Page 61 of Reel Love

It is.

She lays down BEATIFY off the B in SCABBARD. Between her mostly two-word answers since we discovered our proximity and the fact that she picked up the game instead of typing more about us both living here on Marbella, I get the feeling we’ve tiptoed—or bulldozed—right up to the edge of her comfort zone.

More than anything, I want to assure her we’re good—that I’m a good man and a safe person, notactuallysome stalker. Not that she thinks I am one, but I need to assure her.

Are you okay?I ask.

Still tired. Actually, my exhaustion is catching up with me. Ithink I’m going to call it a night. You can play your turn and I’ll pick up the game from my end when I’m free tomorrow.

I’m not going to try to figure out where you live—here on Marbella. I just want you to know that.

She types immediately and I settle back into my pillows when I read her response.

This may sound weird, but I trust you.

I smile.Good. That’s good. I wish I could provide you some tangible assurance, but you’ll just have to take my word for it. Go get some rest. We can play more tomorrow.

Goodnight, Marbella Man.

My grin breaks across my face to the point where I feel my cheeks tighten.

Goodnight,SaturdayMarbellaIslandGirl.

I’m back from a morning snorkeling the coves near the Alicante with a group using underwater scooters. It’s nearly lunchtime and Ben, Kai and Bodhi are working the shack.

“So, let me get this straight,” Ben says. “You’ve been playing your nerdy word games with this woman, chatting her up—which, by the way, is awesome and far beyond what I’d expect from you—and you find out she’s here? On Marbella?”

“Yep.” I nod, questioning the sanity of having spilled my dilemma to these three guys.

Kai, I’d trust with my life. He’s solid. Bodhi’s pretty mature too. But Ben is this perpetual puppy. He means well, but he might just knock your coffee off the side table with one exuberant wag of his tail.

“Man,” Bodhi says. “That’s so wild.”

“Tell me about it,” I agree. “If that group this morning had any local women in it, I would have been fixated on trying to guess if it’s her. I feel like I’m on a quest to find her now. But I don’t want tooverstep.”

“Overstep?” Ben asks. “What is thisoverstep?” He chuckles. “Man, you are going to be the most single guy on the island forever if you think like that. Pursuit. That’s what we’re wired for. You’re the scientist. Tell me if I’m wrong. What do the males of every species do? I’ll tell you. They pursue. I pursued the heck out of Summer.”

“He did,” Bodhi echoes. “It borderlined on pathetic at times.”

“Pathetic?” Ben postures. “So pathetic that she’s carrying our child right now? I think not. Pursuit, man. That’s the name of the game for males from the kangaroo rat to the dolphin. Haven’t you ever watched Animal Planet?” He turns his attention from Bodhi to me. “Don’t go all mamby-pamby on me now, bro. Man up, Stevens. You are in pursuit of this gamer girl.”

I chuckle. “Actually, in nature, most males strut to garner a female’s attention, or they set up an amazing display for her, like building a dwelling to impress her or providing an enticing meal. She does the choosing. For example, the male elephant seal stays along the central coast and waits for the females to migrate as far north as the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands and then return a year later to mate. No pursuit there. Not a bit. You’ve seen them. The males stay on one beach. No pursuit, just patiently waiting for the female.”

“Well,” Ben says, completely undeterred by logic. “You, my handsome friend, are not an elephant seal. I mean, have you seen them?”

He takes his hand and makes a flap of it and dangles it from his nose and then he starts barking and braying. And then he flops around the shop, rearing his head up like male sea elephants do when they are battling another male. He continues to make loud aaarrh, pllbbtt, and snorting sounds. It’s so over the top that the three of us are cracking up at him.

Ben wobbles over to Bodhi. “Come on, Bodhi, let’s rumble like the ugly elephant seals.”

Bodhi chuckles, but he says, “Stay away from me, Ben.”

“You’re afraid of me? You can’t take me in all my elephant seal awesomeness?”

Kai looks at me and shakes his head. “This. This is where you come for relationship advice?”

I laugh and shrug. Where else am I supposed to go? Besides, this is the most entertainment I’ve had in a while.

Ben’s about to say something else in his rant about pursuing a woman when my phone rings. I look at the caller and hold up a finger. “I have to take this.”

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