“I’m fine,” Rob said through gritted teeth. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Dane watched Rob walk away. There was no way he’d take Rob out on the boat tomorrow with the shit he pulled today. He’d give him time to cool off and talk to him about Sheila and deal with the rest of his shit later.
“I gotta get showered and up to the airport in P-town,” Hugh said. “Smitty’s opening Treat’s cottage for me to get cleaned up before I leave town. I’m flying into Boston, then to Cali. I had a great time today. Thanks for letting me tag along.” He slung an arm over Dane’s shoulder.
“I’m glad you came. What’s up with the shark research?” Dane asked. He was distracted by Rob’s behavior, and now that he was on dry land again, thoughts of Lacy stole his concentration, but he was curious about his brother’s recent metamorphosis.
Hugh shrugged. “Just learning about all the shit my impressive older brothers do. I’ve been reading up on acquisitions, too. Treat got some big deals under his belt. What’s up with you staying on Treat’s boat tonight?”
“It feels more like home,” Dane said. He withdrew his phone from his pocket and checked his messages. Damn it. He shoved the phone back in his pocket.
“No message from Lacy?”
“Nope.”
“Drive me to Treat’s?” Hugh asked.
“Absolutely.”
They stopped at the Catch of the Day on the way and picked up crab cake sandwiches, then climbed back in the car and drove toward Treat’s bungalow on the bay.
“Wanna talk about it?” Hugh asked.
Dane looked at his brother, surprised again that he was reaching out. He saw genuine concern in Hugh’s eyes, then brought his own back to the road. “Not really,” he said.
“Suit yourself, but I’m a good listener,” Hugh said. “And I know women.”
Dane laughed.
“Okay, so maybe I’m not a great listener, but I do know women.”
“Listen, little brother, so do I, okay? I know women; that’s the problem,” Dane said.
Hugh furrowed his brow. “So…she’s upset because you sleep with too many women?”
Dane shot him a stern look. “I don’t have a fucking clue.”
“Then you don’t know women,” Hugh said. He reclined his seat and sighed. “If you were me, you’d know exactly what was wrong. Could it have anything to do with her panic attack?”
“Hugh, I don’t fucking know.” Dane did not want to talk about Lacy. At best, it would piss him off. At the least, it would irritate him. There was no answer. He’d spent fifteen months living in denial about why he wasn’t hightailing it to Massachusetts to see her, and by the time he realized why, it was too fucking late.
“What? I’m trying to help. You’re a big-ass shark tagger, but you can’t talk about some hot babe?” Hugh asked.
Dane veered over to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. “Listen, she’s not just some hot babe, and I don’t know what the fuck is going on, okay? All I know is that when I was with her, I didn’t want to let her go. And that’s the first goddamn time I’ve ever felt that.” His nostrils flared. He breathed in fast, hard bursts. “Damn it, Hugh. She wasn’t just some fuck.”
Hugh brought his seat upright. “Chill, dude. That’s not what I meant at all.”
“Know why I didn’t see her for all that time? I was fucking afraid, okay? I never spend ten minutes getting to know a woman. Never. I hook up with women, pretend to listen to them for a few minutes, and the whole time all I’m thinking about is what their breasts will feel like, or how I just wanna get laid. But with Lacy, I spent every second I wasn’t with her just thinking about her. I wondered what she was doing, who she was with.” Dane slammed his back against the seat and let out a groan. “Goddamn it. I cared about her before I ever touched her. And then we come here and she’s more than I ever dreamed of.”
“Dane,” Hugh said.
“And then she has that fucking panic attack, which sends her into some weird I-can’t-be-with-you stage,” Dane yelled. His chest constricted as he explained how far he’d gone trying to reach her. “I’ve spoken to Danica and Kaylie. I even asked Blake to try to convince Danica to convince Lacy to talk to me. She won’t fucking answer my texts or my calls.” Tears of anger burned at the back of his eyes, and he turned away so Hugh wouldn’t see them.
“Dane,” Hugh said again.
“And then she ends it. Just fucking ends it. She says while I was out fucking every girl that walks, she was waiting at home for me to show up on her doorstep. I killed it before we ever got started.”
“Dane!” Hugh held his hands up in the air to get Dane’s attention.
Dane shook the fury from his head. “What?”
“Do you want to be with her?”
“What kind of stupid question is that?” Dane asked.
“Do you?”
“Yes. I do, yes. More than you could know,” Dane said. He scrubbed his face with his hand and groaned again.
“If she were a shark, what would you do?” Hugh asked.
“Whatever the fuck it took. I’d reel it in for days, weeks. Then I’d wrestle the fucker to the ground.”
“You really are fucked up,” Hugh said.
“You know what I mean. I wouldn’t give up. Lacy’s not a shark. She’s a woman. A bright, warm, charming, gorgeous, sexy woman who’s not fucking here and won’t take the chum,” Dane said. He pulled the car back onto the road.
“Sounds simple to me,” Hugh said. “Didn’t she say she worked at World Geographic? As a marketing rep or something?”
“Account manager,” Dane corrected him.
“You own a foundation. Don’t you need some sort of marketing program?” Hugh asked.
“No.” Marketing program?
“You sure? I think you might,” Hugh said with a coy smile.
“Marketing—” Dane smiled, then frowned. “Hire her? She’d never take the job.”
“No. Hire the company. You’re Dane Braden. You’ve got a reputation in oceanic research and a valuable company. Hire the company and stipulate that she takes the account. Seems simple to me,” Hugh said.
“Simple? Then what? I go to her office and stare at the walls?” Dane asked.
“You’re not this simple, Dane. Think.”
Dane let out a loud breath. Hire her company. Then what?
“Dane, come on. She’s afraid of sharks. You can help her with that. She can help you with marketing. Maybe your new account executive needs to come on a tagging mission with you for a week. Maybe she needs to immerse herself in your work to understand the project.”
Dane pulled into Treat’s driveway, shaking his head. “Far-fetched.”
“When has that ever stopped you from doing anything in your life?” Hugh asked. “Come in, shower, clean up, and then decide.”
“It’s insane,” Dane said.
“So is diving with sharks.”
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Dane called and arranged an extension to the tagging mission. He’d need more time if he was going to follow through with his intentions. Then he called Rob and left a message. “Rob, take the next two days off. Rest up, and we’ll pick this up on Wednesday. I have to head out of town for a day. If you want to talk about Sheila, call me. I’ll keep my phone on and, buddy, after what you did today, I’m a little worried.”
Dane called Danica and asked her to guide him through how to help Lacy with her phobia. He didn’t tell her what he had planned, and it took some finagling, a good amount of begging, and assurances about his intentions toward Lacy, but forty minutes later he was armed with information on desensitization techniques and in vivo exposure for galeophobia. Dane was ready to help Lacy through her fear of sharks. He had one more phone call to make, and as he called 411, he knew he had made the right decision.
“The offices of World Geographic, please, just outside of Boston.”
Chapter Eleven
LACY PUSHED THROUGH the glass doors of World Geographic Monday morning with a heavy heart. She hadn’t returned Dane’s calls, or his texts, and she’d purposely not checked her emails. The last thing she wanted to do was hear his voice or read a message that would soften her resolve. She knew it would send her heart into a tailspin. She hadn’t realized how hurt she really was that he hadn’t come to see her for all those months, and when he’d looked her in the eye and confirmed he’d been with other women, it had thrown her for a loop. Even so, she’d already rationalized that worry away—they hadn’t committed to a monogamous relationship. She had no right to hold him to one, even if it hurt to accept. She held on to that rationalization and let out a loud breath. The whole mess had become too confusing, and Lacy felt like her head was spinning. Being apart is for the best. No matter how much I ache to see him. Touch him. Kiss him. Oh God, shut up! She couldn’t be a burden on his career. A setback. He deserved to have a relationship with someone who loved the sea and everything associated with his job as much as he did.