Page 38 of The Billionaire's Teacher

Sunny grabbed my hand.

I looked at her and she pointed. I let my gaze follow and froze as I spotted the enormous sea turtle sailing through the water up ahead.

She’d said turtles were the most likely animal we’d see at this time of year. There were whales, sometimes, in February.

I watched the turtle for several minutes before continuing along and working to close the distance between us and Danny. He’d paused above the front mast of a wooden ship. Oooh. Neither had mentioned there was a wreck, but this had to be why Sunny had considered the spot.

I descended a little and shone my flashlight along the front of the ship, looking for a name. But I didn’t see anything.

We spent some time slowly circling the wrecked pieces. There was nothing left of the inside. Either the passage of time or the flow of water had done it on their own, or the island had in an attempt to find the balance between keeping divers safe but leaving something interesting to see. Wreck diving was a special certification for good reason. But a wreck this close to shore was bound to get attention. So it made sense, somewhat, to do what they could to make it safe.

Past the wreck, we descended another fifteen feet. I checked my gauges and made a mental note that divers would need their advanced certs to do this dive. We’d passed the typical depths for recreational diving and this would now be considered a deep dive. Honestly? That made me like it better. It gave this location something unique.

When we’d been under for half an hour, we turned and retraced our route back toward the boats. Danny surfaced much faster than Sunshine and I and he was sitting on his swim platform, arms crossed, when we finally surfaced.

“Well?”

I tugged my goggles down around my neck and smiled. “It’s a good dive. Thanks. The turtles are cool.”

He nodded once. “It’s better December through March. Maybe April. You see more.”

“That’s when I’d be bringing groups. The wreck was a nice surprise.”

Danny scoffed. “Everyone thinks so. I don’t understand the draw of waterlogged wood, but I’m glad you liked it.”

“Gosh, Danny. Your cheerful disposition is always so great.” Sunshine’s voice dripped sarcasm. “Thanks for the tour.”

“Whatever. You’re really leaving?”

“We are.” Sunshine dipped her head back and rewet her hair. “The weather still looks stable. And we have other spots to evaluate. I’ll make sure Wes has your number so he can coordinate when he’s got a group ready.”

“Yeah, okay. Thanks. Nice to meet you, man.” Danny’s voice finally thawed.

“Same. Appreciate it.” I didn’t. Not really. I would absolutely touch base with the other two contacts Sunny had here before reaching out to Danny, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. No need to burn a bridge just yet.

I swam toward our boat and hauled myself up onto the step. I unhooked my BCD and shrugged one arm free, then the other. I laid it down carefully before removing my flippers and standing, grabbing my tank, and moving out of the way so Sunshine could climb aboard.

We made quick work of rinsing the equipment and setting it up to dry in a way that it wouldn’t move around.

Within thirty minutes, we were underway.

“Are you all right?” I leaned against the side wall of the boat and watched Sunny as she studied the instruments.

She glanced up. “Yeah. Thinking.”

I lifted my eyebrows as an invitation for her to continue. Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn’t. But I found that I was more curious than I probably ought to be.

She sighed. “Another of the models shifted.”

“Which means?”

“It means that maybe the storm is going to head this way. When it was just one prediction, it was easy enough to consider them an outlier. Now that there are two? There’s something those services are picking up on. It just increases the possibility. I’m not sure what the right decision is.” Her hands were in her lap, deceptively still, until I spotted one finger twisting the ring she wore on her right hand.

“If you’re nervous, let’s head for Grenada. We can skip the other planned stops. I have so many contacts and good dives, there’s no reason to risk anything. I suspect most of my groups are going to want to stay in the northern islands anyway. They’re more familiar.”

Sunshine laughed. “They are. And therefore more crowded.”

I shrugged. She was right. It was definitely a factor in my initial plan to have spots all the way down the chain of islands. “Not worth the risk of damaging the ship though.”

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