Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
I couldn’t help it – I cringed when I walked down the floating dock, waving at the fishermen stocking their boats with bait, as I got to the end and saw Sienna kissing Trace.
Gauntlet thrown, Sienna, gauntlet thrown.
Now I was glad I’d worn my skimpy bikini. Let’s show this stick of a girl what a real woman looks like, I thought uncharitably as I cleared my throat loudly before hopping onto Trace’s dive boat.
“Oh, hey Althea,” Sienna said sweetly, and I smiled brightly at her. I wondered what she would do if I walked over and wrapped my arms around Trace and pulled him in for a big kiss.
My thoughts must have shown on my face because Trace’s eyes narrowed at the corners and he shook his head slightly at me.
“Hey, Sienna,” I said, moving past her to put my bag on a bench at the back.
Without really thinking about it, I began to go through our morning routine.
I unpacked my bag and hooked my regulator up to my tank, threading the regulator hoses through my BCD.
When Trace started the boat’s engines, I walked to the front and hopped onto the dock, crouching to unravel the rope from where it wound around the hook on the dock.
As Trace reversed slowly, I held the rope and walked towards the end of the dock, jumping easily back onto the boat at the last minute.
Sienna watched all of this carefully, her eyes darting between Trace and me, and I knew she was assessing our established relationship patterns.
“Where are we going today?” I asked, stopping on my way from the front of the boat back towards where my stuff lay on a bench. Trace stood at the wheel, motoring us from the channel that would feed us out into the ocean.
“I was thinking just out to Shipwreck Reef,” Trace said sheepishly and I tilted my head at him.
“If you’re just going to take us to a snorkeling spot, I could’ve stayed home,” I said, annoyed that I’d gotten up to go on a shallow water dive.
“But he said it would be a good spot for me to do my check-out dive,” Sienna said, looking back and forth between us.
“You know I can’t take her where we usually go. That’s a little too advanced for her,” Trace said, pleading with me to be nice.
“Just how often do you guys really go diving?” Sienna asked, her tone annoyed.
“Twice a week, usually,” I said, smiling at her.
“Really? I didn’t know that,” Sienna said, her eyes on Trace. He just shrugged.
“It’s nice to get out early before my day fills up with clients. I like to have a little peace in the water,” Trace explained.
“With her,” Sienna asked pointedly.
“Yes, with me. I have thousands of dives under my belt and I’m also an accomplished underwater photographer. Trace doesn’t have to worry about me in the water like he would with you,” I said, not softening the sting in my words.
“Well, then I’ll just have to catch up, won’t I?” Sienna said, raising an eyebrow at me and standing her ground.
“You do that,” I muttered as I finished checking my gear over and pulled my camera from its case.
Shipwreck Reef was only a short ride away and I could already see the buoy marker bobbing in the water ahead of us.
Pulling my dress over my head, I tucked it into my bag and walked to the front of the boat, not caring that both Sienna and Trace watched me in my little bikini.
The sun was already warm against my skin, even this early in the day.
The wind was kicking up a bit from the west, and I wondered if we’d have any hurricanes coming our way this season.
The large white ball of a buoy bobbed on shimmering aquamarine water, signaling that the reef was close and that the depth was shallow.
Oh well. Maybe I’d get some good macro shots while Trace dealt with Sienna.
I hooked the buoy line to the boat and then moved past Sienna, not caring that she was watching my every move.
At this point, she should have been paying attention to how Trace was hooking up her gear instead of worrying about what I was doing.
I slid into my skin wetsuit, pulling it all the way up and leaving the back loose.
“Can you zip me?” I asked sweetly, turning my back to Trace. Trace zipped me so quickly he almost caught my skin, and I shot a glare over my shoulder at him.
“I know this reef pretty well, so I’ll just let you two do your thing.”
Sitting down on the bench, I slid my arms into the BCD vest and worked my straps closed, watching as Sienna slid her neon-clad body into a wetsuit, smiling up at Trace as he zipped her.
Damn it. They were cute together.
But I would never do this again, I decided, standing hunched over from the weight of the tank on my back.
“Shit, Thea, let me help,” Trace said, rushing to my side to assist with the heavy tank.
“It’s fine,” I said, crouching down until I sat at the loading platform. Trace stayed silent as he handed me my fins. Attaching both to my feet, I slid my mask over my face and tested my regulator, checking my dive computer one more time to make sure that I had full air.
“Ready?” Trace asked.
“Yup.”
I stood with Trace’s help and stepped to the edge of the platform.
I could hear Trace lecturing Sienna behind me as I held my regulator and mask to my face with one hand, and my underwater camera in the other.
I waited until the boat dipped low and then took a giant stride into the water, briefly going under the surface and then bobbing to the top, buoyant from the air I had filled my BCD vest with. Turning, I flashed Trace the OK sign.
“See, Sienna? That was a giant stride entry. And did you see how she immediately flashed me the okay sign? You want to be in constant communication with your dive buddies.”
I turned my head away from the boat, unable to watch Sienna running her hands up Trace’s chest as he talked to her like she was a baby. Letting the air out of my BCD, I began my descent.
Into my happy place.
There’s nothing quite like diving to take your mind off of anything going wrong in your world, I thought as I made it to the bottom fairly quickly.
Checking my dive computer I saw that I was only at 43 feet of depth, and I rolled my eyes.
Luckily, this reef was a healthy one so I adjusted my camera to set up for macro shots, knowing I’d have time to get up close and personal with some of the smaller marine lifeforms that hung out under ledges.
I was having some fun taking pictures of a grouper in a cleaning station under a ledge when I heard a scream tear through the water.
Whipping around, I saw Trace forcibly holding the regulator to Sienna’s mouth as she screamed into it, bubbles all but free flowing around her head. Her body jerked back and forth as she flailed her arms, pointing off in the distance as Trace tried to calm her down.
Rolling onto my back, I looked to see what the fuss was about.
I was rewarded with the sight of a black-tipped reef shark in the distance, and I almost choked with laughter. The more Sienna struggled and flailed about in the water, the more she was going to look like a distressed fish. And you know what sharks like to eat?
Injured fish.
Smiling to myself, I kicked closer to the shark, adjusting my settings on my camera for a wide-angle shot. Holding the camera up, I took picture after picture as the shark swerved its way closer, curious to see what all the fuss was about.
I almost doubled over in laughter when Sienna’s fin caught Trace between the legs and I saw him reach to cup himself. He grabbed between his legs and I could see his eyes wincing in pain behind his mask.
I bet he wished he’d dived with just me this morning, I thought, smiling at him with my eyes as he pulled Sienna back to the boat, forcing her to hover for a safety stop while she kicked in panicked circles.
The shark soon grew bored and moseyed off, and I saluted it silently for giving me one of the best laughs I’d had in a long time.