She glanced automatically toward the bottom of the pool.
A moment later, she was on her feet, her heart in her throat. She reached the side in two steps, slinging off her sunglasses before making a clean, shallow dive.
The boy was lying facedown on the bottom of the pool. Jamie scooped him into one arm and kicked forcefully toward the surface. By the time she reached the side of the pool, the others had just realized what was taking place. The lifeguard, his face pale, was there immediately to lift the little boy out of her arms.
Jamie heard someone scream, heard a couple of the younger children start to cry, heard the panicked, excited babbling of the teenagers, but her eyes were on the child as she boosted herself out of the pool and rushed to kneel beside him. Still flustered by being caught so unprepared, the lifeguard hesitated, and Jamie automatically took charge. The child had a pulse, thank God, but he didn’t seem to be breathing. She rolled him onto his side, and lifted one arm above his head, hoping that would clear his lungs. She was prepared to do artificial respiration, but she was incredibly relieved when he began to cough and gag.
Steadying him, Jamie watched as liquid sputtered from his mouth. He’d taken some water into his lungs, she realized, relieved that someone had run to call an ambulance. He hadn’t been underwater more than a couple of minutes, so there should be minimal danger of brain damage, but there was always a chance of complications from water in the lungs. Pneumonia, for one, she remembered. The child should definitely be checked out by trained medical personnel.
He was crying now, in choked, gulping sobs. Jamie drew him into her arms, murmuring reassurances. “You’ll be fine, sweetie. Just fine.”
“I didn’t see him,” the lifeguard muttered in a trembling voice. “I never even heard a splash.”
“A child this small doesn’t make much of a splash,” Jamie answered, trying to speak gently despite her annoyance with him. She could tell he would pay for his negligence by painfully imagining what might have happened had she not been there.
“Oh, God, is Sam all right? His dad is going to kill me.” The young woman who’d been playing with the toddler rushed to Jamie’s side, the dripping little girl on her hip.
The boy—Sam—buried his face more tightly in her neck, whimpering and shivering. Instincts Jamie hadn’t known she possessed kicked in, making her cradle the wet little body closer. Suddenly feeling smothered by the pressing crowd of gawkers, she looked at the lifeguard. “Maybe you could send everyone back to what they were doing?” she suggested in a low murmur.
He nodded, gathered his composure and stood, giving a short blast of his whistle. “Okay, everyone, back up and give the kid some room. You’re making him nervous staring at him this way.”
Even as the spectators slowly moved away, Jamie could hear a siren approaching in the distance. She looked up at the frantic woman with the little girl on her hip. The woman couldn’t have been much more than twenty. Her face was pale, her eyes wide and horrified as she stared at the shivering boy. “Is he yours?” Jamie asked.
“I’m their nanny. Oh, ma’am, is Sam all right? I’ll never forgive myself if—”
“He’s fine,” Jamie broke in quickly, patting the boy’s back and speaking in a tone meant to calm both him and the overwrought nanny. “Sam’s going to be just fine.”
“He was sitting on the side,” the nanny babbled. “He wouldn’t come in the water, so I told him to stay put while I played with Abbie. I checked on him a couple of times and he was fine. Then I looked at Abbie again, and the next thing I knew, you were pulling him out of the pool. Sam, why did you go in the water? You know you can’t swim.”
“I slipped,” the child murmured into Jamie’s neck. “I was just going to stand up and I fell in the water.”
“It’s okay,” Jamie said. “No one’s blaming you, Sam.” There was plenty of blame to spread around, she thought, but none of it was Sam’s.
Two medics rushed into the fenced pool area. Sam’s arms had to be pried from around Jamie’s neck. Apparently painfully shy of strangers, he refused to respond when the medics tried to talk to him, and he cried when they told him they were going to take him to be checked out.
“Go with me,” he begged Jamie.
Startled by the request, she stroked his wet hair. “Your nanny and your little sister will go with you, Sam.”
“He doesn’t like me much,” the young nanny said morosely. “I don’t know why.”
Jamie had a few guesses, but she kept them to herself. “You’ll be fine, Sam,” she assured the frightened little boy. “These people are very nice and they’ll take good care of you.”
“I’ll call your dad and have him meet us at the hospital,” his nanny promised. “You know he’ll drop everything and be there in no time.”
That seemed to reassure him. “My daddy will be there?”
“As soon as I call him.” She seemed to have no doubt about it.
“Sam,” little Abbie said from the nanny’s hip, waving happily at her brother.
Sam allowed himself to be taken away, though he looked soulfully over his shoulder at Jamie—as though he was leaving his only friend behind, she thought with an odd feeling.
She scraped her fingers through her short, wet, red hair, pushing it away from her face as she watched them leave. The lifeguard turned sheepishly to Jamie. “I’m sure glad you were here, ma’am.”
“Just keep your mind on your job from now on, okay?” Reaction had finally set in, leaving her weak-kneed and a bit shaky.
“I will,” he said fervently, and dashed back to his post.
The teenagers had gathered again at the other side, the incident already forgotten since it didn’t actually affect them. The three women who’d been sitting by the shallow end of the pool earlier were gathering their charges and their possessions, ready to leave as dinnertime approached. Susan, who had stayed back out of the way during the excitement, put her hand on Jamie’s shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Jamie’s smile felt lopsided. “I’m fine.”
“That was amazing, Jamie. You moved so fast, my head is still spinning. If you hadn’t been here…”
Jamie didn’t even want to think about that. “I just happened to notice him. I guess old lifeguard habits die hard.”
“At least someone around here benefited from rescue training.” Susan looked darkly at the lifeguard, who sat now watching the almost-empty pool with intense vigilance. “With all the people at the pool today, word will get out. I’m sure he’ll be reprimanded for what almost happened.”
Jamie remembered the stricken look in the young man’s eyes. “I think he learned his lesson.”
Susan held out Jamie’s sunglasses. “These are yours, I believe.”
She took them and slid them onto her nose. “Thanks.”
Making a production
