A struggle went on inside himself. Should he? Shouldn’t he? “With an invitation you can’t refuse,” he heard himself say.
She glanced up, clearly puzzled. “What kind of invitation?”
He stared down into her upturned face, so damn pretty. But it was those glimpses of her vulnerability that got to him as much as her potent physical appeal. Face it, he was a sucker for Lilly Durand, the whole package—her curling hair, her steadfast nature, her sexy little sparkly painted toes.
His hand caught hers, because it was impossible not to want to touch her. They’d reached the resort, and he tugged her toward the path leading from the beach to the lobby. “It’s not old-time pirate fun, but you could join my family on the whale watching boat tour we have planned for later today.”
The hand he held stayed trustingly in his, a coup. She looked over her shoulder at the soupy weather. “In this stuff?”
“It’s forecasted to clear off. And think about this—when you get back to shore, you’ll have something to talk to Audra about besides the perfidy of men.”
Her brows shot high. Then after a second, she grinned. “We’re actually striving for that.”
He felt his own smile break over his face. “Then it’s a date.”
It wasn’t until they strode off in separate directions that his words finally sank in. A date. An opportunity to get to know Lilly better.
Hell. Exactly what he’d told himself he was going to avoid.
The fog had indeed lifted by twelve, and later that afternoon Lilly found herself boarding the whale watching vessel along with the Thatcher party, which consisted of relatives ranging from age eight to above sixty. She’d spent the hours after the morning beach walk second-guessing her agreement to join them, but it came down to bowing to her curiosity.
Not about what it would be like to spend more time with Alec—she’d devised a strategy to avoid him by keeping to herself, or if that didn’t work, keeping herself close to other members of the group. But who could resist a cruise that promised a glimpse of intriguing sea creatures?
The boat, they were told upon arrival, was a high-speed catamaran with a wave-piercing hull. That didn’t mean anything to Lilly, a nautical novice, but she appreciated the spaciousness of it. It could accommodate close to seventy people and had an upper sun-deck and a raised forward bow area, both great locations for in-the-elements viewing. There was also a teak-paneled cabin with tables and seating that included a buffet set-up and a full bar.
As the vessel pulled out of its slip in the harbor, Lilly lingered in that area where some younger kids from another group were coloring with crayons, managing even with their arms awkwardly held away from their bodies by the life vests they were required to wear. When one little girl, about five, dropped her pink crayon, Lilly retrieved it.
The kid responded with a sunny smile and invited her to share the page, indicating the sea urchin outlined there. Since they were still chugging slowly toward the sea, Lilly slipped into the seat opposite and went to work, idly listening to the children’s chatter. Had she ever been this young and carefree? She remembered coloring in what she considered her “room,” which was a tiny space behind the living room couch on which she slept. When not in use, she hid her box of crayons so that her older cousin, Frank, wouldn’t steal them or break them.
Never had she felt relaxed or safe, she thought now.
A sudden need to sweep those old memories away sent her out of the cabin and onto the boat’s walk-around decks. The vessel’s speed had increased and they were heading west, toward islands that poked up from the water. She sucked in the bracing air and blew it out again, expelling as forcefully the painful recollections of her childhood.
She knew those years were why she was Audra’s opposite, pessimistic where her friend was usually sunny-natured; guarded where the other woman was open and trusting. Lilly’s consolation was that the tough exterior she’d built meant she’d never again be susceptible to hurt or disappointment or downright fear. Until she’d earned her college scholarship, every night she’d gone to bed wondering what she’d do if her mother came back. Or what she’d do if her mother never did, and her aunt and uncle kicked her out.
She’d had enough emotional insecurity for a lifetime.
“Enjoying the view?” a familiar voice said from behind her.
Her stomach swooped and she reluctantly turned, only to realize it wasn’t Alec, whom she wanted to elude, but his father, Vic Thatcher.
She couldn’t help but smile at him. His tall build was similar to his son’s and their features were very much the same. The older man had an inner stillness about him, though, that calmed her nerves—quite unlike her reaction to Alec.
“It’s incredible,” Lilly said. “Thank you so much for including me.”
“Miranda and I are glad you came along. It’s good for everyone to have the chance to enjoy all this natural beauty.”
“It’s wonderful.” She indicated the craggy and wild-looking bodies of land rising from the water up ahead. “Those are the Channel Islands, right?”
“Some of them. We can’t see them all from here, but the ones you’re looking at make up the Channel Islands National Park and the waters surrounding them are a marine sanctuary.”
“So the whales passing through are protected?”
“In more ways than one,” Vic said. “The whales migrate to their birthing grounds in the waters off Baja, California, in the winter and then head back up to the Gulf of Alaska for the summer. It’s thought that the channel’s shallow waters and beach surf create enough background noise that it covers the sound of communication between whale mothers and calves, keeping them safer from predators.”
“You must have been a professor in another life,” she
