“I know what I was doing!” she shot back, though her voice wavered.
“You were face down in the creek.”
“I—” She stopped. Her jaw tightened. Her eyes flicked briefly to the overturned boat, then back to him. “That doesn’t give you the right to— to—”
“To pull you out?” Jack finished, calm but firm. “Yeah. I reckon it does.”
Silence stretched between them, broken only by the slow gurgle of the creek and Mia’s fishing line tapping against her bucket.
The woman’s shoulders rose and fell with sharp breaths. Up close, Jack could see she wasn’t just angry.
She was scared.
And not just from the water.
“Look,” Jack said, softer now. “You’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
She laughed—a short, brittle sound. “Safe? I’m stranded in the middle of nowhere with a stranger who—”
