Page 17 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Sure. Okay to change down there?”

He nodded and then dove in. I barely heard the splash as he hit the water. I stepped below deck, shaking myself out of the lazy feeling that had encompassed all of my interactions with Mac. Like a dream that was meandering its way through your conscious with no purpose other than just to dream.

Descartes would have been having a field day with my analogies.

I changed into the one-piece I’d brought for days when I thought I’d actually be in the water instead of sunbathing on Ava’s beach, the cut reminding me of the forties and fifties and all the glamorous actresses my grandma had so admired.

When I came up on deck, I could see that Mac had swum quite a few yards away from the boat. That made me a little nervous. Were there sharks out here? Other sea creatures that might nibble at my toes? I sat on the step at the back of the boat?the stern was what Mac had called it.

I’d left my sunglasses on the seat, and it made it hard to see with the reflection of the sun on the crystal-like water. It added to the dreamlike quality of our day, the heat searing my skin even through the layers of sunscreen I’d added.

I placed my hand over my eyes and looked out at Mac. He turned, head bobbing in the gentle waves. “You gonna come in? I think there are sea turtles out here,” he hollered back at me.

Were sea turtles friendly? I wasn’t a naturally fearful person, but unknowns weren’t my favorite thing. I liked to read and research things before I did them. I liked knowing what I was getting into.

Mac started swimming toward the boat, his muscled arms cutting through the waves easily until he was treading water a foot or so away from where my legs were curled up on the step with me.

“There’s a whole bale of them. Come on, before they move off,” he said.

I shook my head very slightly as uncertainty coursed through my veins again.

He smiled then, catching my wariness. “Are you afraid of sea turtles?”

“Afraid is a very strong word,” I told him.

His smile widened, and he stuck out his hand. “Come on. I promise to keep you safe.”

“What do they eat?” I asked, ignoring his hand. He swam closer, his body so close that his wet chest bumped my knees in my cross-legged position. He put a hand on one of them. Rubbing. Soothing, and yet, not soothing because my body liked it way too much. Reactions that were not fully trustworthy.

“They don’t eat humans,” he chuckled, pulling on my knee and sending my right leg careening into the water and colliding with his side.

“What about a toe if they think it’s a fish?”

“I’ve never had my toes nibbled on by anything but actual fish.”

“What about sharks? Have you been nibbled on by sharks?”

He laughed. “You watch too many scary movies or something? No sharks.”

“I’ve seen Soul Surfer. That’s not a scary movie. That’s a cautionary tale.”

“That’s a tale about bravery and courage.”

“Wait. How do you know that movie?”

“Did you miss the part where I said I grew up with three sisters?”

He pulled my other leg, and I went toppling into the water and into his arms. I let out a squeal that was nothing I normally did. I wasn’t a squeal kind of person, just like I wasn’t normally fearful.

I was being held against a chest that was warm while the water was cool, the sensations of heat and cold coursing through my veins. My heart beat wildly, not only because of his closeness, but because I was in the water and not sure I wanted to be there.

“See. No toes being bitten off.” He continued to smile down at me, and I relaxed a little, pushing myself out of his arms.

“Not yet. But if I lose a body part, Ava and Eli will both come after you with machetes.”

More booming laughter. Just like last night, it filled the air around us. If there had been birds nearby, it would have startled them out of their trees.

He swam out the way he’d come, looking back every so often to make sure I was following him. I did, with my brain screaming at me that I was not supposed to be trusting my instincts and that I hadn’t fully researched anything that was about to happen to me.

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