“This might be the best day of my life,” he murmurs, dipping his head towards mine.
Tilting mine to meet him, my hands slide down covered forearms, slipping beneath the open flaps of his jacket to rest on his sides. Wyatt steps closer to me, our bodies nearly flush when our lips meet, and it’s like coming home for the first time in months.
I melt into him. His body, his kiss, his hands still holding my face. Whimpering softly against his lips, his mouth moves over mine in a soft, unhurried dance. Like we have all the time in the world to stand here and kiss each other. Like time has stood still just so we can have this moment. My chest is bursting at the seams, full of all the joy he’s poured into me. Joy that continues to rain down.
The sound of gasping comes first, then the sound of rushing water, and a huge exhale. The kiss breaks as both our heads snap to look over the side of the boat, our own gasps coming a fraction of a second later.
One of the whales is breaching twenty yards from the boat, half of its body already out of the water, the other half still following as it twists in midair. It lands on top of the water with a thunderous crash I can feel in my bones, and then dives back under into the dark depths of the ocean.
“Holy shit,” Wyatt breathes.
At the same time, I cry out, “Oh my god!”
We look at each other, both wearing stunned gazes, and then we’re focused back on the water. Thirty seconds later, the breath leaves my lungs as another whale, smaller this time, breaches the surface the same way the first one did, turning and landing back in the water with a boom that reverberates through the air.
“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!” Wyatt lets go of my face, grabbing onto the railing at our sides, jumping up and down. “Did you see that? Did you freaking see that? Let’s go! Do you think they’ll do—”
The words aren’t even out of his mouth when the water breaks and a snout appears, followed by the rest of the whale, about the same distance away as the first time. The way Wyatt bounces around, his hands in his hair like he can’t believe what he’s seeing, his jaw slack, eyes wide, has me digging my phone out of my side pocket to capture the reaction.
It’s perfectly timed when the smaller whale breaches a second time, and Wyatt goes nuts all over again, then looks for me, finding me with my phone up and trained on him. He throws his head back and laughs, making me giggle gleefully that he’s so amused I’d film this.
“I will riot if this doesn’t go on your socials,” I tell him. “As much as I want to keep all your joy to myself, this deserves to be shared.”
Something in him softens then, like some missing piece of a puzzle falling into place. He holds his hand out for me. “C’mere.”
“I don’t want to be on camera,” I tell him, but give him my hand anyway, letting him pull me close.
“You won’t be,” he replies, pulling his own phone out of his pocket. “Not for anyone but me.”
He spins me halfway around, catching me around the waist and pulling me into his chest, my back against him. Then he holds his phone out in front of us, getting the angle just right, and waits. Minutes seem to tick by, and I’m sure his arm must be getting tired, but he’s hellbent on getting the shot.
When I’m about to tell him it’s okay, the surface breaks, right over his shoulder, and the momma whale breaches. Before she splashes back in the water, the calf is halfway out as well, both of them in the shot as our jaws drop at the sight he just captured on camera. A second later, after the baby hits the water and disappears, we turn to each other, hesitate for half a second, and then we’re both jumping up and down on the deck of the boat.
Gran is going to be pissed she missed this.
Chapter 42
Wyatt
Openinghercardoor,I hold my hand out for her to take. It’s the kind of day I’ve dreamed about for months. Where everything that felt wrong and terrible fell away, and the world righted itself. The whales were magnificent, but they didn’t hold a flame to the woman taking my hand and sliding out of old Betty.
Slipping my hand over her hip and around her back, I haul her close to me, sliding my other hand into her hair to tilt her head up. I steal a kiss, letting the heist linger as my mouth moves over hers, getting in one last kiss for the night. Bryn melts against me, her hands finding my chest, moving up around my neck in an effort to get closer.
“Wy,” she murmurs into my mouth, and the familiarity and comfort of hearing her shorten my name sets my heart on fire.
I groan in response, but then relent, deliberately raising my head a fraction so she’s able to speak whatever is on her mind.
There’s a glaze to her eyes when she opens them, a dopey smile tugging at her lips. “What date is this?”
The question has me straightening, and the surprise she sees on my face has her giggling. The same question has run rampant in me multiple times today, but I refused to bring it up. I was going to treat it like our first date, though parts of me begged for it to be the third.
She places a finger over my lips before I can answer. “I want itto be date three. I don’t want to wait, unless you do.”
“Fuck that,” I grunt, both hands dropping to grab her under her ass and haul her up into my arms.
By the time her legs are locking around my waist, she’s laughing, her door is closed, and I’m halfway to the gate. My attention drifts up when there’s movement out of the corner of my eye. The curtains in the window are moving, a sure sign someone was there a moment ago, and I laugh to myself. Of course Ruby was watching. But that’s the last thing she’ll see tonight.
Once we’re through the gate, Bryn starts peppering my face with kisses. My cock went hard when she told me what she wanted, but now it’s straining against my pants, desperate to be out of the confines of my jeans, especially with her body rubbing against me with each step I take. By the time we’re at her door, she’s moved down to my neck, nipping and teasing at it with her tongue, and my hands are shaking with the anticipation of being all over her.
