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“Forty feet?”
Alex eyed him steadily. “I’m trained in a lot of things, Jack.”
He swallowed. Don’t remind me.
“Who knocked them over?”
“Doesn’t matter who did it. It was my fault. Sara and Zach were my responsibility, and I wasn’t paying enough attention.”
A tiny smile crossed Alex’s face, as if he couldn’t help it. “So, it was Sara.”
Jack stared at him but didn’t reply. He wasn’t about to blame her when he was the divemaster.
Alex’s smile widened, but something else flickered through his eyes. Jack was pretty sure it was respect. “I knew things wouldn’t be dull with her around. And I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose.”
“As soon as we’re done cleaning up, I’ll go down and repair it as best I can.”
“I’ll go with you.”
Jack pressed his lips together, wanting to say that he didn’t have to, but Alex wasn’t the type to let someone else repair his project. And it didn’t escape him that Alex’s reply had been a statement, not a question.
Jack nodded. “I’m really sorry. We all are. Sara and Zach love that coral project.” The previous night, Sara had been in tears, wanting to call Alex and confess. Jack had finally convinced her to let him handle it. He did not want Alex thinking he was afraid to stand up to the former SEAL, even if he was. A little.
Finally, Alex relaxed his posture. “It’s all right. We can repair it and start some new fragments to replace the ones that got killed.”
Jack winced.
Alex stared at him. “Can I give you a little advice? It’s maybe not the best idea to take two brand new divers to a delicate area and let them get close. I was pretty careful when I showed them the transplants on the house reef.”
Jack laced his fingers together on top of his head. “Yeah. This was one of the stupider things I’ve done as a divemaster. And both Sara and Zach wanted to tell you themselves, by the way. But I told them it was my fault, not theirs.”
“I’m glad you told me.” Alex turned and removed his rebreather from its hanger. He opened the backpack-like canister and removed a small cylinder, walking over to the compressor with it. “I need to fill this while we finish cleaning up.”
Jack had seen the rebreather hanging with Alex’s gear, but had never seen him dive with the specialized air system. “I know a guy who has a rebreather, but I’ve never used one.”
“It’s what we used most often during ops. And this repair is going to take a while—probably more than one session. The rebreather allows me to stay down longer. You can take off when you run low on air. We’ll get the trees fixed in a few days.”
* * *
It was after 7 p.m. when Jack entered his apartment, exhausted and still cold, even after blasting the heater in his truck all the way home. When Alex had told him he could leave after running low on air, Jack never even considered it. Instead, after working for an hour, he had returned to the pier and swapped out tanks before returning to the nursery. Alex’s eyes had clearly showed surprise when he’d returned. Jack had swapped out tanks a third time, and fortunately, Alex called it a night before the third one ran dry.
By then, Jack had been nearly shivering and his hands were clumsy. He had no idea how Alex stayed down so long, and without the warming exercise of swimming back and forth from the pier. Then again, maybe he did know.
Damn rebreather. Damn SEAL.
He’d just tossed his keys on the counter when his exterior wall vibrated with the sound of footsteps trotting down the stairs. This was quickly followed by a knock on his door. He’d texted Sara prior to starting the repair work, but had been too tired to think about it after they had finished. He opened the door. “Sorry. I forgot to text you when we were done.”
She darted her eyes all over his body, studying his face. “You’re ok? He didn’t punch you out or anything?”
Jack snorted and led her to the couch. “Nope. He was actually fairly mellow about it. But he already knew. That might have helped.”
She furrowed her brow. “I didn’t tell him. Or Hope—I swear.”
“I know. He discovered the damage when he was swimming this morning. We spent several hours on it, and I think we can finish tomorrow. We’ll need to look out for some damaged coral to use as a source for new fragments, though.” He rubbed his face with both hands.
She eyed the sweatshirt he wore with the hood tightened around his face. “You want a back rub?”
Lowering his hands, he smiled at her. “That sounds great. But what I really need is a long, hot shower and dinner.”
