I sat in my camp chair at the town campground we'd called home for a month now with a warm coffee in hand. On our days off, Sadie slept till just after ten, and I'd pick up our drinks for that time despite her insistence we didn't need them. However, I'd received an exciting text this morning and rushed to get them, croissants, and yogurt parfaits at seven, knowing they'd ease her into a good mood even at the early hour.

"Sadie," I called out.

A groan came from her gray and scarlet tent. "Not today, Tiger. It's our day off."

"I have news you'll like."

The tent rustled. "Did we win the lottery?"

"I don't think non-residents are eligible, not to mention we didn't purchase tickets."

"Tiger..."

"Sorry, remember Trisha from the whale watching company?"

"The brunette, right? She was sweet. Did she ask you out?"

I wasn't sure whether to be encouraged that Sadie was interested in my dating life or discouraged by her optimistic tone that I might start seeing someone. Since we'd arrived in Broome and I'd freaked her out with the skinny dipping conversation, I'd tried to respect her boundaries and keep more space between us. Gone were the days of holding her when she trembled or staring into her eyes with a giddy smile. She seemed fine with it, and I was used to it, though my mind liked to plague me with scenarios of what could have been.

"No, but she texted me about two discounted seats on today's tour if you want them. See the snubbies." Those dolphins were adorable, and it was the right time of year for a sighting.

"Quite discounted?"

"She'll knock off forty dollars each because the cancellation was this morning and they want to fill the boat." The perks of having connections in the tourism industry, although I'd sent enough of our hotel guests their way to have earned that.

Sadie unzipped the window to the fly of her tent. I found her dishevelled hair endearing and wanted to run my hands over the pieces defying gravity, but I resisted. "How soon do I have to be up?"

"We need to arrive at the shop at eight."

She looked down at her lap and sighed, then squinted at me. "Is that coffee and breakfast?" When I nodded, a grin lit up her face alongside the soft morning sun. "I don't know if I can go back to travelling alone with you spoiling me like this."

My stomach somersaulted, but it was probably because I hadn't eaten yet. "Don't worry. We're nowhere near completing our lists. I'm not going anywhere unless you ask me to."

Her smile held the same gentle warmth as the rising sun. "I'd be a fool to give this up."

After breakfast, we arrived at the shop early so Trisha could ring us through. The woman laughed far more than the average person and constantly readjusted her hair.

When I'd mentioned that to Sadie in the past and suggested Trisha wear it up or cut it shorter, Sadie had thrown her head back and laughed, telling me the woman was flirting with me. The action showed off her neck and earrings. Her shirts weren't the most modest, which held some appeal, but she'd grab my arm without asking every time we ran into each other, and she wore a perfume that made her smell more like fruit than a person.

Trisha brushed her hand against mine as she returned my credit card. "Here you are, luv."

I fought the urge to cringe. "Thank you for thinking of us this morning and for the discount. It's very generous of you."

She batted her long eyelashes, which accentuated her hazel eyes. "I hope you get lucky on the tour, and if you want to have drinks later, you have my number."

"Oh, I don't--"

"He'll be in touch." Sadie smiled and ushered me out the door. When I looked at her for an explanation, she whispered, "We don't bite the hand that feeds us until we've finished eating. What do you have against her, anyway? She seems nice."

"She's too..." Other than her lack of respect for personal space, there was something in the way her eyes roamed me that reminded me of Ally. If we got serious, she'd have the same expectations and disappointments. "Not my type."

"What is your type?"

If I was a better man, you. Even if Sadie used to cuddle into me or touch my arm and back, it was different with her. It set me at ease instead of sending my mind into panic mode. She never pressured me for more. "Someone who's understanding, respectful of boundaries, and who enjoys being around me."

A month ago, I would have gotten a starry-eyed gaze from her, but then again, maybe I'd been so taken with her I'd imagined it. Today she just blinked. "Oh, I forgot that she's touchy. Thanks for taking one for the team."

A minibus of tourists pulled up minutes later, and the tour staff ushered us inside to an empty bench seat. The passengers included some we recognized from the bed-and-breakfast where we worked. We sat across from a friendly family of four from Queensland that I'd helped at the front desk of the Pearly Gates B&B a few times.

"Fancy running into you again. Another job for the jack of all trades?" the father asked.

"Playing tourists on our day off," I replied as the bus lurched forward.

"Thanks for the tips about the crocodile park and the dino prints. The kiddos loved it, and the missus and I loved the momentary peace. Have you done this tour before?"

"First time, but guests rave about it, so we've had it on our list."

We rolled down the coastal road across from Town Beach and the nearby restaurants filled with vacationers.

"Are you Irish as well?" The mother asked Sadie.

"Only a little by blood. I'm Canadian."

It was enough for her to mention she dreamed of visiting it one day to see where her ancestors lived a few weeks ago. The revelation had given me hope even if her dream was only connected to me by geography.

"And you met travelling." The woman leaned her head into her husband's shoulder. "I love those romantic stories. Bruce and I met in Bali fifteen years ago."

"Actually--" I started until Sadie cut me off.

"That's beautiful. How did you meet?"

The husband and wife stared at each other in a manner that enhanced my sense of singleness. "We'd both signed up for a cooking class, but the bloke never showed. We grabbed a few bevvies instead, and it was magic."

"I'm a sucker for those stories." Sadie grinned at the couple then up at me. My heart leapt in my chest.

"Let's hear yours," the wife said.

Sadie beamed as she began. "We were both visiting Karijini and camping in the same loop. This goanna ran across the road, and I screamed. Neil came to see what the commotion was about. He was probably more excited about the lizard, but we both discovered we had planned the same hike the next day."

"I was excited about both of you in different ways."

Sadie and the couple laughed. "He tells me he's getting an early start, so I go super early thinking I'll catch him, but he's not there. So I hike to the top, which takes me three hours--still no Neil--and just as I'm finishing my sketch and about to head down, he appears. We've been travelling together ever since."

"I didn't know you showed up early for me."

Before every morning shift, she grumbled about having to wake up at such an unnatural hour and I always had a coffee ready to improve her spirits. Would she really do that for a stranger?

"Brilliant. Fate must have been smiling on you." Their attention shifted to their kids sitting ahead of them, bickering. "I hope the rest of your trip is just as wonderful."

As they minded the kids, I sat beside Sadie, unsure of what to say. Why had she told that family our story if our romantic gestures had made her uncomfortable? Had she embellished the story or been truthful about Mount Bruce? My heart longed to believe her, but if she had been that excited, I must have really messed up for her to keep so much distance. Or was this meant as an olive branch?

"You look overwhelmed, Tiger."

"Why did you imply we were dating?" I whispered.

"It's a habit from working in customer service. It was the truth they wanted to hear."

"Was your story true?"

"That I left early to meet you? Yeah, also because I'm not a fast hiker and that outback sun is a scorcher." She didn't address the romantic part at all, and I took the hint to drop the subject.

The bus reached a section of the coastal road with less urban development and more mangrove growth. It descended toward the beach where strange boats were parked. They were the size of a fishing boat but sat a few feet off the sand upon three tires on metal stilts. Another tour van had already arrived to drop off a group who was hopping into the amphibious vehicles. Soon our bus pulled into the parking lot and the crew loaded us into a similar boat-rover type contraption. The wheels could traverse the wet sand and shallow water at low tide. We headed toward a larger boat with an upper and lower deck moored in Roebuck Bay.

After transferring to the tour boat and sitting through the safety briefing, Sadie and I found a cozy spot near the edge, so we'd be closer to the marine life. The snubfin dolphin had only recently been discovered as a separate species--previously considered an Irrawaddy dolphin--and this was one of the few places to view them with guaranteed sightings.

Many other tourists had ventured to the sunny upper deck, leaving a quiet space for Sadie and me to enjoy the shade. She wore a baseball cap, a green jersey-like t-shirt with a sheepdog printed on it, and knee-length jean shorts. As I got my camera ready, a collective gasp from above drew Sadie's eyes to the water.

"They're here, Neil." She waved me over, and I was practically pressed against her back to spot the dolphins at that angle.

Three snubfin dolphins swam in a pod alongside the boat. Their round noses--like belugas or killer whales--breached the water. Their bodies were a consistent light gray with a tiny dorsal fin. One shot droplets and air through its blowhole close enough to mist us. The dolphins continued toward the stern before I could get a picture.

Sadie sighed and leaned into me before jolting forward. "Sorry, I should have asked."

"It's fine. I invaded your space first. I'm okay with it if you are."

She rested her body against mine and sighed. "I've missed this."

Hadn't she wanted more distance from me? Or had it been time she needed? "It's not too romantic?"

She looked up at me with those sparkling green eyes that matched her shirt. "What do you mean?"

"Your boundary. I've been trying to respect it." A large sea turtle surfacing for air caught my eye.

"Neil, my boundary wasn't about romance, it was--"

A rush of other passengers to our section stopped Sadie in her tracks. My heart beat with enough intensity that I was certain she'd feel it. If her boundary wasn't about a romantic relationship, was one still possible between us?

"Can we talk about it tonight, when it's just the two of us?" she asked.

"Of course."

I tried to focus on photography to calm my racing heart. The turtle lingered long enough to photograph its head breaking the surface. The water was calm and clear enough to see the patterns on its head and limbs. Twenty minutes into the tour and we'd already spotted snubbies and turtles. As the lower deck grew crowded, we ventured to the upper one, which offered a good bird's-eye view of the bay and after five minutes a ray sighting.

"Tiger, more dolphins! I think they're bottlenose ones."

I knew I should look at the water, but I couldn't take my eyes off her dropped jaw and lightly freckled cheeks beneath the large sunglasses she'd popped on. There was something about her sharing my excitement and caring about which animals we were seeing. If we weren't discussing boundaries later, I would have leaned in to ask to kiss her.

Her lips curled into a smile. "What?"

Neil, you dope, compliment her, call her beautiful or astounding, or anything but this awkward silence.

"Today's such a beautiful day."

Ugh, Neil, she's beautiful, not the day. You've gone and blown it now.

She turned toward the bay. "You've missed the dolphins."

"They'll be back." Their more prominent dorsal fins broke the surface in the distance. "See."

A cool gust of wind rolled by, rippling the water, and Sadie curled into my side. I rubbed her back with small, gentle circles.

"Tiger?" The melody of her voice made me want to earn that name, to protect her and keep out every ounce of pain. "Thank you for staying and arranging today. I know it's not the vacation you dreamed of, but it means a lot to me."

"This is better, Goanna, trust me." I meant every word of it.

***

Thank you for reading and supporting the story! 

This is another 'mood over accuracy' board lol. The boat, ray and turtle photos are from the Great Barrier Reef around Cairns. You'd be more likely to see the immense manta ray in Broome. The bottlenose dolphin (right-middle) is at Monkey Mia (which is in Western Australia on the long coastal drive between Perth and Broome). The top image is Cable Beach in Broome and the bottom right image is the snubfin dolphin also in Broome. 

The snubfin photo credit is to J Thomas McMurray and was accessed here https://flic.kr/p/c9GwC7 . All other photos are my own.