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“Come on, slow pokes!” she demanded. “You take forever!”
“Sorry,” I said. “We were talking about boring boy things, and I didn’t think you’d want to hear it.”
“Ew!” she stuck out her tongue and pointed to her throat, then skipped up the walkway ahead of us.
“I have to tell him,” I said out loud, though I was talking to myself more than I was to my best friend.
Krissy was right. I had to talk to my dad, and soon, too, if I wanted there to be a chance he would accept it. And once I made up my mind to tell him, I wanted it done as soon as possible.
But we were still a few hours away from home, and we had to catch the ferry.
There had been some questions as to whether this ferry was in good enough shape to make the trip today, so I worried that the operators would change their mind about it before we could get back on board. It seemed fine to me, but I wasn’t the one who made that call.
If we had to wait for another ferry to make the trip across, that was going to add on a lot of waiting time, and I wasn’t in the mood. All I wanted to do was talk to my dad and Neils about this relationship and stop having to hide it from the world.
No matter how impatient I was, I couldn’t make this happen any faster.
“Libby, slow down!” I called. “Don’t get too far ahead of us.”
“Come on!” she yelled back at me. “I want to see the dolphins!”
“God, I hope we can just get on and get back to Key West,” Krissy groaned at the sight of all the people who were gathered to board the ferry while the maintenance workers checked out the sails.
“You’re telling me,” I said. “Now that you put the idea of talking to my dad on my mind, I want to get back as soon as we can.”
“You would assume that they’d take care of any of the maintenance that had to be done after they let us all get off the boat when we got here,” Krissy said.
“Right,” I agreed.
On the way over to the fort, we were told that there was an issue with the ferry. No one had gone into a lot of detail, but from what we were able to gather, they were having trouble with one of the sails. I wasn’t sure if one had gotten torn, or what the issue really was, but I hoped they were nearly done fixing it by the time we got back.
I didn’t want to stand and wait any more than Krissy or Libby did.
I scanned the group of people who were working their way toward getting onboard the ferry. I couldn’t see Libby anywhere, and that made me nervous. Even if she was old enough to manage a while on her own, I didn’t like her being out of my sight with this many people around. Especially since she was eager to see the dolphins, and I didn’t want her to accidentally fall into the water.
“We better catch up,” I told Krissy, who nodded and picked up the pace with me. I tried to keep Libby in view, but with all the people crowding the deck, I wasn’t quite sure where she was heading. If she wanted to see dolphins, she would have to be next to the rails. I’d told her on the way over that I didn’t want her to be anywhere near the edge, but there wasn’t any telling if she would listen to me with that warning.
I wasn’t going to risk it, so I pushed my way through the tourists to catch up with her.
“Watch out!”
“Hey!”
“We’re all going to get there at the same time, there’s no need to push your way to the front.”
“You need to slow down there, lady, didn’t you hear they have to check a few things before we go? You’re not going to get there any faster by being inpatient.”
“Sorry, my bad. Excuse me, I’m sorry, I’m just trying to catch up with that little girl. I’m sorry,” I said.
There were a lot of people who were more than happy to grumble at me as I pushed my way through the crowd to find Libby, and I did my best to apologize to them as I made my way through. I didn’t want to come off as rude, but I was getting worried about her.
I didn’t know what the man meant when he said they were still going to check a few things before we leave, but I didn’t stop to ask. All I cared about just then was to find Libby.
It was then that I heard the shouting, and a terrible crack followed.
I wasn’t sure what the noise was, but I spotted Libby at the same time, and instinct told me to get over to her as fast as I could.
“Look out! Erin! The sail broke! It’s going to fall!” Krissy shouted to me. I wasn’t sure what she was looking at, and I figured she wasn’t able to see Libby from where she was behind me. But hearing her warning snapped me into action.
