NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

“Really?” Nat asked with a big smile. “Are you, like, a dive instructor or something?”

I nodded. “I have a current PADI instructor certification and an association with a dive shop back at St. Mitz. If I do their education and checkout dives, the shop will process their sea cards.”

Nat’s forehead crinkled. “But…” She looked from me to Worth and back again. “Is… is that what you do for a living? Teach diving in the Caribbean?”

She didn’t sound judgmental, only confused. So I told her the truth.

“Not really. I spend as much of my life on boats or underwater as possible. I decided to get certified as an instructor when I realized how many people I sailed with would love to learn to dive if they could do it from the boat with a friend instead of being stuck in a dive shop back on the island.”

It wasn’t a lie, really. I just hadn’t clarified that the people I sailed with were charter clients rather than my own rich socialite friends.

“That’s fantastic,” she said with a smile. “We’re going to have so much fun! Are you single? I can’t wait for you to meet my friends.”

“Natalia!” Worth said.

She blinked over at him. “What? He’s adorable. You know Mia will go nuts for him. And Jade too.”

Worth’s jaw tightened in judgement. “Cal isn’t here for…” He trailed off as his brain most likely caught up with his offer for me to seduce Preston. “Just… stop harassing him, okay? He’s not your entertainment for the week.”

Nat rolled her eyes before winking at me. “My brother is a party pooper, but you probably already know that.”

“Not true,” I said, taking a sip of water. “I once saw him stay up all night pole dancing at an amateur—”

Worth’s strong hand clamped over my mouth before I could finish. The warm scent of the Tom Ford cologne made its way into my nose, overpowering the seafood pasta in the very best way.

His stormy eyes met mine. “That’s enough fun stories from the past, Calvin.”

Our eyes stayed locked for a long beat before he pulled his hand away.

“It’s Calgary,” I muttered, digging into the pasta again. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

Worth studied me for a minute before his eyes began to glitter. “Oh dear. You don’t remember how everyone started calling you Calvin after you wore those barely there swim briefs in Provincetown last summer? You remember, the red ones with the white Calvin Klein logo?”

My heart sped up. Did he think he could best me at a bluffing game? He had no idea who he was up against.

I met his eyes. “Those weren’t even Calvin Klein. They were Studs from Australia. The company paid me to wear them in P-Town and Fire Island during Pride month. You should have seen the box of jocks and thongs they gave me as a thank-you present. Mm. So hot. But they run small, so… it was literally a pain in the ass to wear them. Worth it though.”

I kept eating as if I hadn’t just painted a picture for him that nearly made him choke on the sip of wine he’d taken.

Natalia sighed. “I love Fire Island. Worth has a house there, but he never uses it.”

I glanced up at him. “Why don’t you use it? My dream is spending the summer on Fire Island and the winter in the Caribbean.”

Nat took another sip of wine. “He’s a stodgy workaholic. It took us six months to pin him down on the dates for this trip. From the sound of things, you’ve seen more of him in the past few years than we have. Where are you from, Cal?”

“A tiny town in Texas called Hobie. My family owns a ranch there.”

I noticed Worth’s eyes widen in surprise. He must have thought I was a broke-ass sailboat bum who just magicked myself out of the surf in time to put the moves on his skanky future brother-in-law. I couldn’t hold back a chuckle. “But don’t ask me to rope a steer or anything. I’m the baby of the family, with the exception of my sister Sassy. By the time I came along, most of the cattle had been sold off. Now one of my brothers raises rare breed sheep on the land, and those guys are handled more with baby talk than ropes. It’s a little bit embarrassing.”

“What kind of rare breeds?” Nat asked.

I pictured the little fuzz-heads but drew a blank on the name of the breed for some reason. “Shit, I can’t remember. I’ll text Hudson and ask though. Maybe get him to send me some pictures.”

Worth’s eyes narrowed, and I realized he thought I was making all of this up the way I’d made everything else up. For some reason that disappointed me, as if I wanted him to know that there was more to me than a giant bag of lies.