Going Under (Wildfire Lake 2)

The girls come running off the yacht, Jaime jogging behind them.

“Daddy, it’s huge.” Violet’s face is lit up like fireworks, and she turns to Kat. “Is that the kind of boat you’re buying?”

“Nope.” Then she looks up at Jaime. “Muchas gracias, el buscarruidos.”

“De nada, querida.” He looks at me. “How do you keep up with these three?”

I don’t know what buscarruidos means, but by her sarcasm, I’m guessing it’s something along the lines of asshole. I also know mi querida is my darling.

“Where next?” Poppy asks.

“Let’s start a little closer to the smaller end of the scale,” Kat says, giving Jaime a warning glare. “And we’ll end somewhere in the middle.” She points down the dock, past the yacht slips toward an area housing small sailboats. “Head that way and find a boat named Eclipse.”

The girls take off, skipping down the dock, pausing to look at anything they find interesting. I look ahead and spot a single-hull model similar to the dream boat Kat showed me online and the name Eclipse on the hull.

“Where’s my cat?” Kat asks Jaime.

“I’ve got three great choices, but the best deal is going to be that one”—he points to a catamaran—“the Blue Moon.”

She makes a sound of appreciation. “Nice. Why the deal?”

“Divorce, what else?”

“Can’t wait to see it.” We reach the end of the dock, where the girls are waiting by the Eclipse.

Kat takes them inside while Jaime and I wait on the dock.

“What brought you to Santa Barbara?” I ask.

He explains the cancelled trip, because of yet another divorce. Then tells me about a job he picked up to teach someone to sail. “He’s new money,” Jaime says. “Sold an app to Microsoft and can’t spend it fast enough. Bought a boat without ever having sailed a day in his life. There are three kinds of people with money—Einstein, salt mine, and dumb as a rock.”

“Which are you?”

He laughs and tilts his head. “I forgot, there’s one more—lucky.”

“I guess you consider yourself lucky?”

“Half lucky, half salt mine. My family has more money than God, but I’m always working.” The girls move up onto the deck, and Kat watches over them like a mother hen. Jaime’s watching them wander around the narrow deck toward the bow of the boat. “I think you’re the same as me, hardworking and damn lucky to earn KT’s affections. In all my travels, I’ve never met a woman with her passion.”

I’m wondering if he means sexual passion or passion in general as the girls step onto the dock again.

“Enjoy her while you can, my friend.” Jaime gives my shoulder a friendly slap. “The minute she sails, she belongs to the sea. Port to port. Man to man.”

19

KT

I glance into the back seat and find that Violet has finally dozed off like her sisters. When I return my gaze to Ben, his mind is still off in the ether somewhere, his expression thoughtful but grim. The idea that he might not have found the marina and the boats as captivating as I do is a crushing thought.

There’s only ten minutes left of the drive, and I know as soon as we get home and the girls wake from their late nap, rested and excited, crazy time will ensue. So I reach for the radio and lower the volume so I can talk quietly with Ben.

“What’s going on in your head?” I ask. “You’re struggling with something.”

He tilts the rearview mirror to look at the girls, then refocuses on the road. He shakes his head with a one-shouldered shrug and sighs. “I’m still trying to get my head around it all.”

“Is the cat too small? Does it make you claustrophobic?”

“No, actually, I really liked the cat.”