"This place is awesome!" I said, laying back on the cushion on the back of the boat.
"It sure is." I looked up in surprise to see Alex standing on the finger pier next to the boat.
"Hey!" I said. "Come on." She smiled shyly and climbed on.
"Gorgeous boat," she commented.
"Yeah, it's Nick's," he said. Her smile faded a little. "Oh, don't worry. He's out-on-the-town with Matt. It's just the two of us."
"What about your little fiancée?" she asked, almost sarcastically.
"You mean Leighanne? She's back in Orlando." Alex let out a sigh of relief. "To be honest, no one knows I'm meeting up with you. If I told Kevin, I get reprimanded and forced to tie you down to a chair until he got here." She giggled, easing a bit of the tension. She looked around the boat, the stood up, watching a ferry go by. "You like boats?"
"You could say that," she said, mysteriously.
"What do you mean, 'You could say that'?" I asked.
"I practically live on a boat every summer. Josh and I used to go down to Chris's almost every weekend each summer. He's got one just an hour up the Chesapeake."
"Well, Nick decided he wanted to drive his up the Atlantic for fun, so I decided to go with him. I didn't even know you were gonna be here until Kevin called and told me your schedule."
"What, is he stalking me?"
"Basically." We both laughed. "Actually, he was trying to find the best place to meet you." I sighed. "He really wants to get to know you, Alex. He thinks you hate him and it's killing him."
"You think it was easy for me to here that I all of the sudden half 3 half-brothers, and half-cousin, and that my biological mother wants to meet me?" she asked, her voice getting louder.
"Hey, hey, don't blow up at me! I swear! I'm innocent!" She looked at me and her face cooled down a little. "Look, he's just been trying to get in touch with you and all he gets is your voicemail on your cell-phone."
"I never was able to get them," she muttered. "I never figured out how."
"Well, let's forget about that for now. I want to get to know you . . . if that's okay."
"Its fine with me, but if I don't like you, I'm not meeting him," she said, stubbornly.
"I guess I have to make a good impression, then, don't I?"
"The ball's in you're court, Littrell."
"Then, lets start dribblin'."
"Hold on a sec. I wanna do something." With that, I jumped on the side rail of the boat and ran up the side. I stood on the bow and looked out onto the marina. The view was awesome! "Hey, Bri. Come up here a sec!"
"Nuh, uh," he said, scared. "I don't think so. Heights aren't my thing."
"What're you talking about heights?" I asked, confused. I looked down at him with my hands on my hips. "I hate heights, too. There're no heights here."
"Fine," he said. He carefully climbed up the side rail of the boat. When he came up, I grabbed his hand before he could fall over the edge.
"See? Isn't this awesome?"
"It sure is," he breathed. "Can we get down now?" I looked at him and laughed. The two of us climbed down the side and I waited while he locked up the boat. When everything was secure, we made our way to the restaurant.