Chapter Six

Day Three, Evening

Sam entered the galley after finishing Ryan's favorite bedtime story. He'd showered and dressed in cotton pants and a comfortable T-shirt with the slogan, "I'm a girl dad." It had been a Father's Day gift from Ryan, and he loved it. Still unshaven, he was looking more like a pirate with every passing hour. Kate wished she didn't find him so attractive; it wasn't helping the situation.

Kate had showered too. She'd changed into a long nightshirt that was a size too big, just the way she liked it. She felt drained, but in a good way, and for that, she was grateful.

Sam selected a bottle of red wine from the cabinet, bringing it and two glasses to the table where Kate sat. These times were the toughest for Kate. During the day, Ryan acted as a buffer between them, but at night, Kate couldn't escape the looming issues stemming from Sam's infidelity. Her resentment seemed to grow when they were alone.

"Do you think that shark will follow the boat?" Sam asked, pouring them both a glass.

Kate shook her head, suppressing a chuckle and an eye roll. "No, it was just curious. We don't fish, so there's really nothing we have to attract it. We're close to great white nursery territory. Maybe it gave birth or is heading there. If it's male, it might be looking to mate. I couldn't see enough to check for claspers. We'll never know." What Kate did know was that only one great white baby was recorded possibly directly after its birth but this had not been validated by the scientists who studied great whites. Overall they knew next to nothing about shark childbearing and mating habits. Mostly her reply was to keep Sam from worrying.

"Didn't that scare you?" He asked incredulously.

"It startled me," she said without admitting how anxious the shark made her feel. "I have a healthy respect for sharks, but I'm not worried it will follow the boat. Even if it's hungry, there's easier prey out there."

Sam took a hefty swallow from his glass. "Just so you know, I plan on having nightmares tonight."

Kate laughed, a rare moment of joy when it was just her and Sam alone.

"I miss that sound," Sam said sadly. "I miss you."

These conversations were painful, and she hoped to escape without feeling guilty.

"No matter how hard I try," she said, "I can never wrap my head around the why."

Sam had never given her a satisfying answer. To make it worse, he only told her because the other woman made waves when he broke it off. Sam had wanted Kate to hear the truth from him. If the other woman wouldn't have balked, Kate would have remained blissfully ignorant. She wished she had.

A part of Kate died the evening he told her. She'd thought they had a great marriage. They were friends too and did so much together including raising their daughter. Sam hadn't just cheated on her, he'd cheated on his family.

Sam ran his hand through his hair, staring at her with a new intensity. "I keep asking myself the same question," he confessed. "I know I've never given you the answers you need. I was selfish. What I did was a betrayal to you and to Ryan. I wish I had an excuse. I don't."

His green eyes, the ones she'd fallen in love with, hadn't changed, but she had. "I've been thinking about divorce," she admitted.

The thought had cropped up in her mind more and more. It would devastate Ryan and Kate admitted to herself, she would have a rough time emotionally too. Marriage was forever and she didn't care what the national average for divorce was. It's how she'd always viewed her love for Sam.

He stared at her, eyes intense beneath his furrowed brow, the foot over his opposite knee jumping to some unknown rhythm in his head. She couldn't quite decipher his expression as he stared past her shoulder.

His attention came back to her and now she could read the guilt he carried. "If that's your decision, I won't contest it," he said with resolve.

His major concern since the accident had been her well-being. Maybe he'd finally realized she would survive without him. Right now she hated him. Sam was too accommodating, and guilt made him so. Would he still be here if not for the accident? She had her doubts. Could she love him the same way again? Her emotions on that score were a rollercoaster. She finally understood why hate and love were similar emotions. Both carried too much baggage.

"I won't pressure you," he assured her. "If you want to go straight to your dad's, we can do that." He ran his hand through his hair. "I thought this trip was to give us space and possibly move forward—" he trailed off.

Guilt-ridden, Sam again. He played the part so well.

"For me, divorce is moving forward," she declared, her hands shaking. She shifted them to her lap so he couldn't see.

"I love you," he said. "I hurt you. If there was anything I could do to take it back, I would. I won't contest a divorce if that's your final decision."

"I need more time," she told him. She'd said this again and again because she wasn't sure what else to say.

She finished her wine and wheeled herself to the stairway, rode the lift down, and transferred to her other wheelchair. It was too early to go straight to sleep, and it irritated her. She reached for her cell. With one bar, she called her father, seeking comfort in his voice.

"Hey, pops," she said with a touch of excitement she didn't feel but her father would expect. "We had a great white spy-hopping on us today."

"Interesting. How big?" he asked thoughtfully, lacking the excitement she expected.

"I would guess at least the fifteen-foot range. I only saw the upper part of its body. It was a large one."

"Did Ryan see it?"

"Yeah, and you'll be getting a full retelling along with her daily log."

"That's my girl," he said with pride and then added, "I don't want to make you nervous, but we had two teens disappear from a small fishing boat about three miles from the lab. They only found pieces of the boat, but they've identified it as a great white attack. The bite circumference puts it at around eighteen feet. What's more unusual was they have a clear jaw pattern of two different sharks."

"Two?" Kate asked, slightly startled.

"They've been monitoring several shark pairs around the world. It seems to be males, and they don't always swim and hunt together, but they meet back up and continue traveling as a pair. Dr. Cordova is coming back early from South Africa to look at the boat and give us his opinion."

Interesting. The doctor was one of the top great white shark biologists in the world and her father had worked with him several times.

"You know the chances of us running into the same sharks are infinitesimal, right?" she asked. Her father's career studying stingrays paralleled with sharks, and she'd never known the larger creatures to make him nervous.

"What I know is one thing, what my gut tells me is another," he said. "It's possible one of the boys was bitten, and the other jumped in to save him, and they both drowned. That's what science wants me to believe. But that boat was demolished by sharks, which is very strange behavior. For decades we've destroyed their environment." He trailed off before he went into the dying ocean lecture that Kate expected. The state of the open seas was wreaking havoc with stingray habitats, and it drove him crazy that land lovers weren't paying attention. The demise of the oceans would be the demise of humanity. "I only want you to be aware of what happened here." His voice changed. "Seeing a great white spy-hopping is an amazing experience."

"The only thing that freaked me out was it didn't make a sound," she said honestly. "Not a splash, nothing. It could have disappeared below the surface, and we would have never known." She could not tell Sam this, but her father's fear was always a healthy one, and she trusted his years of experience around sharks.

"I told you about the one I came face to face with while chumming in the Gulf of Mexico," he said. "I'll never forget the shark's ability to do a spy-hop so silently. Freaky is probably a good word for it." He changed the subject as the crackle of his voice worsened with their phone connection. "How are you feeling?"

"Good. Your granddaughter thinks her primary job is monitoring my bowel movements, and I feel my job is to stay away from bad puns when she does it."

He laughed, as she knew he would. She gave him their current coordinates and their direction of travel.

"My next call might come on the radio. Cell service is spotty, and I got lucky tonight."

"Gotcha. I love you," he said before they disconnected.

Kate leaned against the backrest of her chair, suddenly feeling too weary to go through her nighttime ritual. Sharks and faithless husbands had worn her out. Her father wasn't aware of Sam's infidelity, and she knew if and when he found out, it would devastate him. He loved Sam and treated him like a son.

Kate lay in bed, staring at the ceiling for over an hour before she fell into a restless sleep. A hand ran across her stomach, and she rolled toward Sam, only to find it was the extra pillow in her berth, and she had dreamt of the intimate touch. She squeezed the pillow to her, feeling totally lost.

Kate missed him so much. She missed their intimacy and their conversations long into the night. It sucked the most that Ryan was in the mix and had to be considered, in Kate's choice. Then she was angry Sam gave in so easily over the talk of divorce. If he truly loved her, he should fight for her.

Kate rolled to her other side and pulled the extra pillow over her head. It would be a long night.