The Hitchhiker in Panama (Love and Wanderlust Book 1)

by Liz Alden

  I sighed and massaged my forehead. “I was really excited. I am really excited.”

  Edith nodded. “Go look into the fees for changing your flight. No sense in getting too worked up about it if you lose all your money or something.”

  “Good point.” I grabbed my phone, waved bye, and headed to the pool to use the Wi-Fi.

  I sat in a chair under an umbrella and pulled up my flight details to look for the rebooking policy. I could rebook my flight for $250, and the cheapest flight was on March 7. I did some quick math; by staying on Silver Lining, I’d only stayed two nights at the hotel, and I would have to pay for a few nights once I got back to Panama City. I knew the rates for the hostels in the area and there were some cheap places, though they weren’t in the best areas. I had wanted to stay in the Casco Viejo, but a once-in-a-lifetime experience would be worth it, right?

  I winced as I tapped the confirm button, but I tried to mentally refocus myself on the canal. I had a boat to hitchhike on, and I was one step closer to achieving my goal.

  Back on Silver Lining, I asked Edith if I could stay a few more days with them until Eik left.

  “Of course, dear. But don’t you want to move over to Eik?”

  We were sitting in the cockpit, having wraps for lunch.

  “Yeah, nah. I would prefer to stay here if you’ll have me.”

  Edith gave me a pointed look. “What about the young man? Eivind?”

  “What about him?”

  “Don’t give me that innocent face. You get all happy and dreamy every time you mention him.”

  I swallowed the last bite of my wrap. “Nothing’s going to happen with Eivind. I don’t want things to be awkward.”

  Edith nodded sagely. “Good plan—avoid him instead. Keep him on his toes.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I know it’s not a great plan.” I flopped onto my back. “He’s just so . . .”

  “You could climb him like a tree.”

  I quirked an eyebrow at her.

  “I think that’s what the kids are calling it these days.”

  “In Straya we would say ‘rooting.’” I wrinkled my forehead. “I wonder why we have all the plant metaphors.”

  “Whichever plant metaphor you go with, what is going on with Eivind?”

  “Nothing. How can there be? He’ll be out of my life when we get to Panama City.”

  “I would think a young woman as adventurous as you would be open to meeting an exotic lover”—she waggled her eyebrows—“while traveling.”

  I startled and looked up at Edith. “You think I’m adventurous?”

  “Of course. It’s not every day you meet someone who takes as big a leap as you have.”

  I smiled, pleased.

  Edith changed the subject. “Have you called your mother and told her you found a boat?”

  I groaned and covered my face with a pillow. “I’ll call my dad tonight.”

  “Are you avoiding your mom?”

  I pulled the pillow back. “Let’s say I’m avoiding negative energy. Nobody needs that in their life.”

  Edith looked at me skeptically.

  “Dad’s easier to share this stuff with. Mum is so mad right now. She’s never been much for adventure, so . . .” I shrugged.

  “Speaking as a mother, I can see how it’s tough for her. What about your dad makes him so supportive?”

  “Well, that was the magic of the Panama Canal. Dad’s a drafter by trade, and he’s always been a bit obsessed with the ‘engineering marvels.’ That’s why I studied engineering—Dad was always talking about it. So I told them I was going to see the canal up close and personal, and he was totally on board. He’s going to be so excited for me. And that’s what I need.”

  I waited until Dad was at work before I called.

  “Sweet pea!” he jovially answered the phone.

  “Hey, Dad! How’s your workday going?”

  “It’s just fine here. Let me get this out of the way: your mother would like a phone call soon.”

  I sighed. “I know. I will call her, just not yet. But for now, I have good news. I found a boat!”

  “Hey, that’s great! Tell me about it.”

  I told my dad all about Eik, the two brothers, and my lessons in lines and other boat knowledge.

  “You’ll be joining a boat with two men on board? How old are they?”

  “It’s not just Eivind and Jonas; there are two women as well: Elayna and Marcella.”

  “Ah okay. Maybe lead with that when you tell your mum about it, okay?”

  “Good plan.”

  “How old are they?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Eivind’s my age. Jonas is a bit older.”

  The silent pause made me picture my dad frowning at me. “I suppose I shouldn’t wish for them to be mean. Are they at least ugly?”

  “Dad!”

  “So no?”

  “Devilishly handsome.”

  “Dang it.”

  “I’ll be fine. It’s only for one night and then I’ll move on. I’m not looking to get involved with anyone.” I changed the subject. “Did you finish that miniseries you were watching?”

  “I did! Did you know that some people estimate the death toll for the workers building the canal at twenty-five thousand?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  I leaned back on my bed, letting Dad tell me all the interesting facts he’d learned. When I’d told him my plan to transit the canal, he’d been so excited for me, helping me pitch it to Mum as an “educational adventure.”

  Part of what intrigued me so much about this adventure was living it for my dad, and his excitement bubbling up through the phone made it more real to me.

  Eight

  The next day, in the late afternoon heat, I sat by the pool reading. Peter had some new project he had to work on, and Edith had quickly hustled me out of the boat and toward the pool before I could be recruited.

  The antithesis of hard work was lounging by the pool, so that was where I went. Neither my accommodations nor the pool facilities were luxurious, but I tried to make the best of it. I had time on my hands to relax and read, plus I had an esky full of tinnies to drink. As nice as a fruity daiquiri would have been, I couldn’t afford it.

  I’d been out for half an hour when a voice called my name.

  “Hello, Lila!” The crew of Eik walked toward me, dressed down in bathers and thongs.

  “Hey there!” They claimed the chairs around me. After dropping their stuff off and exchanging pleasantries, Marcella, Elayna, and Jonas stepped down into the pool.

  Eivind had stretched out on the chair to my right, kicking his thongs off and lowering the back of his lounger. He turned his head and smiled at me. I was close enough that I could see his eyes behind his sunnies, and I watched as he checked me out from head to toe.

  My curly hair was up in a messy bun on top of my head, and I’d only packed one bather, a red string bikini that gave me plenty of coverage but no support—not that I needed much.

  I couldn’t be affronted about being so openly scoped. I ogled Eivind too. He wore short trunks, showing off his chest and legs. My first impression had been right: Eivind’s shoulders were broad, his arms and abs muscled and bulky.

  He bent the knee closest to me and met my eye. We grinned at each other in mutual appreciation.

  I put my e-reader down beside me. “No swimming for you?”

  “Nah, I would rather sit here for a little while.”

  “I like to work up a sweat a bit, sitting in the heat, and then take a dip.”

  “Back home we do the opposite, in hot springs. When I was a child, Jonas and I used to sit out in the snow until we could not stand it anymore, and then we’d hop into the hot water.”

  “How old were you?”

  Eivind scratched his chest. “I must have been seven or eight?” He was silent for a moment. “Now that I think about it, Jonas must have been letting me win. He would have been seventeen or eighteen. There is no way I could have last
ed longer than he did out there.”

  “Aw, that’s cute.”

  Eivind smiled softly.

  I held up my sunscreen bottle. “Hey, can you put some on my back? I need to flip over to even out my tan.”

  “Sure.” Eivind grabbed the bottle while I twisted away from him. I gathered the wispy hairs from the back of my neck and held them up out of the way.

  Eivind slopped some sunscreen onto my back and focused on rubbing it in. He was thorough. Very thorough, sweeping his hand under the strings of my bikini. So thorough that before long I was giggling.

  “All right, handsy, you got everything.”

  He chuckled and handed me the bottle. “I am just concerned about your skin health. If you sunburn, let me know and I will come over and rub some aloe on you too.”

  I snorted and adjusted my chair all the way down, then flipped onto my stomach. Eivind did the same, and we lay facing each other.

  We talked about our days; I told Eivind about the project I’d been helping Peter with, and he told me about working on the watermaker with Jonas.

  We were interrupted by Elayna approaching, dripping wet, and asking for Eivind’s help finding a pool toy they’d stuffed into one of the bags with the towels and beers. She stood off to the side, dripping onto the concrete while Eivind’s dry hands dug through the bags.

  “Lila, would you like to come play? It is a game of keep-up.”

  “Yeah, that sounds fun. I’m breaking a sweat here anyway. Eivind, you want to play?”

  He shook his head and sat up. “Thank you, but I will watch only.”

  He twisted around to fiddle with the lounge chair while I followed Elayna into the pool. As I stepped in, the water cooled my sun-kissed skin.

  It took me a little while to get into the game; I was distracted by Eivind’s eyes constantly watching me. He wasn’t helping the situation or being shy about it. Every time I glanced over, he grinned at me and I blushed.

  Eventually I focused, and the four of us passed the ball back and forth, setting it like a volleyball. We didn’t keep score, just passed to whomever we wanted and tried not to let it touch the water. Jonas, with his long limbs, made some good last-minute saves.

  We wore ourselves out and retreated to the shade. Once dry, I asked Eivind to reapply the sunscreen—which he enthusiastically did. Elayna and Marcella grabbed their pool noodles and returned to the water, while Jonas sat on my other side.

  My lounger had been pulled slightly closer to Eivind’s than it had been before I went in the water.

  “Jonas, what does Eik mean?”

  “Eik means ‘oak,’ like the tree, in Norwegian. The Vikings built their boats out of oak because it is strong and flexible. Although Eik is not made of wood, she is strong.” He smiled.

  “How long have you owned the boat? And where did you start?”

  Jonas told me about buying the boat in England the previous year. He bought it nearly new. Someone had ordered it from the factory, launched it, and then had to sell it due to an issue with their job.

  “That’s insane,” I said. “I can’t imagine spending all that time and money only to have to give up your dream.”

  We traded stories for a while, talking about home. Jonas relaxed more than I’d seen him before, happy and stretched out in the sun. He smiled more, and I wondered what had changed.

  In contrast, Eivind was quieter, happy to listen to his brother’s chatter.

  In the pool, Marcella and Elayna bobbed in the water, whispering to each other in low voices, and occasionally stealing glimpses of Jonas, who was oblivious.

  A light touch on my arm brought my attention back to Eivind.

  “If I swim, will you come?”

  Sweat dripped down my elbows. “Yes, that sounds lovely.”

  Eivind and I stepped into the pool, and I felt a little bad that we had invaded the girls’ space. They smiled at us, but after a few moments, they climbed out of the pool to dry off.

  Eivind and I were alone. There were other people in the loungers on the deck, but it was still pretty quiet around the pool. The sun started to duck behind the buildings, and shade crept over the concrete.

  We sighed in pleasure at the cool water.

  “Jonas seems different today,” I remarked.

  Eivind nodded. “Yes, it takes some time to unwind from a passage. The responsibility for us all falls on him, so it is hard on him.”

  I hummed and leaned back against the wall, thinking about what it must be like to captain your own boat. We bobbed in silence. Suddenly Eivind took a deep breath and sunk down into the water. I stood up and watched from the surface as he cycled his arms and legs, keeping himself down at the bottom.

  And I waited.

  And waited.

  I chewed my lip. I could see him pretty clearly down at the bottom, and he didn’t look panicked. I’ve been told since I was a child, though, that drowning doesn’t look like drowning, and to reassure myself, I reached down and tugged his arm. He stood up, surfacing and wiping the water off his face.

  “How do you do that?” I asked.

  “Hold my breath for that long?”

  I nodded.

  He leaned in. “I will tell you my secrets.”

  Eivind taught me how to do some breathing exercises and had me float on my back, his palms lifting me up. “Breathe in,” he coached, “and out.” We breathed together for several minutes. He told me it was all about relaxing and thinking about something else.

  On his cue, I emptied my lungs of air and then refilled them deeply. We sunk to the bottom together, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the pool, peddling our arms to stay down. To distract myself, I looked right at Eivind—and immediately laughed all my air out.

  I broke the surface, panting, and Eivind popped up again. “Okay,” I sputtered. “You can’t look at me while I do this!”

  He tossed his head back and laughed, gathering me up into his arms. “Okay, okay. Try again.”

  I leaned back into his arms, a little bit closer to his body this time. I closed my eyes as I breathed in rhythm with his voice.

  On our next deep inhale, we went down again. Eivind arranged our knees to touch as we sat on the floor. I looked at him and found his eyes closed. He looked transcendental in his calm, even with his arms swirling and keeping him down.

  I distracted myself by studying his face: the strong jaw, the slight stubble, the narrowing to his chin. With his eyes closed, without the view of those startlingly blue eyes, I focused on his mouth. I tried to ignore the burn of my lungs and focus on those soft pink lips, but as distracting as they were, I couldn’t take it anymore.

  As I rose to the surface, Eivind came up after me.

  “Very good!” he exclaimed.

  “How long did I last?”

  He screwed up his face in thought. “Thirty seconds?”

  “What? That’s it?”

  He laughed. “If you want, next time I can bring weights to sink us to the bottom. It makes it easier to stay down.”

  I grinned at him. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

  We practiced several more times, and Marcella eventually joined us, standing by the rim and using a phone as a stopwatch. I got up to forty-five seconds once.

  When we tired of the pool, we hopped out and basked in the sun to dry off. The light was fading, the shadows growing longer, until the lights around the pool clicked on. We gathered our things, and Jonas invited me back to Eik for a sundowner.

  Walking down the dock, we found a party going on at one of the sailboats. I’d had sundowners with this couple before. In their late fifties, Fred was tall and athletic with a nose that had been broken once or twice, and Poppy was an energetic and lithe retired schoolteacher. They were a hoot, gregarious and generous.

  They were enjoying the cooler evening with a few neighbors I didn’t know as well. The six of them crowded around their cockpit table, drinking and laughing as we approached.

  As soon as Poppy spotted me, her eyes lit up,
and she waved us on board. We all climbed into the seats, the eleven of us making it a tight fit. Fred passed out tinnies, one of the men asked Jonas about his watermaker project, and Poppy sidled up next to me.

  She squeezed my shoulders. “I’m so glad you found a boat to crew on! We would have taken you, of course, but with this engine issue, we just don’t know when we will be able to go through.”

  “I know, no worries. And I think it’s gonna work out well on Eik,” I said.

  We chatted about a few other things, Poppy filling me in on her trip to Panama City a few days earlier. She’d asked on the VHF net for a dentist recommendation, so I knew she’d gone in to have a crown replaced.

  Breaking off her thought, she leaned into me. “Girlfriend, what is going on with Eivind?”

  I blushed. “What?”

  She scoffed and shimmied her shoulder against mine. “Don’t act all innocent. He keeps looking at you.”

  I glanced across the room, and Eivind’s eyes caught mine. We grinned at each other. I glanced back at Poppy, who looked at me smugly.

  “Yup.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, nah. Nothing yet. He’s been great, though. He’s teaching me a lot of boat stuff, and today we did some free diving in the pool.”

  “What did he teach you on the boat?”

  I told her about our lessons and some of the sailing terminology I had added to my vocabulary.

  “Has he shown you how to tie a bowline?” she asked me.

  I shook my head.

  She set her drink down and clapped her hands. “I’ll teach you! I have a fun way to learn it. Come on!”

  Poppy led me up onto the bow of the boat, opened one of the lockers, and grabbed a small line for our practice.

  “The bowline is one of the most important knots to learn,” she told me, sounding like the former teacher. “It makes a strong loop at one end of the line, and sailors all practice till they can do it quick and easy.”

  She showed me how to hold the line and loop one side of it. “Now the rabbit comes out of the hole,” she said, “around the tree, and back in the hole.” She pulled her hands apart and showed me the tidy and tight loop. “You try.”