Meet me on the beach at ten a.m. Bring togs, a hat and sunglasses.
Excitement swirled in her belly. She knew she needed to get her assignment finished but she’d just work all day tomorrow. She wasn’t going to miss this opportunity for sightseeing or spending time with Seb. In just a couple of days she could already feel herself changing, becoming the person she thought she could be. She was leaving the old Luci behind. Leaving behind the doubts and the failures. This was her time to start again, to step through the doorway and into her future, and it felt like Seb could help open the door.
She slipped a white cotton sundress over her black bikini, sunglasses over her eyes and a soft, straw hat onto her head. Figuring she’d need a towel if she needed her bathers, she stuffed one and some sunscreen into a bag and headed to the beach across the road.
The beach was small, really only a cove, and apart from a couple and their dog it was empty. Luci scanned up and down along the sand but she couldn’t see any sign of Seb. Assuming he wouldn’t be far, she sat on the sand and looked out to sea. Little boats bobbed on the water at their moorings, but there were a lot fewer than normal. People must have headed out for the day. The weather was perfect for boating, the sky bright blue and cloudless, the water relatively calm, and the sun was already warm.
Movement to her right caught her eye and she watched as a man rowed a dinghy towards the shore. He had his back to her and was bare to the waist, and she watched the muscles in his back flex and relax as he pulled the oars through the water. As the boat got closer she realised the oarsman was Seb. She barely knew him and it wasn’t like she could recognise his movement patterns or even the shape of his shoulders and torso yet, but she recognised the funny fluttery feeling in her stomach that she got when he was nearby.
The boat ran aground and he stowed the oars and jumped out in one fluid and graceful movement. He turned and smiled when he saw her waiting there. His hair was wet, it looked darker than his normal chestnut, and his bare chest was lightly tanned and perfectly sculpted. His swimming trunks were damp and clung to his thighs. She swallowed as the fluttery feeling in her stomach intensified.
‘Good morning,’ he greeted her.
‘Good morning,’ she replied, hoping the sun was hiding the blush that she could feel stealing over her cheeks.
He reached out a hand and helped her to her feet. His hand was warm and strong but his grip was gentle. The butterflies in her stomach went crazy.
‘You’re ready?’ he asked her.
‘Where are we going?’
‘Out on the harbour.’
Luci looked doubtfully at the boat at the water’s edge. ‘In that?’
Was he kidding? The boat was barely ten feet long and had no motor.
‘At first.’ He was laughing at her discomfort. ‘You’re not a sailor?’
‘I grew up in the country. This looks a little small,’ she said, as she stood and surveyed the little vessel.
‘It’s okay. I have a bigger boat.’ He smiled at her and Luci noticed that his eyes were the same bright blue as the sky. ‘This is just the tender to get us out there. Hop in.’
He took her bag and held her hand as he helped her into the dinghy. Her body came to life with his touch. The butterflies took flight and swarmed out of her stomach and lodged in her throat. She didn’t think she could breathe. But he had to let go of her to push the boat off the beach and then she was able to inhale a lungful of salty sea air.
He spun the boat around and jumped in, sitting on the seat opposite her. Their knees were almost touching.
He gripped the oars and pulled through the water. She could see his muscles straining. His biceps and triceps alternately tensed and relaxed. His pectoral muscles flexed in his chest. His abdominal muscles were taut. She could feel a blush deepening on her cheeks. She looked out at the harbour as she tried to get herself under control.
‘What is your boat called?’ she asked, as she scanned the yachts, reading the names painted on the hulls.
‘She doesn’t have a name yet. She needs a bit of work and once she’s finished I’ll work out what to call her. It will depend on how she feels.’
‘She?’
‘All boats are female.’
‘Why is that?’
‘I’m not sure.’ He grinned and she suspected he was about to spin her a story. ‘Probably because no matter how much money you spend on them, it’s never enough.’
‘Hey, that’s not fair,’ she argued, as he laughed. ‘We’re not all high maintenance.’
‘Well, I hope you’re not because you might be disappointed by today if you are.’
Luci doubted that. In her opinion the day was already off to a very good start.
Seb pulled the dinghy to a stop beside a sleek white cabin cruiser, then secured the tender before stepping on board and reaching for her hand. Luci was prepared for her reaction to his touch this time and managed to take a deep breath before she took his hand. He helped her on board and then picked up a boathook and dragged a mooring rope closer and tied off the tender.
‘Come, I’ll give you a tour before we take off.’
‘A tour?’ Of what? she wondered. Surely there wasn’t much to see?
He opened a small gate at the rear of the boat and Luci stepped off the back ledge. There was a steering wheel with a driver’s seat and a small bench seat ran perpendicular to that along the left-hand side of the boat. Luci knew that left and right weren’t called that on a boat but she didn’t know much else.
Seb put her bag on the seat. ‘Follow me,’ he said as he ducked his head and made his way down three small steps into the front of the boat.
Luci hadn’t noticed the steps until Seb showed her but she did as she was told, finding herself in a compact cabin. A kitchen bench complete with a sink ran along the wall to her right and a small table surrounded by a bench seat sat to her left. In front of her, at waist height, raised above a bank of cupboards, was a large flat wooden surface. But all of that barely registered. Seb was still shirtless and the small confines of the cabin meant he was standing only inches from her. She realised that he must have swum out to the boat to retrieve the tender before rowing back to shore to collect her. His chest was smooth and almost hairless and she could see the white spots where the salt had dried on his skin.
‘This is it.’ Seb’s head was almost brushing the ceiling and his left hand almost brushed against her as he gestured to the space around them. ‘I have to install new kitchen cabinets and appliances, these have seen better days, and…’ he slapped his palm a couple of times on the flat wooden platform ‘…get a decent mattress for my nautical futon and then I’ll be able to take her out for more than just day trips.’
‘You’ll be able to sleep on the boat?’
‘I already have but only in my swag. But if I’m going to live on her I want something a little more comfortable and permanent than that.’
‘Live
