Page 10 of A Play For The Heart
“Well, don’t come running to me when you don’t know what type of whale it is.”
Henry simply laughs at the indignant tone in my voice. I’m serious. I’m keeping my science facts to myself. No sharing for him.
As the boat leaves the harbor, the temperature seems to drop several degrees, the breeze chilly from the autumn air. Peering over the side of the boat, looking down into the endless blue water, I shiver.
“Are you cold?”
“I’m okay, it’s just a little chillier than I thought it would be.” Honestly, I’m freezing, but I always run cold and there’s no point in complaining about something that isn’t going to change. I’m also too proud to admit I should have worn a heavier coat.
“We can sit inside for a little while so you can warm up.” Henry offers. While it’s a nice gesture, I am bound and determined to see a whale, and if I go inside and miss any sighting, I know I’ll be upset. I didn’t spend hours on YouTube watching whale identification videos to miss a spotting.
“That alright,” I shiver again. “I really don’t want to miss any of the whales.”
Huffing a laugh, Henry moves behind me and puts his arms around my shoulders, wrapping himself around me. Instinctively, I back into his chest, cocooning myself in his warmth. I’ll never understand how someone can exude so much body heat. I’m thoroughly convinced he could heat an entire house from his body heat alone, whereas I feel like I’m one layer away from becoming hypothermic. It’s unfair. As I begin to thaw, I turn my head to look up at him. I’m not sure I’ve ever realized how much Henry towers over me. I mean, I always knew he was tall. But being this close to him really makes the disparity noticeable. He’s at least half a foot taller than me even in my rain boots, which take me from a tall five-five to an even taller five-six.
“Thank you,” I say quietly, looking back towards the water.
“It's a little chillier than I thought,”Henry mocks in a high-pitched voice, his chest rumbling with laughter against me, “Sawyer, you’re a popsicle.” I smack his hand and he continues to laugh, the vibrations shaking me in his arms.
“Yeah, yeah,” We get it. I'm cold. Well, I was cold. My personal furnace is doing his job impeccably.
We stand in comfortable quiet, looking out at the water for what seems like a lifetime before I break the silence. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything. Always.”
“How busy are you? Like with practice and team stuff?” I try to make the question vague. I thought that once Declan and I were in the same city, our relationship would be so much easier. But every time I reach out, he tells me he’s busy with practice or film. After the ambiguous text he sent me earlier this week, something has felt off. I understand how busy he can get during the season, but Henry seems to have time to spend a whole day on a boat. Maybe there’s just something I’m missing. I would think that after six months apart, my boyfriend would miss me and want to see me. The thought that he may not feel that way puts a sour taste in my mouth, leaving me feeling unwanted, yet again.
“During the season I would say pretty busy. We usually have practice four days a week plus a game, with film sessions, weight training, and physical therapy thrown in there. Why?”
I can feel his gaze lingering on me, but I keep my eyes firmly fixed on the ocean, unable to stomach the worried look that’s surely on his face.
“Oh...Well. I—” I stumble to get the words out, feeling embarrassed to even have this conversation with Henry knowing Declan isn’t his favorite person on the planet. “Well, I’ve tried to see Declan a few times since I got here, but every time I text or call, he blows me off or says he’s busy with football. I offered to make dinner. You know I’m a good cook. And he turned me down. Said he was busy. I don’t know. Maybe I’m overthinking it. It’s bugging me a little.”
Ughhhh. I word-vomited out my issue and divulged more details than I wanted. I wanted to sound like a cool girl casually asking about professional football and schedules. Not however I just sounded.
It feels uncomfortable dumping how I feel about Declan on Henry, but he’s the only one I could talk to about this since I don’t have a lot of girlfriends and I’m not sure Maren and I are in the ‘share our feelings’ stage of our very new roommateship.
At the mention of Declan’s name, I feel Henry's arms stiffen up around me.
Siren’s blare in my mind.Asking that was a mistake. I look back at Henry to attempt to backtrack and tell him to forget I even said anything, but he responds.
“We’re busier than we were at Notre Dame, but we still have free time,” he says hesitantly. “We have a bye this week too, so our schedule is freer than usual.” It seems like there’s more he wants to say about the situation, but he doesn’t add anything else. Instead, his arms tighten around my shoulders slightly.
“Oh. Okay.” My shoulders slump and frustration builds inside me. The unwanted feeling continues to snowball in my chest. Henry opens his mouth to say something else but is interrupted by an announcement from the captain.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if you look to the starboard side of the ship, you’ll see a pod of orca whales.”
The announcement from the captain pauses my minor spiral, and with a slightly childish squeal, I grab Henry by the hand and drag him to the other side of the boat, leaning over the railing as far as I can go. Chuckling, Henry grabs me by the shoulders, peels me away from the railing, and drags me back to a safe distance, saving me from falling over the side of the boat. Pulling something out of his jacket, he hands me a pair of binoculars I hadn’t even noticed he brought.
“These should give you a better view of the whales than leaning over the railing,” he says, shooting me a cocky grin. “Unless your goal was to swim with them, and in that case, you were one strong gust of wind from accomplishing that.”
Snatching the binoculars from his hands and giving him a playful shove, I muster up my most convincingdon’t mess with meface—which means I probably look five seconds away from tears—before I turn away from him and back towards the pod of orcas.
Bringing the binoculars up to my face, I watch as the whales swim along the coast. I gasp and hand the binoculars back to Henry so he can take a look. “Cheese and rice!” my voice is loud over the sound of the water and wind. “There's so many of them!”
Henry grins wide as he looks through the binoculars, then hands them back to me.
“Thanks for taking me,” I peer over at him while he looks out towards the whales. “I’ve missed you.”
