Page 33 of Best Vacation Ever

This is ridiculous. It’s just fish. Why am I being such a baby about it?

Matias throws more bread into the water beside Dean, and he’s swarmed by dozens of large gray fish.

I react and flinch away from the water, my legs automatically kicking Dean right in his broad chest, pushing him out into the water.

Oh my goodness.Get it together, Lori!

I almost snap at Matias that he’s not helping, but I don’t want to seem like even more of a total scaredy-cat, especially not in front of Dean.

“I—I’m so sorry,” I sputter as Dean laughs and swims back to me, placing his hands on either side of me again.

“If you don’t want to come in, you don’t have to. I mean, you jump in front of a moving car to get away from me, you kick me in the chest to get out of snorkeling with me; geez, you’d think I’d take a hint, right?”

I know he’s teasing me, but shame burns through me, and my face heats despite the coolness of the water lapping at my feet.

“That’s not true!”

The current of the ocean pushes him closer to me, and I can feel the heat radiating off his body.

“Lor, it’s okay. Really.”

There’s sincerity in his voice and authenticity in his gaze. It hits me that he’s letting me choose. He came all this way and still doesn’t care if I don’t do it. If Faye were here, she’d push me in.

I can hear the laughter and excitement of the other snorkelers surround us. Why am I making this a big deal? There are tons of people doing this.

Filled with resolve, I grab the snorkeling equipment Matias gave me. “I want to.”

Matias throws more bread right beside us, and it takes all I have not to kick Dean again. I put on the flippers, snorkel, and goggles, take a steadying breath, and slide into the ocean beside Dean. Before I can change my mind, I stick my head in the water to look around and—

Oh, wow.

It’s beautiful.

There are fish of all colors and sizes, but still mostly gray ones, and they’re all swimming around me, with me, under me.

It’s amazing.

I pop out of the water and take the snorkel out of my mouth, looking for Dean. He’s where I left him, his goggles pushed up on top of his head, already looking at me with a wide smile.

“Have you seen this?!” I ask him, pointing down toward the water.

He shakes his head, then slips his goggles and snorkel into place and sticks his face right in the water as he flips onto his stomach.

I do the same, and again I’m taken aback by the sheer surrealness of it all. If they’re touching me, I can’t tell, but there must be hundreds just within twenty feet of me. Someone grabs my hand, and I find Dean floating right beside me, looking around with wonder like I am.

We hold hands and slowly swim around, occasionally pointing out different fish to each other. Even though Dean and I are only an arm’s width apart, plenty of fish swim between us.

I don’t know how much time passes, but eventually Dean tugs my hand, and we pop out of the water to hear Matias calling us to come back. I’m reluctant as we swim to the boat; I wish I hadn’t wasted all that time being a chicken earlier.

Dean helps me onto the boat and lifts himself up after me with ease. Taking off our equipment, we tell Matias we had fun as he steers us toward the resort.

I try not to stare at Dean’s profile as he lazily tilts his head back to soak up the sun. His cheeks are already getting a little red. I’m glad we did this—I’m glad I did this, but I’m even happier it was with him.

“Thanks for making me do this,” I blurt.

Dean raises a lazy eyebrow. “I didn’t make you do anything.

You did it because you wanted to.”