Page 21 of The Prince's Castaway Baby

Jens likes the birds, but helovesthe turtles.

For just a second too long, our hands linger, but I’m too task-focused to think about that. All that matters now is finding the turtles.

We’ve been scoping out the beach for a few days because I promised Jens we’d try and find turtles, and he’s been disappointed so far that we’ve only caught a glimpse of one turtle crawling back to its hole.

“Are we there yet?” Jens whines as we approach.

“Do you ever stop complaining?”

“No.”

“Trick question — I already knew that.”

He pouts at me, and I shake my head again. I refuse to be drawn in by that look. He knows just as well asI do where the nest is, and I’m not in any mood to argue with him.

When we get there, I point to the ground and wait for him to crouch down on it first. We’ve discovered that the best place to sit and observe the turtles is behind a bush, just next to the hole. Jens is sure that we’re never going to see anything, but I keep telling him to be patient.

Fortunately, like this, I can set my camera up on the ground so I don’t have to hold it like with the birds. As I get it in position, Jens slides behind the bush, waiting expectantly for me to finish. I’m going to film a video on my camera so I can pull out the best snapshots later, so all we need to do right now is lie here quietly and wait.

I double-check that the camera is on, and settle into position next to Jens.

Like this, all still and silent, I can’t help but notice how close we are. Because of the way the bush is aligned, to be properly hidden and have the right angle to see, we have to be pressed up against each other, our shoulders bumping.

I can’t help but focus on the way his breathing is slow and even, and how my own falls in rhythm with it.

I wonder if our hearts are beating the same too.

Nothing happens for a long while, and it feels like time is suspended around us, but then Jens gasps softly, and I strain to see what he’s seeing.

There, in the nest, the mother turtle pokes her head out to survey the scene, then, deciding it’s safe, starts crawling out, followedby three babies. They start to waddle away towards the ocean, all in a line, and Jens gasps again, mesmerized by the scene.

I let my eyes dart towards him for a split second. He’s transfixed, his eyes bright and wide, his mouth ever so slightly open in awe at the natural beauty before him. It’s probably the most real expression I’ve ever seen him make.

Just for a second, I think he might be even more beautiful to watch than the turtles.

Then one of the babies stumbles and all my attention is back on the reason why I came here. It shouldn’t be as funny to watch as it is, but something about the way the baby hasn’t quite mastered its own power of walking has both me and Jens biting our lips, trying not to chuckle.

It’s only when the all turtles have vanished into the sea that I realize my left foot has gone numb. I push myself up to sitting, wincing as I do, and grab my foot to massage it back to the land of the living.

“That was amazing,” Jens gushes, sitting up beside me. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. They’re so tiny! I can’t believe something like that can even exist!”

He keeps rambling as we get up, and he offers his hand to help me to my feet. I take it, his palm warm against mine.

When he lets go, the tiniest part of me almost wishes he wouldn’t.

Jens doesn’t stop talking the whole way back to the cabin, monologuing about how amazing turtles are and how cool it is that people dedicate their lives to conserving creatures like this, and how do turtles even breathe underwater anyway, andwho decided to start studying them — but then again we study everything so it shouldn’t really be a surprise, but still, whoever the first person was to find turtles probably found them pretty surprising, and…

Can I really be falling for this stranger? I barely know a thing about him, and yet his energy is making me feel cared for in a way I haven’t for a long time. I don’t remember the last time anyone asked about my work and listened to me talk about it for a week straight. Not just that, but listened and meant it.

I don’t remember the last time I saw someone smile like he does. At the world, and at me.

Maybe it’s just been too long since I was with someone. That, or he’s got some strange power to charm, and I’m falling for it.

But you know when you meet someone and you just know they’reit —they could be a friend or a lover; it doesn’t matter. There are some people with whom, from the very first time you speak, something deep and primal inside your chest connects to something inside theirs, like some threads of a great web have come together and made sense of a part of the universe between you.

And sure, maybe my very first reaction to Jens was irritation, but when he opened his mouth and stopped acting like a complete idiot, well… I guess something in me connected with him.

There’s just such an easiness about him. It’s something simple and honest, and despite everything, it’s real.

---