Page 48 of Love on Deck
“Yeah, it would be hard to resist me after I let you hold on like that,” I joked, to lessen the sting of rejection.
She let her head fall back and tried to lift her arms again, but I could see where the shirt grew tight at the seam near her armpits and she was straining.
“Let’s get back into the boat and I’ll help you sunscreen your back.”
Lauren groaned. “It won’t work. My skin is already wet.”
“It’s better than nothing. If you want to snorkel, I’ll help you. It’s your call.”
She seemed to consider this for a moment before delivering a world-weary sigh. “Fine. Thanks.”
We climbed up the unsteady metal ladder into the boat, water dripping from us like tiny waterfalls and pooling at our feet. I grabbed some sunscreen from the bench that someone left behind and tried to avert my eyes when Lauren peeled the black rash guard off and set it down on the bench seat. She wore the same mint green swimsuit from last night, and it was hard not to stare while she toweled down her skin and dried it as best as she could.
“Need help?”
“Just on my back.” She faced away from me. I used my towel to dry her skin better, but water dripped from her braids, fighting me. Squeezing out twice as much sunscreen as I thought I needed, I started rubbing it in circles on her back while she took care of her chest and arms. It took about five minutes to rub the lotion into her damp skin, but I did my best, running my fingers beneath her straps just to be extra safe.
“Ready?” I asked, when she picked up her snorkel again.
“Go ahead, Jack. I’ll meet you in the water. I want to give it a minute to soak in.”
Man, she really did not take this whole sunburning thing lightly.
I jumped into the water, then fitted my snorkel on and swam away from the boat toward the reef. The water grew a little more shallow there, but all I had to do was look down and an entire aquatic ecosystem was eight feet below me. Orange coral spread out like spongy fingers while teal and yellow striped fish swam below me in a glittering school.
Cara and Lucas were just ahead of me, and I joined them, searching where Cara pointed to find an enormous orange starfish blending into the coral. Communication was more difficult beneath the water, but it was quiet and peaceful, watching the marine life without anything to distract me.
Until Lauren swam up. Her eyes were unreadable, but she came up to my side and I reached for her hand, pointing out the starfish. She thumbs-upped me when she saw it, then she pointed out an orange and yellow fish that swam just below our stomachs. I had to release her hand in order to swim, but I gestured to Cara and Lucas ahead of us, and we followed them through the reef, pointing out cool fish and weird rocks while the water eased us back and forth gently on the waves, like the reef itself was breathing.
This would have been impossible without arm mobility. I was glad she had thrown caution to the wind and joined us. We found the rest of our friends. Sydney moved to position herself near me, her arm brushing my stomach and my chest while she swam a little too close. The woman was relentless. At some point she needed to see that her tactics weren’t going to entice me and give up, right? This whole situation was my own stupid fault for going out with her in the first place. But I’d been lonely, and she was beautiful. At the time, I hadn’t seen the monster of a situation I was creating.
Lauren noticed it now, though. She took my hand, tugging me closer to her side. Even after our disagreement this morning, she was still holding up her part of the arrangement.
I kicked up until my head was free of the water and pulled the snorkel from my mouth for a breather. Sunlight beamed overhead, forcing me to squint and rub water from my face.
Lauren followed me, pulling her gear up on her forehead, the mouthpiece dangling down. “You okay?”
The skin around her eyes was red from the imprint of the goggles, her lips plump from the breathing tube, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah. Just giving them a second to move on. Sydney kept touching my chest,” I said with a shudder.
“You can’t find it that repulsive if you dated her,” Lauren said.
“I never said Sydney was repulsive. She’s beautiful. But being touched without asking for it feels gross, regardless of who it is.”
Lauren looked like she gave this consideration, watching the tops of our friends’ snorkels move away from us. Probably so they wouldn’t get kicked from our treading. “Noted.”
“You’re different,” I hurried to say. “You can touch me anytime you want. Consider this my full consent.”
“But you just said it was gross whenever it’s unasked for.”
“The difference is that I want you to,” I said, not even a hint of a smile on my face. And the thing was, I meant it.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
LAUREN
The warm sun glared overhead despite the fact that it was still winter back at home. I treaded water across from Jack, and aside from the boat with our captain in my peripheral vision, I didn’t see anything around him except for gently waving teal water and the occasional tourist.
It was all blending into nothing, because his words ran on a loop in my head.