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“Here.” I fork up a big bite of pancake and offer it to her. She doesn’t hesitate to lean over and accept the offered bite.
“Wow,” she breathes.
“Scoot over,” I tell her.
“What?”
“Scoot over.” I stand out of the booth and move to her side, sliding in next to her. I pull my plate in front of me, adjusting my drinks, and turn to look at her. “Now I’m closer. You can have as much as you want of both.”
“What if I want bacon?” she sasses.
Reaching over the two plates of food to the plate of bacon, I grab a slice, biting off a huge bite and feeding her the rest.
“Thank you,” she says once she’s swallowed.
We both dive in, eating off all three plates. I manage to feed her a few more bites, which is not something I can say I’ve ever done before, other than with my niece. For some reason, with Palmer it feels intimate, and I guess it is.
Roberta stops to refill our drinks. She smiles and winks but doesn’t comment. She doesn’t have to. She and my mom have talked so many times about my brothers and me finding a good woman. It got to the point that my brothers and I would insist we eat somewhere new when my parents made the drive up. I glance over at Palmer.
I’m pretty sure I’ve already found mine.
* * *
“The aquarium?” Palmer asks, not able to hide the excitement in her voice. “This is where we’re going?” She unbuckles her seat belt and moves closer to the edge of her seat as if those few inches are going to give her a better view of the building we just pulled up to.
“Yes. I have a few other places we can stop if we have time, but we have no schedule. We can stay here all day if you want.”
“Did you know that I love the aquarium?” She turns to look at me, and her smile has my heart doing this crazy thumping thing inside my chest.
Reaching over, I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “No, I just thought it might be something fun to do.”
“Man, I wish I had my camera.”
“Cell phone?” I ask.
“Oh, for sure, but it’s not the same.” She looks kind of bummed, and I instantly want to fix it.
“I’ll just have to bring you back.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
I shrug. “You tell me when and we’ll make another day of it.” The thought of another day like today, when it’s really only just begun, excites me too.
“You’re the best.” She leans over the console and places a loud kiss on my cheek.
“You ready to do this?”
“Yes.” Her excitement is contagious. I wasn’t sure how she would feel about the aquarium. I wanted something inside so we weren’t sweating our asses off. There were a few options, some of which we might explore later, but this is the one that I kept going back to.
Hand in hand, we make our way inside to purchase our tickets. With a wave and a thank you to the man behind the counter, we start the tour. Palmer’s eyes light up as she takes in all the fish, the sharks, the turtles, and all the other marine life that swim around us.
“Will you take my picture?” she asks. She steps off the conveyor, hands me her phone, and poses in front of a school of fish.
Before giving it back to her, I step beside her and hold my arm out in front of me to take a selfie. “That’s a first for me,” I say, handing her phone back. “Will you send me those?”
“Both of them?”
“Yes.”
