He had no idea whatitwas—something to do with the lighthouse, obviously—but he wasn’t going to admit that he’d been distracted watching her instead of reading. “Quite.”
They followed the path into the cottage museum, and Julien paid the entrance fee.
“Are you folks planning on going up to the top of the lighthouse?” the museum worker asked as he handed Julien the receipt. “A rocket is scheduled to launch in about forty minutes from Kennedy Space Center. You get a really good view from up there, if you’re interested.”
Julien met Martha’s gaze, and her eyes widened in excitement. He put the receipt in his pocket and turned to the man.“Thanks for the information. We’ll make sure we’re up there around that time.”
It didn’t take more than fifteen minutes to look around the keeper’s cottage. The place was quaint and set up as it would have been in the late 1880s. Julien did manage to pry himself away from watching Martha long enough to read a few of the historical features of the place. Apparently, this was the second location for the lighthouse. They’d had to move it and make restorations more than one hundred and fifty years ago due to a severe storm and beach erosion.
“Ready to head up?” Julien asked as they stepped back outside the small museum.
Martha shielded her eyes again as she craned her neck back to look at the top. “Let’s do it.”
A sign at the entrance said there were 204 steps to the top. Once inside, they both looked up. Stairs spiraled above their heads.
The view had better be worth it.
“After you.” Julien swept his arm out in front of him.
Martha eyed the stairs, then him. “I’m probably going to slow you down. Why don’t you go first and at your own pace and I’ll meet you at the top?”
He frowned. “I’m not going to leave you behind.”
She opened her mouth as if to argue, but she must have read the resolve on his face because she snapped her mouth shut and rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Without another word, she grabbed hold of the banister and started making her way up the stairs.
Julien worked out. He didn’t skip leg day. So why in the world were his thighs on fire before they’d even reached the blasted halfway point? He put his palm on his knee and shoved down to help propel himself up the next step. His breaths were heaving in his ears, and, quite honestly, he was embarrassed by the amount of sweat that was slicking its way down his temples.
“How’re you doing back there?” Martha wheezed.
It shouldn’t make him feel better, the sound of her struggle with their ascent. What kind of gentleman was he?
“The lighthouse keeper must have had quads of steel,” he managed to puff out.
Martha laughed. “I think we’re almost there.”
“Good.”
She was right. It didn’t take much longer before they reached the landing surrounding the light. The room was stuffy, the sun shining through the glass creating a sort of greenhouse effect. A door led to an outside railed area, and Julien stepped out for a bit of fresh air. An ocean breeze instantly started to cool the dampness of his skin, and he closed his eyes and concentrated on catching his breath. He needed to add more cardio to his workouts.
“Wow.” Martha’s awestruck voice beside him made him open his eyes. “You can see for miles.”
It was true. The ocean stretched out before them, seemingly without end. It was a rare cloudless day, the soft light blue of the sky meeting the dark deep blue of the water in the sharp line of the horizon.
“Look!” Martha grabbed his forearm with one hand, pointing excitedly toward the Atlantic with the other. “Dolphins!”
“Where?” Julien scanned the water, but he didn’t see anything.
“There!” she exclaimed again.
This time Julien saw the curve of a dorsal fin as it arched out of the water before disappearing again. A second later, another fin broke the surface. “Looks like there are two.”
They watched the dolphins until they swam out of sight.
“Tell me something about yourself I don’t know,” Martha said unexpectedly.
“Um.” Julien blinked. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything. We still have a little time to kill until the rocket launch, right?”
