Chapter 29 Rolling Along
Rolling along
Gray looked forward to his shared day off with Riley.
Every time she asked if he was up for an adventure, he said yes.
It had only been a few weeks, but Gray felt like he'd been working with Riley for months.
She made everything so easy, and her perfectionist streak meant the results from his project were better than he could have hoped for.
They had measured the physiology of every dolphin at the facility, although only a few were in the Gray's bigger project.
Riley and Cam had thought it would be a fun challenge for all the trainers and dolphins to take part.
The measurements were easy enough to do—weight, length, and girth measurements — plus Riley and Gray had created a large board to lay each dolphin's flukes on to draw an outline of the flukes and then measure them using the outline.
They didn't need to, but the dolphins were so well trained they decided, why not?
Afterwards, they hung up each dolphin's fluke outlines as art in the trainer's room.
Again, Cooper was the easiest to recognize as one side of his fluke was curled in.
No one knew why, but the guy had character both in personality and in physiology.
As he glanced over at her, he couldn't help but smile. This was the same woman who had left him on a dock only a few weeks ago.
Riley was driving them somewhere, but she refused to say where. Her only promise was that it'd be "awesomely fun."
"What's making that noise back there?" Gray asked, sounding a bit amused and worried.
"It doesn't concern you!" Clearly, he would not get any answers. She was enjoying keeping this a secret.
As they cruised along Midshipman Blvd, Gray noticed their surroundings—a road that seemed oddly desolate but suspiciously well-maintained. And it seemed to lead... nowhere?
"This is where you should hide my body if you're planning to."
"If I was going to hide your body, I'd go into the mangroves, no one would find you!" Riley shot back; her tone playful as she parked the Jeep on the side of the road near a roundabout that seemed out of place.
Gray raised his eyebrows, but when he looked at Riley as she got out of the Jeep, he saw she was trying to hide a smile.
"Come here, please!" she called, pointing to the Jeep's back. "Now, put these on!"
"Rollerblades? Where on earth did you get my rollerblades?" He laughed, the absurdity of the situation hit him.
"Don't you worry about my thieving ways!
Those are your blades, and I've got mine.
Plus, here are your kneepads and wrist guards.
" Riley leaned in to give Gray his gear, and she realized his hair was still damp from showering that morning.
She tried to be sneaky and pulled in a deep breath.
Gray smelled of something citrusy, maybe grapefruit.
As she pondered, she saw the side of his mouth quirk up a bit, but he didn't comment on her attempt to cover up what she was doing.
"Okay, I'm not even going to ask! But this is pretty cool. I was thinking as we drove down this road that it'd be perfect for rollerblading. What's out here? It feels like this road shouldn't even exist."
"There's not much out here," Riley pointed to the canal where the road ended, its blue waters glistening in the sunlight.
"But when I was exploring the island after I first moved here, I stumbled across this road and realized it's perfect for blading.
Since you've been saying you want to see more of the island, I figured you'd like to come with me. "
She turned away, nervous that he might think it was strange to drive out to the middle of nowhere to rollerblade.
"It's perfect! Thanks for bringing me here. I've never been on an island until now, and I want to see everything. How far can we blade?"
As they strapped on their gear, Riley motioned for them to head back the way they came.
"We can loop around from here back to where the road gets busier, then come back again. And don't worry, I brought snacks and drinks for after. Wouldn't want you to perish from exertion!"
Gray smirked at her, and she playfully smacked his arm before skating off. "Not that kind of exertion, you weirdo!"
But now Gray was thinking about that kind, especially as he watched her skate away. The view was perfect.