The Sky Beneath Her(87)

Anyone else would have found the comment odd, but he understood. The ocean ran in his veins. “Let’s work our way up to the Oceanus.”

“What does that mean?” All this buildup and then nothing? “I have thousands of diving hours.”

“Skills grow stale over seven years. We can start in a pool.”

“A pool. You’re kidding me? Should I wear water wings?”

Even white teeth flashed. “There’s a pool attached to this complex. We can do it now.”

I looked out the sliding glass doors to the round pool, not even long enough to swim laps. “It’s a bathtub. And the sun will set soon.”

He chuckled. “Security lights come on. Visibility is great. Show me the water doesn’t scare you. Then we’ll talk about the Oceanus.”

I ran my hand over my head. “I don’t have a suit.”

“Are you wearing underwear?”

Heat warmed my cheeks. “Yes.”

“Covers like a bikini, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Grab a towel from the bathroom.”

I moved into the bathroom, closed the door, and pulled off my T-shirt and shorts. The black bra and panties at least matched, but they did little to hide the extra pounds. I wrapped a towel around my middle. “Shit.”

Nathan was waiting in the living room, dive equipment now surrounding him. His gaze slid quickly over me, but it was unreadable, just like it had been all those times when we’d dived in Greece. I couldn’t look at him without admiring his form.

Without a word, he grabbed the larger tank and a buoyancy compensator. “Carry your own stuff.”

I hefted the smaller tank, a mask, and the BC. He opened the sliding door and walked toward the pool. Ignoring the water, I checked the tanks and the mouthpiece. Full tank. Free flow of air.

“Good, you remember the basics,” he said.

Always check your equipment. How many times had Mom said that? I slid off the towel, settled the mask on my head, and pulled the tanks onto my back. I tested the mouthpiece again. The cool burst of oxygen rolled into my lungs.

“All good?” he asked.

My upper lip was sweating, and my stomach rolled. “Sure.”

Suited up, he jumped into the water. He moved like a fish, his muscular arms pulling him to the middle. He motioned me to enter.

I settled the mask over my eyes and walked to the edge. I jumped into the water. The cold impact knocked my mask sideways and flooded it. I shoved back panic as pool water stung my eyes. I cleared my mask and put the mouthpiece between my lips. I breathed in more oxygen.

When I met Nathan’s gaze, he was watching me closely, as if deciding how much rust had accumulated on my skills.

“Go on, dunk your head,” he said.

I drew in two deep breaths and then tipped backward, letting the water flow over my body and face. The water rushed over me, encasing my skin in coolness. I pulled on the mouthpiece. Air filled my lungs.

The water slowly warmed, and the wetness caressed my skin. See, it’s not so bad, it whispered.

The tension always tightening my neck and back slackened. I rolled face down into the water and stared at the plaster pool bottom. I kicked my feet and glided toward the deep end.

Come on in.

I angled my head down and kicked my feet. My fingertips skimmed the bottom. I rolled on my back and looked up toward the late-evening sky, now obscured by a watery haze. I floated along the pool bottom’s rough surface. The water winked. I was weightless, and the world shifted from three dimensions to four. I swam to the shallow end and then back to the deep. My hair drifted around my face like an inky halo.

I didn’t have on flippers, but the pool water offered little resistance. A pool wasn’t the ocean, just like a minnow wasn’t a shark. But still it felt like home.

I looked behind me and saw Nathan. His mask magnified his eyes as he watched me closely. He gave me a thumbs-up and swam toward me. As he reached for me, I thought he was brushing away my hair.

Instead, he yanked off my mask.

The flood of water cut through the tranquility. And for a second I was pissed and confused. Then I adjusted the mask and blew air outward to clear the water.

I faced him and raised my middle finger.

His eyes danced with laughter.

We swam in the pool for fifteen minutes before he motioned me upward.

We surfaced in the shallow end. I stood, pushed up my mask, and pulled the mouthpiece free.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Good. Think I’m ready for the Oceanus?”

He shook his head. “We’ll try an ocean dive tomorrow. One step at a time.”

“Fair enough.”



Inside his house, I toweled off and stripped off my wet underwear. I wrung them out and draped each piece on the shower rods. The dive hadn’t been a challenge, but it was a first step. I’d let too much time pass since my last dive.

I wiggled into my T-shirt and shorts. When I returned to the living room, Nathan was leaning against the kitchen counter, a glass of water in his hand.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there that last day. If I had been, I might have spotted red flags before the dive.”

“And then what? You’d have saved Mom, and she would’ve died slowly in a hospital. She ended it on her terms.” I didn’t like her choice, but she’d lived life her way.