Cassidy Kincaid Mysteries Box Set

finally dry. But what the hay? she thought. She peeled off her T-shirt, which was damp from the humidity, then stepped out of her shorts and kicked them aside. She felt eyes on her and looked back, expecting to see Bruce, but he had disappeared down the ladder.
The water felt like a warm bath, but more refreshing, the salt stinging her nostrils. She made sure not to open her eyes underwater for fear of losing a set of contact lenses.
Meanwhile, Jillian and Benita had gone back for another round of jumping off the boat, this time Benita climbed onto Jillian’s shoulders and executed a perfect swan dive.
“Show off!” Taylor said, laughing.
Benita backstroked to the back of the boat. Cassidy and Taylor breaststroked after her.
“Ugh, I’m not looking forward to sleeping on this thing,” Taylor groaned as they climbed the ladder. “I get seasick just looking at it.”
“Then why’d you come?” Cassidy said. “I mean,” she backpedaled, “why not just stay at the fancy resort?” Hadn’t they gone on a boat trip before?
“Sometimes we do, but the boat experience is pretty hard to beat. I just bring plenty of Dramamine, and Ambien. I’m a nurse practitioner, so I bring a cocktail of meds with me. Also I have the patch,” Taylor added, pulling back her ear to show the small, round sticker attached to her skin. “I have extra, if you need any.”
“Thanks,” Cassidy said, shaking the water out of her ear. “I just might take you up on that. Depends on how bad it gets, I guess.”
“It’s going to be bad,” Taylor said. “Trust me.”

Nine
Thrown from her bunk, Cassidy woke halfway to the floor, landing on her side with a painful thud. Her hip throbbing, she tried to get up, but the boat slammed down into the next trough, sending her toppling into Benita’s bed.
“What the,” the lump muttered.
“Sorry,” Cassidy mumbled, struggling to free herself from the bunk. As the boat skyrocketed upwards, Cassidy’s forehead smacked into her bunk above. Instantly, she felt the need to vomit.
Guided by the dim light of the hallway, Cassidy was bounced between the polished, narrow walls of the corridor on the way to the head.
The boat must have reached the open seas. They had left Pirate Point in the late evening after the glorious morning of surfing Ollie’s Point at dawn, just the seven of them—Bruce joining in this time. After that they’d had an intense session at a super shallow reef, Bruce’s secret wave set in a rocky jumble of islands known for its spectacular diving. The swell had increased throughout the day, transforming the wave at Pirate’s from a fun playground to a thick and heaving wedge. Half of the group had returned to the boat, claiming it was too scary. The other half soon followed, but not without payment. Jillian was held under and her board’s leash plug ripped out. Marissa left a chunk of her leg on the rocks during a wipeout.
The roaring rollers tossed the boat as easily as if it were a toy in a bathtub. Cassidy thought of Bruce, his tanned face bent over charts, checking waypoints, unafraid of the tumultuous seas. At least she hoped he wasn’t afraid.
At Pirate’s, Cassidy had been cocky enough to think she could tuck into one of the barrels. A four-wave cleanup set had just rolled through, so most of the group had either just taken waves or had lost their position in their scramble to get outside. Cassidy had capitalized on the opportunity. A seamless, steam-rolling wall of dark water approached, and she had dropped in before anyone knew she was gone.
Once in, Cassidy let the wave guide her into the pocket where she focused her eyes forward, towards the opening of sky at the end of the line. As the sparkling blue water coiled over her and the sky went black, she felt the joy and reverence of being inside a beautiful wave seep into her every cell. It must have mesmerized her to the point of distraction because the wave closed out with her inside, and she had bounced off the reef several times during the spin cycle before finding her board and sprinting back outside.
After vomiting up the last of her dinner, Cassidy half-crawled, half limped back to her bunk. The other cabins were quiet, and Cassidy wondered if Taylor’s scopolamine patch was doing its job. Benita was a silent lump when Cassidy climbed her ladder and slipped back beneath her sheets. Steadily, the boat rolled and lurched, creaking and grinding. Cassidy rolled to the far edge of the bunk and tried to find sleep, moving carefully to avoid rubbing the damp sheets against her sunburned knees and bruised flesh.
But that moment when she had been inside the wave kept replaying in her mind. Even though fleeting, that boundless joy and calm had left its bittersweet mark on her. It was like someone had thrown open a window to her heart, and pure sunlight was shining into her with peace and warmth after a year of so much sadness. So when the wave blocked out the sun and the sudden burst of elation vanished, there was a moment so profoundly sad, almost infuriating—as if she was being cheated, or being forced to come down from a powerful, wicked high.
Sometime in the early morning, Cassidy woke. The boat’s tossing and turning had faded, and the engine was off. She could hear a distant shushhhh of waves combing a beach. Could they have arrived? She uncoiled from her sheets and slipped on her glasses, blinked until her eyes came into focus. Benita breathed softly in the bunk below. She checked her watch—it was still early, not quite six o’clock. She was dying to get out of the cramped bunk. Not wanting to wake the others, she carefully slipped down the ladder, scooped up her duffel, and tiptoed to the bathroom. She pulled on her bikini top, board shorts, and a long-sleeved rash guard.
After putting in her