Rising Tides Read Online Free PDF Page B

sailing.”
    Tyler looked sharply at me.  His eyebrows hunched over his eyes questioningly.  “You weren’t in any danger, not with the life-jacket on.”His blue eyes focused on me, expecting an answer.  He stopped walking.  “Do you think he’d feel that way because you went with a guy?”  He backed away and shook his head.  “I mean, I can understand that, but this is what I do for a living, and you wanted to learn.”
    I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to think of Gary’s face filled with jealousy, even one moment of it, during our marriage, and I found an empty black space in my mind.  I looked at Tyler.  “No, Gary’s not the jealous type.  He just...” I struggled for an excuse, anything but the truth, “...hates the water.  He doesn’t like for me to swim.”
    A small flock of gulls alighted in front of us, and I watched the foursome scurry a few feet before one of them glanced our way and flew off, leading the others into a perfectly cobalt sky.
    Tyler watched the shimmer of wings explode and vanish.  “I always wanted to do that.”  He looked down at the moist sand and spotted a quarter-sized pebble half-buried.  He bent and dug it out before squatting and trying to skip it across the water.  It jumped once and sank amid a wave.  “So much for that,” he laughed, standing.  He rolled his left shoulder, stretching his muscles and shoved one hand in a pocket.  “So why doesn’t Gary like the water?”
    I thought of ocean so deep light couldn’t penetrate the darkness, and that’s how I imagined the lumps inside my body appeared.  “I guess he thinks I’ll never get back to the surface.”  My hands brushed my arms a little more frantically as a slight breeze picked up, chilling me even more.
    “You cold?” Tyler asked, staring at my hands.  His calm matched the half-hearted smile on his face.  The wind lifted strands of his hair, spiking them.  “You’ve been doing that for quite a while.”
    Feeling self-conscious, I stopped.  “Yeah, I guess I am.  It seems a little cooler today.”
    He nodded.  “More of a breeze.”  He pulled his hand out of his pocket and pointed to his beach house.  “You’re welcome to sit for a while and warm up.  And I won’t even get you wet today.”  He shoved his hand back into his jean pocket.   “I can fix some coffee or hot chocolate.”  He waited for me to answer. “It’s up to you, Kelly.  If you think it would bother Gary, then let’s not.”
    Right then I didn’t think of Gary, just Debra, maybe because it was a package deal.  “No, I already told you he wasn’t jealous.”  I forced stillness into my hands even though I wanted to keep moving them.  “And I am pretty cold.”
    Tyler nodded.  “Okay.  Let’s go.”
    Together we walked up the stairs and walked inside the house.  I stopped at the kitchen table.
    “Can I help?”
    “No, you’re my guest.  Besides, I’m appliance-literate. Thanks just the same.”
    I picked up the conch shell on the table, the same one I’d held before.  “A modern man who cooks, cleans, and sails.  Some mermaid’s going to get lucky.”
    “Yeah,” Tyler snorted as he fed the coffee maker.  “As if mermaids need appliances.  Then again, it might give them a little charge, I guess.”  He shook his head and pointed a warning finger.  “If you tell me you see a mermaid when we’re sailing, I won’t be taking you back.  I don’t mind clumsiness, but hallucinations are another story.”
    We laughed.
    Once he’d finished pouring the water, he stopped and stared at me, or more precisely at the shell I held.  It filled my hand.  “You like that, don’t you?”
    I touched the polished interior, liking the way the smooth surface glided under my fingertips.  “Yeah.  Did you find it here?”
    “No, Panama Beach, Florida, actually.”
    He folded his arms across his chest.  His silver watch glittered as rays of sunlight fell upon it.  “You can