When I have my shoes on, I walk downstairs and see Mac lying on her bed. “You sure you don’t want to bite my leg?” She just looks at me.
“Okay,” Dylan says, coming down the stairs, and I look over at him. He’s wearing shorts and a black T-shirt. A baseball hat is on his head, and you can see his blue eyes. “Ready?” he asks, and I have to swallow down the nerves that have risen from my stomach to my throat.
I nod my head and look back over at Mac. “Last chance,” I whisper to her, and she just lays her head down. “How long are we going to be out?” I ask him.
“No idea,” he answers, grabbing the keys on the counter. “She’ll be fine.” He looks over at Mac.
After breakfast, we get back in the car. “So where are we off to?” I ask, and he looks over at me, smiling.
“It’s a surprise,” he says excitedly, and I can’t help but smile at him.
When we get to the place, he looks over at me. “The aquarium.” I clap my hands. “I love these things.”
“I know,” he replies, getting out of the car and meeting me on my side.
He puts his hand around my shoulder. “And the best is I got us a private tour.” I look at him, shocked.
“What?” I ask, looking around and seeing it empty.
“We have the place for two hours with a private tour.” I don’t have time to say anything because the door opens, and the man comes out.
“Welcome, Mr. Stone,” he says, holding the door open for us. Dylan puts his hand at the base of my back, the heat from his hand seeping into me. I can’t help the smile that fills my face as we walk through the aquarium. When we stop at the shark tank, the guide goes on and on about all the different sharks as I look up, seeing them swim over us.
“We should go swimming with sharks,” I announce. Looking around, I go to the side of the tank and put my hand there.
“I swim with sharks every time I lace up my skates,” he jokes, and I just shake my head.
“I’m going to look into swimming with sharks when we get to Hawaii.” I look over at him as he looks at the sharks swimming on top of us.
“I’m going to pass,” he says, and I laugh at him. “Did you not see that movie?”
“It’s a movie,” I joke with him, pushing his shoulder.
“Movie or not, the sharks actually eat you,” he says.
“They don’t eat you,” I say. “They bite the limb, but then let it go. They don’t like the taste of humans.”
“Good to know.” He shakes his head. “Also, how the fuck do you know that?”
“I watch Shark Week,” I joke with him as we walk out of the shark room to the upper ground.
“Right over here,” the guide says, “is stingray bay.” He smiles as he leads us over to them. “If you want, you can lean in and touch them.”
“Um, I’m good,” I state, standing at the edge of the glass window looking down into the water. It reaches my thigh, and it’s only a couple of feet deep.
“You will swim with sharks,” Dylan says from beside me, “but you won’t touch a stingray?”
“Those can kill you. Did you not read about the Crocodile Hunter?” He just shakes his head and laughs. He walks up beside me and sticks his hand in the water as a stingray swims by him, and he rubs the top of it. He laughs, looking at me.
“Come on, you can do it,” he encourages, and I look down and try to put my hand in but I snatch it back as soon as I see a stingray come close to me.
“I can’t do it,” I say, holding my wrist with my hand.
“Sure you can,” he says and steps behind me, placing his hands on my hips. My whole body shivers under his touch. His thumb is on my bare skin, and my whole body breaks out with goose bumps. I’m suddenly petrified that he’ll see and know. He’ll know what I feel for him.
“It’s cold.” I turn my eyes from him, afraid my secret will be out.
“You can do it,” he urges, grabbing my hand with his, leaving his other hand on my hip. His fingers go through mine. “Let’s do it together,” he says, and I can’t even focus on anything because my heart is beating so fucking fast in my chest, I’m afraid he is going to hear it. My mouth is so dry, and it’s a good thing he is holding my hand because it’s trembling like a leaf. “Don’t be scared, Alex,” he says softly in my ear. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”