Free The Wharf by Carol Ericson Page A

the entire length of the bridge. There was nothing between her and a long drop into the choppy bay.
    “Are you ready to come up now? Think about your family.”
    She sniffled and straightened up to her full height.
    Ryan still held on to her backpack, but she could slip out of it at any second. He extended his other arm. “Grab on to me.”
    She glanced back at the endless sky in front of her, and Ryan’s heart skipped a beat. Then she wrapped her hands around his arm.
    He braced his feet against the barrier and hoisted her up and over it. She fell on top of him with a squeak, then rolled off him and curled into a fetal position on the ground.
    Several pedestrians had watched the drama unfold. They formed a semicircle around him and the woman, who couldn’t have been much older than twenty-five.
    Kacie pushed through the onlookers. “The cops are on their way. I can see one coming on his bike.”
    The officer rode up with another officer right behind him. They dispersed the crowd and crouched beside the woman, who was still coiled into a ball.
    Sirens followed, and the woman was lifted to her feet and bundled into the back of the squad car. The officer on the bike asked Ryan a few questions, got his name and number and pedaled off.
    “Oh my God. I can’t believe that happened right when we were here.” She’d clapped a hand over her mouth and her eyes widened above it.
    “It’s a shame it happens at all. That woman was clearly in need of some help.”
    “Ryan Brody, you’re such a hero. You put yourself in danger to save that stranger.”
    “Not at all. I was never in any danger of going over. She was small and light. Ask me if I’d have done it for some big bruiser.”
    Like Dad.
    “I’m sure you would’ve tried. How often are people rescued from suicide attempts on the bridge?”
    “I like to think more than are successful. The authorities try to keep a close eye on the activities up here.”
    “A closer watch than in your father’s day.”
    “Definitely.” He flexed his fingers, which had cramped up while holding on to the woman. “Now, let’s get some lunch and visit the station for that case file. Unless you didn’t get everything you needed here.”
    “Are you kidding? I got more than I bargained for.” She touched his shoulder. “Thank you for coming here with me today. I see that it was difficult for you.”
    He stopped walking because he didn’t want her to remove her hand from his arm, to scare her away. “Just because it’s tough doesn’t mean you flinch or turn away.”
    “Of course, if you hadn’t been here, you wouldn’t have saved that woman’s life. She might not feel thankful now, but maybe she will later.” She smoothed the material of his shirt before dropping her hand. “It all happened for a reason. Now, let’s get that lunch.”
    Forty-five minutes later, Ryan took a big bite of his burger and mopped the grease from his chin as he watched Kacie stab an anemic piece of lettuce. “You sure do like your rabbit food.”
    “Some of us—” she waved her fork at him “—don’t have time to spend hours in the gym or whatever you do to maintain that hard body.”
    She noticed? Did she take him for a gym rat, flexing in front of a mirror? “I have to stay physically fit for my job.”
    “Well, I don’t.” She added a tomato to the forkful of lettuce and popped it into her mouth.
    “You don’t need to be physically fit. You’re physically fine.” He didn’t need a woman pumping iron alongside him. He preferred the contrast of a soft body next to his, and Kacie Manning had the kind of body a man could sink into.
    Her cheeks reddened to match the tomatoes on her plate.
    “Are you going to follow up on that woman?”
    “Yeah, I’ll make a few calls, but they probably have her on a fifty-one-fifty hold. Maybe they can get her back on her meds and back on her feet, if that’s what drove her to the bridge.”
    “It happens a lot, doesn’t it? People jumping