Vishal and Karan sat straight up as if they hadn’t been asleep at all and agreed to the plan.
“We’ll be swimming?” Vishal asked.
“It’s more about the hike,” she told him. “The pools are generally closed.”
They all lapsed into comfortable silence. Roshan was luckier than he even knew. Found family was to be treasured as the rarity that it was. Nimita had certainly not found it. Not that she didn’t like her family—she loved them. They just didn’t understand her. Her mother certainly hadn’t. Her sister obviously didn’t. Her father… Well, he had his own issues. MS took precedence over everything. Her foi—her father’s sister—and her family had lived across the country when they were growing up. Her cousins were a good deal younger than her, adorable as they were. Her mom had been an only child. Her grandparents had lived and died in India, and Nimita had only seen them a handful of times. Family was…hard. And Nimita had found that making connections outside the family was even harder.
When they arrived, Nimita reapplied her sunscreen and noticed that the guys followed suit. They walked for a bit until they hit the first waterfall.
“This place is…” Roshan looked around. The trails were somewhat challenging, but the falls took his breath away. He couldn’t see where they began, but one waterfall seemed to cascade into another, each dumping into the most beautiful pools. Hence the Sacred Pools. He had no words.
“I know, right?” she said softly, almost in reverence. The sound of water crashing into the river was sweet music to her ears. The scent of fresh dirt and grass was thick in the air, and the water spray was cooling.
Nimita was enjoying herself and relaxing into their company.
Maybe they were enjoying hers. Maybe…she wasn’t completely a lost cause.
* * *
She almost had to drag them from the hiking. “We have another beach. With snorkeling!” she tempted them. “We’ll head back to Hamoa Beach.”
They reached Hamoa Beach in no time.
“Whoa!” Vishal stretched as he stared at the cove that was the beach. They took the stairs down to the sand.
“Let’s go rent snorkel gear,” Karan suggested, and the guys started for the rental stand.
“I’ll meet you in the water,” Nimita said. She removed her shoes and walked with purpose toward the water. The soft sand beneath her feet was warm, even hot, so she didn’t dawdle. She wasn’t trying to get some distance from Roshan Dave. She just didn’t want to burn her feet.
“Don’t you need to be fitted to snorkel?” Roshan called, following her.
“I don’t snorkel,” she told him.
“Why not?”
“Nosy much?” She wasn’t about to tell him that the gear made her feel like she couldn’t breathe. She’d done enough sharing with him today.
Roshan let her be and joined his friends. Nimita dropped her bag with her shoes, shorts and T-shirt, in a quiet area and continued to the water in her bathing suit. She waded into the clear, calm water until she was nearly waist deep. The ocean was peaceful today, and it was rubbing off on her. She dunked her head under and swam a bit. She reconsidered the snorkel equipment for a moment. She really wanted to get a good look at the wildlife here.
Then she shuddered. She’d had a panic attack the one time she’d tried snorkeling. One time had been enough. She’d had no idea she was claustrophobic until she had donned the gear and gone underwater and had the very real sensation that she could not breathe. That everything was closing in on her. Her therapist said it was leftover from the accident. When she had felt trapped in the car. She had no trouble going underwater just to swim. It was the feeling of the gear that bothered her.
Deep laughter from behind her caught her attention. “Hey, Nimita.”
She turned.
“Look what we got you,” Roshan said, holding up two boogie boards with a full clear face mask built into them and two sets of fins.
She furrowed her brow.
“Wegot you nothing.” Vishal shook his head. “It was Roshan’s idea.” He put on his mask and tube and went under the water, Karan right behind him.
“Where is your gear?” Nimita asked Roshan.
“I got a board.” He was suddenly interested in the sand near his feet. “I get claustrophobic, and I thought you might, too.”
Nimita stared at him. “How did you—?”
“I just guessed. You love every other kind of adventure, there had to be a reason.”
