I roll my eyes. “He’s cute, I guess.” That’s all I’m willing to admit, because if it gets back to him, he’ll already know that fact. It’s not like his appearance says anything about his personality, after all. It doesn’t tell how sweet he is, how hard he works, how he’s a bit shy when you meet him but opens up when he trusts you.
I stop my thoughts in their tracks. I do not need this right now. He’s cute. Whatever. It doesn’t mean anything, and I’m far too busy to like someone. If I just ignore the feelings growing in my chest, they’ll go away.
Tammy says, “Yeah, and obsessed with you. The whole time you were down at the water with the boys, he kept steering the conversation back to you. He asked about your work at the marine rescue before…well, you know. He asked where you’re from, all sorts of stuff.”
My face heats even more, and there’s no hiding it at this point. The sun isn’t nearly enough to explain how flushed I am. “He’s just nice,” I mumble, but I know it’s a lie. He’s interested in learning more about me. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?
I shake away those thoughts once again. “I’m gonna go cool down,” I say.
I pass Hector on my way down, and he shakes water out of his hair. “Feels good!” he says, a wide grin across his face.
I find myself staring at James again. “I just need a minute to cool down,” I say. I don’t know why I’m explaining myself, but it only makes my feelings more and more amplified until I can’t ignore them anymore.
I wade into the water, which has calmed a bit since we arrived. It’s cool but not cold, and I make my way over to where James is floating on his back, basking in the warm sun and cool water.
Something dark moves below him when I get closer, and I yell, “A shark!”
Immediately, he panics and stands up, looking for the shark I spoke of. I don’t try to run, as there’s no need. “Where?” he asks, running over to me and putting a hand on my arm.
I dive into the water, opening my eyes to search. Sure enough, the shark is swimming in lazy circles against the sandy ocean floor, and I can’t suppress a smile.
A hand drags me back to the surface, and I have to force my hair out of my face while James tries to drag me out of the water.
I grab his hand that’s wrapped around my forearm, and he releases me.
“What are you doing?” he demands. “There’s a shark!”
I laugh and shake my head. “I didn’t mean to scare you,” I say. “It’s a nurse shark. I got excited.”
A look of confusion crosses his face, and he looks to where the dark shape is swimming in awkward circles only a dozen feet from where we’re standing. Now that I think of it, there’s something odd about the way it’s moving.
I wade over to it slowly, and James follows, timidly standing behind me. Well, at least I know how courageous he is, at least when it comes to the most harmless shark species alive.
“Alexis, what are you doing?” he hisses. I wave him off, squinting into the water. There’s something stuck around the shark’s head and fin, forcing it to swim in a circle.
Without hesitation, I take a deep breath and dive under. The water here is so clear that I can see the shark almost perfectly, and I reach out to feel for the obstruction. There’s a piece of fishing line wrapped around its head and down to the fin, and I go back up. “I need you to hold her while I remove the line,” I tell James, assigning the shark a gender based on her swollen belly. She must have been caught up in the line while looking for a place to nest.
His eyes widen, and his mouth gapes. “You want me to wrestle a shark? You’re joking. You have to be joking.”
Frustration grows in my chest. I don’t know how long she’s been like this, but I do know that she won’t survive with a fishing line keeping her from moving and hunting properly. “James,” I say, my voice low and calm, “if we don’t help her, she’ll die. She’s done nothing to hurt anyone, and we have a responsibility to help her.”
His wide eyes flick from me to the shark. When he looks back at me, he sets his jaw and nods.
I quickly explain how to safely wrap his arms around her. He kneels in the shallow water, and I guide the poor shark into his arms. He holds one of her fins so she can’t keep swimming forward, keeping her gills below water and her dorsal right above the surface.
I make quick work of the fishing line, biting at a piece with my teeth until it snaps so I can unwrap it. Thankfully, she isn’t bleeding, although she has scuffs along her tiny scales from where the line has dug in. I pet her on top of her head to reassure her, and I check over her gills and fins to make sure I haven’t missed anything.
“I need you to lift her face so I can check for hooks,” I say.
James looks like he wants to argue, but instead, he adjusts the shark so she’s upside-down, fin pointed toward the sea floor. Her mouth gapes, and I peek in to search for any sign of obstructions. When I don’t see any, I say, “Alright, you can let her go.”
James does so, and she doesn’t desperately try to escape. Instead, she swims away slowly, but not before bumping her snout up against me. In my heart, I just know that she’s thanking me in her own way.
When I look around, a crowd has formed around us, some people holding their phones out and recording. A few people try to brush their hands against the nurse shark as she passes, but nobody grabs at her, for which I’m thankful. I’ve seen too many videos of sharks and dolphins dying because everyone had to get a picture.
When I look at James, he has the biggest grin on his face.
“We did it!” he says. Then, he wraps his arms around my waist and lifts me, spinning me in a circle. “I can’t believe we just did that!”