"Just let me know." He leaned forward, over her shoulder. Now all he could smell was a warm vanilla scent, some soap or lotion that made her smell good enough to eat.
She raised a cautious hand to touch the steering wheel. Eren laid his hand over hers.
"It's just like steering a car. The main difference is that instead of a pedal for the throttle, it's this lever here." He demonstrated, pushing it up a little. Lucy gave a little gasp as the engine thrummed deeper, and Eren quickly throttled it back so they were moving more slowly.
"How do you stop?" Lucy asked. "Cars have brakes, right?"
"There is no brake; it's a boat. When you take off the throttle, it'll stop. You don't want to do that too suddenly if you're going fast, because it can create a wave that'll swamp the deck. If you have to avoid an obstacle, it's better to turn and steer around it while throttling back, instead of trying to stop in place like you would with a car. Remember, there are no roads here. The whole ocean is your road." He took his hand off the wheel, leaving Lucy with hers grasped around it, and kept the fingers of his other hand loosely curled around the throttle lever beside the wheel. "Want to try a turn? Just start gently turning and I'll cut the throttle a little."
They did some test turns; then he let her work the throttle while he steered. Then he moved his hands back, while Lucy's round bottom shifted between his legs as she ably kept her balance with the moving deck.
Any more of this and he was going to need some alone time in his bunk.
Or some Lucy time.
"Ready to solo?" he asked, and Lucy nodded, her curls bouncing. "Okay, throttle it down to neutral and we'll change seats."
Reluctant to lose the warmth of her backside against his thighs, but looking forward to giving her a chance to shine, Eren eased out of the pilot's seat and indicated that she should sit there. He adjusted it for her, and then stepped away, resting a hand on the console. Lucy sat for a moment in frozen indecision, looking like a deer in the headlights. Then she gripped the steering wheel in one hand and placed her other on the throttle. Cautiously she began to move the throttle lever. The engine purred, and the boat moved forward.
At first Lucy was tentative, sucking in her breath as the hull slapped each wave. But Eren could see her start to get the hang of it. As he had thought earlier, she was a natural. Soon the boat was skimming along, the freshly refurbished motor throbbing with its powerful note. As with driving a manual-transmission car, piloting the boat on a calm day was actually more challenging at slow speeds than with the throttle open, when it was mainly just a matter of pointing it in the direction that you wanted to go and making sure it didn't hit a wave wrong.
Lucy let out a wild laugh of delight. She risked taking her eyes off the horizon to glance toward Eren. Her entire face was a picture of joy. "Am I doing okay?" she asked breathlessly.
"You're doing amazing. You're incredible." Eren pointed to the compass. "Turn it a little to the starboard—that's the right side—to keep us on a heading for Dane's island."
"Oh, right." Lucy corrected their course, her tongue sticking cutely out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on getting the boat pointed in exactly the right direction.
As always when he was in the pilot's cabin, Eren kept his gaze roving, looking for obstacles or other marine traffic. So far, there had been little to see, but now he glimpsed a white speedboat coming up on their starboard side.
"Throttle it back a little. Looks like we've got some tourists out for a spin, so let's not get in their way."
"Aye, aye, skipper!" Lucy announced, getting into her role. She pulled back on the throttle. It was a little sudden, but no harm came of it. The boat bobbed as it slowed.
The speedboat had been coming in at an angle that would have crossed their trajectory some ways farther on. However, when theCodfatherslowed, the speedboat also slowed. Eren frowned out the water-beaded windows at it. The boat was still too far away to make out anyone on board clearly, but he didn't like that behavior.
"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.
"Hopefully nothing, but our guests aren't acting like they should." Eren wished he could make out what the other boat was doing more clearly. He looked around for binoculars, but it looked like they either weren't on the boat anymore or had been stowed somewhere. This was the problem with having different people in the family using the same boat.
"Is this bad?" Lucy's voice sounded tense, and Eren realized he was scaring her.
"Not likely. They're probably just out for a joyride like we are, and stopped to take some pictures, but I'm not sure which way they're going to go. Why don't I take over, just to be safe and make sure we don't risk a collision?"
Lucy didn't argue. She slid out of the seat and let Eren back in.
Meanwhile, the speedboat was motoring slowly closer. It was now on track to cross their bow just ahead on their current trajectory. Eren was starting to dislike this intensely. He saw no sign that the other boat was having engine trouble; no one was tinkering with the engine, and they didn't have the look of tourists.
"Sit down and hold on to something," he told Lucy. "I'm going to test a theory."
Lucy obediently plunked down on the bench seat and grabbed hold of a handle.
TheCodfatherwas motoring slowly along, rocking on the waves. Eren grasped the throttle and the wheel, and abruptly wheeled the boat hard to port. At the same time, he opened up the throttle.
Lucy gave a little cry as the boat heeled over and then straightened out, flying over the waves. Eren glanced at her to make sure she wasn't scared, but she looked exhilarated.
Glancing behind showed him exactly what he didn't want to see. The speedboat had picked up acceleration as well, and it was swinging around—not exactly following them, but changing its angle so that it was going to cut in between them and the mainland.
Eren cursed under his breath.