“I spend most of my time on this boat. Not sure it’s big enough for two people.”
And if my marriage to Sheila has taught me anything, it’s that I don’t really have the personality to go through the bullshit of online dating, or even meeting with the matchmaker. Let’s just say, I’m not exactly oozing charm. But I won’t say all that to Thomas. He means well.
“But you have that gorgeous cabin out on the mountain. My wife Leanna would faint if I had something like that for her.”
I raise an eyebrow, laughing as the morning sun shines down on us. “But you’re a nice guy, Thomas. Me? Not so much.”
I’m not the guy you take home to meet your daddy, I’ve got a beard so fierce that it would make most guys’ dicks limp with shame, and eyes that have been called smoldering a time or twenty. I don’t put on a damn show, I got nothing to prove, and my eyes tell you exactly what I mean.
Thomas, though, just shakes his head and laughs. “All us fisherman, we’re hard to reel in when we were young. Age will slow you down a bit, and a good woman will do her part in helping with that.”
I tell him I’ll see him in a week and a half-- I’m headed out on a ten-day fishing trip tomorrow--and board my boat.
Driving my boat back to the marina to find some breakfast, I pull my beanie down over my ears. It’s cold, even though it’s June. We’re on the coast, and the water always brings in a chill on the Inland Passage. And today it’s much windier than usual.
As I pull into my slip at the marina, I see a woman on the dock.
This fisherman’s marina is not where the fancy ass yachts go, and the tourists from the cruise ships that come this way have to take a water taxi to get to our village. When someone that isn’t from around here shows up, people take notice.
One glance at this woman and it’s clear she doesn’t belong. The people that belong here, at this marina, wear overalls and chew tobacco. They’ve got bushy beards and eat jerky they made from their own kill.
Well, I guess I could say most guys.
Not me. I may have a beard, and I may eat jerky, but I clean up all right.
I know how to take a damn shower and always keep my boat clean for that matter. Hell, I figure if I spend as much time as I do on this ship I might as well keep it nice.
The woman wears a light blue raincoat that looks too thin to keep her warm. And on her feet are bright yellow rain boots, she has on leggings covered in flowers, and her nearly white hair blows in the wind.
As I pull into my slip, I see the girl using her hand to keep her hair away. She may be several yards away, but I can see she is staring at me.
Chum notices her too and starts barking up a storm, jumping off the boat and running toward her. In her surprise to see a big old mutt racing toward her, she loses her balance. Her hands whip out, as she tries to steady herself, but it’s no use. Chum has completely blindsided her and she can’t steady herself.
She falls in, head over heels, into the ice cold water.
“Holy fuck,” I scream, running off my boat and toward the end of the dock where she fell.
“Chum,” I shout. “Back on the boat. Now.” Goddammit, this water is frigid, but she’s splashing like a wild animal in that water, and I sure as hell hope a sea lion doesn’t see her and think she’s something good to eat.
She’s screaming from the shock, but then her head dips under the water, the current strong and choppy water unforgiving.
I jump in after her, pulling at her waist, dragging her up the dock before flinging her onto the wooden planks.
“Are you breathing, you okay?” I shout, half terrified and half out of breath, as I lift myself up from the water, my muscles pulling at my soaking wet clothes.
I look down at her, she’s a shivering mess, sopping wet, huddled over and sobbing, shaking from the shock.
“Holy shit balls.” I’m furious. At what, I’m not sure. Chum didn’t mean any harm, but hell, the water took my breath away.
And when I look down at this woman, she does too.
When she looks up, my heart warms––which is saying something considering that water is so cold we could have fucking frozen.
Okay, it’s a lie to say my heart warmed. The ignition turns the fuck on and surges into overdrive. Her eyes are icy blue like the frigid ocean and they pierce me. I’m staring at her when I should be yelling at her for being a fool-- but instead, my heart is melting like the North Pole.