A CRY FROM THE DEEP (13 page)

Daniel held a washcloth and looked at her with concern. Had she banged her head or suffered some serious injury? She didn’t remember diving. Behind him was the operator of the boat, watching her like a bystander at the scene of a car accident.

Daniel said, “You passed out soon after we got here.”

It took her another moment to realize where she was. Groggily, she said, “Maybe I’m coming down with something.”

“Yeah,” he said, “fear of failure.”

She was about to protest but thought better of it. She adjusted her body and realized she was in his arms. She’d been pressing against Daniel on the boat bench. His scent of lime and musk enveloped her and she quivered. Being in his arms was way too comfortable.

She sat up. “I must be heavy.”

“No,” he said, grinning. “Light as a feather.”

Feather. She’d dreamt of a feather.
“Right, I didn’t realize…” With one hand pressing on his shoulder for support, she struggled onto the bench across from him. She looked down at her hand and realized that once again she’d forgotten to take off her Claddagh ring. While he reached for his water bottle behind him, she discreetly removed the ring and tucked it into the zippered compartment of her tote bag.

“You don’t have to take it off.”

Startled, she turned. “Oh, God...I wasn’t thinking.”

“We’ve had to scrub our dive for today. The seas are too rough.” He offered her a drink of water from his bottle.

She took a sip. Still unsteady, Catherine was more relieved than disappointed. She took a sweater from her bag, bunched it up like a pillow, and stretched out on the bench, where she immediately fell into a deep sleep. When she awoke, they were near a dock in Brooklyn, but what surprised her more, was finding Daniel’s arms around her again. She instinctively pulled back. “I’m sorry. I’m making a habit of this. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s all right,” he said, an amused look in his eyes. “My arm’s numb and they may have to amputate, but no worries.”

She laughed. “You should’ve pushed me to the side.”

“I guess I could’ve pushed you overboard, but I didn’t think that was an option.” He smiled again. “You looked like you were going to fall off the bench at any moment, so I thought I’d help out.”

She grinned back. “To the rescue again.”

“Feeling better?”

“I can’t remember the last time I nodded off in the middle of the day.”

“Nerves will do that.”

She’d slept so soundly, the deepest sleep she’d had in awhile. This time, the dream had been different. She’d floated off as if she’d been carried on a cloud and then gently dropped into a meadow of wild flowers. There, she walked in the sunshine with Alex at her side. It was as if peace had showered her entire body. Richard was somewhere behind, but so was Daniel. When she turned around, they both had their arms out, as if they were expecting her to choose. She didn’t know which one she should go to. The peace that had been there drifted away like the tuft of a dandelion.

TWELVE

After the aborted dive, Daniel and Catherine ended up at a restaurant in Little Italy. The lunch hour rush was over and the dozen or so tables covered with red gingham tablecloths were empty except for two couples, lingering over their meals.

She ordered spaghetti carbonara and a glass of red wine. He had the same, except for the beer instead of the wine. She wanted to forget passing out on the boat. How could she have been so foolish to think she could easily pick up where she left off? Hennesey was right to doubt her. If he’d seen her today, he would’ve had a good laugh.

Daniel must have sensed her discomfort because he said, “If you’re agonizing about what happened today, don’t. We’ll try again another day.”

“It feels like I’m climbing a mountain in bare feet.”

“That’s a good analogy.” He crooked his head. “The time you had your accident, what happened after you got the bends?”

Her throat constricted as she said, “There wasn’t enough oxygen on board the dive boat to help me out. I was rushed to the hospital, and I guess you might say, I got lucky.”

“From what I can tell, you’re still a functioning human being.” He leaned back and studied her. “But given your propensity for narcolepsy, maybe you’re not.”

“Ha. Very funny.”

He grinned and chugged some beer, leaving his lips wet and shiny.

She took a sip of wine and wondered what it would be like to kiss him. “And what about you? What’s your story?”

“I did the whole university thing, and now I’m pretty content doing what I’m doing.”

“Pretty content?”

“Yeah.” His smile left for a moment. He took another chug of beer.

“I hear you’re engaged.”

He looked surprised. “Frank tell you?”

She shook her head. “Remember I checked up on you. You can’t go around with someone who’s in the Hampton Blue Book and expect privacy.” She recalled seeing his fiancé’s photo on a website—a tall blonde holding a tennis racket. Her blue tennis dress was one of those stretchy ones, leaving little to the imagination. “When’s the big date?”

“We were supposed to get married this August, but when this dive came up, we postponed it to September.”

“Ah. By that time, I’ll be back on my farm.”

They sat there for a few moments, the tension between them magnetic.

He studied her some more. “You remind me a bit of my mother.”

“Thanks. Now I do feel old.”

“It’s a compliment. My mother took risks. She always went against the wind.” He shook his head and gazed off. “When I was five, we were driving somewhere and had run out of gas on this country road. That was the time people were starting to warn about hitchhiking, but my mother said, ‘Daniel, most people are honest. You can’t worry someone is going to hurt you every time you turn around.’ And she stopped the next car going by, and we hitched a ride to a gas station, and that man became a lifelong friend of my mother’s. He bought us a meal that night, and even paid for the gas. My mother paid him back. She trusted him to bail us out, and he trusted her to repay the debt. That’s what’s missing now. That kind of trust. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you’re willing to take a risk with me, then I’m willing to do the same with you.”

“You’re brave.” Every diver knew panic was a killer; the worst was having a buddy who froze underwater. “I hope I don’t let you down.”

~~~

When Daniel and Catherine pulled up in front of Richard’s apartment building, Alex was skipping towards the entrance. Her father was a half block behind. Catherine hated that he didn’t watch her more closely. With all the pedestrians clogging the sidewalk, it would be easy to lose sight of her. She’d have to talk to Richard about it later.

“Mama,” Alex yelled as Catherine got out of Daniel’s car and stepped onto the sidewalk. Alex raced towards her, crashing into her as usual.

“Alex! That hurt. Slow down.”

“Oops, sorry.” Then, without missing a beat, she said, “Papa took me to the park. We had soft ice cream and popcorn and everything.”

“That’s wonderful, honey.”

“Are we still going shopping?”

“Of course,” said Catherine, nuzzling her.

Daniel hopped out of the car and went to the trunk to get Catherine’s sports bag. When he dropped it on the sidewalk, she said, “This is my little munchkin.”

“Hi, I’m Daniel. I’ve heard great things about you.”

Alex looked at him for a moment, like she was sizing him up, and then said, “My real name is Alexandra, but I don’t like it. It sounds like some old Greek name. Everyone calls me Alex.”

Daniel grinned. “Okay, Alex.”

Richard caught up to them and said to Catherine, “She wore me out today.”

“Richard, this is Daniel Costello. Daniel, Alex’s father, Richard Eagan.”

After the men shook hands, they eyed one another as if they were on starting blocks and about to race.

Catherine said to Alex, “Daniel’s my diving instructor. He’ll be my buddy on the trip.”

“You already told me that.”

Catherine gritted her teeth but smiled to cover her frustration. “So, I’m telling you again.”

Alex scrunched up her face. “Does that mean if Mama has any trouble, you’ll help her?”

“Absolutely. I won’t let anything happen to your mama.”

“Promise.”

“I promise.”

“Pinkie promise?”

“Alex!” said Catherine. “That’s enough.”

Daniel stuck his pinkie finger out. “Pinkie promise.”

Alex’s face lit up. She gave Daniel’s little finger a shake.

Richard, who’d been standing back, said, “From what Catherine’s told me, you’ll have your hands full with that salvager.”

“I’ve been there before. I don’t know if there’s any treasure hunter who’s easy to deal with. They’re all gangsters.”

“What’s a gangster?” asked Alex.

Daniel said, “It’s a man who doesn’t like to follow the rules.”

“I don’t like to follow the rules sometimes. Does that make me a gangster?”

Daniel laughed. “No, Alex, it doesn’t make you a gangster. It’s a word to describe someone who gets in trouble with the police.”

“Oh,” said Alex, suddenly somber.

The doorman from Richard’s apartment building came over and said to Daniel, “Is that your car there? One of our residents needs to get into that spot.”

Daniel turned and looked behind his car to see a Mercedes with an elderly woman hunched at the wheel. He said to Alex and Richard. “It was good meeting you both.”

“Bye,” said Alex.

“She’s adorable,” Daniel said to Catherine quietly as he passed her on the way to his car.

“He was so nice,” said Alex, turning to go into the apartment with her mom and dad. All the way up the elevator, she babbled about her day.

Preoccupied with what had happened on the boat, Catherine only half listened. She’d become almost paralyzed with fear. She knew only a successful open-water dive could dispel her nagging doubts.

~~~

Pulling away from the curb, Daniel looked back to see Catherine enter the apartment building with Richard and Alex. Her ex had to be loaded. This was prime Manhattan real estate, and yet, she had given it all up.

Daniel wondered if she noticed her ex’s admiring glances. He was obviously still in love with her. And who could blame him? She was an interesting woman, strong yet vulnerable. Daniel liked that combination. Too many women he met were ball busters—cranked up on their incomes and the freedom that sexual liberation had given them. These women took nothing from no one.

Catherine was clearly a good mother. He’d seen her tighten up when she viewed Alex running down the street. Her forehead had lined with worry, and he had been tempted to lean over and kiss those lines away. And then she’d gotten out of the car, and Alex had run to her full throttle, like a train without brakes. The love between them was palpable. Somehow, seeing them like that made Catherine even more attractive.

Was he falling for her or was it simply lust? The latter usually petered out after only a few dates. Once he got to know a woman, everything that had been attractive about her in the beginning faded like an old rose. Except for Sean. He’d been with Sean longer than most. He hated that he was questioning their relationship. But then he reminded himself that that wasn’t so unusual. It was normal to have cold feet. 

As he thought about it longer, he couldn’t help but feel there was more to Catherine than just a natural attraction. He was too comfortable with her. It was as if he’d known her intimately at one time. But that was nonsense. He would’ve remembered someone as fetching as her.
Fetching?
Where did that word come from? Who used that today?

He groaned. Of course, he’d be comfortable with her. They were in the same profession. And he reminded himself that she’d been well publicized in the past. Beautiful women in dangerous occupations often are. From that exposure, her face was probably seared on his brain.

Beauty or not, she was divorced with a child. Not that he didn’t like children. He’d love to have one of his own. But a divorcée with a kid was more than likely messed up in ways he didn’t know. He’d heard enough stories about women on the rebound. They were the ones to avoid.

The good thing was that Frank had a high opinion of her, but would she be able to cope under pressure? Or would she turn out to be a liability? On that score, he couldn’t blame Hennesey for questioning her ability to conquer her jitters. When you’re working in close quarters with others on a mission, the last thing you want is someone you have to carry.

No, he didn’t need some weird love triangle. That would mess things up. He loved his job, and in a few months, he was going to marry a stunning woman. He had to admit though, Sean could be trying. He was seeing sides of her he didn’t know existed. But whose relationship didn’t hit some snags? Like seeing Sean cuddling up with the captain of the polo team at the kissing booth. In a way, it was a good thing it bothered him. He obviously cared enough to be somewhat jealous.