Page 37 of The Billionaire's Teacher

“Yeah. It gets old. I keep hoping he’ll understand the word ‘no.’ Maybe on Sunday he got it. But I think he took it as a no to a relationship with him, too. Which wasn’t what I was going for.” Wes sighed. “Family is hard.”

“They can be.” I considered the difference between our families. “Mine isn’t hard so much as distant. They never approved of my marriage or of me moving down here. So we talk now and then, but I think I just confuse them.”

“Sorry.”

“Thanks.” We finished the walk to the boat in silence. The times I glanced over at him, Wes seemed lost in thought. I didn’t want to intrude. I spent the time reminding myself of the reasons we weren’t going to get involved. As well as the reasons I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about my family.

When we stepped aboard, I checked the time. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes before we should head out to the dive spot. If you want to double-check the air tanks, I want to go take a look at the latest weather.”

“Sure. Sounds good.”

I hurried below deck to my cabin and shut—and locked—the door. I got my laptop and settled on my bunk as I pulled up the weather.

Maybe making a beeline for Grenada was the better choice.

Hunkering down somewhere else with Wes? The thought caused a lot of feelings I wasn’t ready to analyze.

Maybe it would be better all-around to get him on a plane and out of my life.

11

WES

Itook a big step off the swim platform of the boat into the water. I probably didn’t need the thin wetsuit I’d dragged on, but Sunshine was wearing hers over her suit, so I followed her lead.

Danny bobbed in the water a couple of yards away. His BCD covered his bare chest and I worried over what kind of trunks he had on. He seemed the type to dive in a Speedo that left nothing to the imagination.

I fought a shudder and moved out of the way so Sunny could join us.

“Ready?” Danny pulled his goggles down over his eyes.

I lifted my fingers in the hand signal for OK before adjusting my own goggles and fitting my regulator in my mouth.

Sunny tapped my shoulder and signaled for us to descend.

I loved the moment the water closed over my head. My ears filled with water and everything took on a sense of thickness. Sounds were muted. Bubbles slowly rose to the surface as I breathed and let some air out of my BCD, encouraging the weights inside to pull me down deeper.

Even near the surface, brightly colored fish darted curiously nearby.

I checked my gauges and looked around. There she was. The bright red slashes on Sunny’s BCD made it easy to spot her. She grinned at me. Even with most of her face covered with equipment, I could tell it was a grin. We’d talked about it some—she got the same thrill from diving as I did.

She had just as much trouble explaining it as I did.

Maybe people who were good with words could do it. There were probably poems out there that painted the picture. I was content to drag people along and make them experience it for themselves rather than attempting to explain it.

Everyone had their own impressions, anyway.

Danny had already descended to our target depth. He must enjoy skirting the edge of responsible. Which just confirmed my initial impression of him as reckless.

I definitely wasn’t bringing beginners down here. Not if he was going to be our local POC. I wanted people to learn to dive safely. Part of that meant not courting the bends, a painful, potentially deadly, and completely avoidable condition. And that meant descending and ascending slowly. Even if you were anxious to get to the “good parts.”

I always tried to teach my students that all of the parts were good if they paid attention.

Sunshine and I leveled out, adjusting for neutral buoyancy. I signaled my readiness and glanced between Sunny and Danny.

Danny pointed ahead and then started swimming in that direction. I waited until there was a good separation between me and his fins, then kicked off. Sunny swam a little behind and to my left. I could see her, which was how it should be with a dive buddy, but we both had space.

There wasn’t much current. At least, it wasn’t noticeable to me as we swam. And while this wasn’t as amazing as some of the reefs we’d seen farther north, I still appreciated the quantity of fish available to watch.

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