Abby plonked down beside her. “We won’t even be above the water… much.”

“She’s right. We’ll be barely above the water line.” Cate wiped her eyes. “We might as well be in the water.”

“But the thing is, we won’t be. And I can’t tell you how important that is.” He squatted in front of them. “It’ll keep our scent out of the water. I know sharks, and it damn well matters. Just having that layer of raft underneath us will make a hellova difference. I promise you both.”

“Didn’t make a difference before, when it attacked us.” Abby wouldn’t look at him.

“We were making more noise than the circus. We won’t this time.” The corners of his mouth quirked up. “Bottom line is, we only need to travel about a mile out over the water. We can swim, or we can paddle.” He turned to nod at the raft. “This is a gift.”

“A gift?” Cate couldn’t help her mouth twisting on the word.

“Yep.” He waited.

She nodded, and reached out to lay a hand on Abby’s shoulder. “I guess I’ll take a half sunken raft over swimming any day.”

“Good. I’ll go get it.” He turned started to wade in.

“Hey, wait.” She crossed to him, grabbing his arm, staring up into his face for a moment. “And if anything happens to you, I’m stuck here by myself…”

“Thanks,” Abby said, her mouth turned down.

“That’s not what I meant.” She turned back to him. “I’m coming.”

“Forget it.” Jack turned back to the water, but she lunged and grabbed his arm. “I’ll fucking come anyway, Jack, and you know I will.”

Abby stood. “And then I’ll be here all by myself.” She pointed a finger at Cate’s chest. “You stay, or we all go.”

“This is madness.”

Cate shook her head. “No, it makes perfect sense. If you went by yourself, you’d be making multiple trips – retrieving the raft, bringing it back, and then we all travel back out. This way, it’s just one trip.” She tilted her head, one eyebrow raised.

He started to laugh. “Stubbornness and logic, two things I love and hate in a woman.” He threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Thank you.” He kissed her, and she returned it, hard.

“We’ll be fine.” She said as they broke away, a flippy feeling in her stomach.

Jack turned back to the water. The raft was about a hundred feet out, not moving at all. “Well, no use waiting for it to drift in on the tide, so…” he started to wade in. “We take it slow, no splashing, no talking, no urinating.”

“Yeah right,” Cate scoffed. “Something pops up in the water beside me, I’ll be doing more than urinating.”

Together they waded into the dark water. Even though Cate knew it was about seventy-eight degrees, it still chilled her to the bone. Beside her, Jack was breathing heavily as he worked up some courage. To her other side, Abby looked as white as a sheet.