“Sure.”Julie pushed up from her chair and headed to the deck.Mac could hear the voices of her students calling out to others as they helped rope the boat to the dock.
Mac collected the laptops and joined them as Burt shut off the engines.
“U hapne na?”Burt asked her.
“Why, because we found a few sharks?”
“More n the pass few day.”
“That’s true.”
“But,” he prodded.
“We used to find more.”She was thankful they had found some, but normally they could find twenty reef sharks during one of their dives.These were the first two in almost a week.
“We’ll fin ‘em.”
“I hope so.”Mac looked down at her watch, wondering if Barry was at the bar already or still doing touristy things.
“Is ur ma waynin fer ya?”
“What?”Mac squawked then cleared her throat.“There’s no man waiting.”
“Why you cheg ur watg then?”he questioned with a gleam in his eyes and a wide grin across his face.He knew he had her there.
“I was seeing if it was too early for a beer.”She was lying, and Burt knew it.They always came back to shore around this time unless they were doing night dives.“I have to go,” she said, not meeting his eyes.
Monte was collecting the scuba gear when Mac left Burt.“Alright, team, we will not meet tomorrow.You all get the day off.”Several of them turned and looked at Mac as if she had said a hurricane was blowing in.
“What do you mean off?Is there something wrong?”Julie asked, her face suddenly pale.
“There’s nothing wrong.I just want to analyze this new data.”She held up the laptops.“See if we need to adjust where we do our research.We found some of the sharks today.Hopefully, we can start to find more again.”
“Alright,” they all grumbled.It was nice they were all dedicated to helping sharks like she was.
“Hey, you get the day off.Enjoy sleeping in.Maybe go surfing or enjoy the island.”One would think a day off was a jail sentence the way they were sulking as they walked down the dock.
Mac turned around to gather the rest of her gear and bumped into Burt’s chest.“Ur no donun anything raz is yo, bes?”Burt inquired, looking her over with a critical eye.
“No, like I said…research.”It wasn’t a lie, but the location was.Instead of doing it from her house, she would be doing it in the water.
“Jus be arfil,” he said as if he knew what she had planned.
“Always am,” she assured him.
Mac grabbed her bag and jumped off of the boat.She headed down the dock at a brisk walk, her eyes scanning along the shore looking for Barry.She didn’t know why she should be so excited to see him.She hardly knew him.Most likely he’d already found another conquest and had already forgotten about her.
Mac’s breath caught, and she stumbled to a stop when she reached the end of the dock and saw Barry leaning against the wall of a building.His one foot was crossed over the other with his arms folded over his chest.He wore sandals and khaki shorts and a dark blue button-up short-sleeved shirt with the top two buttons undone.
He wore sunglasses over his eyes, but she could still feel his gaze upon her.His lips pulled into a grin when he saw her staring at him.Who wouldn’t?The man was damn sexy.
Mac was finally able to get her legs working again and headed over to him.“Hi,” she greeted, sounding breathless.
Barry pushed off the wall and closed the distance between them.His hand snaked behind her back, and he claimed her lips in a toe-curling kiss as he dipped her back over his arm.Mac reached up instinctively to grip his biceps when she felt like she was going to fall backward.
Barry kept a steady hand on her lower back as his tongue dove between her lips.Mac opened eagerly for him and sparred as a deep grumble of approval rose from her throat.
She felt herself being lifted up, and Barry ended the kiss though he didn’t release her.“Hi.”
