NautiCal (Forever Wilde 8)

“You’re drawn to men who are entertaining. I think you enjoy being able to sit back and watch so you don’t have to be in charge of keeping the conversation going.”

I wasn’t sure I’d ever been described that way. Was it true? But more upsetting was the comparison between Cal and Mason.

“Isn’t everyone drawn to people who they find interesting?” I asked.

“I guess you’re right. But I think you’re drawn to performers. Maybe Cal is a Leo. We should ask when his birthday is.”

“When whose birthday is?” Cal asked, walking through the open slider doors from the deck.

“Are you a Leo?” Lucas asked, instinctively reaching out to clap my mouth closed before I could scoff at him about horoscope nonsense.

Cal nodded. “My birthday was three weeks ago. Why?”

Lucas started laughing, so I swatted his chest. “That doesn’t prove anything,” I muttered. I tried not to think about how he was barely twenty-three.

“No reason,” Lucas said. “I was simply speculating on why you were so fun to be around. Leos are the life of the party.”

Cal’s cheeks turned pink. “Oh. Um… thank you?” He stepped closer to me and asked in a lower voice, “Have I been talking too much? I tend to take over a conversation. It’s a problem that’s been pointed out to me in the past.”

I sensed Julo stiffen, but he kept his mouth shut. Meanwhile, I slid an arm around Cal’s waist and pulled him close. “Never,” I said as sincerely as I could manage without sounding angry. “I could listen to you talk all night, and anyone who feels otherwise is welcome to take a long walk off a short plank.”

Lucas leaned around me to see Cal. “Not at all. I meant it as a compliment. I’m sorry if it came out another way. I really enjoyed getting to know you better last night, and I’m happy you’re here with us.”

Cal swallowed and glanced at me before meeting Lucas’s eyes again. I could tell he was uncomfortable with Lucas’s praise. “Thanks. That means a lot.”

Nat wandered in to meet Jin, who was finally emerging from downstairs. “Let’s get this show on the road. Someone wake Prescott up. I’m ready to get underwater.”

The dive was perfect—clear visibility, plenty of marine life, and almost no current at depth. The six of us paired up naturally as couples and explored Mountain Point. Cal pointed out a moray eel hiding under a rock with his toothy mouth open like a highly attentive mouth breather.

Toward the end of the dive we spotted a sea turtle swimming lazily in the distance. Lucas swam closer and took the opportunity to spin around with his arms and legs out, stretching the way he’d mentioned wanting to. A long-forgotten memory of taking him to an inflatable play place when I was in college popped into my head. I remembered Lucas jumping and doing flips, reveling in the enjoyment of stretching out his body in the air. He’d chatted excitedly the whole way home, begging for me to take him again the next time I came home on a school break. Nat, as usual, had brought friends along, and they’d giggled happily in the back seat while Lucas had described every jump, flip, and slide he’d perfected in the two-hour visit.

My dive computer beeped a warning, jolting me back into the present. I was ascending a little too quickly, so I stopped and waited for Cal to catch up. When I saw his face, I noticed the furrows of concern aimed at me. I flashed him the okay signal to let him know I was aware of needing to slow down, and we made the rest of the ascent to the fifteen-foot safety stop together.

When we finally got back on the tender, the first thing out of his mouth was a lecture. “You can’t zone out when you’re ascending, asshole!”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“I tried to grab your leg to stop you, but I was too far away.”

“My computer beeped anyway, and I stopped immediately,” I reminded him, refusing to think about what would have happened if I hadn’t been diving with a computer and had continued up without thinking.

“The last thing we need is to find a fucking hyperbaric chamber.” He continued griping as he stripped off his BC and dropped the tank into the clip to hold it against the side of the tender. “Do you have any idea how claustrophobic those fuckers are? And you’re in there for hours.”

I reached out and grabbed his arm. “Cal, I was hardly at risk for the bends. We’re talking about me going up maybe five or ten feet of depth too fast, not fifty. Calm down.”

The boat rocked as Jin climbed aboard. Cal reached out automatically to help but didn’t stop bitching at me in the process. “It doesn’t take much, and if you’d gotten hurt on my watch, I would have…” He stopped to focus on getting Jin’s tank off and untangling him from his regulator and octopus tubes. Once his tank was in a clip, Jin clapped a thanks on Cal’s shoulder and moved over to help Natalia up.