I kick and spew the sea from my mouth when two strong arms come around me.
“That’s one way to do it.” He pushes my hair off the front of my mask and puts my snorkel in his mouth, blowing out all the water that shot into it. “Here.” He offers it back to me and I take it, making sure I can breathe through it before I nod. He pops his back in his mouth and waves for me to follow.
My entire body revolts against this, my muscles protesting movement, but if I don’t duck my head under and follow, I’m stuck here treading water in the middle of the ocean. My heart races behind my ribs and I take a huge breath and submerge my face.
It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to what I’m seeing. The ocean floor is all rock with cracks and gaps teeming with living things. Coral, seaweed, small colorful fish . . . it’s nothing like I thought. Not a vast forest of deep ravines and hidden caves where all sorts of God knows what can live. This isn’t like I’ve seen in any nature channel documentaries.
If ocean spots had levels, like school, this would be snorkeling preschool. My chest warms when I think Aden chose to take me here because he knew I’d be nervous. That night when we swam off the cliffs I made my views about the deep blue sea pretty clear. Maybe because of that he brought me here.
I meet up with him at a spot where he motions to a school of small silvery fish. He grabs my hand and together we kick around the calm cove. He points out things as we stumble upon them, all of it fascinating, and quickly I get lost in this undersea world. It’s quiet except for the kicking of our feet, and with the sun warming our backs and his hand warming my heart a contentedness washes over me. I’m not focused on lists, on all the reasons why spending any amount of time with someone I’ll never see again is a complete waste. All my worries and fears fall away until all that’s left is Aden and the view before me.
He points out a cluster of lobster, a big silver fish with a yellow tail like the one we caught together. I’m happy to go along with the tour, nodding and discovering some of my own finds, which include a jellyfish that nearly scared the piss out of me. Aden calmed me and we floated along, watching as it drifted past us.
He gives me a thumbs-up and pops his head above the water and I follow. “What do you think?”
I don’t risk losing my snorkel and just yell through the tube, “This is amazing.”
He pulls me close and presses a kiss to my jaw. “Knew you’d like it.” Popping his snorkel back in, he pulls me along with him and we explore a few reefs.
I’m happily kicking along when I feel him stop swimming beside me. I search beneath him, expecting to see him point at the reason he’s stopped, a fish or maybe a sea turtle.
He doesn’t. Tension fills the space between us and I’m about to pull my head out of the water and ask what’s going on when he shoves his finger down to point to a dark spot directly below us. I drop my head and—holy fuck!
Leaving all my pride and strength behind, I scream.
Loud and blaringly clear, I holler through my snorkel until I’m coughing and forced to spit it out.
“Shark!” I spot the kayak in the distance and swim. No snorkel and my mask fogging up with the fear emanating from my body. I rip it off. No clue if Aden’s behind me, I kick and throw my arms forward, Michael Phelpsing myself through the water.
I hear Aden call my name, but I’m helpless against the terror that drives me to safety. He could be getting ripped apart by the apex predator, and I’ll have to explain to his family that I wasn’t brave enough to save him, but oh well.
Racing against death, I throw myself at the yellow banana, hurling one leg over and a piercing pain rips across my inner thigh.
I scream again. I’d been bit and was going to die on this stupid fucking kayak. Scrambling into the vessel I’m breathing hard. My heart hammers behind my ribs. I’m gonna pass out. I grab my thigh. Look down at my legs.
No blood.
But I thought . . .?
Then I hear his laughter.
He’s laughing at me!
“You’d pass the SERE course in a heartbeat with that evasion and escape.”
He’s still laughing.
I’m still trying to breathe. “I . . . almost died.” God, my heart feels like it will pound out of my chest.
He hoists himself into the kayak with ease, and I cry out when the thing rocks a little because suddenly the faded old plastic feels like a steel plate standing between me and certain death. “It was only a leopard shark.”
“Keyword being shark.”
“It was two feet long, Cece. Hardly a threat.”
“Shark. Teeth.” Still trying to breathe. “Threat.”
“Right.” There’s humor in his voice. “You should’ve seen how threatening he was when you took off for the kayak like a drowning elephant. Scared the shit out of the poor fish.”
“I did?”
“You think you were more scared of him than he was of you? You screamed like a demon straight out of hell and thrashed all the way to the boat.” He’s really laughing now. “I think you cleared out the entire ocean floor.”
“For your information . . .” I’m still catching my breath. “I hurt my thigh.”
His big warm hands cup my thigh, fingers tempting me between my legs while his thumbs rub circles on the sore muscle. “You may’ve strained it throwing this leg into the kayak.”
It’s a little sensitive, but not too bad, and the way his eyes dance up and down my bare leg is enough to make me forget.
“Ever think of giving up your day job to become a trick rider in the rodeo?”
Laughter bubbles up in my chest. It sounds a little maniacal in my own ears, but I think relief at surviving a near-death experience will do that to a person.
“You good now?”
“Yeah.”
He pats my leg, then pulls up the anchor and I right myself from the wounded victim position. “I owe you a mask and snorkel.”
“Nah, I have plenty. Besides, I like the fact that you’re leaving your mark here. Every time I come to spear fish and pass by your abandoned mask and snorkel laying down there I’ll remember the girl who got away.”
My spine stiffens. The girl who got away. I know what he means, away from the shark. Or does he mean something more? I suppose it doesn’t matter. I’ll never really know.
ADEN
Damn, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. I almost couldn’t make it back to the kayak chasing after Celia as she pummeled the surface of the water. I’ve jumped from a B-12 into the ocean and it was a breeze compared to trying to chase after Celia while laughing my ass off.
My muscles warm and relax with the exertion of rowing. It’s as if all those years in the army, training constantly, staying in peak physical condition, gave my body a taste of the good life and now that I’m not using it to its fullest potential on a daily basis it begs for a good workout.