The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska #1)(51)
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.”
The utter joy on her face wrapped around Graham’s heart and hauled it down somewhere in his stomach, right where it was easier for her to hold on tight. With a squeal of sheer excitement, Zoey let go of his waist and flung herself into his arms.
“I just saw a killer whale! Graham!”
“We just got beaten up by a killer whale,” he teased, unable to loosen his hold on her. Instead, Graham pulled her closer. “See, gorgeous?” he murmured in her ear. “Not a waste of time at all.”
It would have been the absolute perfect moment to kiss her. Which was why it made complete sense that Graham turned and lost his lunch over the side of the railing.
*
When the violent rocking of the tour boat caused what few passengers who hadn’t gotten sick to turn green, the captain called it a loss and headed back to shore. Killer whale shower or not, some things simply weren’t salvageable.
As for Zoey, her feet were floating ten feet off the ground, even as they were told everyone had to come back inside and stay in their seats.
The ride back to shore was even choppier than the ride out. Every time the boat rose and dipped with the waves, the group would collectively groan. Waves crashed into the bow with heavy slaps of water, the resultant boom vibrating the air around them, turning the tour boat into a metal drum.
To his credit, Graham kept the rest of his insides in, but he had to fight for it. They found a pair of seats away from everyone else near the bow, since so many passengers were gathered back by the coffee station, where the rise and fall of the turbulent waters weren’t as pronounced. The ride was rougher, but at least they had some space. Large hands gripped the edge of his seat until Graham’s knuckles were as pale as his face. She gave him some motion sickness medicine when he asked, but it was too late to help him. Like the rest of the boat, Graham was screwed.
When they finally docked, it was a stampede to get back to solid ground.
“I like you, Zoey,” Graham decided as they grabbed their things and tried to escape the vessel before the masses. “But the next time L says to hop on a boat with you, my answer’s going to be a hard pass.”
“Don’t worry. My glacier tour tomorrow is just me,” Zoey told him, trying to force away her disappointment. It didn’t matter that the tour had been cut short or that so many other tourists had been irresponsible with their motion sickness preparation. She’d not only gotten to see a whale, she’d been drenched by the amazing creature from head to toe.