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The cerulean blue ocean surrounds us on all sides. There’s no shore in sight. The water looks like an endless field of aquamarine gems. I’ve never experienced dive conditions this calm and clear before.
Dex holds up his hands in surrender, then tucks his phone away into the front pouch of his backpack. “I wasn’t working.That was my insider at Peak Publication giving me the details on what happened with Kat.”
“What happened?” I scoot to the edge of the bench.
“Apparently the article written about the Hesslers magically disappeared from the server the day before it was supposed to post. Her boss was furious and told her to pull an all-nighter to get it rewritten and ready for publication. She did. It went through editing and everything, but somehow, the wrong article was mysteriously uploaded.” Dex widens his eyes. “She quit before they could fire her. They were going to pull the article down, but it’s getting more click traffic than all of the other articles on their site combined.”
“Where’s Kat now?” I ask.
“Packed up and left. No one knows,” Dex says with a small shrug.
I bet I do. I bet Kat went overseas chasing world news stories. Maybe she’ll resurface one day in theNew York Timesor theWall Street Journalwith a new pen name, writing the stories she always wanted to.
“I think I’ll write her a thank you letter,” I say.
“But you don’t know where she is.”
“I’ll pull one from Dottie’s playbook. Maybe I’ll start my own letterbox. Sometimes things need to be said, even if they can’t be heard.”
“Grandma used to say that letters were for lost apologies.” He smiles. “Maybe they can be for lost ‘thank you’s’ too.”
Dex rises and makes his way to the dive equipment. He checks the gauges and synchs something up to his fancy dive watch. Picking up my BCD that he already hooked up to the tank, he says, “I brought another set of weights today. You almost floated away yesterday.”
When we got to Cozumel yesterday morning, we hit the water right away. Just a short dive. I had trouble getting my bearingsat first. It had been so long since I’d been in the water that I’d forgotten most of my technical skills. For Dex, it was like riding a bike. He patiently paced with me as I blew through my tank in twenty minutes. I got a little nervous as we dipped below thirty meters, unable to keep my breath calm and collected. We had to cut the dive short when I ran out of air.
“I’ve got my sea legs today. I’m fine.”
“Humor me?” he asks with a cute pout. He holds up the weights, asking for my permission. Why fight? He’s always right.
“Fine,” I mumble.
Dex slips the flat-weighted plates into the pockets of my BCD. It makes me feel like an amateur. Dex can free dive with ease. The more I practice, the faster I’ll get there. I’ll never move as gracefully as my husband in the water, but I’ll spend a lifetime trying.
“It’s distracting to dive with you,” Dex says as he makes his way over to the bench to sit right next to me.
Instinctively, I turn so he can zip up my wet suit, covering the top half of my bikini. “Why do you say that?”
“I should be appreciating all the marine life down there. Instead, it’s impossible to take my eyes off you.”
I laugh. “Only because yesterday, I was a flight risk and kept floating away.”
“Partially,” he says with a smirk. “But mostly because you’re the only thing I think is more beautiful than the ocean.”
I smile at him. “Dex, you better stay this sweet and cheesy for the rest of our lives. Promise me.”
He laughs. “I promise.”
I tap his shoulder. “Okay, now let me zip your suit up.”
But instead of turning around obediently, he grabs my hand, bringing it to his lips. He plants sweet kisses across my knuckles. “I did a thing,” he says.
I lift my brows. “Care to elaborate?”
“Denny dropped her lawsuit trying to claim Hessler Group.”
“I know, babe,” I answer absentmindedly.
“But I still gave her the Hessler Estate. Is that okay with you? I mean, she hasn’t accepted yet, but my real estate team reoffered. We’ll see what she says. The condition is that she leaves us alone. No contact.”