* * *
An hour later,we locked the door to Anna’s house and headed toward the marina; full cooler in hand. It was a beautiful, sunny day out, and a light breeze tickled the hair on our arms as we walked - the perfect type of day.
Ben held my right hand and Anna’s left. His hand was so small in my own. My heart thrummed as I realized, yet again, that he was my son.
As we continued to walk, I had the overwhelmingly eerie feeling that someone was watching us. I turned to look behind us, but didn’t see anyone. It happened three more times during the walk, and I simply chalked it up to a lack of sleep. Why would anyone in Silverbell want to follow us?
I watched people going here and there as we walked down Main Street. Since I’d been back, people seemed to not even care that Anna and I were together now. It was like they expected it to happen, so it wasn’t a shock to anyone. In fact, most people waved happily at us as we walked through town.
Sally stopped us in the middle of Main Street and told us how cute of a family we made, and Anna blushed like crazy, then politely thanked her, and we kept on heading to the destination.
Again, I felt an overwhelming feeling of being watched. A shiver tore down my back, and I hoped like hell Anna hadn’t seen it. I shook off the uneasy feelings. Every time I turned around, all I saw was Silverbell.
It took only a few minutes to get to the Marina. The dock shifted with each move of the water below it as we approached the slip of the boat I’d rented; a small sailboat Wyatt hooked me up with.
Anna slipped a life jacket over Ben’s little shoulders before they got on the boat. She then proceeded to cover him in sunscreen; putting so much on that his nose turned white like an unlined piece of paper.
Next, she rubbed some onto his ears and sprayed down his arms and his legs. He complained minimally, but I could tell by his disgruntled little face that he thought it was entirely too much.
I left them and headed toward the wheel at the helm, rocking with the boat as it moved ever so slightly with the water. I’d need to back this baby out of the slip before I could turn around. I’d had my boat license for most of my life; Dad had taken me so many times when I was a kid that I fell in love with the water.
I shifted the boat into reverse and slowly started to back up. It didn’t take long to get out into open water, and we were off. I had no plans to take us too far out because the farther out you went, the rougher the water was, and I worried about Ben.
Before we stopped for lunch, I wanted to do a bit of sailing. It was a sailboat afterall.
We sailed until I started to hear Ben and Anna talking about food. The boat dipped and bobbed in the water with each wake that passed it as I slowed us to a stop.
I made my way back to where Anna and Ben were hanging out, watching the waves. Excitement was brimming on Ben’s face. “Mama?”
“Yes, baby.”
“What’s for lunch?” Anna pulled the cooler we’d brought with us out from underneath the bench she had been sitting on.
A satisfied smilebrightened her face. “Well… I made us turkey and cheese sandwiches, cut up some apples,andI have some cucumbers, too. For dessert, I brought those maple butter sea salt cookies you like so much.
“Thank you, Mama!” Damn, this kid had manners on top of manners. I’d never met a more well behaved five-year-old.
He took the sandwich bag, a carefully wrapped pack of apple slices, and a small container of cucumbers from her outstretched hand.
Reaching back into her bag again, she pulled out another small container filled with dip. “Veggie dip for you, bub?”
Ben’s lips split into a wide grin. Setting his containers of apples and cucumbers on the bench seat beside him, he started to open the sandwich baggie. I watched him as he ate, his blue eyes scanning his surroundings with curiosity.
The light blue of his shirt only highlighted the color. He wore a pair of khaki cargo shorts today and had shoes on that lit up with each step. Shoes when I was his age were not half as cool. Crazy how things have changed over the years.
I think back to the first race car I ever drove. It was basic compared to the cars I’ve been driving for the past year. It was like a normal car, but on steroids.
Shaking my thoughts away, I focused on my family; the way she doted on Ben, the way he looked at her like she hung the moon every night. They were beautiful.
“Dad? Dad?” A tiny hand started shaking my arm, pulling me fully from my thoughts.
“What’s up, bud?”
Grabbing my hand, he pulled; his apples and cucumbers quickly forgotten. “Come on… you gotta see this.”
I heard them before I saw them, a pod of bottlenose dolphins whistled as they sailed through the water, darting here and there beside us. One of the dolphins popped up beside the boat, and I could hear Ben’s gasp. He was trying to contain his excitement so badly, despite the squirming and wiggling his body was doing.
I waited for the dolphin to click and flap its fin at us like Flipper did in the 1994 movie, but it didn’t. It simply held there watching, such a curious creature. After a few moments, it turned and splashed away from the boat.