Page 59 of High Season
He’s wearing a loose-fitting shirt, a pair of board shorts. He grins, looking slightly bashful.
“Actually,” he says. “That’s part of the surprise.”
“I hate surprises.”
“Well, I think you might like this one.”
He reaches out and takes her hand, the unexpected contact making her flinch.
“Come on,” he says. “I’ll show you at the boat.”
As they cross the beach to the small dock, Josie thinks how strange they must look together: she dressed for a dive, he as if going out for drinks. She is agonizingly aware of the glances that they must be attracting.
“There’s a lot of people around,” she says warily.
“Don’t worry,” Nic says. “We’re going somewhere completely private.”
He squeezes her hand.
“We’re almost there. In fact, if you just look that way…”
She recognizes the boat at once. The same one that Hannah’s parents used to take tourists out on, all those years ago, her father’s pride and joy, looking a little more run-down now, but unmistakably the same. Hannah hadn’t been allowed to drive it, and the three of them had taken the smaller, scrappier speedboat out when they were kids. But now, Nic proudly extends one hand to guide her aboard.
“Ladies first,” he says.
“Do we really need the big boat, for just the two of us?” Josie asks, embarrassed by the extravagance.
He laughs.
“It’s my boat now,” he says. “Came with the territory, when I took the business over. Besides. I wanted tonight to be special.”
“Oh?”
He grins at her.
“Come on,” he says. “I’ll show you.”
He leads her to the front of the boat where the bow stretches out toward the sea. An unbroken view of the amber-colored sky, the water reflecting back the yellow-red glow.
“Surprise,” he says, his voice soft, close to her ear.
There, spread out in front of them, is a picnic blanket. A hamper. A bottle of champagne, two glasses waiting next to an ice bucket. A bowl of strawberries. A beautiful, perfect setup for a date. The most romantic thing that anyone has ever done for Josie.
The sight of it makes her heart sink.
“Do you like it?” he says.
He sounds so pleased with himself, so excited.
“It’s—”
“I know it’s a bit clichéd, strawberries and champagne and all that stuff. But I thought after the disaster that our first date turned into, I wanted to push the boat out. No pun intended.”
“Nic, it’s—”
“And we can always go diving another time. But I just thought, for tonight—”
“Nic.”
