Page 20 of Visions of You

I swallowed and prepared for the shitty day ahead. “All right. Save me a maple bar and I’ll forgive you. Let’s get this show on the road. People will start showing up any second.”

Chapter Nine

April

I ledmy group at fifty feet along a sheer wall. Craning my head around, I looked for Spencer. The diver had drifted down a good ten feet, and I rapped my tank with my metal pointer, getting his attention. Grasping my inflator hose, I tapped the inflate button and nodded at him. I could see the lightbulb go off before he added more air and rose to my depth.

After applauding him for understanding what to do, I turned around to lead again. Spencer had been my project for the morning. Middle-aged and overweight, scuba diving had been a lifelong dream he’d finally realized and was celebrating with a solo trip to Calypso Key.

Some divemasters hated working with new divers. I loved it, even though it occasionally gave me some new gray hairs. Spencer had been a pleasure to work with, enthusiastic and wanting to learn anything and everything about diving.

I angled us up and over the lip of the wall onto a flat patch reef, then checked my compass to set a course back to the boat. My divepattern was a large triangle from the boat to where we spent most of the dive on the wall, then back to the boat.

I stilled as a school of midnight parrotfish came to investigate us, and I made sure to get all five of my divers’ attention. The fish were each over three feet long and a brilliant combination of mottled blue and black. Their mouths ended in a large beak they used to gnaw on corals. Spencer’s eyes were like saucers behind his mask as several swam right by him.

As we traveled back to the boat, I checked my compass several times. I knew we were close when I recognized the underwater landmarks I’d memorized upon entering the water. Satisfaction filled me as I looked up at the bottom ofShark Baitwhen we reached the forty-five-minute mark.

Right on time.

I was fully confident in my skills, but it could still be unnerving to lead groups in an unfamiliar area. Early in my career, I’d had a few blunders finding my way, but now had a system worked out and new sites didn’t faze me in the slightest. I gestured for Spencer to join another couple who were also low on air, while I finished the sixty-minute dive with the other two.

After our safety stop, the three of us surfaced and headed to the stern of the boat. Two metal ladders reached out of the water, and the divers each headed toward one. They removed their fins and handed them up where Gabe stood at one ladder and Maia at the other.

While they helped my final two divers to their spots, I swam up to Maia’s ladder. I placed my face in the water and pulled my fins off to hand them to her. Except when I raised my right arm, Gabe stood at the top of the ladder, not her. Our eyes met as he took the fins from me.

When I’d showed up for the staff meeting this morning, I hadn’t been surprised to see Gabe at the front of the room with Evan. But I’d been shocked to hear he was our boat captain for the day. He hadn’t seemed overly thrilled about it either, and his official boat briefing for the new guests on board had been terse and direct.

On the way to the dive site, everyone on board was quieter than the previous day, picking up on his mood. I’d sighed inwardly, already dreading my morning with Captain Growly. Then I recalled my intention to be nicer to him. I went to work on the guests first, talking to them and bantering back and forth as we prepared for the dive.

I was polite and friendly to Gabe, and my ploy must have worked. Over the course of the morning spent with two dives and an hour-long surface interval between them, he gradually thawed. Both toward the guests and me.

I got the feeling I’d surprised him this morning. During the surface interval, I’d huddled with Maia and Wyatt to get pointers on the site we chose for the second dive. Then I’d led the briefing about it, even though this was my first time at the site. Gabe had watched me closely. His sunglasses rested on top of his head, and for once his eyes didn’t hold disdain or resentment.

They were filled with interest.

And maybe a little respect too.

Now, as I climbed the ladder, he swept both my fins under one arm and grabbed my tank valve with the other, helping me back onto the boat. I dripped salt water all over the stern platform as I nodded to him. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll help you back to your seat.” My spot on the boat was the last tank holder in front of the stern, so it was only a few steps. But if Gabe was feeling helpful, I wasn’t going to argue.

“I watched your group’s bubbles on both dives,” he said as I slid my tank into the holder and unbuckled my BCD. “You guys were easy to follow—your pattern was very clear.”

I grinned up at him. “Surprised I didn’t get lost?”

His eyes softened, and maybe,maybe, a tiny hint of a smile graced his lips. “Not necessarily surprised. But… impressed, let’s say.”

Our gazes held as something fluttered through my abdomen. Something that had nothing to do with sabbaticals from men. Especially bosses. “Thank you. All in a day’s work.”

Wyatt moved to one ladder, raised it from the water, and tied itoff. Gabe did likewise with the other, then made ticking motions with his index finger as he counted off the people on board. Satisfied, he climbed a ladder to the wheelhouse and started the engine. Staff kept our personal belongings in the wheelhouse, and I’d been self-conscious earlier when I’d had to strip off my staff rash guard and board shorts, exposing my bikini. I’d stuffed my clothes into the bag before hurrying to the deck to tug on my wetsuit. But Gabe had been a gentleman, or not interested, and carefully studied the boat console instead.

Now, I removed my wetsuit and added it to the pile already growing in between the stern benches. Guest divers were either relaxing under the shady canopy or stretched out enjoying the breeze and sun on the fiberglass bow.

As Gabe drove us back to the island, I climbed the ladder and moved around him. I rooted through my bag and pulled out my towel to wipe my face. I wrapped it around my waist, then turned to him.

I caught his eyes quickly darting away from my breasts, and that fluttering rolled through me again.

Sabbatical, sabbatical…

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