Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 369(@200wpm)___ 295(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
His thick accent held amusement as he said this, and Tobias sighed.
“I had a feeling you would say that,” Tobias grumbled. “Please, don’t let me interrupt your instructions.”
Santiago started to expound on what to do when you got water in your snorkel when Tobias reached for me and grabbed something that was lying flat against my leg.
“This needs to go through your legs,” he said, indicating a black strap that was dangling from the back of my life vest all the way to the ground.
I picked it up and threaded it through my legs as I looked pointedly at the one he was wearing.
“What about yours?” I countered, wiggling slightly when his hand skimmed the outside of my hip.
“Mine doesn’t have one,” he showed me. “You’re smaller, and apparently, they feel that bigger guys like me can keep our own life vest on without any additional help.”
I snorted. “We’ll just see about that.”
He did, however, fasten the buckle between my legs, copping a feel as he did it.
***
There are things in this life that I will remember forever.
One was the look on Mina’s face the moment she married my brother.
The second was the days that both of my nieces were born.
The third was the day that I saw my father go down for life.
But the newest memory permanently seared into my soul was the look of happiness on Tobias’ face as he snorkeled around in the ocean, pointing out things to me.
And he really did swim like a damn fish.
In fact, he was so good at it, that I would go to him if I was having an emergency instead of the instructor.
Though the instructor looked competent, Tobias was just magnetizing.
When I’d first backed my way into the ocean with Tobias at my side, I hadn’t thought anything about it.
But the further we sank into the ocean, the more excited Tobias seemed to get. As if this place allowed him the freedom to swim and play.
“Ready, Freddy?” I asked him when the water came up to my cheek.
He nodded and started to drop down, but before I could say anything, he was gone.
Moving my mask into place, I pressed them tightly to my face to create a seal, and followed the man down.
When I was immersed in the water, I looked around for Tobias only to find him over a dozen yards away—nowhere near where I’d seen him disappear.
How had he gotten over there so fast?
Forty-five minutes into this, I realized that the ocean was like a goddamn playground to him.
Originally, I’d intended to stay close to him, but the further we got from the shore, the more he swam. He was all over the place.
It was five minutes until the time that the instructor had told us to head back in when I realized that Tobias didn’t even have any freakin’ flippers on!
The moment we got back to shore, I pulled my goggles off, and nearly laughed when he gestured me over to look into his bulging pockets.
“Is there something in your pocket?” I teased.
He winked, and then I looked down to see that there were multiple sand dollars in them.
My brows rose and I looked up at him.
“Pretty sure it’s illegal as fuck to take those from here,” I told him.
He shrugged. “I take them from everywhere. If get in a body of water and see one, I take it. I have a collection at home.”
The fact that this big, badass man had a collection of freaking sand dollars was enough to make me grin wildly.
“You’ll have to show me that collection some time,” I teased.
“All right, everybody. Did you have fun?” the man who had guided us around asked, his voice raising to be heard over the pulsing ocean.
“Yes,” I said, answering him honestly. “We did.”
Tobias’ hand curled around my hip, and he pulled me into him as we started to walk back to the Tiki-hut that also was an equipment shed of sorts.
“Now we’re going to do the glass bottom kayaking portion of the excursion,” the guide called out. “Drop your things into the tub over there, and head down to the opposite side of the beach from where we were.”
Chapter 11
Surround yourself with people who have issues. People who have issues always have alcohol.
-Fact of life
Tobias
To say I wasn’t happy about driving back in that big heaping pile of shit they called a bus was an understatement. Why they switched buses on us was a mystery.
This one, at least, had a better front seat and working air.
The driver, though, was worse. That was revealed in the first few minutes of our return trip.
This one did the majority of his driving doing his own thing. He was driving on the left, then the right and sometimes choosing to be in the middle. This trip the translator/ tour guide was in the back of the bus. I couldn’t even ask why the fuck this guy couldn’t follow even the most basic of traffic laws.