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.She didn’t think Nana would have told Herbie about her background.What would Herbie say if he knew the family’s shady history? She didn’t want Nana hurt.Blast.It wasn’t Sharla’s place to tell him either.All she could do was ride it out.“Damn.”“Something wrong?” Luke stood by the scuba rental shack.Thinking of her grandmother and Herbie, Sharla hadn’t paid any attention to where she was going.Stopping to look around, she realized she’d passed the snorkel hut and had walked pretty far.Concern creased his forehead.“Is Sophia all right?”“Oh, yes.” She pointed left, then right, then let her hand fall to her side.“Sorry.I wasn’t looking where I was going.”“And where were you going?”“Snorkeling.I think.”“You think?”She smiled.“It’s been eons since I’ve been on vacation or in the water.At least anything bigger than the neighborhood pool.”“You’ve been snorkeling before?” Luke had told himself he was going to keep his distance until he’d made up his mind about what to do with the attraction between them.But when he saw her walking with such a deep frown on her face, he couldn’t have ignored her any more than he could walk away from a wounded puppy.“A long time ago.Loved it.I even took scuba lessons, but then…”“Then?”She tipped her head and shrugged.“Life got busy.”“How far did you get?”“With the classes?”He bobbed his head.“Open water, but no deeper than twenty-five feet.”“Open water is good.I was just getting ready to go out with the next boat.Want to buddy up?” So much for distance.His mouth had opened and the words had simply fallen out.“Oh, it’s been too long.I don’t remember—”“Let’s test your memory.Come here.” It had taken some convincing on his part to get the scuba rentals to do an afternoon run, but when another two couples walked up wanting the same, the dive captain relented.Most of the equipment was already on the boat and ready to go, but enough remained here for Luke to do a quick run-through with her.See how much she remembered.“Tell me what this is for?” He held out the pressure gauge.“That’s the gauge that shows how much air I have left.”“And this?”She glanced a few long seconds at the yellow octo.“That’s the backup regulator in case of an emergency, and we need to share air.”Next he lifted the BCD and pointed to the low-pressure inflator.Her voice a little stronger, she threw out, “Buoyancy Control Device.That’s to keep me floating at the surface or buoyant on the bottom.”“Sounds like you’re good to go.” Together they walked to the back of the small rental shack where a few different wet suits hung.“The water is so warm here, the shorties should do.”Twenty minutes later they were suited up, geared up and sitting side by side on the dive boat riding away from the beach crowd.He could tell by the way her fingers dug into her knees that she was nervous.Maybe he shouldn’t have talked her into this.Even if she had been certified years ago, ocean diving was different from a lake or aquarium.He was all set to tell her coming along wasn’t such a great idea, when the boat stopped, and she turned to him with a bright smile “I wouldn’t have had the nerve to try this again on my own.Thank you.”Her smile warmed him from the inside out.“You’re welcome.”There was no need for any more thinking.He knew what he wanted.Had to try for.Now if he could just keep his hands off of her until he could convince her to give him a chance outside the water.Chapter Thirteen“That was unbelievable.” Out of the water and riding back to shore, Sharla shimmied out of the wet suit and stood under the sprayer hose.“Absolutely incredible.”“If you thought that was something, you should see the fish in the Great Barrier Reef.The colors and variety make this place look like a black-and-white photograph.”“I can’t imagine.” Most of Sharla’s scuba lessons had been in a dive shop training pool.Eventually she’d graduated to the lake, but she’d moved to Florida before she’d done any ocean diving.The irony wasn’t lost on her.She’d moved to an oceanfront city and never went back in the water.Life had been crazy back then, getting settled in.Then, one by one, her family started migrating south.Soon afterward she’d met land-lover Danny and had never given diving another thought.Luke took the sprayer from her.“Some buddies and I got a chance to go on leave there, and we grabbed it.”“That’s right.You mentioned you’d been in the navy
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