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She wasn’t, and she shook her head. “I genuinely thought it sounded fun.”
“And now?”
“Now, I’m a little worried it might not be so fun.”
Ty took her elbow and gently coaxed her away from the edge. “Let’s sit in the middle until we get further out.”
“All right, folks,” the tour guide said. “You can stand anywhere on the boat but the bottom and the top of the steps. There’s a yellow square marked off, and we don’t want anyone to stand there, ever. There are seats up front, in the back, and along the sides. Sit, stand, move around the boat. This is your tour.”
Sage sat heavily on a long bench seat still near the edge of the boat, and Ty plunked down next to her.
“We have a bit of a drive out to where we’ve gotten some reports of a humpback out here, and that should be exciting.”
“We should see a lot of dolphins too,” Ty said. Sage reached for his hand, glad when it was easy to slide her fingers between his and hold on. She didn’t normally get seasick, and she just needed to calm down. Take a couple of deep breaths and settle her stomach.
All that undulating water below… She shouldn’t have looked over the edge, that was all.
“I heard there might be some right whales around still,” she said. “Or moving back north.”
“We’ve also seen some right whales in the past few weeks,” the tour guide said as if spurred on by Sage’s comment. “But nothing this week so far. Today might be our lucky day, though.”
Sage really wanted today to simply be a great day. She didn’t need luck; she didn’t even really need to see whales; she just wanted to feel like she was turning a new page. Starting a fresh chapter, now that she’d turned fifty. Embarking on a new journey.
So of course she’d booked something she’d never done before. She’d told herself she might like boating in this new phase of her life, and as the vessel started to move, she didn’t feel like throwing up. She felt like celebrating.
Ty had not kissed her after the movie and lunch on Saturday. Nor after brunch on Sunday. She hadn’t seen him on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, but her fingers felt a bit stiff for how much she’d texted him in the evenings.
Now, today, she wondered if her new, exciting, adventurous life started with a kiss on the first page. She’d never been one to rush into anything. She didn’t mind taking her time and learning the ropes, where to put her feet, and how to do something. Ty had been playing all of his cards right this second time around, and Sage suspected that might be because of her attitude about the whole thing.
She’d come at it differently. Instead of expecting things to be a constant stream of sparks and heat, she’d wanted to relax into a warm bath. Things could heat up from there—and they certainly were. She also felt the sparks and heat between them, and she only had to lean in closer to Ty to say something to him to know he did too.
“I really like dolphins,” she said, his head bent very close to hers.
“Are they your spirit animal?” he teased.
She shook her head, her hair brushing her forearms, and the wind doing so hard enough to make her shiver. “No,” she said. “But I like how they look happy, like golden retreivers.”
“I like them too,” he said.
“And we’ve got a pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins already with us,” the guide said. “On our left side, near the front, about two o’clock. Don’t everyone rush over there now. They move back and forth.”
All Sage had to do was gain her feet to look toward two o’clock on the boat, and she did that. Sure enough, one, then two, then three dolphins surfaced, skimming along the water as they swam with the boat. Pure joy filled her, and she leaned into Ty’s arms as he encircled her.
“Mm, you’re warm,” she said.
“It’s windy today,” he practically yelled above the wind, the splashing of the water agains the hull, and the chatter of those around them. “They’re amazing, aren’t they?”
The dolphins—there had to be six or seven of them—darted in and out of one another, almost like they had an underwater obstacle course only they could see. One kept his fin above the water, but nothing else on him, and two of them seemed to like coming out of the water every few seconds.
Sage could watch them all day long, but eventually, the captain turned south, and the dolphins receded away from the boat.
“Coming up here,” the tour guide said. “We’ve had reports of a humpback. We don’t see them all that often off the coast of South Carolina, but we have had a few sightings in the past couple of decades. This one is on the register as Cyclops, and he’s been here for about a week, feeding on the schools of Atlantic mackerel here right now. Of course, the humpback whale is one of the most diverse feeders…”
Sage tuned out the guide, though she normally liked what they had to say. She knew a little bit about humpback whales, and the thought of seeing one had her nerves in a pitter-patter. “This is so exciting,” she said, still standing at the railing and watching the blue-gray water as if she alone would spot the humpback first.
“The humpback is a bulk eater,” the guide said. “He dives down below and then comes up to get his fill, in what we call a lunge feed. But usually, he’s just down there, swallowing up krill and plankton and as many fish as he can.”
“A lunge feed,” Sage said. “I feel like that’s how I eat too.” She laughed as she turned into Ty’s chest. Her hands shook, and she wasn’t expecting to be so cold on this tour. He wrapped his arms around her, infusing a bit of warmth into her. She didn’t want to put on a show, so she sat back down, and Ty joined her.
