Their boat was decently sized, but it seemed like far too many people for comfort. Graham didn’t love how everyone was stuffed elbow-to-elbow with each other or how they ended up wedged into an assigned seat with another couple with only inches of tabletop and a solid twenty-five years of life between them.
“Hey there,” Graham tried to greet the other pair cheerfully, earning himself a kick in the knee from the little boy and the girl bursting into tears.
The family seated in the next table over turned around and gave Graham nasty looks.
“What did I do?” he asked plaintively.
“Maybe kids don’t like you,” Zoey teased, setting her Alaska bag on her lap so there was room for the Styrofoam cups being placed in front of them by the boat crew.
“My godsons love me. I’m cool.”
The captain’s voice over a scratchy loudspeaker cut off whatever she would have said next, although by the sparkle in her eye, Graham doubted it was flattering to his godfather awesomeness.
“We’re having reports of a rough sea today, folks. If anyone would like to disembark prior to leaving port, now would be a good time to do so. If not, enjoy your lunches.”
Pushing one of the cups his way, Zoey said, “You get what Lana ordered. If you don’t want the vegetarian chili, you can have my fish chowder.”
“Hmm. I hate to say it, but there’s fish chowder, and there’s fish chowder. That is neither one.”
“You know the millionaire heiress who was my travel partner would have eaten either one of these without complaint.”
“Yes, and she won my last reindeer dog eating competition. Proper chowder is an art form.”
“Mmmmm. It’s soooooo good.” Zoey moaned in pleasure.
“Don’t go all Sally on me now.”
She popped an oyster cracker in her mouth, then squeaked as the boat dipped, splashing water over the bow and chowder over her lap. With a sad little noise, she uprighted the Styrofoam cup and scraped the last third of her meal off her jeans.
“Karma.” Graham nodded sagely. “For saying I’m not cool.”
“I didn’t say it,” Zoey replied, a cute little smirk on her lips. “I thought it, but I never said it.”
Graham winced as he got kicked in the shin this time. “I really do love kids,” he promised her, eyes watering.
“There’s a viewing deck,” she offered. “It’s probably less violent.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. Children, have a lovely day and enjoy your whale watching.”
The little girl stuck her tongue out at him, and Graham almost—almost—caved to doing the same right back at her.
As the boat left the harbor, they found a little coffee station near the center of the main deck. Unfortunately, everyone else had discovered the same thing, meaning they had a wait on their hands. At least no one was kicking him anymore.
“You said poodles make terrible girlfriends,” Zoey said randomly, causing Graham to blink and try to catch up. “Back at the resort. Is this experience talking?”
“If you think I’m dumb enough to go down that train of thought, you’re crazy,” he said decidedly. “But I will say that I like women who wear mud boots just as much as women in Manolo Blahniks. Maybe more.”
“Lana thinks you’re a complete snob.” She arched an eyebrow. “I might be starting to agree with her.”
“It’s possible.” Chuckling, Graham poured himself a cup of coffee, then stepped aside and waited while Zoey fiddled with her own. The line was impatient, but Graham took position beside her, smiling congenially at the other passengers while guarding her right to get her coffee to creamer ratio absolutely perfect. “Hey, Zoey?”
“Hmm?”
“I’d like you even if you had fuzzy duck slippers.”
A cute blush reached her cheeks. But was that guilt in her eyes? Unable to stop himself, Graham shifted closer, smiling down at her. “You have some, don’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Coffees in hand, they stationed themselves at a window near the front of the viewing deck. The intercom screeched, making them both wince as the captain came back on. “Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. The next few minutes will be particularly rough.”
No kidding. As they picked up speed, heading out of the harbor, the boat rose and fell on the waves so aggressively, Graham felt like a bobber in the ocean.
“To distract yourselves, I’d recommend looking out to the left. Sometimes we can see dolphins swimming alongside the boats in this passage.”
Zoey went up to her toes as she looked out the window, trying to see anything remotely close to a splash caused by an animal.
“Graham, I don’t see anything.”
“Don’t worry. These guys get paid to find—oh crap.”
The boat hit rougher water, sending them staggering and Graham’s coffee nearly spilling onto Zoey. “Sheesh, level it out, man.”
“The captain wants everyone in their seats for the next couple minutes,” a crew member said, coming past them.
Neither of them wanted to return to the still-crying little girl and her leg-attacking brother, so they found a small bench against the wall, barely big enough for the two to sit squished together. Graham’s stomach lurched at the roiling of the vessel, and he focused on the view outside to distract himself.
“See that?” He nodded at the shoreline in the distance.
“What am I looking at?”
“I don’t know. I figured you would.”
She gripped the wall for purchase. “Landmasses aren’t my expertise.”
“I’ll make it up for you. Okay, right there, that’s Moose Turd Isle.” When Zoey slapped his arm lightly in admonition, Graham wondered if she knew her attempt not to giggle was all the encouragement he needed to bust out his inner thirteen-year-old.
Amid his describing Big Bazonga Mountain far off in the distance, a look of disgust passed Zoey’s face. “Eww. Another one?”
“Another what?”
“Have you noticed how many people are throwing up?”
Honestly, Graham had been doing his best not to think about it. Even as they reached relatively calmer water, the waves were still enough to have the boat pitching about.
Now that she pointed it out, though, there really were a lot of people growing sick.
“We got another one. The kid with the pointy shoe.”
“Eek, his mother too,” Zoey added.
Everyone was throwing up. With each new gagging noise, another broke ranks and began hurling too. Even Graham was getting grossed out, the smell leaving him more than a little nauseous himself.
Zoey kept twisting around, looking at the other passengers in concern. “Do you think they’ll cancel the trip if too many people get sick?”
Graham didn’t know, but his heart went out to her.
“Come on,” he said. “They opened the doors. Let’s get outside and get some fresh air. Maybe we’ll see something.”
They weren’t the only ones with the idea. The bow was stuffed with green faces and bodies pushing for room on the rail to see…nope. Not to see anything. Just to use the rail as a launching pad for their lunches.
“This is so disgusting.” Zoey started laughing, her eyes filled with tears.
“You have the worst luck, don’t you?” The bow dipped, spraying them with droplets of frothy ocean water. Graham braced his legs wide apart, gripping the handrail closest to him for balance. She did the same, hand brushing his, but Zoey kept turning around, clicking away with her phone, even though all they could see was the cliffside and two sea lions sunning themselves on a partially submerged rock.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve heard from another vessel there’s a pod of killer whales nearby. Let’s see if we can catch them before they go deep.”
With a squeak of excitement, Zoey went up on her toes.
“Graham, I don’t see them.”
Did she have binoculars? Of course she did. But even with the bulky things squashed to her eyeglasses, she still looked disappointed.
Graham’s stomach lurched when the boat crested a series of strong waves, and Zoey nearly ate it, juggling her binoculars and phone instead of holding onto the rail. Normally, Graham made sure a woman wanted his arm around them before doing so, but as she scrambled to keep hold of her things, he doubted Zoey even realized his arm was around her waist.
“Sorry, folks. Looks like they slipped away from us. Keep on a lookout for blowholes. We might see something yet.”
Dropping down to her heels, Zoey’s shoulders slumped. “At least we didn’t get sick, right?”
Graham squeezed her waist, drawing her just a little closer. “That’s something. And the view is—”
“Stunning,” she breathed, finishing his thought.
The captain cleared his throat. “Ladies and gentlemen, there seems to be some activity on our starboard side. It appears—oh.”
“Don’t say it,” Graham murmured. “Don’t say it.”
“It appears the dolphins are chumming the waters.”
Large, horrified eyes turned to Graham. “They’re eating the vomit?”
“They’re eating the vomit.”
It happened so fast, Graham was utterly unprepared for it. One moment, he was staring at the dolphins eating a tour boat’s collective breakfast in equally horrified fascination. The next moment, the largest killer whale he’d ever seen in his life rose up from the water right next to their boat and crashed back down, the force of the whale’s mass rocking their boat sideways.
Graham lost his balance, but two arms wrapped around his waist, holding him up as the boat dropped down into the trench of the wave caused by the jumping whale.
Zoey’s eyes were huge, her hair soaked, her glasses beading with water and askew. “Did that just happen?”
“That just happened, Zo.”