“I had my reasons.”
“What’s the big secret?”
“Why don’t you answer Lance’s text messages?”
Shannon laughed. “Touché.”
“You still had a tan line on your ring finger when you got to Florida. Were you and Lance married?”
“Engaged.”
“What happened?”
“The usual crap. The experience taught me never to get involved with a man. I don’t know why I thought he’d be different from the others.”
“Others? You’ve had a bad run?”
Shannon stood and grabbed the charts off the navigation station.
“I’m going to check out where we should anchor next. Any ideas?”
Jake would have to be an idiot not to get that she wasn’t going to talk about her past. He was no different, but he was curious. He’d probe once in a while and figure out what she was about.
“I’m thinking we should go back to Nassau.”
“Debi asked us to go south.”
“Maybe Nicole Dace is still in Nassau. We could track her down. It’s a bit coincidental a woman wants to crew with me, and it happens to be her. She thought I was a single-hander when she approached the boat and seemed disappointed when I said I already had two women on board. I’d like to find out more about her.”
“What’s the weather like for going north?”
“It’ll be a bit of a bash, but nothing this boat can’t handle.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Twenty-Year-Old Man
Dominican Republic
Eight Years Ago
Two years have passed since the boy became a man and left his guardians’ home, and he’s running out of money. He should have done a better job with his inheritance. His sister already finished university and is working. Just like her to be the goody-goody and do things right the first time. He’s twenty now, and his life isn’t getting any better.
He sits with his elbows on the bar and places his forehead on his hands. A headache is starting again. The video plays out the last two years but only the bad moments. He’s in the Dominican Republic with his girlfriend, and he should be enjoying the now. Not watching his past.
His girlfriend places her hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He shrinks from her touch. He doesn’t mean to. She doesn’t say anything, but she removes her hand. He knows she felt his resistance.
The warm breeze from the ocean soothes his back. Through the darkness, he can’t see the beach or the water, but he can hear it. The waves slap against the shore. His drink is cold on his palm. The umbrella sits disregarded beside the glass. He’s spent the last of his money on this trip. But it was worth it.
“I’m going to start school this fall,” he says. Right after he gets a job and can afford the tuition.
His girlfriend smiles. “You said that last year.”
He breathes in her sunscreen mixed with perfume and wants to bury his face in her neck. Instead, he keeps his distance.
“It’s time.”
She hugs him from the side, stretching her arms around him. It’s awkward, but he lets her hold on for a moment. He’s never told her about his memory. He wants to try a relationship where he’s normal, except hiding his skills makes him lonely. She says she loves him. And maybe she thinks she does. But how can she, if she doesn’t know who he is?
“Will that mean moving to Toronto?” she asks.
“The best police foundation course is there. It’s where I need to be.”
“What about me?”
He thinks about that. Does he want her to go with him? If he’s going to make that commitment, he’ll have to tell her about his memory. She won’t like it. Nobody does.
His guardian always told him it was a skill he should make use of. That he should be proud of it. She didn’t understand how unpopular it made him. Who wants to hang with a know-it-all?
Even with his friends who knew what he could do, there was always a distance. They were on guard, waiting for him to correct whatever they said about the past. If he didn’t say the words out loud, he suspected his friends knew he was thinking them.
He could catch is friends in a lie so easily. He didn’t know a person who didn’t lie. At least little lies. For some reason, when people repeated a story over years, they changed it a bit each time. Making it a little more exciting, a little more dangerous. Except he remembered every version, so his friends stopped telling stories in front of him. He’d become a drag to be with.
He could never tell his girlfriend. Meaning he can never be truly close to her.
“That delay was a bit too long,” she says.
“Huh?”
“I asked what about me, and you don’t even remember the question.”
He does remember, and this blunder will stay with him forever. He’s hurt her and didn’t mean to.
“You’re always off in your own world. Do you know how many times you sit there looking into space, ignoring me?”
“I’m sorry,” he says. “It’s just, sometimes I get lost in memories.”
“Memories of what?”
“Anything. Nothing.” He hands her a napkin. Her eyes glisten, and he knows she’s about to cry. That’s his talent. Making others cry.
She shifts her barstool away from him. “Are you trying to push me away?”
Her mascara has made black rings underneath her eyes, but he doesn’t tell her. That will only embarrass her.
“What do you see in me?” he asks.
“I love you.”
“I know that, but why?”
She takes her chestnut hair from behind her back and wraps it around her hand. Her tanned skin highlights her blue eyes. She is beautiful in this moment.
“I love you because you make me feel good when I’m around you. You let me be me. You don’t contradict me or try to change me.”
She has no idea that’s the worst thing she could say to him. She doesn’t know he wants to contradict her all the time. That he can’t go through life hiding what he is because she loves what he isn’t. But he can’t tell her either. He’s a coward.
His anger starts again. He’ll never have a normal life. He’ll never be deeply, truly loved.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Shannon
Yellow Banks, Bahamas
The hulls of A Dog’s Cat slammed through the waves as the boat sailed into the wind. Shannon braced her back against the front of the cockpit and stretched her legs aft across the seat. Because they left Staniel Cay early, making it to Nassau before dark shouldn’t be a problem.
“How far to the Yellow Banks?”
Jake sat at the helm, using both hands to steer through the waves.
“Another hour.”
“Maybe we should go around them. The visibility isn’t the greatest.”
“The water’s deep enough. When we get close, you can stand on the bow and watch for coral heads.”
Shannon scrunched her face and refrained from making a snarky comment. Without Debi to mediate, she would try to get along with Jake even when he gave orders instead of asking.
A wave slap banged against the inside hull and startled Peanut. She jumped into Shannon’s lap and shivered. Shannon stroked her back.
“This is scaring the dog.”
“She’ll be fine.”
Shannon tucked Peanut on a cockpit cushion and retrieved the dog’s harness. She slipped Peanut’s front legs through the straps and clipped the harness closed. She attached one end of the tether to Peanut’s harness and the other to the stainless steel pad eye, all the while noticing Jake watching her. His smirk grew the more she entertained him.
“What? I’m not taking any chances with her. Debi won’t be happy if we lose her overboard again.”
Jake bit his bottom lip as if he were trying to control his smirk. “I didn’t say anything. I think the tether is a good idea. We got lucky with her last time.”
“We did.” Shannon studied the dark clo
uds on the horizon. “Does the radar show any rain?”
Jake pressed the button to change the display from the nautical chart to the radar and shook his head.
“Not yet.”
They reached the edge of the Yellow Banks, and Shannon stood in the center of the bow, holding on to the forestay. They sailed close to the wind, and the sail was pulled tight on the port side. The rough seas prevented her from sitting in either seat at the front of each bow. Water splashed through the netting and over the topsides. Sailing through the reefs in poor visibility worried Shannon, but her pride kept her from admitting her fear to Jake. If he could do this, so could she.
She spotted a black spot not far off the starboard bow and pointed. She turned back to Jake to make sure he’d seen it. He steered within two feet of the coral head.
“Don’t go so close,” she yelled back to Jake.
He waved. What was that supposed to mean? And did he always have to be so cool? With her head turned back, she didn’t see the next head, but she felt the crunch when the hull scraped over coral.
The impact knocked Shannon off her feet. She landed on her back on the trampoline.
Jake reached her before she had time to get up.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Watch where the boat’s going.”
“It’s on autopilot.”
Jake held out his hand to help her up, but she swatted it away. “Go back and steer this thing. I’m fine.” She was not attracted to him. She was not attracted to him. She was not.
He frowned at her but swiveled and stomped to the helm. Shannon rolled off the trampoline and repositioned herself at the bow, gripping the forestay.
* * *
A Dog’s Cat arrived in Nassau without hitting another coral head. Shannon eased the boat into a slip and tied to the same dock they’d tied to during their last visit.
Jake jumped to the dock and tied the forward dock line to a cleat. He grabbed the aft line off the stern and tied it quickly to a second cleat. Even though impressed by Jake’s agility, she refrained from complimenting him. In her opinion, his ego didn’t need the stroking.
Shannon turned off the engine and joined Jake on the dock. Together they set the fenders for maximum protection. The noise of Nassau contradicted the quietness in the anchorages of the Exumas. Her dream of Bahamas living didn’t include staying in the city for long.
“Are you going to swim the hull and check for damage?” Shannon asked.
“You could do it.”
“You’re the captain. I think it’s your job.”
“Fine.”
Peanut hopped onto the dock, and Shannon clipped on her leash. Shannon needed a password from the marina office so she could access the internet via their Wi-Fi. Jake could tidy the boat.
“I’m going to check in and then see if we have an email from Debi.”
When Shannon returned from the office, Jake had the mainsail cover zipped, the deck rinsed, and the salt off the windows. He sat on the edge of the dock wearing his swim shorts and flippers. A mask and snorkel hung from one hand. The longer they sailed in the Bahamas, the darker his tan became. Blond tips mingled through his dark hair. Compared to the paleness of his skin when she first met him in Florida, the tan looked healthy.
He slid off the dock, and Shannon kept watch for any boat traffic moving too close to A Dog’s Cat. His head and shoulders disappeared in the water, but the bottoms of his flippers remained on the surface. Shannon waited. How long could he stay under water without air? The guy must have seriously fit lungs.
Jake flipped and popped his head above water. He spat out his snorkel and inhaled deeply. “It’s only a scrape. No hull damage.”
With Jake safely out of the water, she left her flip flops on the dock, went straight to her computer, and logged on to her email.
Jake leaned against the companionway doorframe.
“Anything?”
“Give me a sec.”
He sat beside her, his bare legs touching hers, and she ignored the urge to press her thigh into his.
“Don’t leave me hanging.”
Shannon shifted slightly, trying to move away from him without him noticing and making fun of her.
“Wow. Have you ever heard of patience?”
“Hmm. I get that comment a lot.”
The light caught his brown eyes, and she thought she saw amusement in them. She turned away from him and opened an email from Debi.
I’ve seen the boat. There’s very little damage except where the hull and keel hit the shoreline at Malcolm’s Road Beach. The authorities say I have to do something to get her off the beach. I’m calling the insurance company to find out if I have any coverage for getting the boat removed. I have no idea how to go about this.
The mainsail was still set. The dinghy is gone. I can’t tell if anything else is missing. This is all so horrible.
I’m going to take some of Bobby’s personal items off the boat later today.
Had pig bite treated. All good.
Shannon’s eyes filled with tears. She dreaded thinking Uncle Bobby knew the sea would take him. She could picture him floating and watching Waterfall sail away, knowing he couldn’t reach her.
“What do you think happened to the dinghy?” Shannon asked.
Jake pressed his lips between his teeth and shook his head slowly.
“I don’t know. Maybe someone stole it before the tourists found the boat.”
“Then why wasn’t anything else missing?”
“Good question. Why don’t you send Debi an email and ask if the gates in the lifelines were open or closed? Also, ask her to look for the rest of the safety gear. Specifically, if the horseshoe and life sling are still in place.”
“How do you know he had all that stuff?”
“Haven’t you looked at the photos Debi has of Waterfall? The gear is all there.”
“Why do you want to know if it’s there or not?”
“I don’t know. But we might as well get her to collect as much information as she can before she comes back. Do you know if she took her camera with her?”
“No, but she has her phone. Let me guess. You want her to take as many photos of the boat as she can. Anything else?”
Shannon typed and Jake leaned over her shoulder, and she could feel his breath on her neck.
“I can type you know.”
“Force of habit.”
Shannon clicked the send button. “You can take the man out of the RCMP, but you can’t take the RCMP out of the man?” Shannon giggled at her own wit, then thought of Uncle Bobby. She shouldn’t be joking.
“You done laughing at me?” Jake swiveled the computer and checked his email. “Nothing from Kendra. I’m going to walk the docks and look for Nicole.”
“Wait a sec, and I’ll come with you.”
“No. If I find her, I’ll bet she’s the type who’ll talk to me better if there isn’t another female around.”
“Are you sure that’s all there is to it?”
Jake gave her a questioning look.
“From all reports, she’s very attractive.”
“Like a black widow spider maybe,” Jake said.
“Good point. Bring your bug spray.” Shannon listened to Jake chuckle as he stepped off the boat.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jake
Nassau, Bahamas
Jake returned to A Dog’s Cat and rapped on the hull. He hadn’t found Nicole, but he had found a trace of her.
“Get your shoes and Piddles. We’re going to BASRA.” The Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association was only a ten-minute walk from the marina, and the leg stretch would be good for Piddles.
“Hi to you, too. Any luck finding Nicole?” Shannon asked.
The tide had dropped, making the step from the deck to the dock more than two feet. Shannon passed Piddles to Jake.
Jake placed her on the dock and held his hand for Shannon to grab.
“Sort of.”
>
He pulled Shannon onto the dock and didn’t want to let go of her hand. He noticed she released her grip the second her feet hit the wooden planks as if she couldn’t let go of his hand fast enough. He didn’t know why he wanted to hold onto her. After what had happened with Becky, he didn’t think he’d ever get together, seriously, with another woman again, especially someone as athletic and adventurous as Shannon. He never stopped regretting the conversation he’d had with Becky. If only he’d waited. And if only he could stop replaying the scene in his mind. Even if Shannon liked him, she deserved more than he could give.
“What does sort of mean?”
“She got on a boat and left Nassau a day ago.”
“What boat?”
“A Caliber 47 named Night Wind.”
Shannon laughed. “Who would name their boat Night Wind? Why not just call it I Fart at Night?”
“Thanks for the image. Are you particularly gassy while you sleep?”
Shannon pushed his shoulder, and Jake had a grade nine memory of a girl who had a crush on him. Natalie Wilson. She’d punched him every time he stood at his locker trying to hide from her. She’d worn an HB pencil tucked behind one ear and smelled of the gym. It hadn’t been the first time or the last he was attracted to a smart tomboy.
“So where is BASRA?”
They walked through the marina security gate, nodded at the guard sitting behind a glass wall, and stepped into the parking lot. The traffic noise scared Piddles, and she scampered behind Jake’s legs.
“Don’t pee on me,” he said.
As if she understood him, Piddles shifted to Shannon’s foot and peed before Shannon got out of the way.
“Good girl,” Jake said.
Shannon shook her foot and splashed Jake’s calf with pee.
“Gross. You may not mind, but I do.” Jake took Piddles’ leash from Shannon and settled the dog between them. “It’s not far. We can walk.”
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