“Jack Hammer here. Can you hear me?”
The Jack Hammer! Lucas was out here somewhere. Where was he? She tore her eyes away from the oncoming waves long enough to scan outside her boat. She couldn’t see anything through the flying spray and churning foam.
“If you can hear me, Megan, I got my binoculars on you.” She clung to Lucas’ calm voice like an anchor. “You’re doing great. If you can steer two degrees to port you’ll reach Ninlik Cove. I’m there right now and it’s calm. You’re about ten minutes out. Can you do it? Just watch the rocks to your starboard as you round the point.”
Ninlik Cove. Yes. She knew it. A sheltered little jewel of an inlet in Lost Souls Wilderness where Varied Thrushes like to nest. A steep wooded bluff guarded it from the bay. But she couldn’t see anything beyond the next wave. Water in the sky, foam in the water—everything upside down.
Two degrees to port, he’d said. She swung the helm slightly to her left, even though the force of the water against the rudder made it feel heavier than concrete. The shift in direction meant that she took the waves on the starboard quarter of her bow. As each one hit, the Forget Me Not rolled from side to side with a sickening dip.
Ten minutes, Lucas had said. She’d lost all sense of time and couldn’t see a clock anywhere, so that didn’t help much.
“That’s it, you’re on the right track,” came Lucas’ voice over the radio. Calm, commanding, and thoroughly reassuring.
“Don’t leave me,” she muttered, glad he couldn’t actually hear her. Her hands were shaking so hard from exhaustion she worried they’d fall off the wheel. “Keep talking to me.”
As if he knew what she needed, he spoke again. “You’re over halfway there. Can you go another degree to port? You’re a little off-course right now. That’s right. You got it. I know you must be tired, but you’re almost there.”
Tired didn’t begin to describe it, but the energy in his voice seemed to transfer right into her arms. She gripped the wheel tight and ignored the pain that screamed through her hands. Almost there. Almost there. Another wave. Almost there.
And then she crested a wave and saw something new—the bluff bringing dark green and solid brown into her world of watery gray. She almost cried at the sight of its blunt shape.
A big part of her learning curve here in Misty Bay had been studying the charts so she knew where the reefs and rocks and sandbars lurked. Luckily, the tide was high enough so most of the reefs were still several feet under. But there was that big rock at the mouth of the cove, the one Lucas had mentioned. It was tricky because it extended outward a fair distance, still close to the surface even at mid-tide.
“Give that thing a wide berth,” said Lucas. “You don’t want any sudden surges throwing you off course.” At this point it felt like his voice was inside her head. It was unbelievably reassuring. She shifted her course another degree southwest, noticing at the same time that the force of the waves was diminishing. Maybe the sheltering effect of the bluff was already at work.
“That’s perfect,” said Lucas. “I’m coming down from the bluff now so I won’t be able to guide you. Just come into the cove and idle. I’ll take it from there.”
She glanced up at the bluff, now larger and more detailed. She could make out individual spruce trees in the dark mass of the forest. Try as she might, she couldn’t see Lucas. He was probably already deep in the woods on his way to her.
As soon as she rounded the big rock, holding her breath the entire time, the wind cut dramatically, from a blow dryer roar to an unsettled whisper. Even here in Ninlik Cove, restless ripples marred the usually glassy surface. But these waves were like baby kittens compared to the monstrous lions beyond the bluff.
The sheer relief made her light-headed. She had to peel her fingers off the wheel in order to throttle down the engine. When it reached an idle, the Forget Me Not settled into stillness with something like a sigh. Her poor boat.
She patted the dashboard with one numb hand. “We survived, my friend. You did so well. Thank you, thank you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“You did well yourself.” Lucas’ voice made her startle. She turned to find him pulling himself over the side in a power move that made his arm muscles bulge. He hadn’t even waited for her to open the gate. He’d boarded her boat like a pirate and she didn’t mind a bit.
In fact, she could kiss him right now, and it took all her willpower not to.
She slumped onto one of the padded benches in the wheelhouse as if her marionette strings had been cut. All the willpower she’d used to keep her boat from capsizing drained out of her. “I’m so tired,” she mumbled.
“I bet you are. It’s hard work, fighting the entire ocean.” He must have gone through it too—his thermal shirt clung to his chest and his hair was thick with salt. While she recovered on the bench, he climbed onto the bow and dropped her anchor. Then he shut down her engine. Finally, complete quiet reigned in her little realm.
She let out a sigh. “I think I’m going to crawl into my bunk and sleep for a while.”
“I suggest you come onto my boat. You may have sustained some damage you don’t know about yet. I’ve checked the Jack Hammer thoroughly and she’s in good shape. You can take a nap over there.”
“Really? You don’t mind?” For some reason, that simple kindness brought tears to her eyes. Probably a sign of just how exhausted she was.
“Of course. I’ll keep an eye on the Forget Me Not. If you like I can give it a thorough inspection.”
“Maybe later. I think she needs a break.”
Lucas smiled at the affectionate tone in her voice. “I sense a new appreciation for your craft.”
“Definitely. I thought there was a good chance I might die.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat to mask the sound. He caught it anyway—obviously—but didn’t react. Bless him.
“You did great, really well. That storm came out of nowhere. They were calling for it to stay north, but it didn’t.”
“You got caught too?”
“I saw the wind shift. I’ve seen it before, so I knew what could happen. I took my clients back in and dropped them off, but then I saw you were still out.” As he spoke, he opened the gate and dropped the ladder into place. He tugged his Zodiac up close.
“You came after me?”
“I came after you. I’m on the volunteer rescue crew so it’s what I signed up for.”
Ah. That made sense. He was doing his job. Being a hero.
She got to her feet and limped toward the ladder. Her entire body ached, as if she’d just gone ten rounds with a boxing instructor. “Well, I’m very grateful. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t guided me here.”
“I had a plan B. If it looked like you weren’t making any headway, I would have come out and gotten you off the boat.”
He held out his hand to help her onto the ladder. As she took it, she realized that hers were still shaking terribly. She couldn’t make her hand close, so he shifted his grip to her wrist.
“And a plan C. The Coast Guard would have sent help. And then there was always Plan A minus—that the storm would die down quickly.”
She smiled weakly. “I was rooting for that one every second I was out there. Didn’t seem to work.”
With his hand clasped around her wrist, she stepped down the ladder and into the Zodiac, which he’d tied to the Forget Me Not’s railing.
“Anything else you need from onboard?” he asked.
“My phone. That’s it.”
“No service in the cove. But we have contact by radio. Nothing from your magic cooler?”
She laughed as she settled onto the stiff rubber of the Zodiac. “No, I didn’t expect to be out for long. No tours, no leftovers, no cupcakes.”
He followed her down the ladder and into the dinghy. Before he picked up the oars, he handed her the radio. “Do you want to call anyone about Ruby? I’m not sure how long we’ll have to wait out here.”
She took her bottom lip between her teeth. Right now, with everyone in the harbor turned against her, the only person she trusted was Zoe. “How can I reach the pizza shop?”
“The harbormaster’s waiting for your call. He can get a message to her.”
“But he probably despises me after I basically trashed everyone in Lost Harbor.”
He gave her an offended frown as he rowed them toward the Jack Hammer. She tried not to watch the way his muscles flexed with each stroke, but it was hopeless. With every move he made, he got sexier. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, snuggle against his hard chest, feel his warmth soak into her.
The impulse was so strong that she had to blink herself back to reality—Lucas at the oars, frowning at her as he explained Lost Harbor.
“What does that have to do with anything? You’re a boater in trouble. That’s all that matters. I told you we look out for each other here. Even my father would drop everything to rescue someone he was feuding with. Old Crow got stuck on a sandbar once and my dad swam two hundred yards from his boat to give him a hand.”
A tear came to Megan’s eye, then another one. It had nothing to do with any sentimentality over Jack Holt or fishermen looking out for each other. All the emotions from the last hour or so crashed over her.
“Go ahead and cry,” Lucas told her, almost brusquely.
“But—”
“It’s an emotional release. It’s okay. Very common. Doesn’t mean you aren’t a badass survivor girl.”
And with that, she burst into tears.
Lucas had to remind himself over and over that Megan was in a very vulnerable condition at the moment. With a fierceness that shocked him, he wanted to take her into his arms and hold her so tight that the lost look on her face went away forever.
Seeing the Forget Me Not nearly swamped by twenty-foot waves, over and over, had scared the living shit out of him. Watching her through his binoculars while she made her painstaking way toward Ninlik Cove had nearly killed him.
Now she was here, knee to knee with him in his Zodiac, tears streaming down her face, and it was just something she had to go through. And he had to let her even though his heart was getting ripped right out of his body.
He focused on the things he could do for her. Like row this damn dinghy toward his boat. He hopped onboard, then reached for Megan and swing her over the side. She clung to him weakly, but he knew it was fatigue rather than lack of strength.
Megan Miller had plenty of strength and a big dose of courage too. The way she’d handled her boat through the sudden storm—she’d impressed the hell out of him.
Why had he ever thought she was too flighty and naive to handle life in Alaska? He’d dismissed her without getting to truly know her.
Once onboard, he guided her with a hand in the small of her back to the captain’s berth. The Jack Hammer had originally been built with two berths up front but his father had combined them into one king-size sleeping spot that took up the entire bow. A skylight allowed light into the space and required regular caulking.
Lucas checked to make sure his last caulking job had held up. Everything seemed dry enough. A polyblend comforter covered the poly fiber foam mattress. Lucas had spent a pretty penny on it because it resisted mold. The scent of musty textiles always made him gag because it reminded him of the worst times with his father on this very boat.
“Go ahead.” He gently urged Megan toward the bed. “It’s all yours. Rest all you want. I’ll get a message to Zoe for you.”
“Tell her Ruby’s at the library until four.”
“I will. Don’t worry about a thing. We got you. Sleep now. I’ll be out there.” He waved at the small galley and bench seats that made up the tiny living quarters of the boat. “Shout if you need anything.”
“Do you have a towel?” she asked in a quivery voice. “I don’t want to get your pillow wet.”
God, she was adorable right now. Worried about his goddamn pillow when she’d just gone through a terrifying ordeal.
He plucked one from a small tote where he kept dry clothes. She tried to dry her hair but her arms were too weak to lift above her head. He took the towel from her and gently squeezed the ocean water from her hair. He lightly rubbed it across her scalp until he heard her sigh.
Megan sighing in his arms. It might be the most erotic sound he’d ever heard.
He balled up the towel and took a step back. Being this close to her was dangerous.
“Sleep now.” His voice sounded like the scrape of a keel on a gravel sandbar. “You’re safe. I’ll wake you up if you’re needed.”
“I have to take my wet clothes off.”
“Oh. Of course.” He handed her the towel and turned his back to her. He took a fresh t-shirt from his tote and handed it to her without looking back. “You can use this if you want.”
“Thanks.”
Undressing in the cramped quarters of the Jack Hammer was no easy feat, and he heard plenty of banging and muttering until finally the familiar thud of the mattress told him she was now in his bed.
Megan Miller was in his bed.
“Is it my imagination or is this the most comfortable…” She trailed off and the next sound he heard was a snore.
Smiling to himself, he went into the galley and turned on the tea kettle. He needed a hot drink, and she probably would too when she woke up. He called the harbormaster on the radio and asked him to call Zoe.
“I can patch her in, hang on.”
A few moments later, Zoe was on the line. “Everyone okay out there? It’s blowing a gale here, the boardwalk’s practically shut down.”
“We’re fine. Megan’s asleep right now, but she wanted me to ask you to pick up Ruby at the library at four.”
“No problem. Tell her I’ll keep Ruby as long as she needs me to. I’ll feed her pizza and we’ll watch movies and have a good old slumber party. The twins can always entertain her. You guys stay where you are until it’s safe to come back.”
“Will do. Thanks, Zoe.”
“Hey, thank you. Megan’s good for this place, if only you idiots would get your heads out of your asses.”
She might have a point there. He rolled his eyes and spoke next to Bob, the harbormaster. “What’s the weather service saying?”
“Could go for a while. The advisory won’t be lifted until morning. Use your best judgment. How’s her boat?”
“Seems okay.” He glanced over at the Forget Me Not bobbing peacefully a few hundred feet away. “Hasn’t foundered yet.”
“The Coasties are dealing with a tanker that ran aground—empty, thank God—so they’re leaving this one to us.”
“Is everyone else back in port?”
“Yup. Safe and sound. It’s pretty rough in the harbor too. You’re probably in the best place in the bay.”
He glanced around the serene cove, with its soaring spruce trees reflected in the deep green water. “I’m not going anywhere for now, that’s for sure.”
“Funny thing,” the harbormaster added just before he hung up. “They’re saying this storm is related to climate change.”
“Ha.” Lucas snorted. “I guess that is pretty funny. Megan will probably laugh her ass off when she wakes up. Right after she writes ‘I Told You So’ in boat fumes.”
His tea kettle whistled, so he clicked off the radio and went back to the galley. He jumped at the sight of Megan framed by the hatch that led to the captain’s berth. She leaned against the fiberglass frame, blinking sleepily, enveloped in the clean t-shirt he’d given her. Her hair was a tangled mess, her face blotchy from her tears, the flesh around her blue-gray eyes swollen—but still, he found her beautiful.
The shirt read, “I Got Hammered on the Jack Hammer” and it covered her only to mid-thigh. The sight of her bare legs emerging beneath his shirt made him harden. Trouble.
“You couldn’t sleep?”
“Not really, I was too worried about Ruby. Did you reach Zoe?”
“I did.” He poured boilin
g water over a tea bag in an insulated mug. “Zoe says she and the twins will spoil her rotten until you get back. Want some tea or do you want to try again with the nap?” He offered her the mug.
She wrapped her hands around it gratefully and took a sip. “I think there’s too much adrenaline in my veins to sleep much. Also, I—”
“What?”
“I—” She paused, then put down the mug next to the little sink. And threw herself into his arms.
Chapter Twenty-Two
He caught her against his chest. Under the soft t-shirt, her bare breasts pressed against him.
“I just wanted to say ‘thank you,’” she sobbed. “You saved my life. I know you’ll pretend like you didn’t and that you were just doing your job or something. But I was so scared and alone, and then your voice came on the radio and I knew I’d be okay.”
He wrapped his arms around her. This wasn’t sexual, then, even though every bone in his body reacted as if it was. This was gratitude. Emotional release. “You’re all right. You’re safe. It’s okay.” He stroked soothing circles across her back, feeling the delicate knobs of her spine under his palm. He kept his lower half tilted away from her. He didn’t need her to know how turned-on she got him.
“I know I’m safe. You don’t understand.” She drew back, and now he saw something different in her eyes. Heat. “I’m alive.”
“Yes.” A drumbeat of anticipation came to life in the back of his mind. Something was happening here. He wasn’t sure exactly what, but he could hope. “I can see that.”
“Can you feel it?” She picked up his hand and placed it over her heart. He felt its rapid thudding beat. He also felt the curve of her breast. He fought to keep his voice neutral.
“I feel it, yes.” He swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly bone dry.
“I’m alive and I want—I want—oh for Pete’s sake.” She grabbed the hem of the t-shirt and ripped it over her head. She tossed it into a corner—onto his best titanium halibut rod, but he didn’t complain. There was only one rod that mattered right now.
Mine Until Moonrise (Lost Harbor, Alaska Book 1) Page 12