Page 51 of Building Courage

“I don’t like to have my picture taken.”

How many photos had the press taken of her during that time? “And your parents?”

“We’re estranged, and I don’t want any reminders of them in my living space.”

Wow. Another reason for the twenty-nine-hundred-mile trip across the country. “I’m sorry, Brynn.”

Her sherry eyes had gone as dark as chocolate. “I’m not. I speak to my brothers every couple of weeks. We do a four-way call, and we’re good with each other. They all three supported my decision to leave.”

Jesus, how bad could it have been if all three of her brothers took her side? “When you’re ready, maybe you can tell me what happened.”

The timer on the stove went off, and he caught a flash of relief in her expression as she turned away to deal with the food.

While they ate at the small table against the wall in the kitchen space, Tucker guided the conversation away from anything stressful and talked about taking some photos of Brynn during their next dive. “I thought I might take you deeper into the cove, so you can practice more with your camera and strobes.”

She nodded. “I need to do as much of that as I can to make certain I’m prepared for the trip.”

“You won’t be going as deep as you will in Australia, but deep enough you can get more experience being at depth. I can teach you some more finning so you can stay stationary long enough to take the shot in real conditions.

“I’d like that. I’m good in the cove because you’ve been with me and I feel secure, but I’ll need to build up my confidence. The open ocean is a big leap even from La Jolla.”

“Exactly.”

“Do you ever get scared?” she asked.

“Yes, I’ve been scared.” The shark incident during the last deployment came instantly to mind, but he veered away from it. Brynn was going to be diving in Australia, where the waters were known to be the great whites’ hunting ground. She didn’t need to hear a shark story before even getting her feet wet in the ocean. “I was on a cave dive, and things got dicey as we went through a narrow passage. One of the guys with us got stuck and started to panic, which is the worst thing you can do during a dive. You use up your air, your mind grows cloudy, and you become all instinct—and that can get you killed. You have to maintain control so you can work the problem. We worked the problem and found a way to get him out and back to the surface without injury.”

“Was that with your Admiral friend?”

“No, his brother.”

Brynn chewed slowly and then swallowed. “Do you still cave dive?”

“No, I don’t have the time anymore.” He got plenty of opportunities for scuba diving and adrenaline rushes in his work.

She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Did you do it because it was a challenge?”

“Yeah, and it helped me hone my diving and survival skills. Those skills help you plan for every circumstance, Brynn. Or at least as much as you can. You plan how deep you’re going to go, how long your dive will take, how long your decompression stops have to be, and if you’re familiar with the ocean terrain, you plan exactly how far you’re going to swim and how long it will take you to get back to your extraction point.

“Then you plan for the unexpected. If you’re forced to go deeper than you intended, if it takes longer to get back to your extraction point—any unexpected things that might arise. Then, you adjust your equipment and make a backup plan to include all that.

“When I taught scuba, I always attached extra tanks to the down line in case an emergency arose. If you have enough air, you can survive long enough to figure things out. But all that won’t help if you panic. So, the main thing is to stay calm and work the problem.”

“Can we work on all that together before we dive?” she asked.

He smiled. “That’s the plan. I want to teach you how to do all that for yourself before you do your dive in Australia. So, you’ll feel safe and know how to deal with the unexpected.”

If only she’d met Tucker four years before instead of Chad. But she hadn’t.

After they finished the meal, Brynn rushed to clear the table and put away the food. She divided the leftovers into portions so Tucker could take the lion’s share home.

She could barely breathe because of the nerves that clenched her stomach into tight knots. She could give him the short version—my boyfriend tried to kill me and put me in the hospital for three weeks. Would that satisfy him? Probably not. He’d ask questions and eventually get it all.

“Why don’t we go for a drive,” Tucker suggested.

Surprised, she smiled. “I’d like that.”

“Better take a sweater. The breeze off the water can get chilly.”

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