“Stop It, duchess.” David batted away the latest blueberry Duchess sent soaring in his direction. “If you aren’t going to eat, leave it alone.”
Duchess made a trilling sound in her throat. “Leave it alone. Leave it aloooooone!”
“That’s not a song.”…. That he knew of.
In the past few hours, his head had finally stopped throbbing and his vision cleared. He was thinking clearly enough now to admit his conversation with Bonnie might have been triggered by his own curiosity about where they went from here.
The closer they got to High Tide Harbor, the more he wondered if there was any way to fit her into his life. It was an impossible question to answer. He wasn’t good for her. He knew that… and with his kind of job, a relationship with her was definitely going to crash. He could want everything for her, want to be with her, to hold her, kiss her, spend endless days out on the rioting ocean with her, but none of that meant anything if she was simply moving from one life chosen for her into another of convenience and circumstance, and he suspected that that was the case with her. He didn’t want her by default. This thing between them was nothing but an attraction due to being in such a small place together for a long time.
His instincts had been right from the start. He should have focused on his job, collected the money her father owed him and let whatever happened play out however it was going to. It made perfect sense. Except for one thing: he was already on the edge of being in love with her. George had once warned him that when the time came and he discovered he was in love, it would be like a life-changing tidal wave hitting him.
Life-changing? Didn’t he like his life the way it was? He thought so. Everyone else seemed to think so, too. Then again, being alone, with the rest of his life stretched out ahead of him, seemed dull and endless, like the unreachable horizon hovering at the edge of the world. And yet, he could barely wrap his mind around a future that didn’t include Bonnie Rimmer. How could he have fallen this hard and this fast? He’d resent her for it if he didn’t know none of this had been her fault. It had been his idea for her to come on the boat with him, and now that he thought about it, he realized that he had asked because he wanted to spend time with her, even if he didn’t quite realize it at the time.
“I don’t want to think about this, Bonnie,” he said aloud. He swung his attention to Duchess, who was pacing along the console, humming to herself. “Not for repetition, bird. Seal those lips.”
“Seal those lips. Seal those lips.” Duchess clacked her beak and took a little bow. A flashing light on the dash prevented him from responding. David immediately dropped speed when he identified the warning light telling him the engine was overheating. He then realized the voltage meter was dead. He swore, shoved out of his chair and dropped down the ladder to the lower level.
“What’s going on?” Bonnie poked her head into the hallway. “Why have we stopped?”
“Hopefully not for the reason I’m thinking.” He pulled open the panel and saw debris that unfortunately looked like a broken drive belt. “Can you bring me the tool kit?”
“Just a sec.” While Bonnie retrieved the kit, David kept good thoughts. He tried to remember putting in a new drive belt before leaving; he always carried spares, though. That said, he had been distracted around that time.
“Here.” Bonnie passed him the box, but it didn’t take more than a few seconds for him to admit he was definitely out of luck.
“Perfect.” He sat back on his heels and looked at her. “We’ve got a problem.”
——–
“Okay, Bryan. thanks. Just tell Cal to bill me and I’ll take care of the invoice as soon as I’m back.” David heard the warning that his battery was about to die. “Perfect. Bring your main kit with you, too, would you? See you tomorrow.” He hit the button to drop anchor and settled in.
“Well?” Bonnie sat on the bench nearby, her legs and arms crossed.
David glanced away. She’d worn those shorts again. The ones that distracted him to the point he all but forgot his name.
“We’re stuck here for the night.” He sat back on his heels and shut the cover on the engine. “Drive belt’s shot and I don’t have a spare.” He’d never be without one again, however. “My mechanic’s bringing it out tomorrow. We’re close enough he should be here by noon.”
“We’re that close to High Tide Harbor?”
“Half a day at the speed we’ve been going, but for Phoenix it’ll only be a few hours.”
“Phoenix?”
“His speedboat. He usually uses it for coast tours for one or two people, small diving groups, but she comes in handy in emergencies. I could send out a stranded signal, but we aren’t in any danger and I don’t like using up resources that can be focused elsewhere for emergencies.”
“No need to explain.” She gave him a quick, tense smile. “Just along for the ride, remember?”
Oh, he remembered.
“You know, there is one thing we haven’t done on this trip.” The second she finished her thought, her cheeks went pink. “Fishing. We haven’t done any fishing.”
“I guess we haven’t.”
“Since it sounds as if we’ll be getting into the harbor tomorrow, and we don’t have anything on the calendar for tonight-”
“Or any other night,” he added and earned a glare of irritation for interrupting. “Excellent plan for dinner. Unless you’re squeamish about the fish?”
“Please.” Her mouth twisted. “I was scaling and gutting fish before I hit double digits. I’ll get the rods. You get the chairs.”
—————
As good as Bonnie was about distracting other people, she was horrible at it for herself. Why she thought sitting beside David on the deck of his boat for potentially hours waiting for the fish to bite would be a welcome respite was clearly an error in judgment. They never talked about their previous conversation about a relationship and David seemed to be avoiding any form of physical touch between them. Although, who knew? Maybe she’d suddenly have the epiphany that she was destined for a life of competitive sports fishing, she thought.
“Nice reels.”