‘We saw an octopus!’ Andrew hollers as soon as we surface. Pippa is waiting for us at the railing. ‘And a shark!’

‘Bloody hell,’ she says, her face paling in the moonlight. ‘Terrifying.’

‘It was BRILLIANT!!’ Andrew excitedly yanks off his fins and scales the ladder.

Hugh and I are both treading water. He’s grinning from ear to ear, which I’m betting looks like excitement, but I suspect is secretly relief. ‘Right, you go,’ he says in that gravelly accent.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to be out of this water already?’ I tease.

Hugh narrows his eyes at me, but I see a hint of a smile play across his lips. Stubbornly, he waves a hand towards the ladder. I climb up, more aware with every rung that he is watching my backside as I scale my way onto the boat.

I turn to help Hugh up the ladder, and he clasps his fingertips around mine.

‘Thanks, wrassie,’ he says, as he hauls himself all the way onto the deck. Our faces are close enough that I can count the beads of water lingering on his eyelashes. My breath catches in my chest.

‘You can’t call me that, remember?’

‘I guess I’ll have to think of something better, then.’ Hugh winks at me before turning to unzip his BCD and offload his scuba gear.

I sink onto the bench slowly, shirking off my fins and handing Miguel my vest and my air tank.

‘What did you think?’ he asks excitedly.

‘It was amazing,’ I breathe. ‘Thank you, you know, for the pep talk before. I needed it.’

‘Everyone’s nervous for that one,’ he says. ‘Andrew is lucky, that’s the first time I’ve seen an octopus on one of these dives.’

I bob my head in agreement. ‘We’re all lucky.’

‘We sure are,’ Miguel says, as he stows my equipment away. ‘Go get warm,’ he adds warmly, shooing me to the front of the cabin with a good-natured grin. I haven’t given him enough credit for balancing his flirtation with his job, I think, as I meander towards the front of the boat.

Pippa comes up to me with a dry towel in hand.

‘Thanks.’ I wrap myself up and catch a glimpse of Hugh out of the corner of my eye. He’s wrapped in a towel as well, sitting next to Aaron.

‘So, how was your dive together?’ she asks, nodding towards Hugh. ‘You looked pretty cosy coming out of the water.’

I shrug my shoulders and she raises an eyebrow at me. ‘Come on, Millie. We’re on a boat in the middle of nowhere without Wi-Fi, for God’s sake. Nothing is as interesting as this budding romance. And stop staying you don’t want to be distracted!’ She playfully punches me in the arm.

‘Ugh,’ I groan. ‘Pippa, I’m not purposefully trying to be coy. I just . . .’