by Addison Cole
“A better chance of getting hit by a car than bitten by a shark. I’ve heard it all a million times. For all these years, Rob has done what he loves doing with little regard for what it does to the people who love him,” Sheila said.
“Sheila, Rob cares. Besides, you knew what he did when you married him, right?” Lacy asked.
“Yeah. Before Brave, he worked with another company. That one went under, and sometimes I wish Brave would do the same.” She looked up at Lacy with sad eyes. “I know how awful that sounds. You know what Dane does. You know the risks. Is it stopping you from being with him?”
Lacy shook her head. “I’m not sure anything could keep me from him.”
“That’s the problem,” Sheila said. “I’d do anything to be with Rob. He’s my Superman. I still get butterflies when I see him, but now I worry about the kids needing him around more often. You’re lucky. Dane’s a lot younger than Rob. His reflexes are still fast. He’s virile and focused. Lately, Rob’s slowing down. He’s getting tired. He’s had a long career doing what he loves. I’d just like for him to do something else now. Something safer.”
“He loves you and the kids, Sheila,” Lacy said.
Sheila nodded. “He does. He adores us, and last night he told me he’d decided that I was right. I think we both needed time to clear our heads so we could see things more clearly. We realized that we couldn’t live without each other, and Rob realized that it was time for a change. He’s giving Dane a month’s notice after the dive today.”
“Really? Dane will be devastated,” Lacy said.
“He will, and I feel bad, but it’s time,” Sheila said.
“See, the fact that he made that decision shows you that what you have is true love,” Lacy said. Neither of us is willing to give up anything. Does that mean we don’t have true love? She swallowed the thought. “I’m so glad you guys have worked it out.”
Lacy hugged Sheila, silently pushing her concerns out of her head. Those were Sheila’s worries, but they weren’t Lacy’s. Lacy hadn’t spent nearly a year worried about if Dane was going to live through each day. She’d been too busy lying in wait, wanting to see him, longing to hear his voice—and working her butt off just to keep from worrying about the women it turned out he hadn’t even been with.
Chapter Twenty-Five
DANE AND ROB donned their wet suits like second skins. Dane’s head was clear as he prepared for one of his favorite dives—the free dive. Bubbles from regulators tended to spook sharks, but with free diving, there were no oxygen tanks. There were no bubbles. Dane and Rob had spent years honing their free diving abilities, until each of them could hold their breath for almost five minutes. Dane could hold his breath even longer, pushing five and a half on his best days. Today they were accompanied by three members of a local dive team, one to watch the boat and two for dive assistance.
“Hey, man, I was going to wait and talk to you after the dive, but I gotta tell you something,” Rob said to Dane. His wet suit stretched tight across his thick barrel chest, and when he crossed his arms, the suit looked as if it were painted on his muscular biceps.
“Sure. Shoot.” Dane sat on the deck and rested his arms on his knees.
“You know Sheila’s been asking me to stop diving for the last two years,” Rob began.
“Yeah, I know. You said you dealt with that already.”
“Yeah, well.” Rob ran his hand through his thick brown hair and dropped his eyes. “The thing is, she’s worried about the kids. She said Charlie’s having a hard time, and she can’t take all the worrying anymore every time I go to work. That’s why she needed a break, Dane. She said it’s too hard. She worries, and with the kids getting bigger and needing me around.” He shrugged.
“What are you saying, Rob?”
“She only came back because I told her that I’d quit. I’m old, Dane. You know that,” Rob said.
“Baloney. Taggers do it into their seventies. You’re the one who told me that. You said you’d tag way past when you could get it up, and I know you’re not having any trouble in that department, Rob.” Dane looked away. He was well aware of Sheila’s concerns and how they’d grown over the past two years, but he never would have guessed that Rob would quit. He figured he had at least another ten years with him.
“I’ve gone over it a hundred times. I can’t see any other way. She left me, Dane. Up and left. Took my kids. You saw what that did to me. It sent me right over the edge. I can’t afford to be in that place, and losing my family would do that to me. If she left for good, I’d be back on the bottle in no time.” Rob held Dane’s stare. “We’ve had a good run of it.”
“Had a good—Rob, do you hear yourself? This isn’t happening.” Dane stood and paced. “Maybe you should have waited to tell me. How are we going to be placid down there with this crap hanging over us?”
“This crap is my life, Dane.” Rob rose to his feet, planting his hands on his wide hips.
Dane looked at him and shook his head, then blew out a frustrated breath. “I’m sorry. I get it. I don’t want you to lose your family. You know that. But, Rob, I don’t want to lose you either. You’re my partner, man. We’re like two sides of a coin. We don’t balance without each other.” He swung his arm over Rob’s shoulder. “This is really the only option?”
Dane felt as if his left leg had been ripped off, but if Rob were Rex, Treat, or any of his siblings, he’d support his decision to be with his family, and Rob was just as important to Dane as they were. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly.
“So I guess this is our last dive mission together?” he asked.
Rob shrugged. “As I said, I can’t see another way around it.” He scrubbed his face with his hands. “Man, if there were any other way…”
Dane heard the defeat in his low voice. “It’s okay, Rob. It sucks, but you’re right. Family has to come first.” His mind drifted to Lacy, and no matter how he turned it over in his mind, he knew that if they’d had a family and she said she’d leave, he’d probably do the same thing. “But does it have to be all or nothing?”
“Whaddaya mean?” Rob asked.
“I’ll still need a guy to run the boat, someone to work the deck. No water work. No tagging, no diving. Would Sheila be okay with that?” Dane hoped Rob would take him up on the offer. Losing Rob altogether would be too much for Dane to handle. It would really feel like losing one of his siblings.
“Not sure,” Rob said. “I can’t see why not, but, Dane, you’d have to raise more funds. You’d have to hire another diver and train them. You probably can’t absorb the extra expense.”
Rob knew about Dane’s trust fund, and he also knew how Dane felt about dipping into it. But for Rob, Dane didn’t care if he had funding or not. He’d make it happen. “Dude, what does my dad always say?”
“Family knows no boundaries,” Rob said with a smile.
“That’s right. And you and Sheila are family. If Sheila’s okay with it, then it’s a done deal. And we’ll work out a schedule where you’re home most of every month. I need you around a little, too. Like a security blanket.” Dane nudged his arm.
Rob pretended to punch Dane in the gut. “Sissy.” He laughed. “Thanks, man.”
“Hey, let’s take another half an hour and chill before we dive,” Dane suggested. With free diving, the diver needed to be in a calm mental state. They needed to be balanced. If either Dane or Rob was feeling agitated, he would jeopardize the dive.
“Good. I was just thinking the same thing,” Rob said.
Thirty minutes later, Dane was breathing easier and Rob was joking with one of the other divers, which further eased Dane’s mind. He took stock of his own emotions. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, weighing his frustrations. Rob was doing what he had to do. He loved Rob, and the last thing he wanted was for him to end up on the bottle for good. He’s doing the right thing. Dane opened his eyes feeling calm and confident.
He patted Rob on the back. “Are you going to b
e okay on this dive? You wanna sit out?”
“I’m good,” Rob said. “Let’s do this.”
While the other two divers donned their gloves, boots, and wet suits and prepared their spear guns and goggles, Dane and Rob slipped into the murky water, knowing that after they descended, the other divers would remain at the water’s surface, flapping their hands and kicking their feet to attract sharks, and if that didn’t work, they’d throw a bit of chum in the water.
Dane and Rob kicked straight down, descending about forty feet, where they reached neutral buoyancy. The ocean stopped pushing them toward the surface and started pulling them toward the floor. With their arms by their sides, they sank effortlessly to the ocean floor. Rob swam away to Dane’s right. They crossed their legs and waited on the sandy bottom. After only a minute, Dane saw the dark shadowy figure of a shark approaching. He ascended slowly, knowing Rob would be doing the same. The shark was twenty feet away, ten, and nearing quickly.
This sucker’s about nine feet. Dane looked for Rob, and in the murky depths, he made out a figure a football field away to his right, rising parallel to him. They rose in sync with each other to a depth of roughly twenty-five feet. The shark torpedoed past Rob, and Dane saw Rob change directions, ascending at an angle toward the boat. A breath away from Dane, the shark shot up toward the surface. Dane followed in its wake through the murky water. The shark disappeared from view. Two minutes. Dane spotted the diver’s feet kicking at the surface. He scanned the area for Rob, searching for the familiar blur of his powerful legs kicking, his streamlined body angling upward, but Rob was nowhere in sight. He turned to his left, then to his right, wishing the water were clearer. His line of sight was too murky. He squinted, trying to pull Rob’s shape from the depths of the sea, when the shark burst through the darkness and sped past Dane. Dane shot toward the right, then spun around and searched again for Rob—and spotted him floating lifelessly, his arms out to his sides, his neck hanging limply forward. Fear shocked him into action. Dane swam faster than he ever had to Rob’s side, his heart hammering against his chest, emergency procedures running through his mind. He grabbed ahold of Rob beneath his armpits and kicked for all he was worth toward the surface. Damn it! Move. Move. Hang on, buddy! Hang on! His lungs burned. His muscles were on fire despite the cold water as he kicked against the helpless weight of Rob’s body. Every foot he ascended felt like a mile as he pushed his lungs past their limit and silently prayed for Rob’s life to be spared. The other divers came into view. Dane couldn’t think past the need to get Rob out of the water. The divers swept down a few feet from the surface. They grabbed Rob and pulled his lifeless body into the boat. Dane burst through the surface gasping for air. Rob. Save Rob. He pushed through the dizziness that threatened to steal his ability to think and hauled himself into the boat. Each breath burned deeper than the one before.
“What the hell happened?” He bent over Rob’s mouth, listening for breathing sounds beyond his own hard pants. No breath. He fisted his hand and smashed it into the center of Rob’s chest. Dane’s body shook with fear. His lungs still burned, but he didn’t notice or care. “Come on. Come on! Radio it in. Get to shore!” He felt for a pulse. No pulse. Dane administered another precordial thump to the center of Rob’s chest. Rob’s face was ashen, his lips tinged blue.
“He got hit in the head by the shark’s tail,” one of the guys yelled.
Dane’s felt for a pulse. No. With tears streaming down his face, Dane channeled all of his fear and all of his muscle into a third precordial thump. “Come on, you bastard!” He grabbed Rob’s wrist. “Faint pulse. Get a blanket.” He bent over Rob’s face and listened for breathing sounds. Someone covered Rob’s legs with heavy blankets.
“He’s not breathing,” Dane yelled. He couldn’t hear past the roar of the engine as they neared shore. He tilted Rob’s head back and held his nose closed; then Dane covered Rob’s mouth with his own and blew a desperate, heavy breath into his friend’s lungs. He lowered his ear to Rob’s mouth. “Come on. Come on,” he said through gritted teeth. He covered Rob’s mouth with his own again and breathed life into Rob’s lungs again, then listened for Rob’s breathing to kick in. “Come on, Rob.” Again he tilted Rob’s head back, plugged his nose, and covered his friend’s mouth with his. He breathed air from his lungs into Rob’s until he had no more air to breathe. Water dribbled from the corner of Rob’s mouth, and relief swept through Dane. He bent over and listened again. Rob’s shallow breathing was music to his ears. His pulse was thready. Dane yanked the blankets to Rob’s rib cage; then he began chest compressions one second apart. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen…When he hit thirty, he breathed for Rob again. He had to help the blood flow through his friend’s body. His arms trembled and shook as he administered thirty more compressions, then breathed air into Rob’s lungs.
Dane was still hunkered over Rob, counting compressions, when the rescue team climbed onto the boat. “Nineteen, twenty…”
“We got him from here,” someone said.
Dane continued. “Twenty-nine, thirty.” He bent over to breathe for Rob and a strong hand pulled him back. Dane twisted out of his grip. “I have to help him. His breathing’s shallow. His pulse is weak.”
Two strong men held Dane back as he twisted and fought to get to Rob. “Get the heck off me. I have to help him.”
Rob was already on a stretcher. They were taking him to the ambulance.
“Dane!” a deep voice hollered.
Dane shook his head, jolting himself out of his state of shock.
“Come with us. We have to check you out, too,” the man said.
“I gotta get to Rob,” Dane yelled, finally noticing the paramedic’s uniform.
“I’m a paramedic, and I’m taking you to him. You did good. He’s being taken care of.”
With Dane in his grasp, the paramedic guided him into the ambulance.
Chapter Twenty-Six
LACY HELD KATIE against her chest as she, Sheila, and Charlie burst through the emergency room doors. Her body shook; her mind refused to process Treat’s call. Dane’s in the hospital. Treat was a major supporter of the hospital, and they’d called him right away. Dane’s okay, but Rob’s on shaky ground. They had a diving accident. No blood, but Rob’s unconscious.
“My husband, Robert Mann, he was brought in. Diving accident,” Sheila said through her tears to the woman behind the registration desk.
“And Dane Braden, they were together,” Lacy said with Katie clinging to her. Katie had been crying since they’d received the call from Treat, and although Lacy was sure she didn’t understand what was going on, she panicked in response to Sheila’s and Lacy’s reactions. They’d packed up the kids and sped to the hospital.
A tall, African American nurse came around the desk. “Mrs. Mann, please, come with me. Unfortunately, your son will have to wait here. Can your friend watch him?”
Sheila shot a helpless look toward Lacy. Her brown eyes were red and swollen, and her makeup ran in streaks down her cheeks. Charlie stood beside his mother, his face the same brooding mask it had been earlier in the day.
Lacy could hardly breathe. “Go. I’ve got them. Go,” she said. Dane. Please be okay. She held her hand out to Charlie. “Come here, sweetie.”
Charlie took her hand.
The woman behind the desk said, “Your name?”
Lacy contemplated lying. Sister. Wife? Finally, she spit out her name. “Lacy Snow,” she said. “Is he okay?”
The woman scanned a clipboard. “Yes, there you are. He gave us your name. He’s okay. He was in shock.” The woman held up a finger toward Lacy, then said something to a male nurse behind her. “Mike can take you back to see him if you have someone with you to watch the kids.”
“Thank you.” The kids. Darn it. She felt her lips quivering and turned back toward the desk. “I don’t have anyone to watch them.”
The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry. We can’t allow them in the back.”
Lacy ran t
hrough possible solutions. She didn’t know anyone in Chatham. Not anyone she could leave someone else’s children with. She turned back to the woman behind the desk. “And the man he was with? How is he? Rob Mann?”
“I’m sorry, but we can only release information to family members or those who are on the release form,” the woman said.
Lacy groaned. She bounced Katie, trying to calm her down while her own mind ran in circles. “Can you let Dane Braden know I’m here, but that I have Rob’s kids and I can’t come back with them? I hate him being alone. I need him to know I’m here.”
“We can do that,” she said.
“Thank you.”
Torn between being relieved that Dane was okay and worrying about Rob, Lacy took the children to a small table in the corner of the room, where there were toys and coloring books strewn about. She set Katie on the chair beside her, and Charlie sat down with his arms crossed. Lacy looked back at the doors to the patient area, thinking about Rob. Please let him be okay. Katie clutched her bear and reached for a coloring book with her free hand.
“Did my dad get bitten by a shark?” Charlie asked.
“No, honey, no. He didn’t get bitten by a shark.” But he could have been.
“When can we see him?” he asked.
“I’m not sure, honey. They’ll tell us when you can.” Lacy wished Danica were there, or Kaylie, or someone who could help. She considered her options. Mom? What if Sheila already called someone?
“Ms. Snow?” Lacy spun around.
“Yes, I’m Lacy Snow.”
The male nurse from earlier pulled her to the side and said quietly, “Mr. Braden has asked to be released, so you’ll see him in just a few minutes. He asked me to let you know.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much,” she said. Released. He really is okay.
Lacy turned her attention back to the children.
“Lace?”
“Dane!” She spun around and flew into Dane’s arms. “I was so worried. Are you okay? Treat didn’t tell me much,” she said.
