She could picture him out there on the open ocean, sun-bleached hair whipping in the wind, smile on his face as he took control of every situation. “God, you must love it out there.
No stray people wandering in with their strange problems.”
He took another deep breath, the air in his lungs whooshing under her ear.
“It’s just you and your friends. How many people are on the ship?”
“Between eighteen and twenty. Most are divers.”
“Wow.”
“And I’m responsible for every single one.”
Chloe’s eyes popped open and she frowned at the little bookshelf against the far wall. Her gaze caught on Moby-Dick. Uh-oh. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the dive supervisor. I’m responsible for every person who touches the water.”
“That sounds perfect for you.”
“Sure.” Such a simple word, but Chloe heard years of stress inside that one, small syllable.
She pushed up on her hands so that she could see his face. “Max?”
“Yeah?” He didn’t open his eyes.
“Do you like your job?”
He shrugged as if the answer were inconsequential, but he still wouldn’t open his eyes.
“Max?”
“I hate it,” he said flatly. He finally looked at her and his eyes were dark with misery. “It’s ridiculous. Who wouldn’t want to live on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and hunt for treasure? It’s a dream job. That’s what got me interested. I had an ulcer my sophomore year of college—”
“Max!”
“It was a stressful year. I was trying to help Elliott decide on a school. I didn’t want him to make any mistakes—”
“Everybody makes mistakes.”
“Okay, I didn’t want him to make any really bad mistakes. And I had a girlfriend who…” He waved a dismissive hand. “Anyway, with school on top of everything else, I was a little stressed out. I saw a diving show on TV, and it looked so…quiet. And the first time I tried diving, I fell in love. The technical aspects of it were a little scary, but once I was in the water, it was just me. I’d never felt peaceful before. Ever. And in that moment, on my first dive, I was at peace.”
She thought of the dive on the wreck and nodded. “I can see that.”
“I thought I’d found the solution to my insane life. Living out on a boat, isolated, a limited number of people to think about.” He shook his head. “I don’t know. It was a mistake.”
“Do you hate it that much?”
“Yes. At first, when I was just a diver, it was okay. But on my second ship, I didn’t trust the supervisor. He was lax. So I started rechecking everything and…it became my job, and I hate it.”
“So quit! There must be something else you can do.”
His muscles had slowly hardened to steel beneath her. “I can’t quit.”
“You’re under contract or something?”
“No. But I can’t leave. What if I leave and something happens to one of the divers?”
“Wouldn’t they have a new dive supervisor?”