by Tess Oliver
“I’ve read that as well. Apparently, tiger sharks are more likely to finish you off. Less discriminating taste buds, I suppose.”
“I’ll have to remember that. Anyhow, the shark circled above me for a few tense minutes. I quickly took inventory of my body parts, trying to decide which one I would sacrifice if needed.”
“You mean which one would taste the worst?”
He laughed. “Yeah, that would probably have been my head, but that wasn’t in the running. Left hand won . . . or lost, I guess. Fortunately, the fish got bored, and my left hand has been loyally at my side ever since.”
A large wave came from behind, and we both sank down to avoid being slapped by it. We popped up. “You said twice.”
“The other time I was working on an offshore rig. The workers on the rig were always careless about throwing their lunch scraps over for the fish and the birds, even while we were working down there. I glanced up from my torch just as a big fucking shark was coming at my partner from behind. All I could think to do was kick the thing. And I did. Sucker punched it right in the nose. The stunned shark turned around and swam away before my partner could even figure out what the hell was going on.”
I looked at him. “Is that story really true?” He looked slightly hurt by my question. “Of course it is. I don’t know why I doubted it except that it would take a hell of a lot of courage to do something like that. You could have easily lost your leg.”
“Courage? Nah. There wasn’t time to think. I just reacted like most people would have if they’d seen a shark coming at their friend.”
“No, that’s not true, Seth. A lot of people would have swam the other way.” He looked away with a shy smile. “And this is making you uncomfortable, so I’ll stop.”
Seth glanced out to sea. “Looks like a good set coming in.” He turned back to me. “Ladies first.”
We each rode in several more waves and swam back out for one more run. While Colin and Dylan had sneered our direction a few times, they thankfully hadn’t felt the need to come over and talk to us. Aside from Pete being awkwardly close with his rusty boat and several pelicans floating twenty feet away, we were pretty much alone in our section of the water.
Seth squinted out toward the fishing boat. It really was leaning heavily to one side, and Pete seemed to be spending more time working on the boat engine than fishing. “Looks like he’s having trouble getting it started,” Seth said. “I wonder if I should swim out there and give him a hand.”
We watched him a few more minutes. Pete had grown more hunched over than I remembered. He carried a gasoline can from the bow to the stern. “Maybe the boat is just out of gas.”
Pete put down the gas can. His boat was close enough that we could see the pain in his face as he straightened and rubbed his back. He reached into his pocket.
Seth saw it first. “Christ is that a cigar?” Seth cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey, don’t light—”
The flash was blinding and the last thing I saw before Seth’s body covered me was Pete, his shirt ablaze, falling over what was left of the starboard side of his boat. Shards of metal cascaded down around us, pelting the water surface like heavy raindrops. Seth’s arms and back shielded me from the red glowing confetti. I could hear yelling and screams coming from every direction. Seth grunted in pain as some of the hot metal pelted his naked skin. As the fiery storm slowed, Seth lowered his arms.
“Get to shore now, Noelle.”
I had no time to protest before he spun around and swam for the burning wreckage. In the salty water I could see thin streams of blood coming from his shoulders as his powerful arms propelled him against the current. Pete had vanished. His boat gave one last gasp of breath and another explosion reverberated through the water.
“Seth!” The repercussion halted him for a second, then his fins kicked up above the water and he dove down below the surface.
As everyone, myself included, swam away from the hazardous scene, Seth swam toward it, completely undaunted by the blasts. I got halfway to shore then stopped. I wasn’t going to leave Seth out there alone if he needed help. The water was murky, made more so by the explosion. The current was strong today, and a body could have been pulled out in a matter of seconds. A crowd of onlookers lined up along the shore, some looking visibly shaken, others seemingly in awe of the man who’d swam straight toward the wreckage in an effort to save the elderly fisherman. Several were already on their cell phones. A few of the surfers, including Dylan and Colin, had turned their boards around and were paddling back out. A horrified hush fell across the beach as everyone waited.
Seth had been under for a long time. My heart was racing, and I could barely catch a decent breath. When it seemed too long, even for a trained diver, to be underwater, I swam toward the sinking boat.
Colin and Dylan followed on their boards.
Tears stung my eyes as the waves slapped me in the face. “Seth!” The stunned silence on shore had risen to a low, concerned mumble. “Seth!”
A head shot through the surface and another followed.
I cried out through tears of relief. Seth held Pete, unconscious and pale, in front of him.
“Over here,” Colin yelled as he paddled toward Seth. “Put him on my board.”
Seth heaved the lifeless man up onto the surfboard. Pete’s shirt was melted to his back and his face looked rubbery and lifeless. “Let’s get him to shore fast.”
Several people on the beach waded out to help pull the board in. A towel was stretched out and Colin and Seth carried Pete to it. Seth pushed him to his side and a thin stream of sandy water trickled out of Pete’s mouth. Sirens sounded in the distance.
“I’m a nurse.” A woman stepped forward and grabbed his wrist. “He has a pulse but it’s very weak.” She leaned down to check his breathing and listen to his lungs. “Put him on his back and I’ll start CPR,” she said.
Seth rolled Pete onto his back. The man was gray and lifeless as the woman lowered her face down to his and pushed the first breath into him. The sirens grew louder, and several of the onlookers jogged up to the parking area to direct the emergency crew to the right spot.
Seth stood up and a woman behind him gasped. “You’re back is bleeding,” she said. Then she started clapping and everyone else joined in, especially me. My tears ached as I thought back to everything that had happened in such a short span of time and how Seth had jumped into action first to protect me, long before I’d even figured out what the heck was going on. Then he’d swam right toward a boat that was still exploding. I guess this meant that my hopes that I would like him less by the end of the day had been completely obliterated. Completely.
Seth stood there watching with worry as the heroic nurse tried to breathe life back into Pete, a man who had been like an icon on this beach, a man who had always stood for life as it was years ago, simple and non-assuming, a man who would be sorely missed if he died.
The nurse sat up, and as the sirens shut off, a weak cough floated up from Pete’s seemingly lifeless body. “He’s breathing,” she said, and she received the same, well-deserved round of applause. The emergency crew raced across the sand with their stretcher and equipment.
Seth looked over at me. My heart rate was just returning to normal. I bit my lip thinking I didn’t even know what to say to him. He stepped away from the crowd, and as he neared, I threw my arms around his neck and jumped up to my toes to kiss him. It was a fast peck, so fast he’d probably hardly noticed it. But it was something I needed to do. I didn’t care if I felt silly or guilty about it later. I needed to let him know that he was amazing.
I rocked back down to my feet and peered up at him. “What you did out there, Seth—”
“You know something,” he said, as he looked down at me from beneath wet, spiky lashes, “I’m fucking starved.”
I laughed, slightly relieved that the small, light kiss was going to pass unnoticed, and at the same time, slightly bummed that it was going to pass unnoticed. Maybe
I’d been a little too full of myself in thinking that Seth was really interested in me. I’d been hoping that the day would end with me liking him less, and I hadn’t even thought about the real possibility that it would end with him liking me less.
I circled around to his back. There were tiny welts all over his shoulders and the backs of his arms, but two small puncture wounds were still trickling blood. I pressed my fingers against the side of one and he bunched up his shoulders with pain. “I think there might still be some metal in there,” I said.
“That would be my guess. I can still feel it.”
“We should get this taken care of and then I’ll buy you lunch. You’ve earned it.”
A policeman walked toward us with his notepad. “Are you the man who pulled him out of the water?”
“Yes,” Seth answered.
The officer glanced at Seth’s back and turned to one of the emergency crew. “We need some medical assistance over here.” He turned back to Seth. “Could you answer some questions?”
“Sure.”
It took another half hour until we were able to leave the beach. I bought Seth two burgers, which he gobbled down at an alarming rate. We talked about a lot of things but he never brought up the fact that he’d saved a man’s life. It was absolutely no big deal to him. His main concern was that they put enough grilled onions on his burgers. I’d wanted to end the day liking him less but the complete opposite had happened.
We pulled up to his house. “I think I’m going to go over to the shop and let Greg know what’s happened. He’ll want to go to the hospital and see Pete. Are you all right?”
He patted his stomach. “Yep, now I am.” He was a character, a charming, handsome and incredibly brave character. And it seemed that I might have played my hand so wrong, so coolly, that he had lost interest in me. Which, I’d told myself more than once on the drive to his house, was a good thing. Right. A good thing. Shit.
He didn’t even lean over to try and kiss me, and I couldn’t believe how profoundly disappointed I was about it. He grabbed his fins from the backseat and opened the door. He stopped and turned back to me. His eyes were pale blue in his tanned face, and he couldn’t have looked more appealing. “I had a great time, Noelle.” He stepped out of the car and went inside.
Chapter 11
Seth
The front door opened and shut, waking me from a deep sleep. It was still early enough that only gray streaks of light came through the curtains on the glass door. I squinted up at the stocky figure standing over my bed. “What the hell do you want, Rocko? Are you just getting in?”
“Sure am. Spent the night with Grace.” He walked into the kitchen and flipped on the light.
I yanked a pillow over my face. “Good for you. Now get ready for work quietly. I’m still sleeping.”
Naturally, he went on talking as he clinked the coffee pot down on the stand. “We’re really getting along and, damn, she is wild in the sack.” I’d never mentioned my one night with Grace to Rocko. He opened the cupboard and slammed it shut. “Of course, I’m not planning to tie myself down with one girl this summer.”
I sat up, deciding this conversation was going to happen whether I was awake or asleep, and sleeping wasn’t possible with the racket he was making in the kitchen. Too late, I remembered the stinging cuts on my back. I sat forward, pulling my naked back from the rough couch fabric. “Why not? Especially if you like her.”
He laughed. “This coming from a man who has a revolving bedroom door policy that would make most mortal men dizzy.”
I scrubbed my hair back with my fingers. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t use me as a role model.”
“Why, you don’t think I have it in me? Think you’re that much better than me?” This new relationship was definitely making him feel extra cocky.
“That’s not what I meant, Rocko. Now, fuck off, do whatever the hell you want. I’m going back to sleep.” I slid back down beneath the sheet.
He came out of the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in his hand. He plunked down on my bed.
“Shit,” I muttered, “this sleeping center stage thing sucks.”
Rocko ignored my complaint. “I guess you have a busy day of play ahead, huh? Or are you hanging out with the old man on his boat today? Hey, I heard some ancient fishing boat with an even more ancient fisherman blew up on the water yesterday. The guys at work had heard about it. I guess the old man made it but the boat is history. Probably needed to die a quick death anyhow.” He slurped some cereal and swallowed. “Shit, you should be at the site. It’s fucking hilarious. That cocksure fool, Rice, fired the main contractor and is sub-contracting everything, technically putting himself in charge of the whole damn project. But he doesn’t know a flipping thing about construction, so everything is half-assed backwards. He shows up every morning looking like he’s ready to take a crap in his designer briefs.”
“He deserves it.” I turned around and pulled the sheet up over my shoulder.
“Holy shit, what happened to you? Looks like you walked across a battlefield with a bull’s-eye on your back.”
“It’s nothing. Aren’t you going to be late for work?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get out of here in a minute. Don’t want to fuck up your beauty rest.”
By the time he’d showered and walked out the door, I was wide awake. My back stung as if a dozen tiny hot needles were poking at it, and my arms and legs ached with fatigue, which was probably more due to the body surfing than anything else.
It had been one heck of a day. And it had ended with Noelle throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me. It was a light, innocent kiss, but it had taken all my self-control not to wrap my arms around her and place my mouth down hard over hers. I’d been acting like a damn saint and it was killing me. But the last thing I wanted to do was scare her off. I was keeping it low-key, not letting on how much I liked her. In a way, I was doing it for my own self-preservation. It was highly likely that Noelle would never come around and decide to give me a chance, which would be easier to accept if I kept my feelings tamped down in the first place.
I showered and pulled on some shorts. I’d promised Greg I’d be out at the boat by ten. It seemed I would be early now thanks to Rocko. I walked into the kitchen to reheat some coffee. A knock sounded on the sliding glass door. I walked over and drew back the curtains. It was Noelle. My pulse raced ahead like it usually did at the sight of her. She bit her lip as she peered up at me through the glass. I unlocked the door and slid it open. She stepped inside.
It took her a second to speak. She started pacing the floor in front of me, just a few strides one direction before turning and walking back the other way. “I just wanted to say that the kiss was stupid. I know it was just a silly fifth grade level sort of kiss, but I shouldn’t have done it.” She wrung her hands nervously, completely out of character for a girl who was normally extremely confident. She continued her pacing, without looking at me. But I was looking at her plenty. She looked so fucking cute I wanted to grab hold of her and return that fifth grade kiss and then take it up a few notches. “I shouldn’t have kissed you. It’s just the day was so— and you fucking swam right toward the— fucking explosions.” She flung her arms in the air to add special effects. “And you were so damn awesome and then humble. You were so— as if everyone does that kind of thing every day. And the day was supposed to end with me thinking you were just so-so and instead— well, you know what happened.” She laughed nervously. “I mean you were fucking there.” She stopped and took a breath before peering up at me. “I sound like a damn lunatic. I just wanted you to know, it can’t happen again. I can’t kiss you again.” Her voice broke into a sob. “It can’t because I had a man I loved. I loved him so fucking much.” She waved her arm helplessly. My heart was breaking with each word that fell from her beautiful lips. Tears streamed down her smooth cheeks. “And I lost him. He didn’t come back to me like he was supposed to.” She pressed her fist against her chest. “But he’s still
here, you know? How can I love someone else when I’m supposed to be with him?” She swiped clumsily at her tears. “So I’m going to go. I just wanted to explain about the stupid kiss and how it can’t happen again.” She turned around and raced out into the yard and over the railroad ties to the sand.
I stepped outside and watched her. She ran a good fifty feet before spinning back around. She stood in the white sand, her chest heaving with shuddering breaths and her shoulders wracked with sobs. Then she ran. Sand kicked up behind her as she raced toward me.
“Seth,” she said quietly before throwing her arms around my neck. I closed my arms around her body and I kissed her.
As badly as I wanted her, I knew I had to hold back everything. She melted softly against me as my kiss deepened. Having my arms wrapped around her felt even better than I’d imagined. And I’d imagined a lot.
A salty breeze pushed against us, and the distant shrieks of gulls rained down from overhead. It was a perfect morning on the beach, made that much more perfect by the girl in my arms. My hand pressed against the small of her back, but I didn’t dare allow myself any more than that. I’d gotten this far, and I wasn’t going to ruin it.
She peeled her lush lips away from mine and peered up at me. Her hand came up against the side of my face. “You must think I’m a complete nutcase.” She stepped back, and I had no choice but to release my hold on her.
“Noelle, you are not a nutcase. You’re a woman struggling with something that, frankly, gives you the right to act any way you want.”
She sucked in her lip again and nodded, trying hard, it seemed, not to tear up once more. Her long, dark hair floated around her face as she started backing up. She motioned behind her with her thumb. “I’ve got to go get ready for work. I just wanted to clear up the whole kiss thing. And since that’s all cleared up, I’ll be on my way. Of course, that right there, that kiss, sort of muddled things up again, didn’t it?”