Chapter 10 #3
Caleb nods and we dip below the surface, this time pushing even further into the depths.
I’m marveling at a massive striped lobster with foot-long antennae when I feel Caleb’s grip on my arm.
I turn, expecting another starfish, but see that his eyes are locked on a reef shark a few yards away.
He must think I’m scared. But after my dip with Joanna yesterday, I know there’s nothing to be afraid of.
I try to pull back my arm, but his hand doesn’t move. Caleb’s grip tightens as the shark darts to the side, revealing a body at least ten feet in length. And suddenly, I know why he’s grabbing onto me so damned hard.
That’s not a reef shark.
It’s a tiger.
My stomach lurches, and I feel the icy rush of pure panic crystallizing beneath my skin.
I’ve seen enough episodes of Shark Week to know exactly what I’m looking at.
Only this time, it’s not behind a TV screen—it’s barely twenty feet from us.
From the side, I can see something hanging from the shark’s mouth.
Pink and fleshy. Knotted with jutting white bones. A very large fish’s spine.
The shark doubles back suddenly, disappearing into the depths, and my adrenaline sets in.
I kick out sharply to propel myself upwards, but Caleb grabs my hip, forcing me to stay in place.
He shakes his head, slowly. As kids, when we’d go hiking in the Cascades, Dad taught us that with black bears and coyotes, you make yourself as large and loud as possible to scare them away.
With big cats, you back away as slowly as you can, never taking your eyes off theirs.
But I don’t know anything about fending off a shark.
And I’m running out of breath.
The shark darts back from the blue and careens straight for us, and I instinctively throw my arms around Caleb, my blood pounding like a horror movie soundtrack in my ears.
But Caleb doesn’t throw me off. Instead, he moves me behind his body, slowly, never taking his hands off me.
When he’s squarely between me and the shark, he runs his fingers down my arm and softly squeezes my hand.
The shark isn’t even ten feet from us, now, the distance between us shorter than its massive body. Every inch of it ripples with power in the deep blue. If I weren’t so terrified, I might think it was beautiful.
Just as the burning in my lungs becomes almost too much to bear, the tiger shark slows, its fins flattening out and lifting away from its sides.
Just like Joanna said—a sign of non-aggression.
I feel Caleb’s legs moving, his hand pulling beneath my shoulder as he propels us back towards the surface.
I’m too petrified to kick with him. Mercifully, we break water just feet from the kayak, and I gasp to fill my lungs.
“Don’t flail!” he warns me, but I’m moving on instinct now.
I kick towards the kayak as quickly as I can, beaching myself like a sea lion across its plastic sides and practically tipping it as I scramble to get in.
He’s behind me in an instant, and without thinking, I grab onto his arms and pull him up with more strength than I knew I had.
For a few moments, we’re just lying there: masks shoved haphazardly atop our heads, flippers sticking out every which way across the kayak. My heart is beating so fast I almost forget to breathe.
I look at Caleb, waiting for him to yell at me for improper shark sighting protocol, but he doesn’t look ready to pounce. He’s smiling. Either he’s having a fear-induced mental breakdown, or he’s forgotten, just for a second, that he’s supposed to hate me.
“Was that—” I ask through big gulps of air. “What I think it was?”
Caleb nods, smile spreading across his cheeks as he stares up at the Fijian sky.
“I’ll say this for you Stella,” he tilts his head towards me. “Having you around is certainly never boring.”
I choke out a single nervous laugh, and another, until something bursts inside me and my body erupts in giggles.
Caleb is laughing too—not the charming half laugh he uses with the family, but a full-blown fit that has tears rolling down both our faces.
I’ve been in Fiji for all of thirty hours and my worst fear, the thing Joanna told me would never happen, has come to pass.
And I’m totally fine.
Better than fine, I’ve faced two of my biggest fears in two days. And I’m still here.
“That was—”
The moment is broken with a human call that has me bolting up and grabbing the paddle like a machete. Ok, maybe I’m not totally fine.
“See anything out here?” Harry yells out to us as the flashy, neon tip of the kayak rounds the corner.
Caleb opens his mouth to answer, but hesitates, looking to me instead. I shake my head vehemently. If Jules hears about this, she’ll never get in the ocean again without a full-blown panic attack.
“Nothing too exciting,” Caleb calls back in his infuriatingly sexy accent. “Coupla needle fish and a big lobster.”
“Should have listened to the captain, Stella!” Harry says proudly. “Gotta stick to the West reef to see the colorful fish.”
I wonder if Harry can see me rolling my eyes.
“We found the coolest starfish, Stelly!” Jules gushes from the back.
Her snorkel mask is still plastered to her face, making her look more like a Floridian tourist than queen of the pacific.
“Bright indigo—it looked like it had been dipped in paint! I tried to take a photo for you, but I’m not sure I’m pressing the right buttons… ”
She holds up her GoPro, and I laugh. Jules may be a genius with bronzer or a pair of scissors, but technology has never been her strong suit.
“Harry!” Matthew calls out from around the corner, and I see the edge of his yellow kayak inching into view. “We’re heading back. I’m starving.”
“We should probably join them,” Caleb says, looking at his watch. “Lunch should be ready by now.”
“Thank God. I’d kill for one of Russ’s lava brownies,” Harry says as he and Jules turn back towards the ship. But as Caleb steers us out of the cove behind them, I can’t help looking back to make sure no fins are following.
“Thank you,” I tell him as soon as the sound of our paddles is loud enough to cover up the sound of my voice. Caleb may be a loathsome creature, but at least he didn’t use me as shark bait.
“For what?”
I smile to myself as we overtake Jules and Harry’s kayak. For once, Caleb and I are actually paddling in unison.