Hot & Heavy (Lightning 2)

“Free diving? You were free diving? Do you know how dangerous that is?”

“It’s fine—”

“It’s not fine. You worried everyone out here. That’s the opposite of fine.” I’m half-crying, half-yelling at this point and I can’t seem to stop.

“I’m sorry,” he tells me. But he doesn’t look sorry when he reaches for me. He looks confused and embarrassed and more than a little bit pissed off. “I didn’t think—”

“No, you didn’t think!” I tell him as I evade his hands. “And that’s a really dick move.”

He reaches for me again, and this time I knock his hand away. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me right now.”

“Sage, baby—”

“Don’t you ‘baby’ me! You’re an asshole, and I really don’t appreciate you pulling a stunt like this when I’m in the water with you. Free diving? Seriously?”

My head feels like it’s going to explode and suddenly the only thing that matters is getting away from Shawn—and out of the water—before I really start to cry.

Too bad he’s not the kind of guy to take a hint.

Chapter 21

Shawn

“Hey, Sage! Can we talk about this please?” I demand, keeping pace with her as she swims away from me.

Her only answer is to flip me the bird over her shoulder, right before she starts climbing the ladder that will drop her back in the boat.

I start to lay on the speed so I can catch her, but Tanner stops me with a firm hand on my shoulder. “Let her go, man. Give her a couple minutes to cool off before you try to fix this shit.”

Normally he’s got pretty good advic

e when it comes to women—it comes from being the oldest brother to a shit ton of sisters—but right now everything inside me is screaming that I don’t have a couple of minutes. That if I don’t fix things with Sage right now, then I’ll never get the chance.

But Hunter’s there, too, on the other side of him. And he looks—if not as pissed as Sage, then definitely put out. “Free diving, Shawn? Have you lost your damn mind? You scared the hell out of her—out of all of us, really, but your woman was freaking the fuck out. What you did, it’s not cool, man.”

Maybe there’s a part of me deep inside that knows he’s right. But the rest of me is pissed as shit about being called on the carpet like this. Especially when I don’t feel like what I did was any big deal.

“I was just diving, man. Just having a good time. I don’t get what all the fuss is about.”

Hunter looks like he wants to beat the shit out of me, and I brace myself for a punch. It doesn’t come, though. Instead, he settles for a scathing, “Well, that’s the problem, then, isn’t it? You’re so caught up in your own shit that you can’t see what you’re doing to the people who care about you. Jumping off cliffs in Mexico, free climbing by yourself, free diving just for the fuck of it. You’re a selfish jackass, Shawn, and if you can’t figure that out then I don’t know what the fuck to tell you.”

I open my mouth to tell him to go to hell, but he’s already gone, swimming toward the boat with a series of powerful strokes that eats up the distance.

“You want to lay into me, too?” I demand, looking up at Tanner.

“What for?” comes the laconic answer. “It won’t do any good. Besides, when you get back in that boat, your woman’s going to kick your ass better than I ever could. Who am I to take that pleasure from her?” Still, there’s something in his eyes that belies the words, something that tells me he’s just as pissed as Sage is, maybe even more.

Still waters run really fucking deep with Tanner and it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking at the best of times, let alone when he’s mad. The fact that he doesn’t get mad often is just one more indicator that this isn’t just Sage overreacting.

I really screwed up here, whether I understand why or not.

“Look, I’m sorry,” I tell him.

He just stares back at me, then swims away without another word.

I’m left treading water and wondering why I suddenly feel like a total dick when I was just having a little fun. Sure, free diving can be risky, but so is driving a car, and you don’t see any of them stopping that behavior, do you? It’s not like the cliff, when I was climbing alone because I needed the rush. I just…

I don’t know what I wanted or what I was thinking this time. I was diving and got caught up in the feel of the water all around me, the push and pull of the ocean. So I went deeper and deeper, not thinking about how Sage would feel. Or anyone else, for that matter. But that’s no excuse. I owe my friends an apology and I sure as shit owe Sage one. Once I get past her mad, we can talk about this. I can explain that I do things like this sometimes, but it’s no big deal. She’ll listen, tell me off, and then we’ll be fine.