Summer Love #2: Two Hearts Together

Two Hearts Together

I met a stranger

at a friend's summer wedding.

He had bright blue eyes,

sandy-blonde hair, and a voice 

light but husky – intriguing. 

In his tiny car,

a group of us crowded in

to get a lift home.

I was on some fellow's knee.

(That was back before seat-belts.)

Much later, he said

he was surprised by envy,

wanting me on his –

but he'd only just met me,

and of course he was driving.

When he asked me out,

he told me he loved swimming.

'Oh, teach me!' I begged.

He never did. At the beach

I got into the water.

He was used to girls

who claimed to love swimming, but

they never got wet,

instead lying on the sand 

all day, perfecting their tans.

We went on a boat,

not much more than a dinghy.

I sat on the side

with the spray striking my neck.

I'd grown up on fishing boats.

That was it for him.

A girl who liked the water

for real – a keeper.

Twenty-seven years married,

two sons, many adventures ...

He made his living

from the sea: a fisherman.

It provided well.

We liked the beach and camping,

boats and the ocean, summer.

For the Summer Love series at Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. Prompt #2 is a tanka suite: 6 - 12 tanka telling a story. 

This is the condensed  and simplified version of a true story.  (I'm afraid that in the interests of the narrative I've lost some of the more poetic qualities of the tanka.)