Sea of Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 4) Contemporary Romance (19 page)

IT WAS THREE in the afternoon by the time Lacy and Dane arrived at the Salt Pond Visitor Center in Orleans. Lacy couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt happier. Dane had spent the last twenty-four hours helping her through her fears, taking care of his friend, and showing her just how much he loved her. He’d weaseled his way right back into her heart, and as he reached for her hand with a warm smile, she realized that even if she was never able to overcome her fear of sharks completely, they just might be able to be together after all.

In the center of the lobby was an exhibit featuring the Brave Foundation, complete with a reduced-sized model of a great white shark and several billboards of information and photographs.

“This is all about Brave,” she said.

“Yeah. We want the community to understand what it is that we do,” Dane said.

“Speak of the devil,” said a tall woman from behind the reception desk. She smiled at Dane, revealing deep grooves across her forehead and around her mouth. Her skin had a leathery look, as if she’d spent every free moment in the sun.

“We’ll look at it in just a sec,” Dane said. He turned to the woman behind the counter, who looked to be in her mid-forties, with short, sandy blond hair and green eyes. Beside her stood a tall, lanky young man with short brown hair, wearing a park ranger uniform. His eyes locked on Dane.

“Shelley, how are you?” Dane led Lacy to the desk. “This is my girlfriend, Lacy Snow.” He squeezed Lacy’s hand.

Girlfriend?
The term took her by surprise, then settled around her until it felt like a second skin.
Girlfriend.
“Nice to meet you,” Lacy said.

 “Hi, Lacy. Nice to meet you, too. I was just telling Tom all about you, Dane,” Shelley said. “He wanted to meet the shark hunter.”

Dane smiled. “That would be me, but I prefer researcher or tagger. Hunter sounds like I might hurt the sharks.” He extended his hand, and Tom’s eyes grew wide.

Tom pulled his shoulders back and said, “Yes, sorry. Researcher. Got it. It’s so nice to meet you. I was looking over the exhibit and…wow. That’s all I can say. Pretty cool stuff.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We tagged an eight-footer the other day. Hopefully, we’ll gain valuable data and tag a few more over the next week or so. It’s nice to meet you,” Dane said.

“I won’t hold you up,” Tom said. His eyes moved to Lacy. “Enjoy the exhibit, Lacy.”

“Thank you,” she said.

They crossed the room, and Lacy scanned the large orange, black, and blue sign that read
Brave Foundation,
which hung across the top of the exhibit boards with photographs of Dane and Rob lining them. Dane’s dark eyes smiled in every one, his tanned, muscular arms glistening in the sun. In most of the photographs, he was on a boat, leaning over the side, holding the fin of a shark or crouching over a shark that was lying in the center of the boat. She could almost feel the wind blowing his hair askew.

“This is from nine years ago,” she said, pointing to the information posted below the picture of a younger Dane wearing a bathing suit and tank top at the helm of a boat.

“That was a great day. We tagged three sharks that afternoon in Maui. You can just see the edge of Rob’s arm.” He pointed to the right side of the picture. “He was gloating. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Lacy noticed one common thread in each picture; the exhilaration that radiated from Dane’s eyes was palpable. There was no doubt that the man in those pictures loved what he was doing. She looked at Dane now as he stood beside her studying the pictures, and she knew that he could never give up what he did for a living—and for the first time, she wondered if she could, or if living a life of continuous travel would be overwhelming for her.

“Excuse me, mister?”

Lacy and Dane turned toward the child’s voice.

“Hi there,” Dane said. “My name’s Dane and this is Lacy.”

You included me. God, I love that
.

“I’m Ashton and I’m six. My mom said you were the shark guy, and I wanted to know what you’re tracking on the television. All I see are red dots.” Ashton’s barely there blond eyebrows were pulled together above his startling blue eyes.

Dane glanced at the little boy’s parents standing behind him with wide smiles. He leaned down so he was eye level with Ashton. “Come with me, buddy. I’ll show you.” He guided him to the monitor. “This is what we call a live-stream monitor. We put tags on sharks, and if the shark has a satellite tag, then that tag sends a signal to a satellite way up in the sky, past the clouds, and we get to see what that signal means here on the monitor.”

“Why do you need a satellite?” Ashton asked.

“Well, you know how you have to plug your television into the wall to get electricity? The satellite is sort of like that for our tags. We need it to read the signals. You wanna know what we track, right?” Dane asked.

Ashton nodded.

He pointed to the monitor. “Those dots that you see, those are sharks. This monitor shows us where the tagged sharks are swimming. See the different colors?”

“Yeah,” Ashton said. His eyes followed Dane’s finger to the colorful dots.

“Each color tells us how long ago the shark appeared in that location. We call that a
ping
.”

Ashton laughed.

Lacy watched Dane as he taught the little boy. She swore she could feel her heart opening wider with every word he spoke.
He’d make a great father
.

Dane continued. “We can track the temperature of the water and the depth where the tagged sharks swim, and we can even track their swim patterns.”

He looked as if talking about sharks and teaching the little boy came both naturally and comfortably.

“I’m afraid of sharks,” Ashton said.

His father put a hand on his shoulder.

“I have a good friend who’s afraid of sharks, too.” Dane winked at Lacy. “But if you try hard enough to understand sharks, you might realize that they’re not really that scary. They’re just trying to live in the world they’ve been given, just like we are.”

Lacy’s mind took a different turn. She began thinking of ways to wrap the educational side of Brave into their marketing, reaching out to schools and even aquariums, science museums, and the like.

“Do you wear one of those wet suits? My dad says the shark thinks people are seals when they wear them, and that’s why they get bit,” Ashton said, looking at his father.

How often does he have to field the same questions, and how can he answer them over and over without any irritation?

“We do wear wet suits, but not for the reasons you think. You see, Ashton, sharks aren’t interested in eating humans, but they’ve been known to bump their noses into anything they see as potential prey.” He used the back of his hand to lightly tap Ashton’s arm. “Like that. When they do that, they emit electrical signals, like little shocks, and human skin makes those shocks conduct. That’s probably hard for you to understand, but if a person’s skin sends a certain signal to the shark, the chances are greater of an attack. Since wet suits don’t interact with electrical signals like animals and human skin does, we wear them to minimize those chances.”

Ashton’s eyes glazed over, and he reached for his father’s hand.

Ashton’s father stepped forward. “That might be a little over his head, but thank you,” he said.

“No problem. I’m always happy to explain what we do. I’m Dane Braden,” Dane said and extended his hand.

“Craig Knoll. Nice to meet you."

“If you stop by that table, one of the Brave volunteers can give you an educational pamphlet. You’ll find a list of books that you can read to Ashton, so he can better understand sharks and maybe even work on overcoming his fear of them.”

“We’ll do that,” Craig said. He reached his hand out to the woman beside him. “This is Kathie, my wife.”

Kathie stepped forward, her cheeks flushed. She looked a little older than Lacy, and Lacy knew that part of that flush was due to the incredibly handsome man standing before her. Her eyes drifted back to Dane.
And he’s all mine
.

AFTER WATCHING A movie that explained how four decades of federal protection was the cause for the expanding seal population, Lacy and Dane left the visitors center and headed toward Provincetown.

“So if they protect the seals, won’t the sharks just keep coming as more seals are born or move into the area?” Lacy asked.

“That’s the issue. Part of what Brave does is to gather research about swim patterns, mating grounds, things like that. Something will need to be done, but the answer isn’t killing the sharks. We think the answer lies in somehow getting the seals to migrate elsewhere. But like anything else, politics take precedence, so decisions are slow, and meanwhile, great white sightings are increasing.” Dane glanced at Lacy and could see the gears in her mind working. He loved knowing that she was becoming interested in the process and reasoning surrounding what he did.

Dane pulled into the parking lot of PB. Boulangerie, a little French bakery in Wellfleet.

“What’s next on our agenda?” Lacy asked. “I didn’t see anything else on the itinerary.”

Dane lifted the left side of his mouth in a smile. “You’ll see. I have to run in and pick something up. I’ll be right back,” he said. He left Lacy in the car to wonder what he was doing, and he went inside to collect the dinner basket he’d called ahead and ordered when Lacy had been in the ladies’ room at the visitor center. He’d felt closer to Lacy in the past day than he had even over the previous fifteen months. It was like their hearts had just clicked into place beside each other. As Dane returned to the car, he saw Lacy through the passenger window. Her neck was arched, her eyes were closed, and her lips were slightly parted as she rested against the headrest. They hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, and as he took in her long, graceful neck and those lips he couldn’t get enough of, he was reminded of the sexy little whimpers she’d made when he was loving her the previous night.
Loving her
. He had no doubt that he was moving in that direction. Hell, he was probably already there. The thought moved around his mind like a cloud, seeping into every crevice until it was no longer separate from his other thoughts. It was in everything he saw, in the smell of the lobster in the bag in his hands, in the breeze as it mussed his hair. Hell, it was in him. He closed his eyes and reminded himself that she’d been back for only twenty-four hours and that telling her how he felt might send her running right back out of his life.

It was nearly sunset when they turned down a narrow road just before Pilgrim Lake. Lacy carried a blanket and Dane carried the package he’d picked up at the market as they walked down the peaceful stretch of beach. With his free hand, he reached for Lacy’s hand.

Dane saw the pod of seals before Lacy noticed them. She squinted as they neared.

“What…Oh my God. Are those seals? There must be hundreds of them.” Lacy's eyes grew wide as she turned to face Dane.

“When the tide goes out, the seals come in. I wanted you to see just how many seals there might be in any one place,” Dane said.

The seals covered every bare spot of a sandbar about fifty feet from shore. The tide was already starting to roll back in. Dane spread out the blanket and stood with Lacy at the edge of the water.

“They’re magnificent,” she said. “I never imagined how big they really were. They must weigh hundreds of pounds. Look how many there are.”

Dane nodded. “And this is just a fraction of the seals that are around the Cape.”

“No wonder there are no more fish around. They have to eat,” Lacy said.

He took her hand and led her back to the blanket. He withdrew plastic wine glasses, a bottle of wine, a loaf of French bread, and a variety of cheeses from the package.

“When did you have time to arrange this?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you all of my secrets,” he said as he poured them each a glass of wine. “I figured I’d have to feed you at some point, and what better place than while we enjoy the tide as it rolls in?”

She leaned her head on his shoulder. “This is very romantic,” she said.

Lacy felt so good against him. He could sit right there next to her on the beach forever and never feel like he was missing a thing. He put his arm around her shoulder, and they watched the seals disappear with the rising tide.

“You’d never know they were there,” Lacy said.

“I think the silence of mammals is part of their beauty. We humans are loud. Everything about our lives is loud and creates havoc. Take a look around after we leave the beach. From our cars to our lawn mowers, we put things into the air that shouldn’t be there, and we leave so big of a footprint that…” He looked down at Lacy, who was gazing up at him with a tender smile. “I’m sorry. I’m lecturing again.”

“You're passionate. I like that,” she said. “I can’t help but wonder, Dane. Why are you compelled to be the one to make a difference with something as scary as sharks?”

He kissed her forehead. “They don’t scare me. I could die driving—”

“I know, driving down the street,” she said. “But why? Why not do something safer? Be an advocate for living green or something.”

Dane shrugged. “Everyone has a calling. Sharks are mine.” He put his hand beneath her hair and brushed his fingers along the fine hairs on the back of her neck. “Just like you’re my calling, Lace. I want to be with you, and I want to protect you.” He didn’t know how it had happened so fast, but Lacy owned a piece of his heart as big as any piece his family ever had. “I never want anything to hurt you, and I never want to cause you any pain.” The sun set behind the dunes, casting a blue-black haze over the water. He leaned down and kissed her, hoping that in that kiss, Lacy would feel the three words he couldn’t yet say.

LACY GIGGLED AS Dane kissed the back of her neck while she tried to concentrate on finding the right key on her key chain to open the door. The porch light was off and she couldn’t see anything. She swatted playfully at him with a feigned sigh. He slid his hands around her waist and up her belly, cupping her breasts. Lacy leaned against him, feeling his heart beat against her back.