She shrugged.“I mean, we also talk and eat.”
Damn, she was cute.I squeezed her thigh.“And I love every second of it.But Mabel asked me the other day what we do on our dates, and when I struggled to come up with anything, I realized that we really should try todomore.”
“I suppose …” Her gaze was fixed out the side window.“Are we going down to the dock?”
“I thought we could grab dinner down there, and apparently there is this semi-domesticated seal that you can feed.”
“Yeah, Cammy.She had another pup this year, and has been bringing Squid with her to meet the people who feed her.”
“Cammy and Squid?”
“Cammy after San Camanez, and I have no idea who named him Squid or why.”
“Is the Floathouse any good?”I asked her.“The reviews online seemed to indicate that it’s hit or miss.”
“Flo’s?Yeah, it’s good.It can be a little greasy—the fish and chips and deep-fried stuff, mostly—but everything is tasty.”
“You’re okay going there?”I turned onto the main road that took us down to the ferry terminal and the biggest dock and marina on the island.
Naomi nodded.“Totally.”
According to Jagger, Maverick, and Tom, who I asked for date location help during our Monday night beer and bullshit, there were two other smaller docks, but this one had the most restaurants, the gift shops, and the most amount of tourist traffic.Since it was midweek and not technically summer yet, we shouldn’t have too much of a wait to get our food or see the seal.But as Jagger said, once the kids got out of school for the summer and the tourists were coming over in droves, it was best to avoid this part of town if you could.
It was a long, steep hill down to the bay.Vehicles were lined up waiting for the next ferry sailing, but the parking lot for the shopping area and dock wasn’t full.I found us a spot with a view of the marina and parked.
She grinned at me.“So we’re going on a proper ‘out-in-public date’ then?”
“If you’re up for it.”
Pink flooded her cheeks, and she batted her lashes.“I’d like that.”She made to open her door, but I grabbed her arm.
“Wait!”
Her look of confusion was cute, but she paused.
“Stay here for a sec.”I jumped out from behind the steering wheel and raced around the grill, then I opened her door for her and held out my hand to help her climb out.“How’s this for wooing?It’s not a jacket over a puddle, or a rhyming couplet, but—”
The woman was beaming brighter than the evening sun.“Who needs rhyming couplets?”
I laced my fingers through hers, and she glanced down at our intertwined hands.We wore stupidly big smiles and swung our connected hands as we headed toward the ramp that would take us to the dock.
“I think Spencer’s houseboat is down here,” I said.
“Spencer Paxton?Yeah, that’s his cute little red one with the white trim and flower boxes over there,” she said, pointing to the houseboat near the end of a long line of houseboats.We reached the docks, and she led me toward the floating restaurants.There was a shipping container converted into a takeout shop called One Fish, Two Fish, and Flo’s Floathouse which was a proper sit-down restaurant.There was also Crabby Willy’s Crabs and Seafood, but that appeared to just be a place to buy live and dead seafood.
We paused in front of the tanks of live crabs crawling around on each other.“That one looks delicious,” I said, pointing to a big boy with pink rubber bands on his claws.
“Hey, folks,” came a rough and gritty voice before the equally rough and gritty man it belonged to appeared.He had gray scruff, wild gray and brown hair, and more wrinkles than an elephant.His eyes betrayed his youth—maybe early fifties?—but years spent in the sun catching crabs had aged the rest of him quickly.His brown eyes lit up when he recognized Naomi.“Naomi!”
“Hi, Willy,” Naomi said, giving him a big, genuine smile.“This is Lennox Paul, the new principal at the elementary school.”
I shook the man’s weathered and rough hand.
“You guys lookin‘ to buy a crab for dinner?”Willy asked.
“I think we’re heading to Flo’s for dinner tonight,” Naomi said.“But that guy there looks delicious.”She bent over and pointed to the brown-shelled crab in the corner of the tank.
“Caught him this morning.Can’t get any fresher,” Willy said.
