. Gentle as he laid it back across her skin.
And Andrew didn’t just have her sprawled over him.
He held her, one arm carefully wrapped around her back, cradling Collette as he skimmed his fingers over her skin, pressing the backs of them to her cheeks, her neck, her arms. “I think she’s cooling down a little.”
One hand went to the side of her face, softly pressing to turn it his way. “Collette.”
Her eyes flew open, focusing for the first time since she collapsed. They slowly moved toward Andrew’s chest before sliding my way.
“How are you feeling?” Andrew lifted the towel off her head and held it my way.
I dunked it in the cooler before passing it back.
“Confused.” Collette’s blue eyes rolled up toward her head as Andrew eased the cool towel back into place.
