Vic laughed. “Certainly not what I was in the earlier part of this one. I didn’t concern myself with anything but making money until five years ago, when…well, when I retired and started thinking of other things.” His smile dimmed a moment, but then brightened again. “Now I take time to smell the roses and enjoy family, friends, and my wife.”
“I don’t think I’ve congratulated you on thirty-five years of marriage.”
“Thank you. It seems like just yesterday I met Miranda. She sat next to me in the dining commons at college one day and I was so struck by her beauty that I actually dropped the French fry I was holding. It landed in her lap.”
“I don’t believe it for a minute,” Lilly said, grinning. “I can’t see you ever being clumsy.”
“Believe it. But I don’t regret my awkwardness because Miranda didn’t bat an eye. She just picked up the fry, bit into it, and asked me if I wanted to go to a party with her that night.”
Lilly laughed. She could imagine the older woman turning the moment into an opportunity with a handsome guy. As Vic continued regaling her with stories of their budding courtship, she knew exactly from whom his son had learned his charm.
How easy life made it for some people, she mused. No wonder Alec walked around with such confidence and self-possession. Nothing ugly, no true hurt touched the Thatcher family.
“Here you are,” another masculine voice said from behind her. This time it was Alec, bearing a glass of wine in each hand. “Dad, Mom’s looking for you,” he added, passing off one of the beverages to Lilly.
With a jaunty salute to her, the older man hurried off.
She smiled as she watched him go. “I need to be honest,” she told Alec, “and tell you I may have a bit of a thing for your father.”
His eyebrows rose. “Uh-oh. Is that a sign of daddy issues? You’ll have to tell me—”
A shout interrupted the rest of his thought and then everyone was rushing to the other side of the boat. Nature’s show, apparently, was on.
An hour-and-a-half later, Lilly sighed as the vessel returned to the harbor. “I can’t believe we saw all of that.” A pod of dolphins had showed up to escort them on their outward-bound trip, wowing the spectators with their leaps and dives. Then they’d spied the distinctive plume from a whale’s blowhole, followed by a display of tail-slapping so loud—even from a distance—that she’d gripped the ship’s railing, her heart pounding.
For the finale, they’d witnessed a humpback whale breaching.
“I still don’t have my breath completely back,” Lilly said to Alec, who’d remained by her side. “Those creatures are so big.”
“And we didn’t see any blue whales today, though we might have. They’re the largest animal ever known to have lived.” His shoulder brushed against hers.
“Really?” She glanced over, cursing herself for how aware she was of him. The entire time they’d stood together, her skin had prickled like an incipient sunburn and she’d caught herself taking swift peeks at him, trying to memorize every expression on his face.
“When they’re born they’re as big as full-grown hippos. The heart of an adult weighs 400 pounds.”
“Okay, really big.”
His gaze slid to her, a sly light in them. “They also have the largest penis of any living organism. Eight-to-ten feet long.”
Hearing him say “penis” made her blush, that’s how silly she was. “Oh, how, um, interesting.” Lilly fought any even sillier shiver.
“Hey, you’re cold,” Alec said. Sidestepping, he drew up behind her and put his arms around her body, bringing her back against his heat.
This time she reacted with a full-body tremble. “I must have gotten chilled,” she said, breaking free of him. “I think I’ll go to the cabin until we dock.”
Naturally, he came with her.
But it was safer there, where almost all of the other sightseers now congregated, taking up hot or cold drinks and partaking of a buffet of appetizers and desserts. Alec snagged them both another glass of wine and then they found a small space to stand.
Still too close, Lilly thought, grimacing. But she couldn’t really make a big fuss about it when it was she who had claimed there was no reason they couldn’t be friendly.
Directing her attention away from him, she saw the same kids from earlier sitting at a nearby table, now drawing what she supposed might be dolphins and whales on blank sheets of paper. Her little friend glanced up and gave her a wave.
Smiling, Lilly waved back, and the kid held up her artistic creation for her appraisal. Blue squiggles and a couple of enthusiastic but sloppy green circles. She put two thumbs up, now grinning.
“Cute,” Alec said.
She glanced at him, noting he was looking at her instead of the child. Flushing again, she stared into her glass of wine as if she found it fascinating.
“I can see you as a mom. You’d be great.”
Aghast, her chin shot up, her head swiveled, and she gawked at him. “You’ve got to be kidding. I have absolutely no maternal skills.”
“You don’t need skills. I bet you can get skills from YouTube videos or a What to Expect book. You need instincts, Lilly. And you’ve got those in spades.”
“Huh?” The notion that she’d be any good at all with small persons continued to flummox her.
“You’re loyal. Sympathetic. And I bet you’re great with details.”
“That’s motherly?” she questioned. “It sounds more like a dog who can also fill out tax forms.”
“It’s a damn good start on motherly. Throw in an adorable infant with your sweet face and hopefully the daddy’s less thorny personality and you’ll be in family heaven.”
She wanted to retort that most people didn’t find her particularly thorny, but that was a lie, and then she thought of the phrase “family heaven” and got sidetracked. Family had never meant heaven to her, but she could see why Alec would use that phrase, coming from Thatcher perfection.
“It’s you
