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His compliment filled my chest with fireflies and simultaneously made me want to throw up. I had the feeling he was asking me to say yes to him and not just the tour, which I found more compelling than the not-to-be-missed sights.
Struggling over what could potentially be a life-and-death decision, I hesitated. Narrowly avoid death by seaplane, or spend the afternoon with Duncan?
The question shouldn’t have been so hard to answer.
“I understand if you’d rather see the castle,” he said.
Hard to believe, but that wasn’t the problem. Spending time with Duncan won out, no doubt—it was just the tricky business of where we would be spending our time. But…I could do this, right?
Bare minimum, Iwantedto.
“Okay, yes.” It would be the most incredible date ever, or an epic disaster. Fully memorable either way. “But I can’t let you pay for me.”
His eyebrows ticked up. “Why not?”
“Because of the…” No one had ever asked me this before, men just let me pay when I offered. “Because of feminism. Equality and all that.”
He looked like he was battling a smile and barely winning the fight. “All right, in the name of feminism. It’s twenty pounds.”
I glared at his lowball number. “There’s no way any sight-seeing tour costs twenty pounds.”
“This one does.” The sparkle in his eyes said I wasn’t going to get much more equal than that.
This was definitely a date.
“I’ll go make a few calls and be right out to Old Tarty.”
He winked as he walked away, but the zing of excitement it shot through me quickly turned to dread.
Why did he have to choose a seaplane?
* * *
We walked down to the harbor to find our kayaks, my stomach churning over the idea I had a date on a seaplane with Duncan in just a few hours. A seaplane, offering two exciting means of grisly death. While I was taken with the idea of spending the afternoon alone with the man, I was less enthusiastic about crashing into the side of a mountain with him.
The tiny packet of valium in my makeup bag crossed my mind. But I couldn’t do that. Valium might make me more amenable to the flight, but it would also make me more than amenable to anything that came after. Not that I needed any help in that department now, but I wanted to be reasonably alert for this…whatever it was.
Date. Deathtrap.
Arnav led us to a section of dock loaded down with kayaks, canoes, and associated gear. They kitted us out with life vests, and we climbed into the kayaks one by one. I slipped into mine, sealed myself up in the rubber skirt to keep out as much water as possible, and paddled away from the docks.
I hadn’t been in a kayak in years. On calm waters, it wasn’t much harder than canoeing—and I’d already proven myself disastrous at canoeing. Loch Portree was protected by two peninsulas before it opened out into the Sound of Raasay, but it rocked with waves from the Atlantic Ocean. Arnav had lectured us on the walk down about riding perpendicularly across the waves so nobody would roll their kayak. He’d made particular eye contact with me, as though falling from things was just what I did now.
“And no one needs to jostle anyone else’s kayak, either,” I said. “Carlos.”
He gave me a sheepish grin, but he’d pretty well lost his remorse over the Loch Ness incident.
Once we were all kayaked up, Arnav took the lead. Our game plan was to cut across the loch and the sound, heading toward the Isle of Raasay. A few fishing and pleasure boats moved around in the loch, reminding me of the very reason I didn’t often kayak. In Seattle, boats of all sizes constantly criss-crossed Lake Union, sending heart-racing wakes rolling through every few minutes. Loch Portree, at least, had lighter boat traffic and more exotic views, but I gripped my paddle so tight my fall injuries hurt all over again.
My body fell into the rhythm of paddling, and my thoughts drifted. Really, they didn’t so much drift as zoom straight to Duncan: the man, our kisses, our imminent afternoon on a seaplane. I fretted just a little over what our time together meant to him, what it meant to me, and most importantly, when we would have an opportunity for more of those kisses.
This wassonot part of the plan.
Something broke the water close to my kayak, a smooth body rising and diving again before I fully realized what had happened. My heart jumped into my throat, and my mind filled with images of Nessie and mysterious creatures of the deep.
“What was that?” I didn’t like the thread of fear in my voice, but I hadno ideawhat I’d just seen. A little fear seemed warranted.
Arnav laughed. “We’ve picked up a few friends.”
