Seth

  I picked up the sander. “Thanks for taking Noelle’s place in the shop this afternoon. I’ve got a surprise planned for her.”

  “No problem,” he said, barely moving his lips while holding his lungs full of pot. A good pull on his joint, and he seemed to be himself again. He exhaled. “She deserves some time off. A surprise, eh? She’ll like that. By the way, I never got a chance to tell you thanks for saving Pete. Pete’s an old friend of mine. Elle said you were too humble to talk about it, but you did a good thing. Pete’s a great guy.”

  “How’s he doing?”

  “I went to see him last night. Some nasty burns on his back and shoulders but he’s coming around. He might have to go to New Jersey and live with his daughter after this though. She’s out here now. Pete doesn’t want to leave the beach, but I think he’ll be all right. He can spend time with his grandchildren.” The last part of the sentence brought his attention back to the steering wheel. “I need to pull out that steering wheel,” he said absently, as if he was just talking to himself.

  “Everything all right, Greg?”

  Again it took him longer than usual to answer me. “Yep, everything is good. She’s looking real fine, don’t you think?”

  “She’ll be the pride of the marina when she’s all shined up.” I walked to the stern and Greg followed.

  He leaned against the railing. “It took me months to find an original Islander steering wheel that was still in good shape.” Some mornings we worked with hardly a word between us, both of us fully absorbed in our task, but sometimes, Greg wanted to talk. This seemed to be one of those mornings. “I was so excited when I saw the mailman walking up to the front door with the package. Noelle was in the kitchen doing dishes. She and Hayden lived with me. They couldn’t afford their own place with rent being so high down here. For an old guy like me, it was nice having them around. Especially great to have Noelle around after Hayden left on his tour of duty. We kept each other from going stir crazy. ‘Whooee, my steering wheel is here’ I called to her. She laughed, of course, at how thrilled I was about a stupid, old boat steering wheel. The mailman, Hank was his name, was usually super friendly, but he looked grim as he handed me the package. Then Hank looked back toward the street, and that’s when I saw them. The official government cars. See, Hank knew Hayden had gone off to Afghanistan. His son had gone too. We’d talked a lot about them being over there. There were two men and a woman, dressed in uniform and looking like expressionless wax soldiers as they walked up the sidewalk. I heard glass break inside, and I shut the front door, tossed the package and the mail onto a table and raced to the kitchen. Noelle was sitting in the center of broken shards of glass, her knees pulled to her chest. She’d seen them too, through the kitchen window. She’d seen the people who were coming to tell us how bravely Hayden had fought and how he’d died protecting his country.” He stopped and took a long draw on his joint, then dissolved into a coughing fit from it.

  I stared out at the endless ocean. Several boats rocked along the choppy water. The vision of Noelle curled up in despair, even before the people had reached the door, tore at my chest like someone was taking a pickax to it.

  “‘Don’t open it, Greg. Make them go away. Tell them to get the fuck away’, she pleaded with me.” A sad laugh followed. “Poor kid, I guess she thought if we didn’t open the door, they couldn’t tell us and then Hayden wouldn’t be dead.” He wiped clumsily at a tear and then shook his head. “Anyhow, I shoved that box into a closet and haven’t pulled it out since. In the scheme of things, the steering wheel, this boat, all seemed silly, meaningless. But I will pull it out sometime, and we can put it on, you and me.”

  “Whenever you’re ready, just let me know.” The story had left me more shaken than I’d expected. It’d taken me back to the horrid morning when the principal had walked Luke and I up to her office, stiff and wax-like just like how Greg had described the army personnel. When we got to the office and found Gage curled up in a chair bawling his eyes out, something I’d never seen my tough older brother do, I wanted to run. I wanted to run from the office because then I wouldn’t have to hear what had happened. If they couldn’t tell me then it hadn’t happened. It was a way to deal with something that was too big to comprehend, something that could ruin your life in just one terrible moment.

  The story had put Greg off his game for the rest of the morning. He’d spent more time just fiddling with things on the boat than actually working on it. And I couldn’t blame him. He left early to go to the shop to relieve Noelle, and I kept sanding. For me, hard work was the way I dealt with shitty things. I got more done in the one morning than the last three combined. Sweat dripped down my back. I yanked off my shirt, hoping the breeze coming up from the water would cool me off. I was crouched down along the starboard railing, grinding away on the weathered wood paneling when I sensed someone was watching me.

  I glanced back over my shoulder. Noelle was clutching futilely at the short hem of her white sundress, trying to keep it from blowing up, as she smiled down at me from the dock. Her tanned, olive skin and dark hair contrasted perfectly with the white dress.

  I turned off the sander and straightened. “Christ.” My pulse raced at the sight of her. “That dress.”

  She glanced down at it. “Do you like it? I haven’t worn it in awhile. Didn’t realize how short it was.”

  “You look so damn beautiful, Noelle. I’m still trying to convince myself you’re real.”

  She stepped onto the boat and came up close enough for a kiss, or at least that was where my thoughts went. “You look beautiful too, in a sweaty, rugged kind of way.” She couldn’t fight a smile as she wiped some sawdust from my chest. As her fingers grazed my skin, a gesture that I could still feel long after her hand dropped, she seemed to have been caught off guard by her own reaction. We stood there in a heavy silence for a long moment.

  “Did I come too early?” There was a slight waver in her voice.

  “No. But do you mind if we swing by my place so I can take a quick shower? I hadn’t expected to get quite so splintery or sweaty, which now seems really stupid considering I was spending the morning under the sun sanding old wood paneling.”

  “You’re planning to wash away the sweaty, rugged look, is that what you’re telling me?”

  “Trust me. A few minutes in the car with sweaty, rugged, and you’ll be wishing for sparkly, squeaky.”

  “Ahh, yes, I hadn’t thought of that.” She glanced around. “This is really starting to come together.” She turned back to me and as she did the breeze flipped the front of her dress up. Quickly, she pressed it back down. “Don’t know why I thought this dress would be a good idea—”

  “And yet, I’m liking it more and more. I guess we have different tastes in fashion.”

  “I guess I’m more into practicality, and you’re more into exhibitionism.”

  I laughed. “The stuff that comes out of those pretty lips.” I gathered up my shirt and pulled it on.

  She put on a cute frown. “Oh, now that you’ve covered up that amazing chest, I’m seeing your side. Exhibitionism does sometimes work.”

  I climbed up onto the dock and turned around to give her a hand up.

  “I’m looking forward to the surprise,” she said.

  “I think you’re going to be impressed.” We walked along the dock toward the cars.

  “Kind of hard to outdo our first date when you swam toward an exploding boat and saved a man from certain death.”

  “Uh, you forget, that wasn’t a date. Your words, not mine.”

  ***

  The shower had revived me. Since Noelle still had no idea where we were going, I drove. She reached forward and pushed a new track on the CD. Before she sat back she leaned toward me. Her nose wiggled ever so slightly.

  “Uh oh, was I not in the shower long enough?”

  She laughed. “No it’s not that. I’m not so sure about those plug-in things. You still smell a bit like a snickerdoodle. Not that that’s
a bad thing, mind you.”

  “Yeah, nothing makes a guy feel more desirable than smelling like a friggin’ cinnamon cookie. I guess I could yank them, but, I’ve got to warn you, the alternative is not much better. Worse in fact.”

  She leaned closer again and her long hair brushed my forearm. “I can smell the soap on your skin, so it’s just on your clothes. And like I said, I’m all right with that. Makes me a little hungry.”

  Her leaning so close and her hair brushing my skin had sent my mind to having this girl in my arms. “Just let me know if there’s anything you see that you want to nibble.”

  She pretended to gasp dramatically but then smiled.

  “You started this extremely erotic conversation,” I said in my defense. “When you start a topic with the word snickerdoodle, you just never know where it might lead.”

  “Serves me right then for talking dirty.” She gazed out the window. “I still can’t figure out where we’re going.”

  “Good. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to guess either.”

  She leaned back against the seat, and for the hundredth time, she struggled to pull her dress lower on her legs.

  “You do realize that I’ve seen you in a swimsuit, so I have seen every inch of those silky thighs.” My armor, my resolve to stay nothing short of priestly was cracking some. It was the dress, the amazing beauty inside the dress and every fucking thing about her. My hands were gripping the steering wheel much tighter than usual just to keep them from reaching over and touching her.

  Her cheeks had darkened at my mention of her silky thighs. But she stopped fussing with the dress. “Grace is really distraught about Rocko basically telling her she’s just a plaything on his sordid little vacation list.”

  “I told him he was being an ass, but then, as you know, I’m one too. I wish I could say that I wasn’t, but it would be a complete lie.”

  “It’s probably one of the main things that keeps tapping my shoulder and saying what the hell are you doing with this guy?”

  Her words hit me like bricks, but I had little to say in my defense. Especially since the second time she’d met me, I was sneaking out of Grace’s room with my shoes and shirt. “I love women. I love everything about them. I’m not going to make excuses for that. But I will tell you this, and it’s not just some line from a playbook, I’ve never met anyone like you. And while I know I’ve been way too insensitive about women’s emotions, something I am starting to regret, knowing everything you’ve been through, I would never take this lightly. I’m here because I want to know you better.”

  She sat in silence for a moment and seemed to be assessing whether or not I was telling the truth. “Well then, it looks like both of us are figuring out if we’ve changed enough to make this thing work. But the first hint that this is just a game for you, and I’m gone.”

  I nodded. “Fair enough.” I turned down the street that led to the Pacific Aquarium.

  “The Aquarium,” she said enthusiastically. I was relieved that the serious turn in conversation was over for now. “I haven’t been here in years. God, that sounds awful, coming from a marine biology student.”

  “Not really. They’ve only recently updated and remodeled. It was pretty shabby before that. But the surprise is waiting for you inside.”

  With school just out, the place was already packed with visitors. Groups huddled around the various tanks, snapping pictures with their phones and watching the aquarium workers in diving gear feeding the fish. “That’s the job I’ll need once I’m too damn old to weld underwater. Just me and the colorful fish hanging out in the crystal clear aquarium, not watching over my shoulder for a great white.”

  “And you’d have an audience.”

  I pulled out my phone and sent a text. “My friend, Josh, works here. I’m letting him know we’ve arrived.”

  “Are we getting a private tour?” she asked. “I am impressed.”

  “Better than that.”

  Josh’s text came back. “Last door on the left.”

  I took hold of Noelle’s hand and led her through the crowd. The door said employees only. I pushed through it.

  “Are we supposed to be doing this?” she asked.

  “Not technically, but Josh is the supervisor so we’re in the clear.”

  I took her down the hallway past the various doors that led to the medical center, food preparation rooms and control room for the tanks.

  “Supervisor of what?” she asked.

  We reached the last door on the left and I pointed up to the sign. “He’s in charge of the nursery.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “We’re going to see baby animals?” she asked excitedly. “I love baby animals.”

  I knocked. Josh greeted us at the door with a bundle of blanket and fur in his arm. Josh and I had been in the navy together. We’d spent a lot of time watching each other’s backs on dives. We’d stayed in touch.

  I smiled back at Noelle. “Not just baby animals.” I reached up and pulled the top of the blanket down. A fuzzy brown head popped up to look around. “Baby sea otters.”

  “Oh my gosh,” she cried. “Is there anything more precious on this whole darn planet?”

  “Well, there’s me,” I said. “But my fur isn’t quite as plush. Josh, this is Noelle. Noelle, this is an old navy buddy of mine. We hung out together a lot, studied the same stuff, learned to dive together. Only now he spends the day grooming and cuddling baby otters, and I’m stuck under oil barges with my torch and tools.”

  Josh shrugged. “Hey, you could have been doing this too.” He smiled over at Noelle. “Although somehow the thought of Seth Barringer playing in an otter nursery all day doesn’t seem quite right. And since I kept passing out for no explained reason when we got below fifteen feet, underwater welding wouldn’t have been right for me either. Seth had to drag his unconscious partner up twice from the great blue depths. Doctors never figured out why I couldn’t stay conscious.”

  “Something to do with pressure, I imagine,” Noelle said. “You were with the right partner.” She shot me a knowing look. “Seth is pretty good at bringing unconscious people up from the ocean floor.”

  The otter began to squiggle in Josh’s arms. “Time for a swim.” He unwrapped the otter. Its brown eyes stared at us over big fluffy cheeks and an oversized nose. The otter put its front paws up and rubbed the sides of its face, just like a baby might do. “This is Jack. Would you like to hold him?” he asked Noelle. He looked down at her dress. “You might get a little messy.”

  “Are you kidding? Bring on the mess. I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Josh handed him over and a smiled spread across Noelle’s face as she cradled the fuzzy baby in her arms. “This has to be the most luxurious fur in the world.” She looked up. “Up to a million hairs per square inch, right? They don’t have the blubber layer of other marine animals, so they have to have a healthy coat to survive.”

  “Exactly,” Josh said. He took a second to raise his eyebrows at me, our silent guy signal for this chick is fucking hot. But I didn’t need anyone to tell me. The otter squeaked and she laughed.

  “Sounds like my dog’s squeaky toy. But much less annoying.”

  “Bring Jack over here to the wading pool. It’s time for his swim lesson. His mother was injured by a boat, so we brought her in with the pups. She’s recovering, but she couldn’t take care of them.”

  “Pups?” Noelle asked. “She had twins?”

  “Yes, Jill still has to be groomed. I’ll show you how if you’d like.”

  “I would love it.”

  Noelle knelt down on the ramp next to the wading pool.

  “Just lower him into the water on his back. He’s already pretty good at it.” Josh pulled a colorful baby’s teething ring from his lab coat pocket. “Hand him this. He likes to hold it while he’s swimming.”

  Noelle leaned down and gently lowered the otter to the water. The otter’s back feet and paddle shaped tail moved in unison. It squeaked with joy as it took o
ff around the surface of the pool, rolling from back to front to back again. As adorable as the otter was, the expression on Noelle’s face as she watched the baby swim and play in the pool was what had my attention. I’d been trying hard to come up with something that wasn’t just a lunch date or walk on the beach. It needed to be something awesome. Josh had posted some pictures on Facebook of the otters, and the plan had popped into my head. Of course, with the baby otters in the room, I became invisible, but I was having a good time just watching her having a good time.

  Josh supplied Noelle with a towel, and she wiped the fur of the second baby otter. Little fuzzy Jill squeaked and curled up into the blanket, thoroughly enjoying her grooming session. Josh walked over to where I was standing, and we watched Noelle. An alien could have dropped through the ceiling and carried Josh and me away, and she wouldn’t have noticed.

  Josh elbowed me. “Damn, Barringer,” he said in a hush tone. “You haven’t lost your touch, have you?”

  “This one’s different,” I said quietly, but the acoustics in the room, the squeaks echoing off the walls and Noelle’s complete attention being on the pup, probably made it unnecessary.

  “I’ll say. Shit, all this time I’ve had this magic card to play with a girl, and I haven’t even considered it. I think I passed out underwater once too often.”

  Noelle glanced back at both of us. “If this baby girl goes missing, do not come to 1817 Pacific Avenue. She most certainly will not be there.”

  Josh laughed and rejoined her. We spent another hour in the nursery. Noelle held a baby bottle for Jack. The smile never left her face. I snapped a bunch of pictures. I had to nearly drag Noelle away from the place. She was still smiling from cheek to cheek as we walked back out to the parking lot.

  We got to the car. I walked her to the passenger side. She turned around, hopped up on her toes and kissed me. It was a long kiss, a deep kiss, a good fucking kiss. She dropped back to her feet. “And I thought you couldn’t outdo the day of body surfing.”

  “You liked that, huh?”