Curiosity.
And the extremely inconvenient realization that if I survive this morning, I might be thinking about these two for all the wrong reasons. I glance back toward the shore, still trying to gauge whether those two men are watching me or just happen to be standing in a deeply threatening way.
Then something brushes my foot in the water.
I jolt so hard I nearly tip sideways.
A dark shape swishes under my board.
“Oh my God—” The words come out as more of a strangled squeak than anything useful. I yank both legs up so fast I almost knee myself in the chin, ending up crouched on the board.
The shape circles once more under the water.
“Nope. Absolutely not. I am not spiritually prepared for this.”
Laughter breaks across the water in front of me. Not one laugh. But two different ones.
The blond hunk is openly grinning now, shoulders shaking, that dry amusement finally let off the leash.
The second guy laughs too, but his comes easier, warmer, as if he’s trying and failing not to enjoy this.
Then, a few feet away, a sleek head pops out of the water. Whiskers, huge dark eyes, and a wet little face. It’s a seal. It blinks at me, then ducks under again.
I stare, my heartbeat still not calming down.
The blond man says, “That’s Miso the seal.”
The auburn-haired one is still smiling. “He’s always out here early, usually harassing people with less drama.”
I put a hand over my chest, currently kneeling on the board. “I genuinely thought I was about to become someone’s breakfast.”
The auburn-haired guy paddles a little closer, eyes flicking over me in a quick, assessing way. “You okay?”
There’s nothing sharp in it now, just checking, which is annoyingly decent of him.
“Yes,” I reply, with all the dignity available to a woman who just squeaked at a seal. “But I’d like the record to show that I was ambushed.”
The blond man snorts. “By Miso.”
“He came at me from below, trying to scare me on purpose.”
The auburn-haired one laughs again, softer this time. “He likes new people.”
“Great,” I mutter. “Even the wildlife here has boundary issues.”
Miso surfaces again beside my board, gives it another little nudge, and then vanishes.
I lift my attention from the water to the two men, then past them toward the beach to where those other guys are stillwaiting, small in the distance but enough to make my stomach knot all over again.
The blond guy catches the direction of my glance. His expression changes, subtle but real. The humor stays, but something cooler settles underneath it. “Miso picked a weird morning,” he says lightly, but his eyes stay on me for half a beat too long.
I force a smile and lower one leg back into the water. “Well, tell him I’m honored, but I’d prefer fewer underwater surprise attacks before coffee.”
He shifts on his board, gray eyes glinting. “You sure you still want that challenge, Seal Bait?”
I stare at him. “Did you just rename me?”
He gives me a look that’s much too calm for a man being that irritating. “Felt right.”
