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water.
    “What’s wrong?” John said.
    “Something on my foot,” she said, surprised at having him right beside her. She’d been busy trying to stand and steady herself against the current, she hadn’t noticed him coming to her aid. He must have darted from the rock to be by her side so quickly.
    “Let me see, grab my shoulder.” He leaned forward so she could put her hand on his shoulder and reached down.
    “I’m going to pull your foot out of the water so I can take a look.” A heartbeat passed, and he said, “You’ve got about a two-inch cut. I think you might even need stitches.”
    “That’s a nasty cut.” Matt was leaning forward, too, coming closer.
    “Let’s get you out of the water,” John said.
    Audrey wasn’t expecting a ‘Let’s get you out of the water.’ He said it so protectively she wasn’t sure this was the same guy who had been ignoring her for nearly two weeks.
    “Sounds good.” She placed her other hand on Matt’s shoulder, and they carried her out of the water.
    She sat on a tree root while John knelt in front of her. He placed her foot on his leg. If it wasn’t for the pain shooting up her leg, she would have thought she was blushing for having him so close.
    “Grab my shirt, Matt, will ya?” He pointed down the riverbank.
    “How bad is it?” Audrey asked.
    “Definitely needs stitches…Hang on.” He squeezed her ankle and pressed his fingers into the cut.
    Feeling the pain, she reflexively tried to pull her foot away, but he held her ankle and he pulled a green piece of glass from the cut.
    “Looks like it’s from a beer bottle. Heineken.”
    “Yuck, I hate Heineken.” She gave the faintest smile and he responded with a small chuckle, a surprising sign of laughter completely foreign to her.
    “At least, it’s not rusted metal,” Matt said, arriving with the T-shirt.
    “Wait …” she said as John swaddled it around her foot. “Don’t get your shirt” — she muttered in defeat — “dirty.”
    This time, John smiled at her.
    “I guess we will have to leave now, huh?” Kevin said approaching them.
    “I’m sorry to disturb you, your highness,” she said, bowing her head.
    “We have to take you to a hospital.” John stood and offered his hand.
    “I’ll grab our stuff.” Rob turned away followed by Tyler.
    John helped her up and, in a quick motion, drew one hand behind her back, the other around her knees, and lifted her on his arms.
    “Whoa, John.” Audrey threw her arm around his shoulder. “This way both of us will get hurt.”
    “You shouldn’t put pressure on that foot, it might worsen the bleeding.” He walked up the bank with little effort.
    “Thank you,” she said softly.
    “You’re welcome.” He looked into her eyes.
    She felt her cheeks blotch but she wasn’t about to complain. For one; he was actually talking to her, and two; she was in his arms, against his bare chest, feeling it expand with the quickening of his breathing as he carried her to the bus.
    • • •
    After she filled out the admission form, the nurses assessed the situation of her foot and sent her back to the waiting room to wait for a doctor. John waited with her, while everyone else went to a grocery store they’d driven by on their way to the hospital.
    “We need supplies,” Kevin had said, which literally translated to alcohol and cookies.
    She sat beside John, not knowing what to say. She wished Matt had stayed as well; he would fill the silence with his usual chitchat, but she hadn’t asked. It wasn’t like her to ask people for anything.
    “I hope I haven’t bled out completely by the time they’re ready to stitch me up.” Audrey regretted her attempt at small talk as soon as the words came out. She wasn’t bleeding very much, and the new bandage the nurse dressed her foot with was almost clean.
    “More likely, you’ll die of infection by then.”
    “I appreciate you waiting with me. You didn’t have to.”
    “I’m going to see it to the