Dive Into You

by Chris Keniston

  Kara rolled her eyes heavenward. “How old are you two?”

  “She’s twenty-six going on three.”

  “I resemble that remark.” Emily put her tongue firmly in her cheek and grinned at her overprotective brother. Teasing him was her best defense.

  The office door opened, and Nick walked into the room, his eyes immediately lasering in on his wife. “Hi.” There was no missing the love in his gaze as he moved across the office and leaned over for a kiss.

  Nick had practically been a second brother to Emily. Ever since Billy met Nick during training in Panama City, the two had been as close as barnacles on a boat. She couldn’t remember a time when Billy came home on leave and didn’t have Nick with him. Now they’d both found their soul mates, and she was equally delighted for each of them. And someday she hoped to find a man who looked at her the same way Nick gazed at his wife, as though she were absolutely everything to him. But, for Emily, not now. Not yet.

  With her master’s degree finished, it was time for her live it up. At least a little. Life was more than work, school, and sleep. And she’d learned the hard way when her Dad died so unexpectedly, sometimes it was way too short. So now was her chance to explore the possibilities. The exciting possibilities. That is if she could fly under her brother’s radar.

  “So.” Nick straightened and took in Billy’s face. “Who died?”

  “No one. Your friend here was just giving me another lecture on the evils of men.” Emily had to bite on her lip not to laugh when Nick rolled his eyes.

  “I never said all men.” Billy waved an arm at his business partner. “She isn’t taking me seriously. You tell her.”

  “Me? Tell her what?”

  “That she doesn’t want to even think about getting involved with a navy man.”

  Nick stood in silence waiting for something, but Emily wasn’t sure what.

  Billy raised his chin, urging Nick to say something, but, when he remained quiet, Billy explained further. “Tell her how sailors are nothing more than testosterone on legs. One-track mind. All they want is to get into a girl’s pants.”

  Kara frowned and turned from her husband to Billy. “I think I’m going to take offense at that. I’m more than my pants.”

  “Of course you are.” Billy shook his head. “I didn’t mean Nick.”

  “Or you,” Emily said to her brother.

  “Or me.”

  “Or Jim,” she added. But Billy didn’t keep talking, he instead tossed her a sideways glare.

  A deep voice called out from the hall. “Okay. Last of the boxes are in the warehouse. If no one needs me, I’m going to…” Doug spilled through the doorway. His eyes met Emily’s and his words slowed. “…head…home…now.”

  What was Doug, her Doug, her hot sailor, doing in her brother’s shop? The room seemed to spin in slow motion. Like a clip from an old Charlie Brown cartoon, people spoke around her, but all she heard was “Wah, wah, wah” until Kara moved closer and set her hand on Emily’s arm.

  “Nice to meet you.” Doug extended his arm.

  The moment her fingers clasped Doug’s hand, those blasted sparks—that had sent her to places she’d never been before—shot off to places she wished they wouldn’t.

  Still holding onto her, Doug turned to face her brother. “For five years you carried one family photo, and the baby sister I remember had braces and knocked knees.”

  “You think I was dumb enough to show my grown sisters to a bunch of randy sailors?” Billy smiled. “And while we’re at it, Magic, you can let go of her hand now.”

  “Magic?” Emily muttered, and Doug squeezed his eyes shut, letting his hand fall to his side.

  Billy slapped his friend on the back. “No one worked the chick-magnet magic like this guy. Most of the guys just called him Magic.”

  “I see.” What more could she say? “And you’re visiting now?”

  “Working here.” Billy crossed his arms. “Doug’s from the team. Cycled out same time as me. Bum eye. I guess you weren’t listening.”

  Apparently not. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew her brother had told her all about the new guy. How he’d been one of the team to save Billy’s life that day. How he didn’t know what his buddy had been doing the last couple of years but how glad her brother and Nick were to have him moving to Kona. But nowhere in that vague memory did the name Doug come front and center.

  “We just got back from a supply run at the marina,” Nick announced.

  More interested in Doug, Emily looked closely at his beautiful eyes. Eyes that seemed to have lost all expression. Like a curtain descending after the last act of a play, all the pieces of his story were now hidden from her view.

  “Anyway,” Billy continued, “Doug’s already making a difference. It’s great to have some of the team back together.”

  The team. She’d spent enough time around her brother and his navy friends to know the codes his and other military teams lived by. Right up there with never leave a man behind was the code never mess with your buddy’s sister. Good Lord, what a fiasco.

  Chapter Five

  Holy shit. Doug’s mouth had gone completely dry. How did he make it through an entire wedding ceremony and reception without realizing Emily was not a member of the Alani family but one of the Everrett clan?

  On top of that, she could have shown up at the shop any day since he’d arrived, but not until the day after he’d come to know her in the biblical sense did she grace the place with her presence. Billy was going to kill him. Slowly. And painfully.

  At first sight of Emily in the office Doug’s mind had done a fast perusal to assure himself she wasn’t merely an apparition. The beautiful brunette, still looking a little dazed, was very real. Her reaction had all the earmarks that he’d committed a major FUBAR. When all the color drained from her cheeks and a hint of green took its place, he knew beyond any doubt he had just fucked up royally. And literally.

  Her hand flattened against her collarbone, and, with the color slowly returning to her face, Emily turned to Kara. “I, uh, think I’m, uh, coming down with something. I’m going to pass on the baby shopping if you don’t mind. Maybe just go home and take a little nap.”

  In a heartbeat big brother was around the desk with his hand on her forehead.

  Her eyes rolling upward, Emily knocked away Billy’s hand. “Seriously, bro, you’d better have a baby soon. You are way over the top on this mother-hen bit.” Her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s just a headache. Probably too much sun.”

  Doug had to admit he’d had the same instinct. Only his sense of self-preservation kept him from checking on Emily himself.

  Kara looked from Doug to Emily. “I’ll call Angela and tell her I’m driving you home.”

  Glancing out the doorway, Billy frowned. “I’m surprised she’s not here yet.”

  Just then Kara’s pocket buzzed, and she pulled out her smartphone. “It’s Angela. She’s got to stop and drop off an earnest money check. She’ll be here in another fifteen.”

  Doug had no idea what possessed him, but, before his brain could engage and untangle the logistics of his next move, his mouth opened and out popped seven fated words. “I can give you a lift home.”

  Emily’s and Kara’s heads snapped in his direction. The cutting glare he got from Kara, who, up until now, had always been very nice to him, told him Kara was privy to him having slept with his best friend’s little sister. And the thick circle of white in Emily’s eyes was a surefire hint that she was as surprised to hear his offer as he’d been.

  The words “That won’t be necessary” coming from Kara collided with Billy’s “Great idea.”

  Like a pair of synchronized swimmers, Kara’s and Emily’s heads turned to face Billy. “I’ve got a private lesson coming up in about fifteen minutes or I’d drive you home myself. Doug will take good care of you.”

  Hopefully no one else noticed the blush in Emily’s cheeks at her brother’s words. And Doug did his best
to smother the smile that pulled at his. He had a reputation for making the ladies more than satisfied under the sheets, but it was nice to know she seemed to agree he’d “taken good care of her.”

  Now all he had to figure out was how to get her home and still keep his hands off his buddy’s not-so-little sister.

  * * *

  Of all days to have Kara pick up Emily instead of driving her own car. She didn’t see any graceful way of getting out of the offer. Hell, if she hadn’t spent most of the night unable to tell where Doug stopped and she started, accepting the ride from one of her brother’s handsome friends would have been a no-brainer. Even Billy trusted Doug to take her home, the same as he would Nick. An extension of himself. Another brother. Too bad he hadn’t sent the memo to her or Doug before last night.

  Giving her best effort to put on a casual and relaxed smile, Emily shifted her gaze from Doug to her brother and, hefting a shoulder, bobbed her head and squeaked out, “Sure.” Then she prayed Billy didn’t pick up on how nervous she really felt.

  “I’ll be back in time for the night dive,” was all Doug said to Billy.

  Out of the office, through the shop and into the parking lot, neither said a word. Not until they were both strapped into the sleek sports car and Doug had turned the engine and pulled onto the road did he say, “You look beautiful when you’re nervous.”

  Then she must have been beyond stunning last night. “Thank you. And thanks for not mentioning we’d already met.”

  Lips pressed into a tight line, he nodded. “Sometimes, just before we had to get our heads into what we knew would be an especially nasty mission, the guys would talk family. Billy was always bragging on his sisters. Who won the blue ribbon at the science fair—”

  “That would be Kathleen.”

  “Or made the head of the debate team—”

  “That would be Ava.”

  “Lead in the school play as a freshman in high school?”

  “That would be me. Did he mention how much we each weighed at birth too?”

  Doug chuckled. “Probably. He was—is—very proud of all of you.” He took his gaze from the road for a quick glance in her direction. “I can’t blame him.”

  She could feel the heat filling her cheeks again, wanting to curse being the only one of the sisters to inherit the pale complexion from her father’s Scottish heritage.

  “There are rules,” he said softly, his focus steady on the road ahead.

  “Yes, I know.” Too well. Her mother had tried more than once to get Nick together with Ava, and every time he’d cited rules about no fraternizing with a buddy’s sister. Emily knew the rules as well as they did. All of them. And she didn’t even want to think about how Billy would react. “But I’m not sorry.”

  “Excuse me?”

  She hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but, as long as she had, she straightened her shoulders and shifted in her seat to face him. “I said I’m not sorry.”

  A sweet half smile teased at the corner of his mouth. “Are you telling me you make a habit of picking up men at weddings?”

  “No.” She slumped back in her seat. Not that Doug had any reason to believe her if she admitted this was the first time she’d ever hooked up with a stranger. Though that’s what made this entire situation so odd. At no time did she ever feel she’d been with a stranger.

  “Hey.” The car came to a stop at the red light, and he used his forefinger to hook under her chin and turn her face in his direction. “I was teasing. I knew at the Rum Hut you weren’t that kind of girl.”

  “You did?”

  He nodded. “I did. You surprised the crap out of me when we wound up back at your house racing to the shower.”

  “Yeah, well. It surprised the crap out of me too.” Slowly her smile eased into a chuckle. By the time the light changed and the car moved forward, the two of them were laughing. Why did she have to like him so much? And why did he have to be her brother’s navy buddy?

  * * *

  “You really need to get a grip, man.” Nick took a seat behind his desk.

  Kara had to agree with her husband. Especially if Emily and Doug turned into an item. Making herself comfortable, Kara propped her feet up on a side chair. “Sustained.”

  “Me?” Billy barked. “What did I do?”

  “You badger the kid—no, woman—like she’s an adolescent ditz,” Nick answered. “She’s an intelligent, competent adult with a right to go where she wants, with whom she wants, when she wants and without getting her big brother’s approval.”

  “Ditto.” Kara pulled a bottle of water from her purse and unscrewed the cap. The day was only half over, and already she was worn out.

  Billy rubbed the side of his temple. “You didn’t hear what she said to me.”

  “It doesn’t matter—” Nick started.

  “She said she’d picked up a sailor and had hot monkey sex with him. All night.”

  Kara spit out her water, coughing, and Nick flew out of his seat to her side in a blink. “You okay?”

  “Sorry.” She waved her hand at him. “Wrong pipe.”

  “You sure?” Billy asked.

  “Really.” She smiled up at the two men staring at her. If she didn’t love them so much, all this hovering—like she were made of glass—would be driving her crazy. “I’m pregnant, not fragile.”

  “That’s debatable,” Nick mumbled on his way back to his desk chair, then focused on Billy. “You need to cut your sister some slack. Let her enjoy her life.”

  “It’s not that I don’t want her to have some fun, but, ever since she finished her graduate degree and went back to teaching full time, she’s changed. Keeps talking about things like ballooning, firewalking. Christ, she’s even said she wants to go skydiving. Skydiving. Our Emily is turning into an adrenaline junkie, and it’s scaring the hell out of me.”

  “She’s not an adrenaline junkie,” Kara spoke up, “but it does take a strong and smart woman to face a room of teenagers every day. She’s all grown up and capable of running her own life. Don’t worry so much.” Heaven knew, at this moment, Kara was doing enough worrying about Emily and Doug for all of them.

  The shop bell clanged announcing a customer, and everyone looked to the doorway as Angela crossed the threshold. “Sorry I was running a little late. I hated missing lunch but it couldn’t be helped.” Turning her head from side to side, she took in her surroundings. “Where’s Emily?”

  “Having sex with the Pacific fleet,” Nick deadpanned.

  Billy threw his arms in the air. Kara closed her eyes, and Angela grinned like the proverbial cat. “About time.”

  “He’s teasing,” Billy blustered.

  “I know that.” This time Angela shook her head on her way to where her fiancé sat. Leaning over him, she met his lips, and the kiss lasted just a hint longer than it should have in public, but it was sweet nonetheless. Pulling away, she patted Billy’s shoulder. “Emily’s not the sort to sleep around, and we all know it.”

  “I rest my case.” Nick picked up a stack of papers in front of him, pulled at the top sheet and set it aside. “Emily needs to make her own decisions.”

  “He’s right.” Angela moved to where Kara was sitting. “But I still don’t know where Emily is.”

  Kara pushed to her feet. “She wasn’t feeling well so Doug took her home.”

  “Now there’s an idea.” Angela smiled.

  “No,” Billy and Nick echoed, and the two women turned to them in unison.

  “He’s a nice guy,” Kara said.

  “Very nice,” Nick concurred. “But he’s a master at women. The envy of every guy stationed with him. This time I’m with Billy. Emily needs someone a little less…social.”

  “Whatever,” Angela brushed them off. “But instead of shopping for Baby Harper, maybe we can pick up some soup or something and check on Emily.”

  Kara grabbed her handbag and followed Angela to the door. She was pretty sure by now Emily would be needing something a whole l
ot stronger than chicken soup.

  Chapter Six

  “Turn here.” Emily pointed to her right.

  “Okay, but isn’t your place farther down the road?”

  “It is. Kara picked me up at the high school. I left my car in the parking lot.”

  Doug turned the corner and followed her directions down a shady narrow road to the large building by a green field. “Nice.”

  “This is one of the smaller schools in the complex, but it’s also one of the newest.”

  “Complex?”

  “Like a school district. I’m parked around back.” She squinted into the sun. “That’s funny.”

  “What?” His eyes followed the direction she’d focused on.

  Emily pointed to the old car parked in the far corner of the lot. “That’s Tim’s car. Why is he still here? The building should be locked down.”

  Doug whipped into a nearby parking space. “Wait here.”

  Ignoring his instructions, she pulled on the door handle and climbed out.

  “Anything I can say to convince you to give me five minutes alone to check the perimeter?”

  “Nope. My school. My students.” She held up her hand. “My keys.”

  “At least stay behind me.”

  She bobbed her head and followed him as he walked around the building, examining each window, checking the side door, then the back door near Emily’s car.

  “I doubt anyone would have entered the building from the rear. Having your car back here should have discouraged anyone with illegal designs.” Doug continued to move around. He seemed to be listening intently as he examined each surface. When they came around to the other side, Doug stopped, hunched down and waved her closer, pointing to the latch. “Duct tape.”

  “That’s enough to stop the door from closing?”

  Using her key, he pried open the door, careful not to touch the surface with his hands. “It is when they tape a Popsicle stick to the rim.”

  “So he’s practical as well as technical.” She reached down to pull at the tape, and Doug grabbed her wrist, making her forget for just a minute why they were here standing only inches apart.