Page 53 of The Rebel King

“It is.” I hold out the puffy down jacket I had stowed in the back seat for her to slip her arms in. “And it’s also considered the windiest place on the Pacific Coast. It gets pretty chilly up here, especially when the sun goes down.”

We watch the sun begin its descent toward the sheet of water, taking more light and warmth with it by the minute.

“I assume you have special plans,” she says, smiling for the first time since she climbed on my lap in the car.

“I do.”

An older gentleman wearing a toboggan, a down jacket, and jeans ambles toward us.

“Mr. Cade?” he asks.

“Yes.” I offer my hand. “But please call me Maxim, and you must be Callum?”

“Sure am.” He beams at Lennix. “And is this Mrs. Cade?”

I freeze. Hearing Lennix called “Mrs. Cade” has turned something in me, a revolution of the Earth around the sun. It sparks a deep hunger, a longing for something I didn’t even know I wanted this badly until I heard it. I’ve imagined “a future” with her, but I’d never felt the thrill of hearing my nameattachedto her in an indissoluble way.

“Uh, no.” Lennix laughs, extending her hand. “Miss Hunter. Lennix Hunter.”

“Yes, well,” Callum says, flushing maybe from embarrassment, maybe from the wind. “We should probably get started. The sun’s going down.”

“What are we doing, Doc?” Lennix asks.

“Boating.” I grin when her brow furrows.

“Boating,” she repeats. “A four-hour flight and almost two-hour drive for boating. Must be some special boats.”

Callum opens his mouth, obviously ready to defend his little corner of the world, but I catch his eye and give a quick shake of my head.

“We’ll let you see for yourself,” I tell her. “Callum, show us the way.”

We leave the car in the parking lot and follow him down a long pier to the boat launch where a few kayaks bob along the water’s smooth surface. He suits us up with life jackets.

“Now this area is Point Reyes,” Callum says, “and this is Tomales Bay where you’ll be tonight.”

“It’s lovely,” Lennix comments, her tone polite.

I know her. She’s still thinking about Gregory Keene. Or about Middleton. Or maybe she was as affected as I was by hearing Callum call her Mrs. Cade. The hell if I know what she’s thinking, but I do know only half of her attention is on what Callum is saying.

“Part of the bay is formed along the San Andreas fault.”

“Comforting,” Lennix says dryly.

“And these waters are historically protected,” he goes on to say.

“Historically protected?” That piques her interest. “What’s their historical significance?”

“This whole area was original Coast Miwok territory. That’s a Northern Californian indigenous tribe.”

“I’ve heard about them,” she says, her smile growing warmer.

“Well, Sir Francis Drake landed in this region,” Callum says with a distinct touch of pride. “Drake’s Bay.”

“Drake?” She rolls her eyes. “Well, of course we’d want to protect his ‘discovery.’ Figures.”

“The interesting thing,” Callum goes on, oblivious to how this story might set my girlfriend off, “is that they had all these missions that came in later and forced the Miwok people to assimilate. Settlers killed off the language, the customs, and, in some cases, the people. California has a pretty brutal history with Native Americans in a lot of cases.”

Wow. This guy’s batting a thousand.

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