“But it was something. Obviously triggering. I’ve…never seen you pissed.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised. Had I never been upset in front of him? Wow, did I know how to keep my crap together at work or what.
He was still holding my wrist, something we both seemed to glance at but neither of us let go of. “Did she say something?” The cut of his jaw turned into a sharp line.
Was he angry? Because Sejal said something mean, or because she’d made me upset? “Not exactly.”
“Tell me.”
I let out a rough breath and looked at the railing where the straw had fallen from. Others were tiptoeing toward swimming, waiting for someone else to go in first.
“She let a plastic straw fall into the ocean and didn’t give a crap.”
Sunny arched a brow. “Okay. I’ll talk to her about pollution.”
“It’s not that…it’s…here. Watch this.”
I pulled out my phone and showed him the very graphic video I took of Kimo extracting a straw from a honu’s nostril with pliers. The amount of strength it took to hold down the terrified animal, the amount of delicate skill it took for Kimo to pull out the straw without hurting the turtle, the way one could hear my sobs in the background.
Sunny looked at me. I blinked away, realizing how on the verge of tears I was. Maybe that straw wouldn’t end up hurting marine life. Maybe it wouldn’t get stuck inside an animal or get lodged in a nostril or a throat or a stomach. But chances were, it would. Sejal didn’t care. Was she even aware these things happened?
“Let’s go!” Sam called at the edge of the boat, diving in after Aamar and Maya.
Sunny grabbed the hem of his shirt and tugged it over his head. He handed it to me, and I didn’t know whether to stare at the shirt in my hands in all of my confusion, or at his defined chest, ridged abs, and a very delectable V-shape at the hips where his trunks sat a little too low. And now I was utterly pissed because he’d ignored me and all it took was a shirtless Sunny for me to momentarily forget about dying endangered sea turtles.
He walked away. So he didn’t care. Wasn’t sure why that surprised me.
He jumped into the ocean. Wait. Hadn’t he mentioned how he would never swim in the wild? Did he think I was overreacting so much so that he literally leapt into his worst fears to get away from me?
I nearly collapsed against the wall of the cabin behind me, exhausted. I couldn’t wait until we got off this boat. This deal was so over. He could keep up the lie or not, but I wasn’t going to spend one more second around Sunny or his clueless ex. Maybe all his friends polluted and didn’t give a flying crap about how their actions hurt others.
April was at the railing, waving me over. I abided, but only because she was the bride, and it wasn’t her fault she got caught in the middle of this emotional fiasco.
“What are you doing way over there by yourself?”
“Taking a breather,” I said as cheerfully as I could manage.
“Are you going to get in?”
“Not my thing. Floating around in the ocean is terrifying. Aren’t you going?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t leave you alone.”
“No! Go! Please. Don’t hang back for me. This is all for you.”
April smiled and then drifted her attention to the water, where Sejal was complaining, “What are you looking for? We’re supposed to be snorkeling and having fun! Let it go!”
To the right, Sunny, Sam, Aamar, Maya, and Pradeep were looking for something. My guess? Manta rays or something that came out at night, so they weren’t ever going to spot them.
“Found it! Thanks!” Sunny called back, clutching something in his hand as he swam back to the boat. He hurried up the ladder and went for a towel. He wore a look of shock edging toward trauma when he wiped his face and arms.
“I thought you hated the water,” I called out to him.
“I do. Here,” he said, holding out something.
“What?” I asked, annoyed but walking toward him nonetheless.
In his hand, Sunny held a plastic straw. My brain, my body, froze before jerking back to life. “Did you…just jump into your worst fears to find the straw Sejal dropped into the ocean?”
“Yeah,” he said, out of breath. “Can’t endanger any more endangered animals, can we?”
He licked his lips. I could freaking kiss this man in all his sultry, water-beading-down-his-naked-torso glory.
My heart spasmed and then filled with so much bubbling gratitude and hope for humanity that I swung my arms around him and crashed into his cold, hard, wet body. I held on to him as if he’d saved my life. “Oh my god. That was so sweet of you. Thank you.”
He’d gone rigid, but an arm fell around my waist as he muttered into my hair, “I did it for the turtles; don’t know why you think everything is about you.”
I laughed into his slippery neck.
Sunny’s hold tightened. Both arms were now wrapped around me. He was hugging me, gently holding me against him. And not in passing seconds, but what felt like long minutes. He felt incredibly solid, slick, welcoming. Were we having a moment? No bickering, no snark, no tension, just a kind embrace. Maybe even more than that as his chin tilted down. I could very well kiss this man, swept away in this moment.
But it was just a moment.
All right. We’d been hugging for way too long, and when I pulled away, my clothes were damp in the front and clinging to my body, revealing the bright colors of my swimwear underneath.
Sunny glanced down appreciatively (or was that in my head?), before dragging his eyes back to mine. His skin flushed.
“Don’t say it,” I muttered.
