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After lunch, we hit Splash Mountain, followed by the Jungle Cruise, and my favorite of the day, Pirates of the Caribbean. Or it would have been my favorite if it hadn’t been closed when we arrived.
Duke made up for it with the most romantic gesture I could have asked for. He put two quarters through the coin press, turning them into special elongated silver Disneyland coins with the Disneyland Haunted Mansion embossed on them. “Keep this with you, so you remember today.”
I put the coin in my pocket.
He kept the other.
Allison was over the moon when Nick followed suit, pressing two coins for them.
Terry went next. “Here, Kitten.”
Grace accepted the sliver of silver from him and tried to hide her smile, but I caught it.
Each of the rides today evoked a childlike happiness in me and an unexpected playfulness in Duke. This had resulted in too much tickling, enough hugging, and almost enough playful kissing. By the end of the day, I felt oddly naked when we weren’t pressed together.
Katelyn checked her phone toward the end of the afternoon.
“What are you guys up for next?” Allison asked as she pulled close to Nick.
“I’m beat,” I admitted. It was the truth. Duke had worn me out last night.
“It’s too early,” Katelyn complained. “We don’t get here often enough to quit now.”
“Riverboat,” Terry suggested. “That’s easy.”
Nick and Allison led the say.
Terry slid an arm around Grace to follow.
Duke pulled me along after them. “That’s easy enough.”
Grace pulled away from Terry. He took her hand and whispered into her ear. She laughed and didn’t yank free.Progress.
Katelyn came close a few strides later and whispered, “Leo and I started like that.”
“Like what?”
“Sniping at each other as a defense mechanism.”
“You think?”
“Check out the way she watches him when he’s not looking.”
I merely nodded. But it only took a minute for me to see an example of it.
Terry slung his arm around Grace’s waist, and this time, she didn’t object.
After a short walk, we strolled aboard and chose the top level near the stern of the Mark Twain riverboat. The steam puffed methodically out of the twin chimneys as the large paddle wheeler began its journey around Tom Sawyer’s Island.
I leaned against the railing, snuggling up to Duke’s warmth. The magic of this place was how it could transport you out of Los Angeles and into another world. Logically, I knew there were millions of people in hundreds of thousands of houses just outside the park boundaries, but I couldn’t hear or see any of that now. Our existence currently included only water, trees, and the sound of the paddlewheel churning.
Nick corralled a passing couple, and they nicely took pictures of our group on all our phones. Grace changed sides, choosing not to stand next to Terry.
“If you want to go, we can call it a day,” Duke mumbled into my hair after the group photo broke up.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
He turned me to face him. “It’s been fun for me, too.”
