Page 48 of Romantic

Pepper insisted that we share a kayak, and while I want to look back at Brandon, I’m carefully keeping my paddle in sync with hers. She has a decent stroke for a ten-year-old. Since last summer, we’ve gone kayaking together several times. It makes no sense that we haven’t had a good otter sighting. They are usually easily spotted in this cove. Often you can see them when walking on the beach. But the three of us have had bad luck. I’m certain we’ve seen a few. But Brandon teasing me that it was kelp is understandable. The otters were so far off, it really was hard to tell.

“Oh, oh, oh!” Pepper shouts. “I see some over there.” She points to her left.

Our luck has changed. “It’s a whole raft of otters!” She turns back to me with a huge smile. Leave it to Pepper to know the proper collective noun for sea otters. There are so many, it could be called a flotilla.

I turn back to tell Brandon. He’s surprisingly close. I point to the otters now only about a school bus away. “Don’t even try to tell me it’s kelp.”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

“They’re sooo cute,” Pepper coos in a slight baby voice.

I look through the binoculars Brandon gave me for my birthday. “Oh. I can see their shiny noses and their whiskers. Why are they so cute?” Now I’m baby talking. It might be physically impossible to talk in a normal voice about these creatures. They are so impossibly adorable. “Here Pepper, you need to see their faces.” I carefully hand Pepper the binoculars, placing the strap over her neck. It takes her a minute to get used to them, especially with her glasses.

“I see them!” she exclaims. “Oh, and one is eating a mussel. You are just the cutest things ever!” Pepper says to the otters, joining me in the baby talk.

Brandon quietly eases his kayak right next to ours.

“Hi,” I whisper. “This is exciting!”

“Yes,” he says with a soft smile. It feels a little like old times. Maybe not all is lost.

“Want to use the binoculars?” I ask.

“I’m good.”

“You say that only because you haven’t seen them up close. Those are some powerful binoculars you gave me. You can see the water droplets on their whiskers.”

“I tried to get you the best ones. You should take them on your sailing trip.” I’m thrown that he’s bringing it up.

“Oh yeah . . . that’s a good idea.”

“When are you leaving?” he asks.

“Monday or Tuesday at the latest.”

Brandon nods. His face shows no emotion.

“He’s a lucky guy. I hope he’s worthy of you.” I can’t decide if that’s sweet of him to say or just obnoxious.

“Daddy, you’ve got to try the binoculars!”

“Okay, if you insist.” Pepper passes the binoculars to me. As I hand them to him, he places his hand on mine. I keep my hand there a moment longer. So does he. Is this on purpose? It feels on purpose. I want it to be on purpose. I sense the slightest pressure from his hand. My eyes flick from our hands to his face. Brandon’s watching me watch him. I find it hard to breathe. He takes the binoculars and is suddenly very busy scanning the water.

In front of me, Pepper is still chattering about the otters. “There are two more! And I think that one is a baby. Oh, it’s soooo cute.” She turns back and looks at me. “Annie! You are so quiet. Aren’t you excited?”

“Oh, I’m excited,” I reply with only the slightest wobble in my voice. “We finally saw our otters.”

“I’m not so sure,” Brandon says, still looking through the binoculars. “Looks like kelp to me.”

“Stop it!” I playfully nudge his arm, inadvertently pushing his kayak away from us. “That is definitely a raft of otters.”

“Dad! Those are obviously otters!” Pepper says. “They’re so close you don’t need binoculars”

“I know,” Brandon says, lowering the binoculars and smiling. “Those are definitely otters. And they’re weally cute.”

“Brandon James, did you just baby talk?”

“Not possible.”