Three girls and a reef

To get my readers back up to speed, here's the last chapter in Sexy Underwater Stories:

I.
Palau is located on the opposite side of the world from Bimini. Bimini is located just off the coast of Florida, Palau just off the coast of the Philippines, in a different ocean entirely.

In order to sail from Bimini to Palau, the Scylla and Charybis would have had to sail south west, between the islsands of Cuba and Hispaniola (on which are the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) past Jamaica, and into the Caribbean Sea. It was necessary to go to the Panama Canal, and once through, continuing toward the west onward and onward across the Pacific Ocean, past the Marshall Islands and Micronesia, and finally to Palau, just off the coast of the Philippines, and a little less than two thousand miles south of Japan.

Amanda had misspoke when she told Cheryl that she and her two sisters were going to sail to Palau on the Scylla and Charybdis. Oh, he [the Sutton sisters referred to all their craft as males) could have made the trip all right, the Scylla was an ocean going vessel, but it would have taken too long.

On Sunday, therefore, the three sisters found themselves in the business class section of a craft headed for Hawaii, from which they would connect to Japan and then to Palau. Robert Wade was accompanying them.

Wade and Chelsea spent the time talking scuba – Wade asked her how many sites at which she had dived, and to describe them to her. Stacy had brought her laptop and was busy working on a story.

Amanda had her own laptop, and after playing a few games of Galaga, decided to check her email.

Email: Cheyl Kazkowski to Amanda Sutton
Hi, Amanda
Hope you don’t mind, but I gave Teague your email. He’d called me up yesterday and asked me for it. I gave it to him… and I also explained to him about the first time you two had met, and the fact that you hadn’t actually been late. He didn’t say much, just said thanks and hung up.

So…expect an email from him.

Email: Amanda Sutton to Cheryl Kazkowski
Hi, Cheryl
No problems re the email. I’m surprised he’s bothering, but I guess he’s not as much of a jerk as I thought him.

Amanda scanned through her emails…several from oceanographic organizations, a few from friends…nothing from Teague.

She shrugged…she really hadn’t wanted to hear from him anyway.

She clicked through each of her emails, reading them one at a time, then clicked back out to the main page. And there, at the very top, was an email from Teague.

Email: Patrick Teague to Amanda Sutton
Dear Ms. Sutton
I wanted to email you and apologize for the awkwardness of our first meeting. I confess I have a certain obsession about punctuality, as you no doubt realized.

I also wanted to thank you for your help with the swim meet. The children certainly liked you and your help was invaluable.

I heard you were on your way to Palau. I envy you your opportunity to dive there, as it has always been a dream vacation for me.

Safe diving.

Best wishes,
Teague

Amanda contemplated this message for a while. Well. Maybe he wasn't such a jerk after all. Jerks didn't apologize for their jerkiness. Didn't even realize they were jerks.

Email: Amanda Sutton to Patrick Teague
Dear Teague,
Thanks for your email. No apology necessary. It was just a misunderstanding.

I really enjoyed the swim meet and the kids. I’ve worked with special needs kids for a couple of years and always enjoyed their enthusiasm.

I also have long wanted to dive on Palau. I will send you a few photos, just to make you jealous!

Amanda

She re-read the message. Should she really offer to send him some photos? Well, hell, why not. If he wasn’t interested he wasn’t interested. She’d send them anyway.

She clicked the send button.

Then, she pulled out her Kindle and began to read Diving Palau. But as she did so, her thoughts occasionally drifted toward the tallness and handsomeness of Patrick Teague.

II.
There's nothing quite as sexy as three beautiful girls in white swim suits, cavorting in the water like mermaids, thought Alex Cleland.

He was aboard his own luxurious yacht, the Isle of Skye, with a group of friends. They had been having lunch when he noticed the three women - so alike as to be sisters... indeed...two of them looked to be twins... tall, slender, but with the musculature of athletes, their skin bronze, their features...lovely...and all of it set off by those white, one piece swimsuits they wore.

Most women didn't cover themselves up nearly so much...he found that fact...oddly exciting.

They were snorkeling about the warm waters of the anchorage, surfacing occasionally and laughing...

Who were they, and what were they doing here?

He had to find out.