Page 40 of Hot Saltwater Kisses

“Not a chance.”

I took a great amount of care attaching a regulator to a vest and tried to project indifference. “Then what’s your point?”

“You like him.”

“What is this—Groundhog Day? Pretty sure we’ve been over this.”

“That was before you took my advice and got laid—good job, by the way. Andthenstayed the night.”

Since Nia wasn’t about to let up, I exhaled a heavy sigh and turned to face her. “Look—yes, I like him. So?”

Nia was quiet for a moment. “He’s only here for the month.”

Damn her for knowing me a little too well. I fought the queasy twist of my stomach. “I know what this is.”

“Do you?” Concern colored her question, taking the wind right out of my sails.

“I do.” Idid. “It’s… an extended hookup. A no-strings-attached vacation special. No tearful goodbye at the airport, I promise.”

She pursed her lips and studied me, a few seconds sliding away before her face relaxed into a tiny smirk. “All right. I’m just watching out for my boy, is all. Given your shocking lack of experience with casual sex—or any sex, really?—”

“Fuck off,” I muttered.

She tossed me a grin that was soft around the edges. “Did I hit a nerve there, babe?”

I veered towards a flippant reply, then stopped myself. This wasNia—the only person other than Katie who still truly knew me, what with how I’d alienated everyone else. I didn’t usually put up a front with her. Why was I tempted now?

“Yeah. Maybe you did.” I kept my voice low and rested my hand on a tank, the metal cool to the touch. The dive shop draped its familiarity around my shoulders. “You know that Michael was my first, and I think… It’s like somehow, that’s still my reference.”

Nia stepped close to wrap an arm around my waist. “Oh, honey.”

“Like…” I squinted at the outline of sunlight on the floor, a rectangle shaped by the open doorway. “I had a couple of hookups back in Miami, after him, and then a few more here, but I’d always get these flashbacks of ‘Michael used to want it like this’ or ‘he didn’t want me doing that’.”

“You never told me that,” she said after a beat, voice hushed to mimic the muted light.

“It’s not something I particularly care to think about.”

“That’s fair.” She squeezed my waist. “Why tell me now?”

I sucked in a steady breath, almost like when I was underwater. My lungs filled for a wide, airy feeling. “I hardly thought about Michael last night. With Logan.”

“That’s…” Nia paused. “Good? Surely that’s good.”

“I guess so,” I said slowly. It was, right? A sign that I was shaking off the ghost. Finally walking free, not simply replacing one obsession with another. Because that’s what Michael had been—a drug, an addiction.

Logan was… different. So was I.

Yeah—itwasa good thing.

Logan and Tomhad opted to skip today’s dives in favor of working on their respective theses. We’d made no plans beyond a generic ‘see you later,’ so when we returned from the afternoon dive, it was a surprise to find them sitting on the pier, feet in the water.

Once the other guests had trickled away, they got up to help us with the gear. “You sure?” I asked Logan in an undertone, and he sketched a bow, grinning behind his sunglasses.

“At your service.”

“That’s not really how it works, you know?” I said even as I passed him a bundle of fins.

“It is now.” He glanced at Nia and Tom, standing just far enough apart to avoid suspicion, then back at me. “Good dive?”

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