the world below. So much life surrounded them, welcomed them as guests.
Shannon reached out and held on to his arm right as a school of fish, thousands of them, swam around them.
Victor held on to her arm, felt several fish brush past his legs.
He followed her lead and popped his head out of the water once they were gone.
“Holy cow, that was awesome,” Shannon said. “Have you ever seen something like that?”
“Only in the movies.”
She played with her mask, chasing the fog away, smiled, and ducked back into the water.
Yeah, Victor would take on more water just to have her smile at him like that again.
The first of the two cenotes Leo took them to was what the locals called the garden. He explained the underground rivers of fresh water and how important they were to the ecosystem. Shannon knew instantly that Victor was much more comfortable swimming without a facemask than he had been in the ocean. She’d recognized his discomfort early on in their snorkeling and made a point to stay by his side. If he knew she caught on to his lack of snorkeling skills, he didn’t say.
The tiny fish in the fresh water were much more his speed. Even when those fish started to volunteer a pedicure for them as they sat on the steps leading into the water. “People pay good money for this back home,” Shannon told him as the fish tickled their toes.
“We’re paying good money for this here, too,” he replied.
They ended their tour in a cave. This time they wore life vests as Leo swam them deep inside, where flashlights were needed in order to see where they were going. It was filled with stalagmites and stalactites, everything Mother Nature created where most people would never see. The deeper they went, the cooler the water became. Still, the view was worth every second of the trip.
“What feels like sand below your feet is actually calcium from the sides of the cave,” Leo told them.
Shannon reached down and brought it to the surface, rubbed her hands in the gritty substance.
“Exfoliating?” Victor teased.
“Hey, for all we know the cure for cancer is down here somewhere.”
They ended their tour with a lunch cooked by the locals. Fresh fish tacos on homemade tortillas, rice, and fresh fruit. They each drank a beer with lime, which seemed appropriate for where they were.
Back in the car, she sat on a towel and covered her shoulders with her cover-up.
Victor poked her arm with one finger. “Looks like you got too much sun.”
She was a little pink.
She poked him back. “You did, too.”
The ride back to the hotel was a lot more relaxed than it had been driving away.
With soggy hair, fried skin, and a few more mosquito bites to add to the equation, Shannon felt her shoulders relax.
They somehow fell into a conversation about their siblings. She told him about her sister.
“Your sister is in the Peace Corps?”
“That’s what I said. You wouldn’t think joining would make her the black sheep of the family, but for my parents, it did.”
“How’s that possible?”
“They didn’t approve. They wanted us to marry up and add our family name to more guest lists.”
Victor considered her from the seat across from hers. “Is that why you married a governor?”
Should she deny it? “He wasn’t a governor when we married.”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t avoid answering that question.”
There was no way she would directly. Let him guess all he wanted. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t want my marriage to end. But things happen and we split.”
There was a brief pause in the conversation. “Can I say something and risk it sounding like a pickup line?” Victor asked.
“Go for it.”
Victor looked her in the eye. “He’s an idiot.”
She should have expected his words.
She didn’t.
Unexpected moisture gathered in her eyes. “No accounting for taste.” She blinked away her emotions.
“I mean it.” Victor looked away, giving her the ability to hide her instant response to words so many had said before. “I know you and I didn’t start out on the best footing . . .”
“To say the least. I fell in your lap.”
“. . . and blamed me.”
She rolled her eyes, feeling laughter instead of pain. “Whatever.”
“But today was good,” Victor said.
“Don’t forget the salsa dancing. If we can call it that.”
“I’m ignoring the bruise on my instep.”
“You do not have a bruise.”
Victor lifted his foot to prove her wrong.
Shannon saw sand, but nothing else. “I don’t see anything.”