“Sheilas, they're here one minute, gone the next,” Alfie said.
Shanna knit her eyebrows. “You only date Sheilas?”
“Women. It’s what we call women,” Alfie clarified, trying to shed off his thick accent for a moment. “But my Bella, she's a real mate, always there. She's behaving heaps better now she's outta that feral teenage phase, ay?” Alfie tapped the side of the control console.
“Ah, but did you name your boat after one of the girls?” Shanna asked.
“Actually, I …” Alfie frowned. “Huh. Was gonna say yes, but honestly, I don’t remember.” He chuckled. “Must’ve been on the piss that day. But I'll let you in on a little secret.” He leanedcloser, though he didn’t lower his voice. “I carved my initials into a couple of trees in the park.”
“With the girls? Put them in a little heart?”
“One or two that deserved it.”
“That’s so cute.” Shanna caught Simon’s eyes and grinned, and that weird feeling that came a bit close to jealousy dissipated.
“I imagine it’s also a crime if it’s a national park,” Chris said from the side. “And I’ve been told crime is bad.”
“We won’t tell on you,” Shanna said to Alfie.
They approached a small island off the shore, and Alfie slowed down. “See if we can suss out some seals, ay?” he said. “Look over there, on the rocks.”
The three passengers gathered on the starboard side. Simon scanned the rocky shore of the small island, but as nothing moved, he began wondering if “seals” was Kiwi slang for something else.
“There!” Shanna pointed out. “Aww, and there’s a puppy!”
Chris extended her hand, palm up. Simon simply handed her his phone, then continued to enjoy watching the seals with his own eyes. A larger one was lying on the flat side of a rock that stuck out of the sea at a forty-five degree angle while the pup clumsily wobbled from that rock onto another.
With the sightseeing done, Alfie switchedBellaback into higher gear. After a few minutes, Shanna nudged Simon, indicating she’d felt them approaching the right area, just asBellasputtered, and a plume of dark gray smoke erupted from the back.
“Are we sinking?” Chris asked, not sounding particularly worried.
Alfie looked back. “Yeah nah, she'll be right. The old girl's been playing up a bit lately.” He leaned down and picked up a box of tools. “I’ll suss it out, just give me a sec.”
“Sorry. I have that effect,” Shanna said.
“What effect?”
“Things tend to break around her,” Chris explained.
“I’m sure it’s not your fault,” Alfie said.
Shanna turned around, gazing over the bow. “The point I’m feeling is over there, on that beach,” she said quietly to Simon. They were close to the shore, between two coves.
“That’s our destination,” Simon said to Alfie.
“If you’re in a jiffy, you can take the dinghy.” Alfie strolled to the back of the catamaran. If there was one thing Simon had picked out about Kiwis so far, it was that they were truly never in a rush.
Simon looked at Shanna and, upon her nod, said, “Let’s do it.”
“I'll catch you at the beach once I'm sorted.”
With that, Simon, Shanna, and Chris boarded the dinghy and sped off to their chosen destination. Shanna gasped as the little cove came into view: a perfect half-moon shape with clear, turquoise water and a strip of bright yellow sand disappearing into a thicket. A large round rock, split almost neatly in half, rose from the water on one side of the bay.
“It looks like a heart,” Shanna said to Simon.
Indeed, from a certain perspective, it was like a giant granite heart.
They disembarked and pulled the dinghy onto the shore.
