Page 28 of The Grumpy Doc's Surprise Delivery

When I finally catch up, I can just about make out the curious look she’s giving me behind the hazy swim mask. “You good?” she asks.

I nod. “Yeah. Just finding my feet, as it were.”

“Your flippers.” She giggles at her own joke and I grimace in return, not really having a whole lot to say to that. Any other time, I might have found it funny, but I am so out of my depth right now that I can’t find anything funny at all.

“Come on,” she says. “Let’s go find some fish.”

If she’s noticed my discomfort, she doesn’t comment on it. Instead, she swims ahead again, dunking her head under the water. A few moments later, she spits the snorkel out and yells, “Liam, come and look at this!”

She points to herself and to the sea, and as fast as I can, I swim my way over. But by the time I get there, whatever she was looking at is gone.

“Oh, you missed a really big blue fish,” she says with a frown. “If I’d known you were this slow, I would have gotten you some swimming lessons.”

I know that she’s just joking with me like we have been all week, but I don’t laugh or smile. I know I’m not great at swimming, but she doesn’t have to keep rubbing it in like this.

“Maybe you should have,” I say tersely. “I’ve never had any before.”

At once, her face falls and she realizes she’s gone too far. Her face softens into a pitying smile, and I bristle at the idea that she’s about to start giving me sympathy that I don’t want or need.

But she doesn’t. Instead of giving me platitudes, she says, “I’m sorry, Liam. I didn’t realize you weren’t a strong swimmer. You should have said.”

I make a noise in the back of my throat, not willing to commit to any words. I don’t trust that they’ll be kind if they come out.

“We can go a little slower,” she says, surprising me. I was expecting more teasing or some line about feeling sorry for me, not a solution and moving on like it’s nothing.

Slowly, I say, “That would be good. Thank you.” The words are sticky in my mouth, but the smile she gives me once they are said makes it worth it. She’s not doing this because she’s tolerating me. She genuinely cares.

Being cared about is doing something scary to my heart. It feels like it’s opening for the first time in a long time.

As promised, Emma slows down, and when I can keep up, it’s like she’s tricking me into having fun. She doesn’t comment on my swimming again and doesn’t give me the impression that she’s annoyed by having to hang back for me, even if I’m sure she is.

We swim past a shoal of tiny blue fish and the way they dart through the water is utterly mesmerizing. They’re like a cloud but alive, their scales shimmering from the light that manages to get through the waves. Emma dives down to get closer to them, leaving me on the surface to watch.

I should be looking at the fish, but all I can see is the way her legs move, the way she seems so natural in the water. Her hair flows behind her head, and the muscles in her back ripple as she propels herself forward.

I might be in trouble.

To Emma’s delight and my reluctant pleasure, we do see a couple of larger fish glimmering in the water, swimming lazily past us like they don’t care that we’re there at all. The longer we spend in the water, the more comfortable I feel, in no small part due to Emma’s kindness and understanding.

Eventually, though, I start to get tired, and my improving skills begin waning. I don’t want to admit to her that I don’t think I can go on much longer, especially not when she looks like she’shaving so much fun, but when she emerges from another dive, she slips her mask onto her head and smiles. “Let’s head back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m getting kind of hungry, and I’m a little tired. Aren’t you?”

Just like that, she’s given me an easy way out. “Yes,” I agree, “I am.”

“Let’s go eat.” She smiles and, without another word, turns for shore. Gratefully, I follow her, but it doesn’t stop the dizzying feeling in my chest.

The one that’s trying to tell me something I don’t want to hear.

CHAPTER 16

EMMA

Ihave a long shower before I go down for dinner. My hair is full of salt, and the hot water feels great on my aching muscles. I’d forgotten just how much snorkeling takes it out of you. It’s fun, but it can be exhausting.

The only bad thing about having a shower, though, is it gives me time to stand and think, and the only thing I can think about is Liam. The way he tried so hard to prove himself when he was clearly struggling. The look he kept giving me every time I tried to make his life easier.

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