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“I’m sorry you are working so much,” he said. “You don’t need to.”
“I know. It keeps me busy,” she said.
Duke was scheduling her for five days at Southside, but then she was using the sixth day to work on the marketing for several hours. Or she’d take an extra shift if she could. But she’d cut that back if she got more orders with her cakes.
Not that she thought she’d get a cake a week, but if she did, it’d be nice to spend time doing that and making money rather than being on her feet for hours too.
“You’ll be able to relax on this boat trip. There isn’t much to do other than listen to them talk about the whales they see and document. There is a lot of research involved on each trip.”
“I like how that is part of what they do and selling tickets allows them to keep the funding going. I think that is why my mother was so interested. Before she was a principal, she was a science teacher.”
“I haven’t been on one of these boats since I was a kid,” he said.
“Really? That is sweet you wanted to do it today.”
It’d been his idea. She knew he was trying to come up with a way they could have a date and move around freely.And he was asking her things she liked to do, not just picking things that he wanted to do.
She wasn’t going to take offense to the fact they weren’t on the island. She was the one that wanted this to be quiet more than anyone else. At least right now. A few dates weren’t enough for her to be out running around and letting others know.
“It will be fun,” he said. “I guess I could use a day for not doing much too. It just stinks going from one boat to the next.”
“I don’t get sick or anything,” she said.
“I got thinking. Since your stuff is in the SUV anyway, what do you think about getting a hotel there and staying the night rather than my place? We don’t have to, but we could just play tourist after the boat and not rush to get the ferry back. There’d be time to get on the first one in the morning before you have to be to Southside.”
She hadn’t thought he’d offer that. She was supposed to be at Southside at nine. Their first ferry was at seven so it would give her time to get home and change. Duke was working at Southside tomorrow too. He’d planned it that way, he’d said, as Zeke had Thursday off and another chef was coming in later in the day.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” she said. “I mean if we miss the ferry and I’m late, the boss is already aware.”
He laughed and reached his hand over and laid it on her thigh. “There is that too.”
Over an hour later they were on Cape Cod and boarding the boat for their whale-watching trip. Duke had left his hair down and the wind had blown it around some on the ferry ride over when they got out of his SUV. She was sure it was going to happen here too.
She’d tied hers back and put on a sweatshirt. Though it was going to be in the low eighties today, it hadn’t reached it yet and it was cooler out on the water.
Once they were settled on the boat, and everyone else had found seats, she relaxed and listened to the crew talk about their research and the family of whales they’d been tracking for years. There were breaks where they could get some food and drink, or use the restroom.
The water was rougher than she thought it’d be and she was thrilled she wasn’t one of those people that were looking green on the trip.
“I think there is something out there,” Duke said.
She picked up her binoculars and looked where he was pointing. The crew was talking too and telling them to look. They were actually close enough to see without needing the binoculars, but she wanted an up-close view.
They watched for a few minutes as the whale jumped out of the water to come up for air, diving back down, its tail remaining. Then another one came up, a smaller one, then a third.
“That was so cool,” she said. “I guess that is it, right?”
“There is only about an hour left in the trip anyway and they will turn around and go back in about thirty minutes,” he said. “I’m not sure if another one will come up then, but it’s nice and relaxing, don’t you think?”
Her hand went to his much larger one, their fingers touching, the heat in his palm feeling nice against hers.
It’d been a long time since she’d held a man’s hand. Maybe college. It wasn’t something she did much as an adult.
Maybe it was time for her to feel like she could just let go again in her life.
“It is,” she said. “Thank you again.”
“I’m getting something out of it too,” he said.
