Page 52 of Turn the Tide
“The entire boat ride?” She was pretending to pout, but he could hear the excitement in her voice.
“Look, you want this to be a surprise or not?”
“I love surprises.” She scooted up to the front of the boat and put an arm around his legs. Even this little contact did things to his insides.
The move was eerily reminiscent of that first night and their struggle out to San Elias. He shivered despite the hot sun on his shoulders.
“You know, Eric, if I can’t look, I’ll get seasick and—”
“Bullshit. You wouldn’t get seasick in a bucket in a gale.” Just one more thing he loved about her.
“Okay. Fine. I just wanna peek.”
“No.” He smiled down at her, as worked up as an excited kid on Christmas morning. Which wasn’t too far from how he felt, actually. Except today, he’d be the one giving. “Fine. You can look at the sky.”
She harrumphed but pulled off the blindfold and immediately shielded her eyes. “You didn’t warn me about the sun!”
With a laugh, he handed her sunglasses, swiping a finger briefly against hers, because he never could get enough of this woman. Not even with the amount of time he spent with her. It would never be enough.
Which made this little trip even more of a big deal.
In the past month, while they got to know each other better, he’d been secretly planning something he hoped she’d appreciate.
He let out a shaky breath.Please let her love this.
By the time he pulled around San Elias and spotted the rig straight ahead, she’d put on her headset and was doing a horizontal dance to whatever she had playing on there. Some bass-heavy shit he didn’t really care for. Or, he should say, he hadn’t cared for before. Now, he loved the way it made her dance. So, in turn, he kinda had to love it.
He brought the boat up to the rig’s southwestern leg and squatted beside her, stroked a hand down her arm, and lifted one of the earphones. “We’re here.”
She opened her eyes, ran them over his face as sweet as a caress, then focused past him. “A rig.”
“The rig. Our rig.”
Slowly, she nodded. “Okay. Our rig.”
He shut his eyes hard and counted out three seconds, hoping against hope he’d done the right thing. “Ours.”
“What do you—”
“I reached out to that company. The one in the Marshall Islands that left this thing here.”
Her brown eyes were huge. Massive, a little doubtful, a little excited. He wanted to squeeze her to him.
“It’s ours now,” he repeated.
“What are you—”
“Come on up.”
“You okay, Eric? Are you having a meltdown or something? This seems crazy.”
“Only a little.”
He grabbed the ladder, then reached for her hand. “You first.”
Right beside the rig, something bobbed up. A sleek, gray head, followed by the whiskery snout.
“Oh my God!” Zoe’s hands flew to her face. “It’s Sea Lion Bob! Oh, shoot! I don’t have my diving gear to check on the others, or—” She leaned far over the side. “Come here, Bob. Come here, baby!” Eric watched impatiently, but also with a kind of awe while she rubbed her knuckles against the creature’s head. Bob, it seemed, liked Zoe almost as much as Eric did.
