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Terry walked up as the boat started moving again. He looked at the two of us. “You look like you had an enjoyable afternoon.”
“We did,” Lucas agreed, the towel around his shoulder, his hair still slightly damp from our last excursion in the water.
I nodded my agreement, sipping my drink. “Thank you again, we had a really nice day.”
“It’s not over yet.”
I glanced at Lucas. He looked at me equally confused.
“We’ve got one more stop to make before headed back to the main dock for the night. Klein Curaçao. Dominique thought you’d like to hit up one of the local private islands. There’s a beautiful lighthouse for Abbie to check out and photograph, a shipwreck right on the sand, and there’ll be a catered BBQ waiting for our arrival.”
Lucas looked at me. There went our plans for a quiet night to ourselves. “How long will that take?”
“Probably hour and a half? Maybe two hours? The whole crew will dine at the barbecue, then you can explore the island. I thought with the sunset coming up, it might make a nice opportunity for Abbie to get some pictures.”
I looked at Terry.
“That sounds great,” I said easily. Dominique may have suggested the dinner, but I didn’t think she’d have thought of the lighthouse. “I look forward to it. I’ll just make sure I have enough charge.”
“Do you have a charger? You can plug it in inside,” he offered.
“I do.”
I grabbed my tote bag, gave Lucas a smile, and headed inside the boat. There were a few crew members behind the bar, making a pitcher of drinks, and Dominique was nowhere to be found. I pulled out my charger cord for the camera and plugged it in then looked for Terry. He pointed to an outlet off to the side of the bar. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He smiled at me. “I’ll grab you a drink while you wait. We’re probably about twenty minutes away or so.”
By the time we’d reached the dock on the private island, I had a half-decent amount of charge on my camera and I’d finished off a drink from the bar, a delightfully fruity concoction with a name I hadn’t managed to fully catch.
Lucas was waiting in the doorway, his shirt on and unbuttoned, showing off his tanned chest. He looked a little sleepy, and I was going to guess he’d taken a nap on the way to the island.
“You hungry?” I asked.
“Starving.”
We stepped off the boat onto the small wooden dock that led to the island. Terry helped me off the boat and motioned to the line of torches headed up the side of the beach. “Dining by candlelight. A little unusual. Most of the time, tours stop by for lunch.”
“Oh…”
“But we pulled a few strings.” Terry smiled and waved us ahead.
I walked the short trek up the dock and onto the sandy beach. I could smell the fragrant mix of barbecue and spices blended with the sea air, and my stomach nearly rumbled in appreciation. I was definitely hungry.
Lucas hurried behind me, his phone in his hand as we headed up to the area where everything was set up.
Wooden patio tables and chairs under beige umbrellas, tea lights in glasses on every table. The sun was still partially up in the sky, but I had no doubt it wouldn’t last forever.
“Do you want to eat first or head to the lighthouse?”
I looked further down the beach. “Can you get me a plate? I’ll take a quick walk, take a few pics and come right back.”
“Sure.”
I left my tote bag on my chair and grabbed my camera, hurrying off down the sand towards the lighthouse. I’d get a few of it silhouetted against the sunset sky. I was sure it’d look amazing with the swirl of colors starting to show in the sky. I got about halfway to it, lifted my camera, and started taking pictures.
Finally satisfied I had a few good ones amongst the bunch, I headed back to the table. I could feel the flush on my face. I’d slipped off my flipflops and tucked them under my arm, heading back. I passed a few smiling crew members already deep in conversation over their food. I headed to our table to find Lucas sitting there, his plate untouched, his hands steepled in front of him.
“You didn’t need to wait.”
