Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

feeling . . .”
    “Really?” Rikki frowned and stood up, glancing up at the sky. “Seems like a perfect day to me.”
    “Are you taking a tender with you?”
    “ Hell no.”
    Blythe sighed. “We talked about this. You said you’d consider the idea.
    It’s safer, Rikki. You shouldn’t be diving alone.”
    “I don’t like anyone touching my equipment. They roll my hoses wrong. They don’t put the tools back. No. No way.” She tried not to sound belligerent, but she was not having anyone on her boat messing with her things.
    “It’s safer.”
    Rikki rolled her eyes. How was having some idiot sitting on the boat while she was under the water not diving alone? But she didn’t voice her thoughts, instead she tried a smile. It was difficult. She didn’t smile much, especially when the nightmares were too close. And she was barefoot. She didn’t like being caught barefoot, and in spite of Blythe’s determination not to look, her gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to the scars covering Rikki’s feet and calves.
    18

    Rikki turned toward the house. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”
    Blythe nodded. “I can get it, Rikki. Enjoy your morning.” Dressed in her running shoes and light sweats, she managed to still look elegant. Rikki had no idea how she did it. Blythe was refined and educated and all the things Rikki wasn’t, but that never seemed to matter to Blythe.
    Rikki took a breath and forced herself to sink back into the chair and tuck her feet under her, trying not to look disturbed at the idea of anyone going into her house.
    “You’re drinking your coffee black again,” Blythe said, and dropped a cube of sugar into Rikki’s mug.
    Rikki frowned at her. “That was mean.” She looked around for her sunglasses to cover her direct stare. She knew it bothered most people.
    Blythe never seemed upset by it, but Rikki didn’t take chances. She found them on the railing and shoved them on her nose.
    “If you’re diving today, you need it,” Blythe pointed out. “You’re way too thin, and I noticed you haven’t gone shopping again.”
    “I did too. There’s tons of food in the cupboards,” Rikki pointed out.
    “Peanut butter is not food. You have nothing but peanut butter in your cupboard. I’m talking real food, Rikki.”
    “I have Reese’s Pieces and peanut butter cups. And bananas.” If anyone else had snooped in her cupboards, Rikki would have been furious, but she just couldn’t get upset with Blythe.
    “You have to try to eat better.”
    “I do try. I added the bananas like you asked me. And every night I eat broccoli.” Rikki made a face. She dipped the raw vegetable in peanut butter to make it more edible, but she’d promised Blythe so she faithfully ate it.
    “I’m actually beginning to like the stuff, even if it’s green and feels like pebbles in my mouth.”
    Blythe laughed. “Well, thank you for at least eating broccoli. Where are you diving?”
    Of course, Blythe would have to ask. Rikki squirmed a little. Blythe was one of those people you just didn’t lie to—or ignore—as Rikki often did to others. “I’ve got this blackout I found, and I want to harvest it while I can.”
    Blythe made a face. “Don’t speak diving. English, hon, I don’t have a clue what you mean.”
    “Urchins, spine to spine. So many, I think I can pull in four thousand pounds in a couple of hours. We could use the money.”
    Blythe regarded Rikki over the top of her coffee mug, her gaze steady.
    “Where, Rikki?”
    19

    She was like a damn bulldog when she got going. “North of Fort Bragg.”
    “You told me that area was dangerous,” Blythe reminded.
    Rikki cursed herself silently for having a big mouth. She should never have talked about her weird feelings with the others. “No, I said it was spooky. The ocean is dangerous anywhere, Blythe, but you know I’m a safety girl. I follow all dive precautions and all my personal safety rules to the letter. I’m careful and I don’t panic.”
    She didn’t normally dive along the fault line running just above the Fort Bragg coast because the abyss was deep and great whites used the area as a hunting ground. Usually she worked on the bottom, along the floor.
    Sharks hunted from below so she was relatively safe, but harvesting urchins along the shelf was risky. She’d be making noise, and a shark could come from below the shelf. But the money . . . She really wanted to pay her sisters back for all the expenses they’d covered for