In spite of the chill in the air, the sun had come out. I turned to look out over the rail at the harbor. Just being close to the water like this made me feel better.
“Hey,” I said, turning to him. “Thank you.” He handed me a bottle of water.
“No problem. I hope you’re paying attention. I expect much wining and dining from you the next time we go out.”
“I would love to do so.”
“Glad to hear it. I have standards, you know.”
“I should hope so.”
“What were you thinking about so intently before I got back?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were lost in thought again, staring out over the water.”
“Well, if you must know, I was thinking it was good wind today and it would be great for a sail.”
His face brightened. “You sail?”
“Since I was little. I love it. Although I learned to sail on lakes, and that’s a lot different than open water like this.”
“I haven’t done lake sailing.”
“The winds are shifty, because the lakes where I sail are in valleys, and the wind whips around a lot more. I’ve capsized more boats than I care to remember.”
“I’m on the Academy’s sailing team.”
“Really? That’s awesome. I didn’t know they had a sailing team.”
He gave me a sort of snarky look. “Um, Naval Academy? Hello?”
“True. We have a team at school, but I don’t race, so I don’t really know which schools have teams and which ones don’t. Smart ass.”
“Why don’t you race? It’s fun.”
“Just not my thing. I like to sail alone because I like the peace. And the being alone. Racing isn’t really conducive to that.”
We stopped talking to watch the boat push away from the dock. The deck hands literally pushed her away. She drifted for a moment, and then faster than I thought possible, the boat had turned and headed out towards more open water.
There were a couple of boats on mooring balls, bobbing slightly as we passed. I was struck at how many really nice boats people just let hang out on a mooring ball.
Seth didn’t speak for a bit, then picked up our conversation where it had left off. “So no racing. Fair enough. You always sail alone?”
“Usually. I used to go out with my dad when I was younger, but learning to sail without him was like a rite of passage in my house.” Before the drinking increased and nothing was fun anymore. Then sailing became an escape.
“How many brothers and sisters do you have?” He asked.
“God, a tribe. Four brothers and three sisters.” All of whom I ought to call sometime.
“That is huge. Your parents are—” I cut him off.
“Insane. There’s barely a year between each successive kid. My poor mom was pregnant for eight years.”
“You want that many kids?
“Oh, god, no! I don’t even want to think about kids yet. I’m the youngest, I have four nieces and five nephews, and if I need a kid fix all I need to do is baby-sit.”
“Nature’s birth control.”
“You know it. I also have a free-spirited sister and two very nature-oriented sisters-in-law, so I have been present for four home births. If all the kids in one place didn’t cure me that certainly did.”
Seth held up his hands. “I don’t want to know.”
“No, you don’t. Suffice to say, I am not into kids. Not for a while. And certainly not a tribe, although I love all my family to death.” As I spoke the words, I realized it was true. Good job, Dhameer. This was multifaceted.
“Did he teach you all to sail?”
“He tried. Not everyone was interested. My mom never has been, so my dad sails small boats. I wouldn’t mind doing some long cruising, though. I think that would be fun.”
Seth laughed. “You really don’t know what you want to do, do you?”
“No. That must seem off to you, since you’ve basically planned out your life.”
“A little. But not in a bad way. It sounds kind of fun, although I’d probably start to stress if I wasn’t able to pick a direction.”
“My mom says I can always come home and wait tables, if I need to. Only for a year, though.”
“Why only a year?”
“It’s necessity,” I said. “With eight kids, you can’t afford to have a lot of them loafing around at home after college. They need to be out on their own. My parents don’t mind helping a little, but after that first year, you’re on your own.” All the others had escaped as soon as they could. Dad had been getting really bad by the time I was in high school.
“I can see why they had to make the rule. I wouldn’t want any of them back.” He laughed.
“Well, all but one of us got scholarships to college, so my parents got a pass on that. They don’t like us being lazy, though, so that’s why the one year rule.”
“I like it.” He hugged me.
“Yeah, they’re good people.” I couldn’t help but to cast a quick glimpse skyward. I’d told so much fluffy bullshit about my parents I expected a lightning bolt at any moment.
“Except for this whole non-supporting the major thing,” Seth said, teasing me.
“Yeah, and I can’t really change it again. I’m in second semester, sophomore year. I don’t really want to, but it’s getting to the point where I can’t. I’m already prepared,” I held up my hands. “I can already hear Dad.”
“You wish you could get a do-over?”
“What?” I whipped my head around to look at him. “What do you mean?” Why would he use that choice of words?
“You know, a do-over. Where you get to go back and make a better call.”
“Doesn’t everybody want do-overs about some things? About my major, no. I am content with it. I was in accounting because my dad and mom felt with my affinity for numbers,” I did air quotes around the last three words, “it was an obvious choice. I hated it. So middle of last year, I switched.”
“Okay, what would you do over, then?” There was an intense look on his face.
Wow. I was kind of caught off guard. I decided to answer honestly. It was just an innocent question. Right?
“Things I was too afraid to do, or try, or chances I wasn’t ready to take, or that I couldn’t see.”
“Like what?” He persisted.
“You expect me to spill all the skeletons in my closet?” I asked.
“Sure. No better time than the present.” He gave me a cheesy grin.
“You spill first, then.”
Seth laughed. “Oh, no. I asked you first.”
“We’re out on this lovely boat, enjoying an almost sunny day, right? There you go. I took a chance. What else do you need?” I laughed at him, wanting to lighten things up a little.
“True,” he answered me with a wide grin. “See what a good kiss can do?”
“Win, win,” I said and leaned into him. Without looking at him, I asked, “What about you? What would you do over?”
“I guess that’s fair,” he said. “Probably being such a dumbass in high school. I was really lucky to get into the Academy. My freshman year of high school, I didn’t take anything seriously. Caused me a lot of grief. My parents got to the point where I couldn’t leave the house.” He looked over at me, and rolled his eyes.
“Ah, you were a wild child.”
A look of pain crossed his face so fast I wasn’t sure I had really seen it. “I was. But I pulled myself together, and then sophomore year, my dad had me talk to one of his friends who was an Academy grad. It gave me something to focus on rather than seeing how much of my parents’ liquor cabinet I could drink.”
“Yours had one? Mine hid theirs. To this day, we don’t know where they keep it. They said they had to, in order to be able to have a drink now and then.” I couldn’t believe I said that with a straight face. They had said that, but it was because they didn’t want us to keep track of just how much they were drinking.
He gave me a small smile, and then as he continued, it was gone. “So I did get a do-over. Sort of. Some things, you can’t do over. Now, though, when I see something I think is worth it, I’ll take a chance. Calculated, of course, but still a chance. Life’s too short.” He looked off over the rail across the water. It framed his profile, and I felt my hormones give a very large twitch. He was really hot. And smart. And funny. And a Monty Python fan.
Part of the reason I’d wanted to see what happened with Seth was because I remembered how attractive he was. His looks were only part of it. He had a great many attractions.
So he had shit that made me pause? So what? We all did. I’d drive myself crazy over this if I kept on in this fashion.
Whoa. Whoa. It hit me suddenly—Rick, while a risk, wasn’t really a risk. I knew, for the most part, who he was. In addition to how he felt. I didn’t know jack about Seth. In that I faced real risk.
Probably why I insisted on going round and round over this. It was the second do-over, but the first real risk. I felt stunned at this realization.
My crazy inner talking lady made me smile. Just a little. At least this time she’d given me something substantial.
“What?” He asked.
He’d noticed the smile. “You really want to know?”
“Sure.”
“I’m really enjoying myself. This has been a great day so far.” Light. Keep it light, crazy lady. Risk isn’t all bad, and this is supposed to be good.
“At least I’m still in the ‘great’ category.” He looked amused. “I have a fighting chance of at least hitting ‘okay’ overall.’.
I smiled. He probably would hit the okay mark all the time. I tried to play it casual. “I think you do, too.” I couldn’t say that a lot of the things he said made warning bells go off for me. I wouldn’t say it. It was my baggage, and no one else needed to share it, or be burdened with it.
“Well, good.” He put his other arm around me and hugged me close. I let myself lean back into him. I thought I’d miss the tallness of Rick but again, Seth felt right.
“Tibby?”
“Hmm?”
His voice brought me from my own navel gazing. In my defense, it was rather important navel gazing.
“I’m really glad you called me this morning.”
At that, I did face him. I wanted to see him. “Me, too. It was a smart choice on my part.”
He met my stare. Didn’t flinch. Looked right back at me, and I felt my insides go haywire. It wasn’t just physical with him, although part was there. In spades.
“I have to agree. This has been really fun today.”
“Even though all we did was talk?” I grinned again.
“Well, don’t forget we’ve gone out on the premier tourist attraction!” He let go of me to wave an arm around.
I followed his hand with my eyes. It was beautiful. “I know you’re kind of kidding, but I’m glad we did. Although it makes me miss the water fiercely.”
“Me, too. Do you sail board?”
“No, I’ve never done that, although I’ve seen people. It looks like a lot of work! I’m not sure it’s a good fit for my lazy ass!”
He laughed. “It is, depending on the wind. I have a couple of sail boards. Maybe we could go out sometime, and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
I laughed. “Oh, will you? I just bet you will!”
He laughed with me, and then met my eyes. The laughter faded as we both fell, into one another.
Which sounds cheesy, but it isn’t.
He changed the subject. “Since we have departed from the standard date M.O. can I do so even more and kiss you again?”
I turned to him. “I would really like that, Seth.”
He had an arm around me, and he put his other hand up to my cheek. He leaned in, and kissed me. I reached up and put my arms around his neck, pulling him a little closer. He leaned into me, deepening the kiss. Oh boy. It was broad daylight, and I was making out in a public place. To hell with it. I wouldn’t see any of these people again. I kissed him back with fervor. He held my face a little harder, the hand that was around my waist coming up to the other side of my face so that he was cupping it. Oh me oh my. I could feel my insides melting. He relaxed his hold on my face. I leaned back towards him and gave him one last kiss. I couldn’t help it, it was so delicious kissing him.
“You are something,” he said.
“That I am. So are you,” I replied.
“I am glad you think so.” He kept running his fingers through my hair. Occasionally, they would brush up against my scalp, and it made shivers run from my head all the way down to my toes.
“You have till forever to stop that,” I said.
“Normally, I’d be all over that request, but I think we’ll get kicked off the boat first,” said Seth.
“Oh, wow. We’re already back. I didn’t even notice.”
Seth didn’t say anything, but stood and pulled me up with him. He held my hand as we left the upper deck and walked off the would-be riverboat.
As we walked back towards Main Street, we didn’t speak. We were holding hands and occasionally one of us would look at the other, but not say anything. Being silent with someone is hard. When you find you can be comfortable and not feel the need to go on, not only is it nice, it’s rare. I hadn’t felt that before, at least not when I’d been able to stop myself, like I did today.
Suddenly, Seth stopped and turned towards me. “I don’t want today to end,” he said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I know. Neither do I.” I found his honesty so refreshing. Why, oh why, did we play so many games?
“It doesn’t have to. What would you like to do next?”
“What would you like to do? This is your town.”
“Before I do anything else, let me call the guys and tell them I won’t be back.”
“You made plans for tonight? I’m hurt,” I mock pouted.
“You never know how these things will turn out. C’mon, you know that.”
I laughed. “I know, I’m just giving you a hard time. I have to call Danni. She’ll either be thrilled or yell at me.”
“She yells at you?”
“Privilege of being my good friend.”
Seth didn’t reply, he just looked at me and then walked a little ways away from me to make his call. I pulled out my cell phone and called Danni.
“Hey! Tib! How are things going?” She was practically screaming.
“Danni, calm down. Please. It’s going well. I’m probably not going to make it out tonight.”
She gave a whoop. “That is great news! You better be saving up the details, Chica! Hey, did you block Tim?”
“Yeah, why?”
“That explains why he called me, full of lies and crap. I told him you were out and I didn’t know where you were. Then he said, ‘I know she’s there, put her on the phone.’ I said, no, seriously, she is out for the day. He said, ‘doing what?’ I said, aren’t you guys over? Don’t think it’s your business. Then I hung up.”
“Danni, you are amazing. That jerk. You can block him too, if you want.”
“Already done, sister. So, are you hanging out downtown? Will called me, and we’re meeting down there later.”
“I don’t know what we’re doing. We might see you. Don’t stampede, please?”
“Promise. Okay, I have to figure out what to wear. Be good, sort of, and remember everything!”
“I will. I’ll text when I am on my way back. Hey, you want me to text your mom too so I don’t scare her if I come in without you?”
“Good idea. I’ll send you her number and let her know. Later, girl.!” And with a click, she was off. She never lingered on the phone. I liked that about her.
I put my phone away and saw that Seth was still on the phone. He turned and saw that I was done and held up a finger. In a moment, he was done. He walked back towards me.
“Apparently Will and Danni have plans as well, in a large group setting,” he sai
d.
“She told me. Wanted to know if we’d run into them.”
“I’d rather not. It gets pretty noisy in the bars here. Can you even get in?”
“I would rather not go to one anyway. So what’s the plan?”
“I have an idea, but I need to make another call. Excuse me again,” and he walked away.
I watched the boats still moving up and down in the canal. I liked this little downtown area. Danni always went on about her hometown, and I could see the charm. It looked like Seth had a couple of calls to make. Hopefully, it would involve somewhere indoors. It had been a little on the crisp side all afternoon, but as it got later, it was getting colder. My toes were starting to complain.
I stopped contemplating my toes as Seth came back over to me.
“Hey, is that a red nose I see?” He asked.
“Probably. It’s starting to get chilly. Tell me we’re going to head somewhere warmer.”
“We are. I called my sponsors. They’re out of town, but they don’t care if I crash there when they’re gone.”
“What are your sponsors?”
“Families in the area who take you in during your first year. You can’t drive or do a whole lot, and it’s a demanding schedule, so they give you somewhere to go on the weekends to get you off base for a while. Mine are older with no kids, and they love having me around. Sarah and Jonathon. They live right down here, which has been great for me. I can walk or bike to their house. Easy getaway when I need it. It’s warm, and they have a fireplace. Sound good?”
“I was sold on the inside and fireplace part. Sounds great.”
“Let’s go get your car. They have a place to park, and then we don’t have to walk back later.”
We headed for my car which was on one of the little narrow streets. Once we got to it, he asked if he could drive.
“Are you desperate for time in a car?”
Three Wishes: Time Traveler Romance (Heart Of The Djinn Book 1) Page 9
