said, and she did a double take. He hadn’t called her D in a very long time. Like, since their breakup. She blinked at him but didn’t see any clues as to why.
Not that she’d expected to.
Or maybe she had. Her adrenaline flowed in overwhelming spurts, and a surreal haze hung over the evening. Then a blip of a memory rose to her mind—Dad congratulating her, shouting and jumping with such gusto that they attracted the attention of a nearby fisherman who’d come to see the catch of the day.
After he quickly and humanely dispatched it, Danae shoved the pole into Josh’s hands and squatted to see her fish. Vanessa turned on her phone’s light so she could take pictures, and the blue and black scales glimmered in the bright glow.
If Danae didn’t stand soon, her burning thighs would give out on her, but she quite liked the view from down here. From this angle, their captain’s beard was extra rugged, and the line of muscle in his forearm stood out as he gripped the fishing pole she’d used. “Okay,” he said, “so now you have to get the hook out of its mouth.”
That got her to her feet. “Um, that’s okay. I’ll hold the pole. You do the gross stuff.”
“Lucky me,” he said lightly, and the smile he aimed her way gave her that fresh-from-the-roller-coaster swirl. Perhaps she should’ve set a nice strong example for her team by doing it herself, but what mattered was they were all gathered to celebrate their freshly caught dinner. Along with the fact that at least in the here and now, everyone was getting along.
Except where was Franco? She didn’t see him, and she crossed her fingers that it didn’t mean he was retreating from the group.
With her fishing win, the rest of the team were encouraged and returned to their poles. Whenever one of them got a bite, they all gathered to cheer that person on. As they were wrapping up their fishing session—it was getting so dark they could hardly see—Danae glanced at the time. “Whoa.”
While her blood pressure spiked for a moment, she expelled a long breath and told herself it was okay they were an hour behind schedule. Dinner was the only thing left for the day, and that made it easier to be okay with it.
The guy proudly holding up their catches also helped tremendously.
Josh walked up to her, and she put her hands up to block, in case he thought throwing fish at her would be funny—it absolutely wouldn’t be, even if she had his jacket to wipe off the slimy scales. Which she would totally do.
“Are you ready to be impressed by a fish dinner?” he asked.
“As long as you remember you’re fighting a losing battle.”
His left side brushed her arm and shoulder as he passed by. Instead of continuing on his way, though, he leaned in and said, “The odds have been stacked against me before. And it doesn’t scare me—I’m one of those never-say-die guys.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You honestly think you could out-stubborn me?”
“I think we’ll both have fun trying.” He gave her shoulder a light squeeze, and she didn’t care that his hands probably had fish scales and squid slime on them. Every ounce of her blood rushed to that spot, and she could say with a surety that today had absolutely been a better day.
There was just one more thing she needed to handle.
Chapter Nine
After washing her hands so they were as fish-free as possible, Danae found Franco seated at the outside table where they usually held their meetings.
“Hey,” she said, sitting next to him on the bench seat. The padding underneath the creamy vinyl was thinner than her office chair, and she’d sat down hard enough that her bones experienced a mini jolt. “Deep-sea fishing not your thing? I didn’t think it was mine until I caught what Josh insists is gonna be our dinner. Mark and Paige each caught one, too.”
“I don’t mind it, but I was exhausted after all our hiking. Guess I’m not in as good a shape as I thought.”
“You and me both. I was wheezing by the time we made it down those stairs to the beach—I almost decided Josh’s suggestion to roll down the bluffs instead wasn’t crazy.”
Franco laughed. “I’d definitely end up breaking an ankle or something.”
“Nobody’s going to get hurt on my watch.”
“Not sure you can be in control of that,” Franco said.
“You underestimate my power,” she joked, adopting an evil-villain voice.