“I’m on my way,” he said and ended the call.
I laughed and hugged Jade. “I was going to read a few of the messages to him to see what he thought we should do, but he’s coming here.”
Jade smiled. “He never does anything halfway.”
“It’s not a bad way to live.” Right then I decided that I’d take a page out of Dominic’s book and use his visit to plan something else as well. It was time to take my relationship with Jade to the next level.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Jade
Two weeks later
Kal’s perma-smile as we packed our gear for a dive was a giveaway that there was more going on that day, but I was determined to look surprised. Kal was many things—subtle wasn’t one of them.
He’d outright asked me what my ring size was then tried to pass off the question as idle curiosity. I’d caught him on the phone more than once with Sasha and Nikki. After Robert, that might have caused me some concern, but they were three-way calls that both of my friends told me I needed to pretend I hadn’t overheard part of.
Whatever Kal was planning for that day required significant time and effort, so I already loved it. After Dominic had helped us sort through the messages from sponsors and choose which ones made the most sense for us to work with, Kal had gone out with him for a drink. I’d thought it was odd for Kal not to include me, but it also made sense that he might want some time alone with his brother. It was his huge grin and tender kiss when he returned that had me thinking that our future might have been the topic of their talk.
My suspicion was confirmed when we’d visited my grandparents at their new condo a town over from us. He and my grandfather had gone out onto the balcony and closed the sliding glass door behind them. Their talk had ended with my grandfather smiling and giving Kal a back smacking hug.
Still smiling about that day, I walked across our living room and lifted two photos off the mantel of the fireplace. They were both from the night we celebrated Riley and Gavin’s engagement. One was Sebastian, Dominic, Nicole, Kal, and Riley standing together. Of the two, this photo looked more strained and forced. The next photo was all five of them with their partners. Everyone, including me, had been caught in some stage of laughter . . . either holding some in, outright laughing, or smiling right afterward.
The reason? When we’d lined up, we’d asked one of the waitstaff if she’d take the photo. She’d agreed and kept saying how exciting it was to take the photo of someone so famous. Sebastian, Dominic, Stephan and even Gavin had stood a little straighter and puffed out their chests with pride. When the girl asked, “Could I take a photo for myself as well? No one will believe I met Invio in person. We tried to see your show the last time we were in Vegas, but it was booked solid.”
When all four of the other men had looked at Kal in surprise, the women had burst out laughing. Kal made a joke about it not being his fault he was younger and better known, then laughed and everyone else joined in. It was my favorite photo because it held a promise that no matter how they’d started off, they were now a family.
And I was part of it.
“Ready?” Kal asked from across the room.
“You’re bringing luggage as well?” I asked as I noted the additional case he had in his hand. “To a dive?”
He shrugged. “We might want to go to dinner afterward. Doesn’t hurt to have a change of clothing.”
I nodded as if that made perfect sense. Normally we stuffed additional clothing in a backpack, but okay.
We hopped in our car and headed to the airport where the company had arranged for a sky taxi to take us down to Key West. One of our sponsors had requested we participate in a debris cleanup project just offshore while wearing their high-end BCD vests. Since friends of ours were involved in the cleanup, we’d negotiated for the company to match our fee with a donation to the project.
Kal and I still contained our paid dives to the weekends, but we were doing so well with them that I could envision us leaving our day jobs soon and working for ourselves. We chatted on and off on the trip down. I tried to read a book on my phone but every time I glanced at Kal he was smiling and that kept sending butterflies through me.
The dive itself started off pretty routine. We met up with a team, had a few laughs with the ones we’d gotten to know well from previous dives, and walked our cameraman through what we’d like filmed. The location we’d chosen had a mostly sandy bottom so the debris would stand out and hopefully make for some powerful images.
Once in the water, we got to work cutting free or simply picking up and swimming to the surface with common but detrimental debris—discarded hook and line fishing gear and rope from old lobster traps. The team, along with recreational volunteer divers, had already removed nearly twenty thousand pounds from the area. It was a thrill to be included in the effort, profitable to be sponsored to help them, and personally satisfying to know the project would receive additional funds because of our involvement.
Kal swam ahead and disappeared behind a coral reef. A few minutes later he was back and motioning me to see something he’d discovered. I joined him, not sure what to expect. There in the sand, lines of stones were organized into a question: Jade, will you marry me?
I nodded then motioned for us to go to the surface. We held hands as we ascended. As soon as we broke the surface, we both took out our mouth pieces, pushed the goggles down around our necks, and kissed. I don’t know how many times I said yes between those kisses, but it was enough that we both started laughing.
We swam to the boat then hopped onto the ramp, turned, and sat. Our cameraman swam up and started taking photos of us sitting together, with our legs still dangling into the water.
Kal glanced back at the pile of trash we’d removed from the sea floor. “Do you care that our engagement photo will have that as a backdrop?”
I hugged him tightly. “Are you kidding? It’s perfect. I can’t imagine a better background. In fact, I think we should make sure we take a photo of us on every anniversary in front of something we’ve done to make the world a better place.”
He searched my face. “There’s something I should tell you.”
I no longer worried when he said that. “Yes?”
“Dominic and my mother organized a party for us tonight. He has that damn super-yacht buoyed off the coast and Judy warned me he intends to give it to you as an engagement present. You, not me, because he knows I won’t accept it.”
I reached out and took his hand in mine. “Is there a way to warn him ahead of time that I won’t either? I don’t want to embarrass him.”
“Riley suggested we accept it and lend it out to research projects when we aren’t filming from it. Sebastian crunched numbers and the cost of owning it would be offset by the tax benefit of donating the use of it.”
“So, I should accept it?”
“I don’t know. On one hand Dominic wants us to have it. On the other hand, can you really imagine us traveling the world on our own research vessel, submarine and all?”
I could. “We’d have to stay based in Florida. We should be around for my grandparents when they need us.”
“Is this crazy?”
“A little, but we could do a lot of good with it.”