I’d gotten used to people not caring to know more than my surface. Jade needed more from me and the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint her, so I was honest. “I was thinking about how amazing you are for taking a hit and not letting it keep you down. You stood up, dusted yourself off, and look at you now.”
Her smile warmed my heart. “I am pretty happy with myself. Sometimes I wish I’d done this earlier, but maybe I had to go through some crap to appreciate where I am now.”
I was several steps behind her on that journey. “I’m determined to get to that place, but I’m not there yet. I’m thinking I should come back when I have my shit together.”
“This is about more than your brother.” There was no judgment in her eyes. “What do you think you need to do to be where I am?”
Her question echoed in me. I was quiet until the answer began to come to me. “I don’t have a college degree, a job, or even a car. If we’re speaking honestly, ‘former stripper’ doesn’t open a lot of doors. I’m starting over with nothing.”
She tucked a hand under her head and simply held my gaze. “You need a plan.”
I nodded. “I could make fast money if I returned to the stage, but I don’t want that. I could bartend but I’m trying to get out of the bar scene. Over the years I’ve been approached for modeling. I’d hate it, but I could do it. I’m not afraid of hard work. The goal is to return to college, but I won’t qualify for financial aid due to my recent high income. I could take out loans, but to do that I need a job. It’s all doable, but I’m going to be cash strapped for a few years.”
She searched my face. “So many people would take the easy money.”
“I’ve gone down that road, and I almost lost myself.”
Shifting closer to me, she caressed the side of my face. “How long after you graduate will you need to work before you think we should be together? Do you have a set amount you’ll need in the bank? I have high standards, you know.”
She was giving me shit. “I’m being serious.”
The understanding in her eyes melted my concerns away. “Most of my spare money is going to pay my grandparents back for the wedding that didn’t happen. I don’t have a nest egg, a trust fund, or even a car that’s paid off, but I don’t care. As soon as I do have some cash, I’ll be heading back to school for my masters.”
“So, what you’re saying is that we could be poor together.” A smile spread across my face, and I stopped her before she answered seriously. “For years.”
“Yep, that’s what I’m saying.” Her smile warmed me to my toes.
It sounded heavenly. “We could have naked study sessions.”
She laughed. “We’d get nothing done.”
I wrapped my arms around her and cuddled her closer. “It would take practice, lots and lots of practice, but we should have goals.” The kiss we shared was passionate but bubbling with friendship and laughter. I ended it by rolling onto my back and hauling her partially on top of me. “What do you want to do today?”
“I was invited to join a group of interns as they place some BRUVs—those are baited remote underwater videos. It’s not glamourous. We go out on a small boat, bait and drop the cameras, then hang out for a few hours. After we pull up the cameras, we upload the video; analyze the footage; record diversity, abundance, and any unusual behavior; then input it into the state database. This is part of a long-term study. We’re not expecting to see anything out of the ordinary today. Technically the interns are qualified to do it without me, and AI does most of the work in identifying the species, it’s my job to review their work. I could do it on Monday, but I jump at any excuse to spend the day out on the water.”
“Me too.” I didn’t want her to miss out, but I also didn’t want her to feel she couldn’t enjoy that without me. “Although, to be clear, I have no problem finding something to entertain myself with if you want to go and meet up later.”
She gave me a tight hug. “Come, it’ll be fun.”
“How much time do we have before we meet them?”
After checking the clock beside her bed, she said, “Two hours or so.”
“Good.” I kissed her again, this time slowly and with more heat. I liked the idea of seeing her with her coworkers. I also liked the idea of a little more time alone with her.
She made a pleased sound deep in her throat and slid a hand down to encircle my cock. I knew I’d have to leave her the next day, but I pushed that thought far, far away and let myself enjoy being with her.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Jade
Rather than calling Sasha and Nikki, I sent them a text explaining that things were going really well with Kal, so well that I couldn’t call them yet. They seemed to understand.
After a quick shared shower, I put a bathing suit on under a pair of shorts and a top. Kal wore the same swim trunks and shirt from the day before and we stopped at his hotel room to pick up more of his things.
When we met the interns at the dock, I was taken aback by their nervous vibe. Pete, Joe, and Lynn were normally super laid-back. We’d done the same outing a few weeks earlier with no hitch. Had something happened since?
It was when I introduced them that I realized the interns were reacting to Kal. Although he’d greeted each with an approachable smile, he towered over the two male interns. I could have sworn one of them tried to flex his bicep when he shook Kal’s hand. My impression of Lynn had been that she was more interested in cataloging fish types than men until she saw Kal. Her instant adoration was almost comical.
Almost, if I hadn’t been slightly tempted to hip check her into the water.
We settled onto the benches on either side of a boat that looked smaller than ever with Kal on it. Although I’d spent the last nearly twenty-four hours exploring and appreciating every muscular inch of him, it took seeing him next to the male interns for me to realize how normal men compared to him. There was no comparison. His chiseled features were classically good-looking. His body was muscled to just shy of being too much. Had Kal wanted to be in the movies he could have stolen parts from the most buff men in the business.
Unlike the last time we’d done this trip, there was very little conversation on the way to the first drop site. I wondered if Kal realized he was the reason.
When the boat slowed in preparation of dropping the first camera, I asked Kal if he’d like to learn how to bait it.
“Sure,” he said. “What are you using?”
“Squid.” I led him to the cooler where we had the meat and showed him how it needed to be folded over a few times to fit into the tube.
He watched closely but didn’t look surprised by any of it. It was then I remembered a dive he’d noted in the book I’d sent him. “Did you do this when you dove with Bilboa?”
“Not the day we dove, but he let me join his team in Indonesia. They’re studying the Raja Ampat.”
That caught Pete’s attention. He joined us and asked, “You dove with Bilboa? Julian Bilboa? How? When?”
Kal looked from Pete to me as if requesting permission. I nodded once even though I wasn’t sure how much he’d share or if it was wise to. Kal said, “Jade and I have been friends for a while. She sent me Save the Ocean, Save the World: Stories from the World’s Leading Marine Scientists. Reading it inspired me to seek some of them out. I was doing a lot of traveling at the time, so whenever I found myself near someone mentioned in the book, I reached out to them. We’d talk and many of them offered to show me what they were working on.”