Alyssa was kneeling by the edge of the pool,soaked, hair wild.screaming Emily's name. Lizzie stood frozen, tears streaming down her cheeks,pointing toward the deep end.

Chloe was rooted on the spot. Her eyes wide and scared.

Roman was already diving in without thinking.

Dean was just walking in from the other side of the house, phone in hand-body still glistening from the dip earlier.

"Jesus Christ," Dean breathed, sprinting to the water's edgein case Roman needed help.

I rushed to Alyssa's side and dropped to my knees,grabbing her shaking hands. "What happened?!"

"I-I turned around for one second," Alyssa choked out, her voice breaking as she gasped for breath. "I swear I only turned for one second.I was trying to get her snack. I didn't think she'd-"

Roman was already pulling Emily up from the water. I noticed her little stuffed unicorn still in the pool.

Her arms hung like broken twigs. Not a twitch. Not a cry. Just silence.

A silenceloud enough to split my chest wide open.

"No," I whispered.

"Call an ambulance!" Alyssa cried.

Lizzie was already on the phone, calming herself enough to explain

the situation.

Chloe's hands had turned to jelly as her phone slipped and fell from her hands. HIer eyes were still glued to the scene, her lips trembling.

He lowered Emily to the grass with wrinkled hands, pressing his ear to her chest. "Come on," he muttered. Then his hands found her tiny sternum and began.compressions. Fast. Desperate. Like he was trying to fight death off her with every push.

"Come on, baby girl. Come on," he murmured, water dripped from his lashes. "Wake up."

Alyssa was inconsolable, sobbing, trying to crawl toward her daughter,but I held her back. "Let him work. Let him-Alyssa, let him work."

Dean knelt beside him, ready to take over if needed. The air felt suspended, time hanging in limbo.

"Please save my baby girl. I'm begging you." Alyssa wailed.

Roman didn't stop. His hands moved with urgency and precision,his lips pressing to Emily's, again and again,until-

A cough.

A splutter.

Emily jolted,coughing up water.

Everyone exhaled at once.

Roman gathered her into his arms, holding her close, eyes squeezed shut."I've got you. You're okay, sweetie. You're okay. Daddy's here,"

Time seemed to halt.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from how he was hugging her. Very passionately.

Daddy? Was that a mistake? Perhaps he was just overwhelmed.

Nobody seemed to hear what he said-or they were too shaken up by what happened and also distracted by Lizzie calling my mom and dad on the phone.

Roman himself didn't seem to notice his own slip up. He was too busy cradling Emily and rocking her back and forth-as if she was his. Fear plastered everywhere on his face.

Her mother let out a raw,guttural cry and scrambled to them.wrapping both of them in her arms, crying harder now that Emily was breathing again.

She collapsed in tears, grabbing her daughter from Roman, sobbing apologies into her soaked curls. Everyone just stood and watched.

"Thank you. Thank you, Roman. Thank you for saving my daughter."Alyssa expressed. wrapping her hands tightly around him.

Dean fell back, looking lost and pale.

Roman turned toward me, water dripping from his shorts, his expression a tight mask of worry and restrained emotion.

The paramedics arrived minutes later, just as Emily began crying in her mother's arms.

Roman stepped aside to speak to them, gesturing firmly. "She was

unconscious. Took in water. You need to check her lungs."

They worked fast-oxygen mask, vitals, loading her onto the gurney.Alyssa refused to let go of her hand.

"I'm going with her," she choked out. face pale with shock. "I'm not leaving my daughter."

"You're going," I confirmed, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my sister's trembling body. "We're all going."

Roman, already pulling on dry clothes, looked over. "I'll drive."

We moved fast. I threw on leggings and a hoodie,hair still wet,heart racing. Lizzie grabbed a bag. Dean, summoned by the chaos, met us by the car,his face still ashen.

We piled into two vehicles-Dean, I, Chloe, and Lizzie in one. Alyssa.Roman, and Emily in the ambulance.

Mom and dad were aIready on their way there. Aunt Janice and Aunt Thelma were also on their way to the hospital from their trip to the spa earlier today.

Chloe was in Dean's arms, sobbing quietly. Or at least, pretending to.

She always loved the attention.

Roman surprisingly pulled me into a hug and placed a kiss on my temple before the ambulance left.

The heat from earlier? Gone.

It had been replaced by something colder and heavier.

Reality.

And it had just punched us all in the gut.

Hospitals always had this sterile smell-sharp, cold. like bleach and grief.

But right now, it was drowned out by the quiet sobs of Alyssa in the corner. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her midsection, like she could hold herself together that way. Roman stood beside her,tall and grim-faced,while Lizzie paced like she couldn't bear to sit still.

Mom,dad and Aunt Janice were huddled together in one section with flickering lights. Aunt Thelma had left to pray.

Mom wouldn't stop crying.

The doctors said Emily was fine now. All thanks to Roman's sharp instincts.

Emily was asleep, a cartoon octopus smiling behind her head like nothing had happened. But I couldn't stop staring at her tiny chest rising and falling, terrified it might stop again.

But Alyssa couldn't stop crying. Not since the doctors said "She's lucky. A minute longer and..."

The weight of that uncompleted statement hung heavy in all our hearts.

I sat stiffly on one of the green plastic chairs that squeaked uncontrollably whenever I moved, my hands clenched in my lap. A janitor,

as silent as a mouse, quietly mopped the already sparkling floors intensifying the smell of bleach.

I wanted to go to Alyssa.Hug her. Offer words that might comfort her.But every time I started to rise, my eyes met Roman's and I sat right back down.

He hadn't spoken to me since we got here and that awkward hug.Just clenched his jaw and stared out the window like I'd betrayed him in the most personal way. And maybe I had.

But what pissed me off the most? He had no right to be angry. Not entirely.

We weren't anything-except best friends.

At least not in the romantic sense.

At least not yet.

Things have been moving rather quickly and passionately. My head has been drowning in all the wrong waters.

Still, the way he'd looked at me when Dean had touched my body-possessive, wounded, furious-it had burned through me like fire.

Something had changed.

And I had that darn scandalous bikini to thank for it.

From across the room I could feel Roman's eyes on me.

I looked up.

As if we were telepathically connected, he took a step forward just

when I did.

Before he could put one foot over another, Chloe sauntered in.

Her hair was perfectly tousled like she'd intentionally styled it for tragedy. Her eyes sparkled like someone had spritzed them with artificial tears, and she angled her phone like a seasoned soap actress mid-breakdown-portable ringlight already attached.

"Oh my God," she breathed dramatically, angling her face toward the light, "you guys, my littleniece nearly drowned-" Her voice cracked in all the wrong places. "Please send prayers to Emily-my poor baby girl-"

Roman's entire body stiffened. He turned, slow and sharp, his jaw ticking like he was calculating just how many seconds it would take to fling her phone into orbit.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."