Gentle love prompts #41. Not letting them go when hugging
Hol Horse/reader (gender neutral reader)
You’re on Texas’s Galveston Island with Hol for a weekend getaway. He’s been showing you around the places he remembers fondly from his past visits: a bar near your hotel, a chocolate shop on the Strand, and his favorite fishing spot. Of course, you’ve spent some time on the beach, too. Now he’s driven you all the way to the east end of the island, past the bridge you’d driven over when you’d arrived.
“Here we are.” He says, pulling into a ferry loading lane.
“Where does the ferry go?” You ask, watching the cars ahead of you pull onto the ferry as you inch forward.
“Port Bolivar. Not much to see there. They’ve got a retired lighthouse and an old fort, but it’s more of a gateway to the rest of the peninsula.”
“Then why are we going there?”
“Just to ride the ferry. We’ll have to turn around and take the next one back too, unless you wanna see the park at the fort.” He says as your turn to board comes, and you pass over the loading ramp with a bump. “It’s nice, it’s free, and sometimes you can see dolphins.”
He pulls up until the reflective-vested workers gesture for him to stop. He turns the car off and pulls the parking brake, following the instructions on the signs scattered around the deck. Then he unbuckles his seat belt.
“Come on, we’re gettin’ out.” He hops out and you follow him, slipping between cars to the walkway near the side of the boat.
“We’re goin’ up to the front, you can see better there.”
“Isn’t the front on a boat called the prow or something?”
“Honey, I’m a cowboy, not a sailor.” He laughs as you come to stand near the chain keeping passengers away from the very front of the boat, which lowers into the loading and unloading ramp. There’s a good view from here, and the sea breeze on your face is nice.
There’s a small jolt as the ferry’s engines start up and it begins to pull away from the dock. You sway into Hol with the motion, looping your arm around his waist in a side hug and not letting go of him.
“It’s not gonna be that rough, you don’t need to hold on to me.” He says, and you smile at him with a wink.
“No complaints here.” He grins and throws an arm across your shoulders. The stronger breeze of the boat’s forward motion and the spray from the sea splashing at the side near you are cooling. At the back of the boat, people are throwing scraps of food to noisy gulls. You watch pelicans floating on the water pass by, scanning for the dolphins Hol had said you might see.
The trip isn’t very long, maybe twenty minutes, so it doesn’t take long before you can see the other dock. Hol gives you a squeeze and lets you go.
“Let’s get back to the car. Gotta be ready to get off.”
You follow him back as the engines audibly slow down on approach. You buckle up again, and soon the front ramp has been lowered and the first cars are being waved off. When it’s your turn, Hol has to drive a little ways down the road to find a place to turn around. And then you’re back in the loading line to do it again.
You repeat the whole process from before, standing at the front of the boat again once you’re underway. You keep an eye out again for dolphins. You watch a bird dive and come up with a fish in its beak, and the wind picks up enough that Hol has to tie the strings of his hat in case it blows off his head, but you don’t see any dolphins. Not until-
“Over there.” Hol pulls you close to point at something a ways away from the boat. You look closely, and there they are: the dorsal fins and curved backs of dolphins jumping and playing at the surface. It looks like there are four or five of them, but it’s hard to count when you can’t see them all at one time.
You watch them until you can’t find them again. Maybe they’ve moved on, or maybe the boat has left them behind. Either way, the return trip comes to and end, and you’re soon back in the car driving away from the dock in the direction of your hotel.
“That was pretty cool.” You decide, watching the seawall pass by your window. “Thanks for showing me.”
“Glad you liked it. Tomorrow we can try some of the museums around town. I’ve never been, myself.”
“Not much of a museum-goer in your youth?” You tease, and he shakes his head.
“I’m hardly a museum-goer now, but I think you’ll like ‘em.”
It’s sweet that he’s planned activities just for you. You’re looking forward to it.
