Perfect Pairing (24 page)

“And?”

“I haven't missed a season yet.”

“You've been coming here for eleven years?”

“I'm a nomad, but just like Buffalo always calls me home, something here always calls me back out again.”

“I like the idea of being back here next year,” Quinn said before she'd thought it through. She hadn't meant to imply she wanted to be included in one of Hal's yearly traditions. She wasn't even sure what their relationship would look like when they got back to Buffalo in two days, much less who they would be to each other a year from now. Would they even be friends? Or would they go back to their own separate lives without the idea of the restaurant to hold them together? The thought went a long way toward dampening her mood,
and she turned back to the amazing vista in an attempt to boost it again. “Hey, which boat is your favorite?”

Hal examined several of them, walking a little farther down the pier as she did.

“This one's nice.” Quinn pointed to a little one with one brightly colored sail.

“It's cute, but hardly seems seaworthy.”

“Hmm, I'm not sure I'm qualified to judge which ones are fit for open water. I just like the pretty ones.”

“I like this one,” Hal said, pointing to a classic-looking sailboat. It was midsized compared to the others, with lacquered wood finishings, a tall mast, and neatly furled sails. The sides were navy blue, with the name
Esperanza
painted in bold white letters along the right side.

“She's beautiful.”

“How do you know it's a girl?” Hal asked.

“I thought all boats were girls.”

“It does seem that way,” Hal said, then her eyes brightened, “which means we should not have trouble finding our way around her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, not to brag or anything, but I happen to be pretty good with women, and I also know you're not bad yourself.”

“Gee, thanks,” Quinn said, but the playfulness of her comments was undercut by the realization that Hal had inched closer to the
Esperanza
. “Don't fall in the harbor, Fryboi.”

“I'm not going in the water. I'm going on the boat.” Hal stepped off the dock and onto the deck. Quinn held tight to her hand, now less for the romantic notion and more out of the frantic desire to pull her back.

“Hal, what are you doing?”

“I want to check her out. See if she's good enough for us to stow away on. Come with me.”

“You can't be serious,” Quinn said in a low, warning whisper.

“I am. Come look around.” She gave her arm a little tug, and Quinn had to hop over the small, metal rail and onto the ship to keep from falling off the pier.

“Hal, this is not okay. We're trespassing.”

“We don't have to stay long if you don't want to. Just look around for a second.”

Quinn stayed planted in the spot where she'd landed, her heart pounding in her chest. She was not a rule breaker. She'd never trespassed in her life, and she didn't much like being forced to do so now.

Hal hopped down off the deck to the area near the big silver steering wheel at the back, then turned to offer her hand to Quinn.

“No,” Quinn said. “I'm not going any farther.”

“I'll make you a deal. Just come down and look around real quick. If you don't like her, we can go.”

“It's not that I don't like her—”

“So you do like her?”

She rolled her eyes as she started to seriously doubt the sanity of the woman she'd just been worrying about spending the next year with.

“Two seconds,” Hal pleaded, and Quinn figured the sooner she relented, the sooner they could get out of trouble.

With a heavy sigh, she accepted Hal's hand and stepped down to the floor. From there she could see two bench seats and a door that must lead to an inside cabin. The boat felt amazingly sturdy beneath her, and she had to admit she liked the smell, like wood and salt mixed together.

Hal stepped up behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist and resting her chin on her shoulder. “So?” she whispered.

“So, I like her,” Quinn admitted, relaxing just a little into Hal's embrace. How could she not? But liking something didn't make it hers. “I like her a lot. There, I said it. Now can we go?”

“We could. If you want,” Hal said, fishing in her pocket before pulling out a key and dangling it in front of Quinn, “or we could stay for two nights.”

She whirled around in the circle of Hal's embrace.

“What?”

“I've got her rented for you for two nights. The living space isn't big or fancy, but—”

Quinn cut her off by capturing her mouth with her own, kissing her gleefully as the water rocked them gently against each other. This
woman was too much, much too much to believe, and yet she did. She believed in every amazing feeling Hal inspired in her. The hope and frustration, the fear and the joy—it all rose up in her and spilled out into their kiss.

“Wow,” Hal said when Quinn finally released her. “So you don't want to go look for somewhere else to stay?”

Quinn punched her in the arm with her best right hook, and it must have worked because Hal's eyes widened in surprise. “Ouch. Was that a no?”

“No.” Quinn punched her in the other arm.

“Hey!”

“That was for making me think we were breaking the law.” God, she'd been so high-strung, and Hal had known all along they had every right to be there. Her annoyance must've shown on her face.

Hal ducked and raised her hands. “Is there another one coming?”

Quinn stared at her for a few seconds, arms folded across her chest. “No. Unless I decide to give you one for being so insanely amazing.”

“I can think of another way for you to reward me for that.”

“I'm sure you can. I bet it involves using those keys to unlock the bedroom.”

“I was just going to let you buy me a lobstah roll, but I can see where you'd find me utterly irresistible right now, so if you want to drag me to bed, I won't argue.”

“God, how do you go from being so maddening to perfectly romantic to completely smug in the space of two minutes?”

“It's part of my charm.”

“Maybe you better show me below deck then.”

“So you can rip my clothes off?”

She shook her head and tried not to laugh. She didn't want to let on about the extent of her happiness right now for fear that if Hal's head got any bigger, it might not fit inside the sailboat. “No, because if you make one more comment like that, I might be tempted to throw you overboard.”

They lay naked sprawled across the double bed in the sailboat cabin. Hal stared at the low wood-trimmed ceiling as she tried to catch her breath. Sex with Quinn came fast and hard and amazing, but always left her a little disoriented, as though their desire for each other superseded other basic human needs, like oxygen.

“So what kind of boat is this?” Quinn asked, seeming to recover much faster.

“Uh, a sailboat.”

“No kidding. What's the make and model?”

“I don't even know if boats have makes and models, but the guy I rented it from called it a Catalina Twenty-Eight. I think the twenty-eight is the length, but you know how men are about their measurements.”

“True,” Quinn said, “do you know how to sail one of these things?”

“Not even a little bit.” She laughed. “Foster kids from Buffalo, New York, don't get a lot of practice time on yachts.”

“I wouldn't think so, but you've surprised me in more ways than one, so I wouldn't put any skill past you.”

Hal's chest filled with pride at the reminder that she wasn't totally outmatched. Sometimes she was so cowed by Quinn's poise, social acumen, and sexual prowess, she appreciated the reminder that she could still throw her off guard a little bit. Apparently the sailboat had scored some pretty big points.

“I am surprised they just rent these things out to people who can't sail, though.”

“Well, this one isn't technically a rental.”

“What?” Quinn sat up quickly. “We aren't really trespassing, are we? Did we just have illegal sex?”

Hal burst out laughing again. “As hot as that sounds, no.”

“What then?”

“I only meant the
Esperanza
is a privately owned boat that doesn't usually get rented out. I got it for the weekend in trade.”

“Trade?”

“I catered a bachelor party for a guy two months ago. The dude's frat brother wanted to go all out, but he had a budget, so I just had him buy all the food, and I waived my personal fee.”

“For his boat?”

“Well, actually it's the boat of one of the other frat brothers. He'd won use of her in a poker game, but he doesn't really dig Ptown.”

“Who doesn't dig Ptown?”

“I know, right? Straight guys, apparently. I bet he's thinking his odds of scoring a woman in this town are a little slim.”

“Probably smart,” Quinn said, then glanced around. “But the boat would help.”

Hal grinned at Quinn's body, lithe and sexy under the translucent white sheet. “Obviously.”

“Eyes back up here, Fryboi.” Quinn pointed to her face. “Finish the boat story.”

“That's it, basically.”

“You catered a bachelor party for a frat boy, and one of his brothers paid you for your services with a boat he won in a poker game from another frat brother?”

“Pretty much.”

“Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?”

Hal shrugged. “It worked.”

“How did you even write that into a contract?”

“We didn't. I mean, we wrote out the details in emails. But we didn't sign anything.”

“You worked for some guy you didn't know on the promise of some other guy letting you use his boat sometime down the road? That's insane.”

“And yet here we are, naked on said boat.”

Quinn flopped back onto the bed. “Your life is completely foreign to me. You know this, right?”

“But it's a good life, Quinn,” Hal said seriously.

“It does seem to suit you.”

Hal wondered if there was something unspoken on the end of that sentence. Perhaps a “but not me.” Or maybe Quinn had started to realize this kind of life could be an option for her, too. Then again, maybe she was just being silly. Quinn might enjoy their accommodations, but she still seemed totally baffled by the way Hal had secured them. If she were being completely honest, she hadn't even been sure
everything would work out right up until it did. Fourth of July accommodations in Ptown weren't cheap or easy to come by. If something had gone wrong with the boat plan, she'd had no backup. They likely would've ended up sleeping in the truck. She'd done so before, but she doubted Quinn would see the appeal.

If Quinn had planned the trip, she would've had alternatives in place for every contingency. And yet, they probably wouldn't be sleeping on a beautiful sailboat. Hell, they wouldn't have taken this trip at all. If she'd had her way, they would've spent the weekend working back in Buffalo.

“Hey.” Quinn ran her fingers up Hal's arm. “What is it?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head. She didn't need to get too deep. There was no need to think about what-ifs or could've beens. Everything was amazing right now in the moment, and they were here to live in the moment. “Just a little dreamy.”

“I must admit, you do look dreamy, all bare chested and rakish on the sailboat you won in a poker game.”

“Like a pirate?”

Quinn rolled her eyes, but then she smiled. “Maybe a little bit like a pirate.”

Hal pounced on her, playfully kissing her neck until she laughed and squirmed away. “That tickles!”

“Tickling is this pirate's favorite form of torture.”

“But it's not mine.”

“What's yours?”

Quinn pursed her lips and seemed to think about her answer until Hal grew tired of waiting. She started to kiss along Quinn's amazing collarbone down toward the hollow at the base of her throat. Quinn bit her lip and held perfectly still as Hal marked a line down her chest. She had just about reached the end of her path, then Quinn abruptly rolled out of reach.

“Wait, what?” Hal asked, her voice low and raspy.

“That's my favorite form of torture,” Quinn said with a wicked grin. “Making you wait.”

Hal flopped back onto the bed. “I walked right into that one, didn't I?”

“You really did, but I have a consolation prize for you.”

“What's that?”

“I'm starving.”

Hal raised her eyebrows, not able to think with Quinn standing gloriously naked just out of arm's reach. “So?”

“So, I think it's time to go get one of those lobster rolls you've been going on about.”

“Lobstah,” Hal corrected.

“Right, lobstah roll.”

“Say it again.”