Going Deep (Divemasters Book 2) (16 page)

M
iguel sat
at the long outdoor dining table, pushing food around his plate without any intention of eating the rest of it. Nothing seemed appetizing. Hell, even diving didn’t sound very good right now. Maybe Tosin wouldn’t mind guiding Miguel’s group today.

It took a while, but he finally realized that his friends had stopped talking. They exchanged worried glances over his head. He pretended not to notice. After all, what could he say? That he was fine?

Everyone onboard knew that was a lie.

Tosin broke their silence. “Dude, when are you going to quit moping and go after Sabine?”

“You want me to leave?” It pissed him off after what he’d given up to stay.

“Of course we don’t,” Banks jumped in then. “But it’s clear that being here without her isn’t good for you anymore.”

Archer and Waverly held hands as they studied him. He hated the pity in their stares. Waverly tried to smooth things over. “I know how you feel. It was hell being apart from Archer. I did it for ten years. Don’t recommend it, either. To be perfectly honest, the first few were miserable and the ache never entirely went away. I regret how much time we wasted. None of us want that for you.”

“We’ll be here when you’re ready to come home.
With
Sabine,” Archer promised.

“Won’t you need another partner? Someone to fill my spot?” He cleared his throat then spoke one of his worst fears aloud. “It could take
years
. Will I have to sell my share in the
Divemaster
so you can keep going without me?”

Now he was glad he hadn’t eaten much—otherwise he’d probably be hanging over the railing like a landlubber who hadn’t gotten his sea legs yet. Still, they were right. If that’s what it took, he’d do it.

Living without Sabine wasn’t living at all.

She’d been gone for a month and though they tried to talk every day, the truth was that she was busy with incredibly important things. Given her schedule and the crazy time differences between them, it was tough. He felt like he was losing touch with her.

It’d been three days since she’d even answered his emails.

Maybe she hadn’t had nearly as much trouble forgetting about him as he’d had moving on without her.
Shit
.

“Don’t be a dumbass.” Tosin shoved him. “No one is letting you cash out. You’ll come back. Eventually.”

Why didn’t that do much to make Miguel feel better? Probably because his friend didn’t seem hundred-percent confident even as he said it.

He nodded, then tossed his balled up napkin onto his plate. “Okay.”

It was time to find his woman, wherever she might be in the world right now.

That turned out to be a far easier task than he’d imagined. When he stood, he noticed a sleek powerboat racing directly toward the
Divemaster
, which was now anchored off the coast of Kauai.

Banks pulled out his cell phone and had someone—probably Captain Alex—on the other line instantly. “Are we expecting visitors?”

They’d gotten jumpy after first Waverly’s trouble and then the attack on Sabine. Having people board the
Divemaster
had been an enormous violation, one none of them would forget anytime soon.

“Ah, thank you.” Banks was grinning now.

“Who is it?” Archer asked.

But Miguel didn’t need to hear the answer. A woman waved from the boat, golden curls flying everywhere. Sabine! She’d come back to him.

He charged across the deck and down the stairs to the landing area, sprinting by the time he made it to the gangway.

Sabine seemed equally ready to be back in his arms. She didn’t bother to wait until the boat had finished docking before flying over the edge at him. He smothered her in a bear hug as he carried her onto the boat and deposited her in the midst of their friends.

After stealing several kisses, he said, “I guess I see why you haven’t been responding to my messages.”

“Sorry, I wanted to surprise you. But there were delays and my luggage got lost and…ugh, you know how it goes when traveling halfway around the world.”

“Why wouldn’t you have called for the private jet?” Banks asked.

She blinked a few times. “I guess I’m still not quite used to the way you all roll.”

“Well, you’d better get used to it.” Miguel crushed her to him. “Because I’m not letting go of you again. How long can you stay? I’m going with you when you have to leave.”

“What if I want to stay forever?” she asked, making his heart start to pound in his chest.

“Can you do that?” he wondered. “Without jeopardizing the drug development or giving up on your career, I mean? Of course you’re welcome for as long as you like.”

She kissed him again, as if she needed to reassure herself they were truly together again.

He knew the feeling.

“Maybe?” She shrugged. “It’ll take some creativity to make it work, and some traveling, but I was miserable without you, Miguel.”

Sabine blushed, as if uncomfortable with admitting it.

“You couldn’t have been any more pathetic than this guy.” Tosin slapped Miguel on the back.

“I don’t know about that.” She toyed with his necklace. “Even if I have to make some serious sacrifices, this is where I want to be.”

Miguel wrapped her up in his arms again, afraid he might be dreaming about this as he had so many times in the past several weeks.

Banks waited until they had settled down a little before asking, “Where do you stand with everything? If you let me know where you are and what needs to be done still, I’m more than happy to help you in any way. I’m sure if we work together, we can arrange anything you need.”

Sabine smiled and crossed to Banks, hugging him as well. “I missed you, too, Banks.”

He ruffled her hair as if she were a little girl.

“Well, I’m happy to say they put our patent through on a rush due to the unusual circumstances and whatever you did to motivate them. Once I had it in hand, the very first thing I did was publicly post every scrap of research I had. I plastered every open source science database on the Internet with pictures, descriptions, chemical compounds, trial results. Everything. I figured that’s where both Heinrich and I went wrong. Trying to keep it under wraps was pointless. This way, no one can try to steal it or say it doesn’t exist or whatever.” She winced. “The drug companies that had been fighting over me and the right to produce any future drug that comes of my work are pretty pissed about it, but I don’t give a fuck. I’m not taking the chance of anything being lost. That information belongs to the world, not people looking to make a buck. Besides, if it’s all out there, there’s no reason for people to hunt me anymore, right? They know everything I know. Or at least that’s how I figured it.”

Archer held out his fist for her to bump. Of course he would approve. It wasn’t so dissimilar to what he was trying to do with his inheritance. In fact…

His best friend made the suggestion Miguel had just nearly proposed.

“Look, no pressure or anything, but why not work for the Banks Foundation? We’ll pay you ten times whatever the next competitive offer is.” Archer waved away her protests. “My only stipulation would be that someday, when the drug is ready, you let us give it away. I want this cure to be available to everyone, everywhere.”

Sabine sagged, as if she’d been too afraid to hope for such a blessing. “That’s what I was hoping for. It’s what Heinrich would have wanted, too, though he might not have had the choice. To fund his research, he would have had to sell rights to a private firm.”

“Or maybe the Banks Foundation would have found him—and you—anyway.” Banks shrugged. “Life is kind of funny like that sometimes.”

Miguel couldn’t keep his hands off Sabine. Not because he wanted to fuck her so bad his dick might fall off soon—though he did—but because he couldn’t believe everything could go from shit to sugar so fast.

“So I’ll start making some arrangements.” Banks never seemed to grow tired of providing for them. It truly seemed to make him happy to give them whatever they needed. “I’ll start with refitting a section of the lower deck for a proper laboratory. Give me a list later of what improvements you’ll require.”

“Honestly…” Sabine smiled then. “The algae is remarkably easy to work with. Kind of like the penicillin of the sea. I thought it over on my flights here and I can’t imagine anything we couldn’t easily get for the ship. Some space, some time, some funding…I’ve got this.”

“What about human trials?” Archer asked. “I realize that could be a while yet, but if we enhance our medical bay, could we do them at sea? Expand the Divemaster Project. I mean, who’s more deserving of a vacation than people willing to put their lives on the line for the advancement of science, while hopefully finding a cure for themselves?”

“Wow.” She blinked. “I hadn’t thought of that yet, but…yes, I don’t see why not.”

Miguel couldn’t believe how amazing she was. He was willing to support her however necessary to guarantee her success. Both for her, and for everyone who would benefit from her work. “And when you need to travel, I’ll go with you.”

“I would love that.” She bit her lip. “There’s something else I kind of had you in mind for…”

Tosin cracked up. “Oh, can I guess? Can I guess?”

“Not that.” Sabine blushed. “Well, okay, yes…that. But something else.”

“How can I help?” he asked.

“As long as I live, I’ll never get the feeling of them obliterating that algae bed from my mind.” She shuddered.

Miguel drew her close to him and held her tight. “Me either.”

“So I think we should start algae farms. Wherever we happen to travel to. It’s easy to grow, as Banks found out for us, but I think we should do some research into how to manage it responsibly, without introducing a foreign species to the natural environments. Somehow, though, we need to create contained grow houses or something to give as much redundancy as possible to the supply.”

“I’d love to take that on.” He started dreaming up systems they could build and implement. Underwater harvest stations that he could service on deep-water technical dives that would challenge him over and over. “Sign me up.”

“Perfect! So…about those trips I might have to take on occasion…” Sabine lit up.

“Yeah, you have one planned already?” he asked.

“Nothing concrete.” She shook her head as if in disbelief. “But I’ve been told that if this pans out, I should expect to attend the award ceremonies for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in a year or two with a speech, prepared to accept since they don’t allow posthumous nominations. They said I could talk about Heinrich as much as I wanted, though.”

“Whoa.” Even Tosin didn’t have a smart ass remark for that.

“Yeah.” She held her hands out, palms up. “I hope no one will mind if I name the drug after him.”

“That’s a lovely idea.” Banks squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sure Marta will appreciate the gesture. Maybe she’ll come check out our operations sometime. And she certainly wouldn’t miss such an important day in your life. If it comes to pass, and I have faith it will, I’d volunteer to be her date to the ceremony.”

“Subtle, Banks. Reaaal subtle,” Tosin teased.

They all laughed. Sabine included. “Hey, leave him alone. I sincerely hope everyone I love finds as much happiness as I have with Miguel. Banks and Tosin, you especially.”

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking,” Waverly asked Sabine.

“Definitely.” They grinned at Tosin. “We should team up to do some matchmaking for our final single divemaster.”

“Oh no.
No
.” He waved them off. “I’m perfectly fine living this bachelor life over here. Don’t start slinging your relationship cooties on me.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing,” Archer promised.

“But when you realize it, we’ll gladly say I told you.” Miguel punched Tosin’s biceps then spun to Sabine. He’d had enough talking for one afternoon.

Now it was time to welcome her home the right way.

He threw her over his shoulder as he had the first time he’d taken her to the clubroom, then marched below deck to make some more memories. The first of many in their new life together.