"Because then we'll miss the 10 a.m. boat."
"Boat? What boat?"
"It's a nice day, the snow is melting, the river is flowing again, and I want to do the architecture tour with you."
Her eyes narrowed. "But it's freezing."
"We'll take a blanket, and I'll keep you warm."
She thought about it. "Sure. I've always wanted to do the boat tour."
"And then we can have lunch on the Riverwalk, and don't even try to tell me it's too expensive because I don't want to hear it."
Harper pursed her lips and tried to look innocent. "I wasn't going to protest," she said.
"Let's go, or we'll miss the boat."
Wrapped in a fleece blanket, Dash and Harper spent the rest of that morning learning about some of the most historic sites in Newcastle. Dash heard so many names of architects and schools of architecture, it made his head spin.
They had the entire boat to themselves but stuck close together under the fleece blanket. The tour guide seemed hesitant at first to proceed with a tour for only two passengers but then livened up when Harper started asking lots of questions.
What was supposed to be a one-hour tour soon bled into two hours, as the guide told them dozens of stories about local lore. At one point, the guide drove the boat under one of the bridges that connected the north and south sides of the city. "I'm not supposed to show you this, but since there's no one else here…"
Dash gathered Harper closer as the boat veered straight for the concrete wall that ran along River Drive. They idled close to the wall, next to what looked like a vent.
"If you look very closely, you'll see something strange."
The guide shone a light into the vent, and that's when Dash realized it wasn't a vent at all.
"That's…what is that, part of the sewer tunnels?"
"Nope," said the guide. "That's the original entrance to the tunnels used by the liquor smugglers during Prohibition."
Dash had never heard about such a thing, but he felt intrigued. Harper, of course, seemed to know all about it.
He listened as she chatted animatedly with the guide about her moms' distillery business, about the access to the tunnels below the building that they were shoring up. Dash learned more in that conversation, floating on the river in 45-degree weather, underneath River Drive, than he'd ever learned in any history class in school.
He suddenly had a strange feeling of inadequacy while listening to her talk. He could never hold up his end of a conversation about most of the things Harper had expert knowledge about. Not just history and local politics, but life in general. Next to her, he felt like a blank slate. What right did he have to claim her as his girlfriend?
The dark thoughts descended deeper until their hooks wedged in so deeply, Dash felt the weight of them pressing down, holding him in place.
Chapter Twelve
Harper
They grabbed lunch together at a burrito place on the Riverwalk, as it was the cheapest food available.
Harper felt grateful for the spicy food that warmed her up.
As they ate, they talked about the little adventure they'd just shared.
"Thank you for not making fun of me when I nerded out about the tunnels."
He looked down at her in that confused, surly way. "If I ever mocked a thing you're passionate about before, I'm sorry. I'm hardly able to hold a candle to your smarts."
She smiled while she swallowed down a delicious bite of burrito. "Thank you. But what do you mean about not feeling smart next to me?"
Dash looked out the window. "Just that. I don't know if I can keep up with you. Like, you care about everything, and I care about…almost nothing except my tiny little world."
Harper followed Dash's gaze out the window and thought it would have been good to have this conversation before they decided to become an exclusive couple, but there they were. She folded her hands on the table. "Okay. Tell me who and what is in this tiny world of yours."
Dash shrugged. "You. My friends. My two jobs. My mom. That's it. I…think you're going to get bored of me at some point."
She smirked and, trying to lighten the mood, joked, "You're great at tree climbing."
He made a dismissive sound and looked back at Harper. "Next, you're going to remind me I'm good at fighting."
She grinned. "It's an asset that you can kick someone's ass for me."
She laughed at her jokes, but the humor quickly evaporated when she saw the look on his face. "Dash, come on. Are you serious?"
He said nothing and refused to meet her eyes.
"All right, if that's how you're going to be, then I'll start. You have a steel-trap memory. You remember every face of every person who has ever caused trouble at that bar, and you know exactly how to behave in an emergency. You always make sure the female customers make it to their cars safely. Your mother adores you, and you take good care of her. You're vigilant, alert, passionate about your inner circle, and you're funny. Most of all, you have a kind heart, and that's all that matters to me."
By then, Dash was staring back at her with that intense gaze that used to put her off. At that moment, it made the rest of the world and all of its struggles disappear.
"It's not enough."
Harper felt her heart begin to break.
"You are enough. If you think you're not, then don't you see that's insulting to me? Do you think I would make the wrong choice here? So help me god, if you break up with me less than 12 hours into this relationship, I'm going to haunt your fucking nightscapes, Fitzgerald."
Finally, his face broke into a smile, and he laughed.
"And you make amazing pancakes. So you can cook. Good god, it's a good thing I snatched you up. I'll bet Levi's grandmother has a waiting
