Sea Haven 01 - Water Bound

her in helping with her boat.
    Blythe shook her head. “I’m not talking about your safety rules. We all know you’re a great diver, Rikki, but you shouldn’t be alone out there.
    Anything could go wrong.”
    “If I’m alone, I’m only responsible for my own life. I don’t rely on anyone else. Every second counts and I know exactly what to do. I’ve run into trouble countless times and I handle it. It’s just easier by myself.” And she didn’t have to talk to anyone or make nice. She could just be herself.
    “Why go north of Fort Bragg? You told me the undersea floor was very different and the sharks were more prevalent there and it kind of freaked you out.”
    Rikki found herself wanting to smile inside when just seconds earlier she’d been squirming. Blythe saying freaked out meant she’d been spending time with Lexi Thompson. Lexi was the youngest of their “family.”
    “I found a shelf at about thirty feet covered with sea urchins. They look fantastic. The fault runs through the area, so there’s an abyss about forty feet wide and another shelf, a little smaller but still packed as well. No one’s found the spot. It’s a blackout, Blythe, uni spine to spine. I can harvest a good four thousand pounds and get out of there. I’ll only go back when no one’s around.”
    Blythe couldn’t fail to hear the excitement in Rikki’s voice. She shook her head. “I don’t like it, but I understand.” And that was the trouble—she did. Rikki was both brilliant and reclusive. She seemed to take her talents for granted. Blythe could ask her to program something on the computer, and she’d write a program quickly that worked better than anything else Blythe had ever tried.
    20

    Everything about Rikki was a tragedy and Blythe often felt like holding her tight, but she knew better. Rikki was very closed off to human touch, to relationships—basically to anything that had to do with others. She had allowed each of the other five women into her world, but they could only come so far before Rikki shut down. She was haunted by her past—by the fires that had killed her parents and burned down her foster homes. By the fire that had taken her fiance, the only person Rikki had ever let herself love.
    “You had another nightmare, didn’t you?” Blythe asked. “In case you’re wondering, I turned off the three other hoses around your house.”
    Blythe didn’t ask how the water had gotten turned on. The entire family knew that water and Rikki went hand in hand and that strange things happened when Rikki had nightmares.
    Rikki bit her lip. She tried a causal shrug to indicate nightmares were no big deal, but they both knew better. “Maybe. Yes. I still get them.”
    “But you’re getting them a lot lately,” Blythe prodded gently. “Isn’t that four or five in the last few weeks?”
    They both knew it was a lot more than that. Rikki blew out her breath.
    “That’s another reason I’m going out diving today. Blowing bubbles always helps.”
    “You won’t take any chances,” Blythe ventured. “I could go with you, take a book or something and read on the boat.”
    Rikki knew Blythe was asking if there was a possibility she would get careless on purpose, if maybe she was still grieving or blaming herself. She didn’t know the answer so she changed tactics. “I thought you were going to the wedding. Isn’t Elle Drake getting married today? You were looking forward to that.” Another reason why the ocean would be hers and hers alone. Everyone was invited to the Drake wedding.
    “If you won’t go to the wedding and you need to go to the sea, then I’ll be happy reading a book out there,” Blythe insisted.
    Rikki blew her a kiss. “Only you would give up a wedding to go with me. You’d throw up the entire time we were out there. You get seasick, Blythe.”
    “I’m trying gingerroot,” Blythe said. “Lexi says there’s nothing like it.”
    “She’d know.”
    Lexi knew everything there was to know about plants and their uses. If Lexi said gingerroot would help, then Rikki was certain it would, but Blythe was not going to sacrifice a fun day just because she feared for Rikki’s safety. Rikki’s life was the sea. She couldn’t be far from it. She had to be able to hear it at night, the soothing roll of the waves, the stormy pounding 21

    of the surf, the sounds of the seals barking at one another, the foghorns. It was all necessary in her life to keep her steady.
    Most of all, it