Saltwater Kisses (The Kisses 1)

“Does he have any heart conditions?”

“I don’t know... wait, yes! He said it wasn’t a problem though!”

“Is he on any medications? Even stuff that he wasn’t prescribed?”

“No, no... Well, he took something today. A little blue pill. It’s our first vacation together and we didn’t think it would cause any harm! Oh god, why did I let him take it?”

The man underneath my fingers suddenly lurched and gasped. I quickly rolled him on his side, just in time, as he vomited salt water and whatever he had for lunch all over the beach. I rocked back on my heels, suddenly light headed. My shoulders and back ached; I hadn’t realized how hard I had been pushing. The girl was screaming again, but this time with joy as she rushed over to check on him.

A uniformed man came running towards me carrying a big red medical bag. Another man carrying an orange back-board was hot on his heels. I stood up and backed away slowly in a haze, letting the professionals take over. They spoke quickly between themselves, efficiently transferring the man onto the back-board and hooking up a blood pressure cuff and other monitoring devices. Before I had cleared my thoughts enough to understand what was going on, they were already halfway up the beach to a waiting ambulance. They passed by a confused looking waiter with a piña colada walking towards my empty towel on the beach.

I brushed the hair out of my eyes, suddenly realizing I had lost my sunglasses. I glanced around the beach, but couldn’t see them anywhere. A kernel of irritation welled up inside my chest; I really liked those sunglasses. I kicked at the sand before realizing that my sunglasses weren’t important. I giggled a little; I had just saved a man’s life, but my issue with the day was about my missing sunglasses. People lose sunglasses all the time, but very few people randomly save a stranger on their vacation.

“That was amazing,” a deep voice said by my shoulder. I spun around quickly to see Solitary Man smiling at me.

“Oh, um, thanks. I didn’t even really have time to think about it to be honest. I just reacted,” I said, a little flustered. Up close, he was really handsome. Like movie star handsome. He had a white t-shirt that did nothing to hide his muscles and dark blue swim trunks that looked expensive. He ran a hand through sandy hair, his eyes twinkling at me.

“Well, I think you saved his life. Not a bad thing to tell the folks at home about your vacation. You did really well,” he said. His eyes were focused solely on me, like I could be the center of his world. I fidgeted with my foot in the sand, embarrassed by his praise.

“Thank you. You helped. You kept his girlfriend from completely freaking out,” I said quickly. I could still feel my heart pounding a million miles a minute and I wasn’t completely sure the whole thing hadn’t been a crazy dream. Adventure never happened to me. I was always the one who came in five minutes after the excitement ended, not the person living it. Once again everything felt surreal.

“I think it was his wife. She had a big diamond on her finger,” he said with a smile. “I’m Jack by the way. Jack Saunders.”

“Emma. Emma LaRue,” I replied and shook his outstretched hand. His skin was warm and his grip firm. I felt a strange tingle run through my fingers as we touched, like we were completing a circuit. He smiled and repeated my name, still holding onto my hand.

“Emma. Well, it is very nice to meet you, Emma. Are you staying at the resort here?” He asked. I nodded and held up my other wrist with the pink bracelet.

“Yup. How about you?”

“No, I am staying at a house on the beach a little further down,” he said, jerking his head back in the direction he had come from. He still hadn’t let go of my hand and I wasn’t about to complain. I found myself wanting to touch even more of him.

“Oh, that must be nice. The houses I saw on the way in looked very nice,” I said, instantly sounding dumb in my head. I needed to find a new adjective. I let myself off the hook for it though. I was still a little shell shocked. He sighed and let go of my hand.

“I am actually trying to escape it right now,” he said, his smile gone. It was like the sun had dipped behind a cloud when he stopped smiling.

“It can’t be that bad,” I said, hoping he would smile again.

“I came with someone, and I thought we were going to have a good time, but it has been miserable. I couldn’t stay in the house with her a second longer,” he said with a grimace.

“Girlfriend?” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice. If he was here with someone, then I probably would never see him again. I had only known him for less than five minutes, but I never wanted him to leave.

“Secretary. I thought maybe the cliché would work, but it’s no fun out of the office,” he said. He shook his head and shrugged. I nodded. He had a secretary. Those swim shorts probably were as expensive as they looked.

“So you just left her?”

“She’s out admiring the pool boy and still hung over from last night. It hasn’t been the best vacation of my life,” he said. “Our conversation has been the most civil one I’ve had all day,” he said looking directly into my eyes.

“That is no vacation. Vacations are supposed to be fun. You know, maybe even save a life or something,” I said coyly. I was never very good at flirting, but I didn’t want him to leave. I wanted to talk to him all day. I asked the first thing I could think of to get him to stay, “You want a drink?”

He laughed. “A drink sounds great.”

We walked over to my towel, the piña colada melting quickly in the sun. I smiled sheepishly at the melted drink, and bent to pick up the clicker from my towel.

“I’ll get you a fresh one,” I said quickly.

“We can split this one until it comes, You look like you could use a sip. Besides, I’m in no hurry; I’m on vacation,” he said, settling into the sand and taking a big sip of the slushy drink. I hit the clicker and sat down next to him. He handed me the drink and I took a small sip off the side.

“How did the ambulance get here so quick?” I asked. Now that a couple of minutes had passed and the adrenaline was wearing down, I felt the weight of what had happened hit me. I was glad I was sitting. I took another bigger sip. I was sure I was going to wake up any moment. How could this be happening? I had saved someone’s life and was now sitting next to the most gorgeous man I had ever seen. My life was not this exciting or this good.