Page 49 of The Coach

"You will see soon enough." He smiles smugly.

I narrow my eyes at him, but he seems unaffected, just enjoying the walk. It's a nice walk to wherever he's taking us. The weather is perfect again, sunny and warm. As we get closer to the pier, I see a line-up of speedboats and a large promotional sign with the wordsDolphin Adventuresprinted on it. I glance at Brad with a grin. "Dolphin adventures?"

"You want to? You don't get seasick or anything, do you?"

I squeal. "No, and yes, I want to. This is awesome! I have always wanted to do something like this." I place an excited kiss on his lips, then practically drag him down toward the boats. I absolutely love dolphins, they're my favorite animal. I'm pretty sure I never told him that, so for him to have picked this as a surprise for me is so unexpected but amazing.

We're introduced to the guy who will be driving the boat, Stefan. He then gives some safety instructions, and we're told we can jump on board. It's a speedboat with enough seats for about eight, but other than our driver, we're the only two on board. Brad said he wanted privacy, so he booked it just for the two of us. He is ticking all the sweetness boxes today.

We take the seats at the front. Brad places his hand on my leg and gives it a squeeze. "You find it hard to sit still, don't you?"

"When I'm excited, yeah."

"I'm glad I picked the right surprise for you. I was thinking skydiving, but I had a suspicion you might like dolphins."

"Ooh, yes, we should do skydiving next time, I want to try that as well. But you're right, I love dolphins. Thank you, this is the best surprise." I kiss him again.

"Is there anything you wouldn't do?"

"Not really. I mean, I have to be careful, I can't injure myself doing anything reckless, but I like the thrill of trying new things, feeling the adrenaline pump, you know."

"Yeah, I do. Madeline wouldn't do anything. She was so afraid to try anything new or get out of her comfort zone. It's so refreshing being with you."

"She sounds boring, Brad. I can't see you two together. How did you end up marrying her, anyway? You don't seem very well matched." He gives me an uncomfortable look, and I wonder if I have overstepped the mark by asking. "Sorry, that was… I mean, you don't have to talk about her or anything."

"I don't really know now. I mean, at the time, I thought I was in love with her. She's very beautiful, and we knew a lot of the same people. It was just an easy match."

He still thinks she's beautiful. That's interesting. I'm not jealous by his comment but more intrigued, because I know very little about her, really. "Convenient?" I ask, wanting to know more about their situation.

"I guess. I think if I'm really honest, she chased me for a while, and in the end, I gave in to her. She's very persistent. Once we started dating, things progressed quickly. We bought a place together, then she was talking about marriage all the time, so I proposed. We were trying for kids. I could have been stuck with her forever."

"Yeah, I guess you could have."

"When I look back now, I know I was just giving her what she wanted because I think I had no idea what I wanted myself, and at the time, it seemed like the right thing at that point in my life, to just move along to the next phase like a lot of our friends were."

What a scary thought, to just go along with the flow because it was expected of him. "I'm never going to be like that."

"You wouldn't sacrifice your own happiness for someone you care about?"

"If it's the right person you shouldn't have to. It should all just feel right. Shouldn't it?"

"I guess. So, you think there's a right person now?" He smiles at me cheekily.

I shrug, trying to play it down. "I'm starting to think there might be. Maybe?" I say quietly, looking out over the water so I don't have to look into his intense stare anymore. I don't want to give too much away about how I'm really feeling for him, but it's getting harder to hide. I'm sure every time I look at him it's written all over my face.

"I think we have our first pod of dolphins," calls Stefan from behind the wheel.

I turn my head to where he's pointing, and sure enough, there are dolphins popping up out of the water and playing about. We both move over closer to where they are. They're almost close enough for us to touch and they don't seem to be bothered by the presence of our boat at all.

Stefan kills the engine, and we bob about in the water, watching them. They are majestic creatures. There's something so grounding about watching animals in their own habitat.

Once they swim away, Brad takes my face in his hands and his lips meet mine. The salt spray from the wind splatters my face, but I don't care. I'm lost in this moment with him. In this perfect kiss.

His arms wrap around me, pulling me in closer, and my fingers trace lines over his back. My heart hammers in my chest with a rush of something I don't really understand.

The boat starts up again, and we're pulled from our moment as we move along to tour around slowly for the better part of an hour, seeing more playful pods and even some sea lions.

On the rideback toward shore, I flip my legs over Brad's lap and cuddle into him. The breeze over the open water is cooler than I thought it would be, and I have goosebumps running up my bare arms. He wraps his arm around me and hugs me close to him. His smell is so comforting to me. It's the strangest thing, like that wonderful feeling you get when you go home for Christmas and everyone you love is there sharing good food and laughs. To me that's what he feels like. Like coming home for Christmas. Is that what love feels like? Am I seriously falling in love with this man? That kiss we just had, it was something else, something I've never even come close to experiencing before.

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