Page 23 of Whispering Waves

“Two hours.”

“Oh, dang.”

He slid his hands over her, and she giggled and let go of her grip on his neck. “Aww, ticklish?”

“A little.”

He chuckled. “Do you want to see what your brother has been up to?”

“Sure. It will be distracting if nothing else.”

“Oh, it will be distracting, all right.”

He led her to the living room, and Drake and the guys were already seated and queuing up some files. Drake was using a computer, and Tono was finishing with the cables. Reg had a headset and was listening to something.

Kimo settled her in a large recliner and kissed her cheek. “I am going to get some snacks.”

She blinked. Her brother looked at her with a grin. “He’s very attentive.”

“Um, he’s a good host?”

He laughed. “He has never been this attentive to us. He just lobs a bag of chips at us and might grill some burgers. I think we will move in.”

“I don’t think you want that.”

Kimo came in with a platter of veggies and dip. “I can second that. Once the courtship is over, this home will be ours, and I intend on showing Nerina every inch of it.”

She propped her chin on her fist and smiled at the very domestic image that he presented. Under water, he was all warrior; here, he was all homemaker. She imagined him holding a baby and shook her head violently to get that image out. Too soon.

He looked at her with a frown. “Something wrong?”

“Uh. No. Nothing is wrong.” She wanted to fan herself but guessed that the alphas filling the room already knew about the hot flash.

He put the veggies fairly close to her, picked her up, and settled her on his lap as he sat in his recliner. He reached out and grabbed a handful of carrot sticks, dragging them through the dip as they went.

He took one out and offered it to her. She took the carrot stick and nibbled it.

Drake chuckled. “We have it set up. So, this is what I do for work, Nina.”

The cameras were above the water, and the guys were testing them and the audio in the masks.

“Oh, I forgot that you could get masks you could talk in.”

Drake muttered, “Tono can talk anywhere.”

Nina laughed as Drake and Tono got ready to dive while Reg stayed on the boat, directing them.

The guys dropped into the water with their cameras tethered to them, and then the video shifted to what they were seeing, starting with the stream of bubbles as they sank further down.

They swam around a reef, taking plenty of video, and when a shadow crossed them, they swung the cameras upward to see the enormous outline of a whale.

She gasped, and the guys all chuckled. She got another carrot and nibbled at it while she watched them record a family pod of whales moving slowly. When they swam up toward the whales, they were so much bigger than she had thought.

When the flukes and tail nearly struck Drake, she gasped, but he just said, “My bad,” on the recording.

Two of the younger whales turned toward him, and Nina stared at the screen as she watched her brother remain calm with whales the size of buses staring him down.

She was hypnotized by their journey under the water to check under the whales for gender for their records. They had pod information for this group. Next to one of the females was one new baby, and another female showed signs of being nearly to term.

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