She's Up to No Good(75)

“Hey.”

“You’re really excited to see a whale, huh?”

“That, and I didn’t want my grandma giving you the third degree about last night.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Appreciate that one. And glad you didn’t bring a harpoon.”

“Didn’t really go with my outfit.” I glanced in the back seat and saw a backpack. “Did you bring your camera?”

“I did. Please don’t tell me you want a picture of you riding a whale.”

I laughed. “You don’t think that’d work?”

“It’d be a great shot. But I think it’s illegal to ride an endangered species.”

“What a dumb law.”

“I know. Such a bummer.”

“What’s the point of even going, then?” He looked at me for probably longer than he should have while driving. “What?” I brushed my hair behind my ears self-consciously.

He shook his head. “I didn’t expect to have this much fun this week. When your grandmother asked me to keep you busy for a couple days.”

“I knew she hired you to babysit me.”

“No, just—I said yes as a favor. She didn’t ask me to take you out yesterday or today.”

I bit my bottom lip, embarrassed. “Oh.” I had just assumed my grandmother had arranged for him to show me around all week.

He looked over again at my tone. “I wanted to.” I didn’t know what to say. But he took my hand, holding it until we parked by the docks.

Instead of going to one of the whale-watching ships, though, Joe led us to a sailboat.

“We’re not doing one of those cruises?”

“Definitely not.”

“Is this your boat?”

“Nah. It’s Tony’s.”

“I should have known.” I looked it over. “Tell me it’s not named for my grandmother.”

He gave me a strange look. “He hasn’t spent the last seventy years pining over her. You know that, right?”

I didn’t know that at all. Everything I’d heard so far made it sound like the two of them were so in love that they’d never get over each other. She also hadn’t seen him since we’d been in town, so I didn’t know what to think. “To hear her talk, no one she’s met has ever gotten over her.”

“You may have a point there.” He climbed onto the deck and held out a hand to help me up. “Let’s go find you a whale.”

I took a seat at the back of the boat while he prepared to leave and watched him setting everything up, his muscles rippling as he pulled the various ropes and moved the tiller.

“How did you learn all of this?”

“My family were fishermen for a hundred years here. I don’t even remember learning.” It seemed fantastical to know something so complicated so intrinsically, but I thought about the hamantaschen my grandmother made every Purim, rolling out the dough, cutting the circles with a drinking glass, adding a dollop of fruit or poppyseed filling, and pinching the corners. I’d have to follow a recipe for the dough and the baking times, but it was still something ingrained in me, something that she had learned from her mother, that I learned from her so young I didn’t remember learning it.

We motored through the harbor, and then Joe opened the sail, positioning it to catch the wind just right, and soon the town grew smaller behind us.

“How do you know where to find a whale?”

“I asked around. And we’ll see how we do.”

“So we just sail around until we do?”

“Basically. We have to go out a ways.”

Once we were in open water, Joe came to join me. “You don’t need to steer?” I asked.

“It has an autopilot. I’ll check it in a bit, but I set a heading, and the wind is steady. We’re good for now. Do you want a drink?”

I glanced at my watch. “Like a drink drink?”

“I meant water or a soda or something, but I’m sure Tony is stocked.”

“Water is great.”

Joe went to the small cabin and returned with two bottles, handed me one, then sat beside me, pulling down the brim of his baseball cap and leaning back. “Good night.”

I elbowed him. “Don’t you dare. I know nothing about boats.”

“Do you want me to teach you?”

“Nah.” I shook my head. “Are you really going to put up that picture of me?”

“It’s already up. I went back last night and hung it.”

I held my hands under my chin, creating a frame. “Hashtag ‘famous.’ Or something.”

He laughed. “You kind of are—my mother wants to meet you.” I recoiled. “Calm down. She said that before I even met you—remember, she knows your mother.”

My shoulders relaxed. “I forgot that part.”

“Will you come to the restaurant tonight? With your grandma, of course.”

“Do we have to bring her? She’s going to make meeting your mom much more awkward.”

“Depends—do you prefer awkward or guilt when you tell her she’s not invited?”

I scrunched up my face. “Neither. We live on the ocean now. We’re voyagers.”