Kirsty had dropped them off at the diving centre, and Drew found Jake in the office at the back, shuffling through the papers on his desk.
‘Drew!’ Jake got to his feet and their handshake turned into a hug. ‘So you’ve found us at last.’
‘Yeah. I’ve brought someone to see you.’ He turned to Caro, who was hovering in the doorway. ‘Caro’s interested in scuba diving.’
‘Oh, thank goodness for that!’ Jake grinned at Caro. ‘This paperwork’s been driving me crazy.’
Drew chuckled. ‘Jake always gets a bit itchy around this time of year. Not so many people want to go diving in the autumn.’
‘You can say that again. And I’ve been missing my diving buddy.’ Jake slapped Drew on the back. ‘When do you want to go, then?’
‘I have to learn first.’ Caro gave Jake an apologetic smile.
‘Ah. Great. Well, there’s an introductory manual I need you to read through...’ Jake caught up one of the wire-bound manuals from a large box in the corner of the room, handing it to Caro.
‘All of it?’ Caro opened the first page, scanning the contents list.
‘You can skip chapters six, seven and eleven, they’re for the more advanced course.’
‘Read all of it.’ Drew knew that Jake didn’t cut corners, but he wanted Caro to be more than prepared before he took her into the water. Jake shot him a querying look and then shrugged, obviously reckoning that the extra chapters couldn’t do her any harm.
‘Okay. That’s my weekend sorted. Then what?’ Caro tucked the manual under her arm.
‘Then we do three two-hour sessions in the pool. Now, that’ll just give you the basics, and I’d normally suggest you go on a dive with the class after that, but if you’re with Drew it’ll be fine. He’s a qualified instructor.’ Jake picked up his diary and flipped through the pages. ‘I’m doing lessons next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.’
Caro hesitated. Drew knew exactly what she was thinking.
‘We could continue with the study on Tuesday and Thursday. I’ll be at the clinic on Wednesday, so maybe I could take some of the measurements you need then as well.’
Caro looked at him as if he’d just asked her to cut off her own arm. ‘Perhaps it would be better to do the lessons the following week.’
‘Then you’ll miss out on a few days that week. You can run through everything with me on Tuesday if you like.’ Drew already knew exactly what to do, he’d watched Caro do it enough times. But if it made her feel better, she could go through it one more time.
The cogs in her head were working overtime at the moment. Maybe she just didn’t trust Drew. Then she turned and smiled at Jake. ‘Monday, Wednesday and Friday sounds great, thank you. I’ll need to hire a wetsuit as well.’
‘Okay, so you have a choice. A thicker wetsuit will probably be all right at this time of year, but a drysuit, like the one that Drew has, will be better.’
‘We’ll take a drysuit.’ Drew interrupted.
‘That’s going to mean an extra session in the pool, to show you how to deal with the buoyancy and so on. We can do that on Monday afternoon.’
Caro looked a little downcast. Yet more time away from her work. Then she nodded. ‘Okay, in for a penny, in for a pound. I’ll hire a drysuit, like Drew says.’
Jake nodded. ‘As you’re working with Drew, I’ll throw the drysuit hire in. We don’t have much call for them outside the tourist season.’
‘Thank you, but... I don’t want to take advantage...’ Caro was clearly determined to pay her way.
‘Why don’t you give Jake a couple of those miniature tortoises? His little boy is two and he’d love them,’ Drew interjected.
‘Oh, yeah. I heard about those. That’s definitely a deal.’ Jake grinned. The diving centre was nominally a part of the outreach side of the veterinary clinic, but in practice Ellie and Drew left the management to Jake.
‘Four’s best. They go crazy, trying to avoid each other, if you put them on a tabletop.’ Caro didn’t have much concept of bargaining anyone down, but then neither did Jake. The arrangement seemed to suit them both, and Drew decided not to interfere.
‘You’re coming along to help out, Drew?’ Jake was scribbling Caro’s name down in his diary.
‘Um...no. I said I’d do some work at home on Monday. Friday I’ll probably rest up a bit.’
Drew had been so sure that he wanted to show Caro the hidden world that lay beneath the waves, and so sure that she’d be fascinated by it. But now it was turning into a reality, his own fears were kicking in. If he left Caro’s training to Jake alone, then there would be no possibility of Drew becoming distracted by her smile or his own fears about taking her into the water and forgetting something vital.