‘All that excitement always wipes them out.’ Sofia shook her head, raising her eyebrows in the universal sign language for ‘what are they like!’
Jack chuckled, and then there was the silence again and only the sound of cutlery scraping against crockery.
After clearing his throat, Jack began speaking, but it came out strangled and unintelligible. Sofia giggled. ‘What was that?’ She had never seen him be anything other than in control of himself, and she was even more surprised to see him blush afterwards.
‘I don’t know, maybe you make me nervous, Harlow,’ he muttered and then added, ‘I never know when you’re about to throw a drink over me next.’
‘That was one time!’ She wasn’t ready to engage with the first half of that sentence; she was much more comfortable falling back on that tired joke of theirs.
‘I was trying to ask if you wanted to try the scuba kit? We could just swim over to that beach over there and have a go in the shallows?’ His expression was earnest.
‘Do you think we’ll have time?’ Sofia didn’t want to deal with grumpy guests or a grumpy Jack when the sacred schedule would need to be pushed back.
‘Yeah, they’re sleeping like babies.’ Jack winked at her. She was a little apprehensive about trying scuba diving. If she was being honest with herself, she had probably projected a lot of that onto Milly. Suddenly though, knowing she would have Jack to guide her through it, she felt fearless. As she slipped on the kit and pulled on the flippers, it wasn’t the thought of diving down that was tying a knot in her stomach, it was a niggling feeling that the thing she had been trying to ignore for so long was finally coming to the surface.
They tumbled into the water and swam towards the shallower end of the cove. Once Sofia could touch the bottom, Jack stopped them.
‘OK so first I’m going to teach you the signs, then I’m going to show you how to breathe.’ He was in instructor mode again, but now that they were doing something exciting, Sofia found she didn’t mind.
‘OK!’ she said and then realising she was getting ahead of herself, added, ‘sorry what do you mean by signs?’
‘Signs we do with our hands under the water to communicate, seeing as we can’t speak.’ She was finding it hard to take him seriously with his goggles on. He started making shapes with his hands. ‘So this means “danger”.’ He held his fist out straight in front of him. ‘This means “help”.’ He waved his arm up and down at his side. Another couple of gestures. ‘This one is “I’m OK”; this one is “Are you OK?” This one is “going up” and then this is “I’m going down”.’
Sofia was nodding along, but if she was being honest she was a little distracted. They had moved closer to the beach and now most of his chest was out of the water. The smattering of curls on his torso beaded with droplets of seawater were catching the light, and her attention. She willed herself to concentrate.
‘This is “hold hands”.’ He clasped his hands together in front of him, his expression earnest.
‘And why would we need that one?’ Sofia asked coyly.
Jack shot her a look. ‘Don’t be getting any ideas, Harlow. It’s only if you’re in distress and then I can lead you to safety.’
‘You do so enjoy the white knight role. I’ll see what I can do.’ She pouted her lips and batted her eyelashes. She was joking of course, but there was also something a little dangerous about how close she was stepping to ‘the line’ that thrilled her.
He pulled up his goggles and gave her a stern look. ‘Sofia, you have to listen – this is important.’
‘OK, OK! Sorry, Captain, do go on.’ She planted a serious expression on her face and he rolled his eyes.
‘This one is “you lead, I follow”.’ He pointed with both his index fingers to the left. She was on top of him, teasing him with her hands and devouring him with her eyes. She shook her head slightly. What was up with these intrusive dirty thoughts? She felt like a horny teenager.
‘Everything OK?’ Jack had seen her glaze over.
‘Yep!’ she said brightly.
‘OK last one, and this is the most important one really, so I’m going to get you to repeat it.’ He held his hand in front of his chest, flat, palm down, and moved it back and forth, as if polishing his chin. It all felt so absurd, Sofia snorted.
‘It’s no laughing matter, Sofia. That means “I’ve run out of air”.’ He seemed genuinely put out, but that just made it funnier. Jack waited for her giggles to subside, hands on hips.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ she said catching her breath. She stood up straight and mimicked the movement.
‘Good,’ he conceded, ‘ready to breathe?’ He reached behind her to grab the air hose. His cheek grazed her ear and her breath caught in her throat. There it was, that energy between them, so tangible that she had to scratch at the place where they had touched when he leant back. She noticed that his cheeks had reddened slightly.
‘This is the octo, short for octopus.’ He held up the mouthpiece, not looking her straight in the eye. For a moment she thought he might actually put it in her mouth. The idea of it felt overwhelming, but he placed it in her hand instead. She wrapped her lips around it, feeling it settle around her gums.
‘OK when you feel comfortable, take a big breath in, and then take it out to breathe out.’ She did as instructed.
‘Good,’ he said encouragingly. ‘One more time.’ This time he held her gaze, and as she breathed out, he let out a sympathetic sigh.
Goggles on, they repeated the exercise a few times under water. Sofia was impatient to get going, but Jack insisted on running through the signs once again.
