I shook my head and laughed. “Shut up.” I stepped up onto the edge of the boat, surprised when he dropped the goggles on the boat floor, and stepped up next to me, clasping our hands together.
“No goggles?” I asked.
“I can see just fine in the water,” he assured me with a smirk. Men. Always wanting to show off. I shrugged before pulling my hand free of his and launching my body off the boat.
Seconds before I hit the water, I shouted, “Cannonball!” I couldn’t see it, but I had a feeling I made a decent splash. Maybe I soaked him, too. I popped up out of the salty surface, grasping the mesh bag in my hand as I wiped loose strands of wet hair from my goggles to look up.
Drew was standing right where I left him.
He smirked before shaking his head once and saying, “I think I can cannonball better.”
“Those are fighting words, Drew,” I taunted. He chuckled before launching his large body off the boat and folding himself up, splashing right next to me. I was laughing and scraping salt water off the bottom half of my face where the goggles didn’t protect, when he popped his dark head out of the water.
He turned to grin at me, a beautiful, happy grin—that quickly morphed into a grimace as he squeezed his eyes closed.
“Are you okay?” I asked, paddling toward him. Drew lifted his hands to his eyes, which were blinking rapidly and struggling to stay open.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Oh, no.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “You forgot to take your contacts out.”
He turned away from me, his hands raised to adjust his contacts. Drew gave me his back and swam back toward the boat, swiftly pulling himself up the ladder with his strong arms.
Something small grazed my shoulder in the water, and when I reached my hand up to grab what I suspected was a small piece of trash, I was surprised to see his contact in the palm of my hand.
“Oh, I found one!” I clasped it in my hand as I made it back to the ladder, pulling myself out carefully. I didn’t want to bend or warp his contact. I had no idea how expensive these were. Drew was hunched as he stood in the middle of the boat deck, still messing with his eyes.
“We have to go,” he grunted.
“I found one of your contacts.” I raised my palm as my feet landed on the deck. After removing my goggles, I glanced down to make sure I didn’t damage it.
That’s when I noticed something.
It wasn’t a typical contact. It was a contact that changed the color of someone’s eyes. A type of contact that actors used. His dark brown eyes were clearly not actually dark brown, because I could see the ring of color on the small disk.
“Take us back,” Drew said again. His tone was off. He sounded angry and irritated.
I frowned. “Seriously? What’s wrong? Let me see.” I stepped forward, dropping my mesh bag from my other hand to rest it on his large shoulder. Drew shouldered me off, turning away from me again.
“Let’s just go!” he demanded.
Unfortunately for him, I’d rather die than let a man tell me what to do.Especiallywhile he was angry.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” I replied. “Did you scratch your eye? Let me see. You might need a doctor?—”
“I don’t need a doctor, Van—” Drew cut me off. “I need to go.”
“Let me see?—”
“—It’s fine.”
“It’snotfine.” I frowned, raising my voice. “You’re being a dick and barking orders at me. If you’re in that much pain, I need to see what happened to your eye!”
“Van, stop.” He was struggling to compose his voice, which I appreciated, but when I rested my hand on his shoulder, he shrugged me off again. He just kept hiding his face from me.
“Drew, you’re freaking me out.” I grabbed his shoulder, fighting off his shrug to pull him toward me. “What the hell is going on?”
“Please, Van, please?—”
