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“Good. I only have one other question: do you get seasick?” she asked.

I sipped my wine. “I don’t think so? But you never know.”

“We can stop and get something on the way,” she said.

“On the way to…” I said, hoping she would elaborate.

“On the way to where we’re going,” she said with a satisfied smile.

“That’s what you said when we went on the helicopter date,” I said.

“There’s no helicopter involved this time,” she said. “But I still think you’re going to like it.”

“Color me intrigued,” I said.

“You make me feel lazy,” I said the next morning when Ryan came back into the bedroom from her post-run shower.

“You could get up and run with me,” she said, dropping her towel.

“I prefer more horizontal exercise,” I said, sitting up and letting the blanket fall. My sleep shirt was so thin that you could see my nipples right through it, which was the point. Sleeping naked wasn’t comfortable for me, but I liked giving Ryan a reason to touch me in the morning.

Ryan stared openly at me and I crooked my finger at her.

She approached the bed and leaned down to my level.

“What kind of horizontal exercise did you have in mind?” she asked.

“Oh, I had some idea of you,” I said, reaching to stroke her center, “and me.” I brushed my fingers across my lips.

“I think I like this idea,” she said, crawling onto the bed with me.

“You know I want you to sit on my face, right?” I said and she laughed as she kissed me.

“Yes, I got the gist,” she said, pushing me onto my back and taking my glasses off my face.

Chapter Thirteen

We didn’t drive to an airfield this time, but I wasn’t disappointed when I saw the destination.

“Are we for real going on a whale watch?” I asked, after reading the sign on the small building situated in front of a dock that led down to the sparkling ocean and a lovely passenger boat.

“We are,” Ryan said. “Let’s take our motion sickness pills now.”

She and I tossed back pills with some water and then made our way into the building.

Ryan checked us in while I looked at the pictures of gorgeous whales flipping in the ocean that other whale watchers had taken. In spite of living in New England my whole life, I’d never been on a whale watch before.

Ryan came back over and told me that we were checked in and could go down to the boat.

“Are we going to need those?” I asked, pointing to a picture of a family wearing plastic ponchos and smiling.

“They have them on the boat if we need them,” she said, holding out her hand.

I took it and she led me down the steps to the dock.

A perky woman wearing a polo with the name of the company on it came over to us.

“You must be Ryan and Everly,” she said, shaking both our hands. “I’m Jen and I’ll be your guide for the trip. If you’ll just watch your step.”