“I was not.”
“So you didn’t know there was a camera.”
“Absolutely not.”
For a second, just a split second, Ava looked skeptical, but she smiled to cover it.
“Was the water cold?”
“You have no idea,” he said with a little smile. “Although I don’t think I really registered that until long after I’d pulled her out of the water.”
Ava’s face sobered at that. “And when you pulled her out…she wasn’t breathing.”
Luc’s eyes squeezed shut at the memory. Not just of this little girl, but of another one who’d also been too still, too cold, when he’d gotten to her. Only that one hadn’t had a happy ending.
He shook his head and forced himself to meet Ava’s eyes. “No, she wasn’t.”
Ava paused, as though to let his statement sink in. “You gave her CPR.”
Luc swallowed. Nodded.
“What were you thinking?” she asked quietly. “You jumped in on instinct, but when you pulled her out, and realization set in that this little girl might not make it, what were you thinking?”
Luc ran a hand over his face and answered the only way he could. Honestly.
“I was thinking please. Please let this little girl be okay.”
Ava’s smile was gentle. “And she was. Because of you.”
Luc lifted a shoulder and scratched the back of his neck, feeling almost unbearably embarrassed.
Luc answered the rest of Ava’s questions as briefly as possible while still being polite.
Yes, he’d known to swim her around to the side of the boardwalk where there was a tiny ladder built in.
Yes, he’d given CPR before.
Yes, the mother was grateful. Beyond grateful.
“And just one last question, Officer Moretti.”
“Shoot.”
Ava leaned in with a conspiratorial smile. “Were you able to save Barbie too?”
Luc laughed, mostly because he knew it was expected. “Sadly, Barbie met her demise that day.”
“Aww, well that’s too bad. Perhaps I’ll talk to the station manager about replacing her myself.”
Luc opened his mouth to respond, but closed it just as quickly, catching himself.
But he wasn’t fast enough. Ava’s brown eyes missed nothing, and she pointed a friendly finger at him. “Officer Moretti, is there something else you’d like to add?”
“Nothing comes to mind.”
Ava moved closer with a laugh. “Officer Moretti, you replaced that little girl’s Barbie doll, didn’t you?”
Luc pressed his lips together, but it was all the answer she needed.
“Out of your own pocket?”
He said nothing, but he couldn’t lie either, so he gave only a curt nod.
She turned and for the first time, looked straight into the camera, giving it a secret smile.
“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call a true American hero.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Laid it on a bit thick, didn’t you, Sims?”
“Luc, you bought a little girl a Barbie. Clark Kent wouldn’t have done that,” Ava replied.
Sawyer dropped his mug to the table with a clank. “Hey, I just thought of something.”
“I knew I smelled smoke,” Luc said, gesturing in the vicinity of his partner’s brain.
“So if Baby Moretti here is Superman,” Lopez pressed on, “and if you’re a reporter…” He pointed at Ava.
Ava laughed, choking a little on her swallow of beer. “No. Don’t even say it.”
Sawyer sat back, looking thoroughly pleased with himself. “We have our very own Lois Lane.”
Luc rotated in his chair to smirk down at her. “Well I’ll be damned. If I wear glasses, will you suddenly not recognize me?”
“I am not Lois Lane, all running willy-nilly all over the city, throwing myself into danger,” Ava said, taking another sip of beer. Slower this time.