Page 16 of Megan's Mate
“Come about,” he murmured, and turned her to face him. One look at her face had his brows drawing together. She was pale as a sheet, with an interesting tinge of green just under the surface. Dead sick, he thought with a shake of his head. And they were barely under way.
“Did you take anything?”
There was no use pretending. And she didn’t have the strength to be brave. “Yes, but I don’t think it did any good. I get sick in a canoe.”
“So you came on a three-hour trek on the Atlantic.”
“Kevin had his heart set—” She broke off when Nathaniel put a steadying arm around her waist and led her to a bench.
“Sit,” he ordered.
Megan obeyed and, when she saw that the children were occupied staring out the windows, gave in and dropped her head between her legs.
Three hours, she thought. They’d have to pour her into a body bag in three hours. Maybe bury her at sea. God, what had made her think a couple of pills would steady her? She felt a tug on her hand.
“What? Is the ambulance here already?”
“Steady as she goes, sugar.” Crouched in front of her, Nathaniel slipped narrow terry-cloth bands over her wrists.
“What’s this?”
“Acupressure.” He twisted the bands until small metal studs pressed lightly on a point on her wrist.
She would have laughed if she hadn’t been moaning. “Great, I need a stretcher and you offer voodoo.”
“A perfectly valid science. And I wouldn’t knock voodoo, either. I’ve seen some pretty impressive results. Now breathe slow and easy. Just sit here.” He slid open a window behind her and let in a blast of air. “I’ve got to get back to the helm.”
She leaned back against the wall and let the fresh air slap her cheeks. On the other side of the bridge, the children huddled, hoping that Moby Dick lurked under each snowy whitecap. She watched the cliffs, but as they swayed to and fro, she closed her eyes in self-defense.
She sighed once then began to formulate a complicated trigonometry problem in her mind. Oddly enough, by the time she’d worked it through to the solution, her stomach felt steady.
Probably because I’ve got my eyes closed, she thought. But she could hardly keep them closed for three hours, not when she was in charge of a trio of active children.
Experimentally, she opened one. The boat continued to rock, but her system remained steady. She opened the other. There was a moment of panic when the children weren’t at the window. She jolted upright, illness forgotten, then saw them circled around Nathaniel at the helm.
A fine job she was doing, she thought in disgust, sitting there in a dizzy heap while Nathaniel piloted the ship and entertained three kids. She braced herself for the next slap of nausea as she took a step.
It didn’t come.
Frowning, she took another step, and another. She felt a little weak, true, but no longer limp and clammy. Daring the ultimate test, she looked out the window at the rolling sea.
There was a tug, but a mild one. In fact, she realized, it was almost a pleasant sensation, like riding on a smooth-gaited horse. In amazement, she studied the terry-cloth bands on her wrists.
Nathaniel glanced over his shoulder. Her color was back, he noted. That pale peach was much more flattering than green. “Better?”
“Yes.” She smiled, trying to dispel the embarrassment as easily as his magic bands had the seasickness. “Thank you.”
He waited while she bundled the children, then herself, into jackets. On the Atlantic, summer vanished. “First time I shipped out, we hit a little squall. I spent the worst two hours of my life hanging over the rail. Come on. Take the wheel.”
“The wheel? I couldn’t.”
“Sure you could.”
“Do it, Mom. It’s fun. It’s really fun.”
Propelled forward by three children, Megan found herself at the helm, her back pressed lightly into Nathaniel’s chest, her hands covered by his.
Every nerve in her body began to throb. Nathaniel’s body was hard as iron, and his hands were sure and firm. She could smell the sea, through the open windows and on him. No matter how much she tried to concentrate on the water flowing endlessly around them, he was there, just there. His chin brushing the top of her head, his heartbeat throbbing light and steady against her back.
