She followed him. “All they needed was a dash of Tabasco sauce.”
He stopped and laughed harder.
“What’s so funny?”
He shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe it.”
They moved across the lagoon as shallow waves slapped against them and the tide pulled at their feet and legs. Once she had to slip an arm around him to keep from slipping. He put one arm around her and lifted her in front of him as if she hardly weighed a thing.
It was a new sensation. Men didn’t carry women who were almost as tall as they were. It gave her a small thrill when his hands spanned her waist.
Now though, he stood behind her, and whenever a wave would pass, he was like a wall that kept her in place, his body there for her to lean against. And she did. She felt the brush of his body hair against the back of her arm, the firm, solid muscle of his chest and thighs whenever a wave would shove her backward. Once, a wave pushed her suddenly, and he slid his thigh beneath her bottom to keep her in front of him. Within a few minutes, they moved onto a sandbar, then walked along it near the edge of a jagged coral reef.
Hank gripped her arm. “This is it. You want to go down?”
She nodded.
“Ready?”
She nodded.
“Okay, sweetheart. Take deep breaths of air. Ten or more.”
They both began to breathe together. Then he looked at her, squeezed her hand, and nodded.
And they dove deep, hand in hand, down the blue green waters that were clear as air. A whole new world opened up to her, foreign and fascinating.
Fish in a multitude of colors—yellows, reds, oranges, and violets—swam about them, dancing in and out of the rocks where red and purple anemones four feet in diameter lay like prayer blankets. Sea plants with pink and yellow and purple leaves waved with the lazy current.
He pulled her down with him, his hand tightly holding hers. As they moved through the water, he pointed at the white and pink and black coral that grew like giant mushrooms from the nearby rocks. Small fish of every color—thousands and thousands of them in fluid, rippling schools—darted around blue water that must have been the color of heaven.
Margaret and Hank swam into this other world—a world so magical it was impossible to imagine. They kicked downward into an underwater paradise that was like walking through a Milky Way of color, like being deep inside a rainbow. The sunlight would catch iridescent colors of the fish and the plants, making them shimmer and sparkle more than any jewel.
Hank stuck his thumb up and they surfaced. Margaret gasped for air. “Let’s go down again,” she said, still gasping, and she started to dive.
“Not so fast, sweetheart. Give yourself a few minutes of air. Take shallow, deep breaths.”
There was something mesmerizing about the sea that made one understand the myth of sirens. Such brilliance, such magic. It called to her in a special way that had nothing to do with common sense or intrigue or curiosity, but something more elemental, as if a small door had opened only now, just this once, into a world made for just her to discover. She was still panting, wanting to take air in faster so she could dive again.
Hank laughed. “Calm down. It’s not going to go away.”
“I want to see it all, Hank. Everything. Now.”
“What about the oysters?”
“I want to see those, too. It’s lovely down there.” She looked into his face and placed her hand on his chest, right over his heart, and she smiled sincerely. “Thank you for taking me down there. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”
His look was somehow different out here, no cynicism, nothing but an intensity she could feel. He treaded water and looked at her that way for a long time. She ducked her head a little, embarrassed that she was affected by something as silly as a man’s look.
Then he ruined the whole thing. Ruined it completely, because he reached out and pulled her to him. And he kissed her.
* * *
“I don’t knowwhatthe hell you’re so mad about.” Hank followed her out of the water.
“You wouldn’t!” She glared at him, slapped her wet hair out of her face, and marched on. “You’re too thickheaded and single-minded to understand.”
“It was just a kiss, dammit.”
