Chapter 13
Gregor
I should have expected something like this to happen. This year’s end of spring squalls were the strongest we’d been hit with in years. Bad enough that some boats had opted not to launch and try and get in front of it, but here I was, on a four-day trip to one of my family’s most profitable lobstering grounds.
As for how I’d come to be on the boat instead of in my shop, well, that was because my Uncle Baron had banged up his hip on the last trip out and was at the fish market recuperating while helping out there, where he could clean fish from a chair and not have to worry about putting any pressure on it.
It just wasn’t like any of us to fully take a day off, even when we were hurting, but having three different offshoots of the business made it easier to transition into a different position when age, accident, or circumstances dictated that you needed to find a different way to contribute.
We were a pretty communal family, and the catch of the day wasn’t just for stocking our stand at the fish market with. Family members met the boat at the dock when it came in, ready with their ice chests to claim whatever they needed for their freezers. Maybe it meant less money for the hands on the boat, but it always ensured that no member of our family went hungry.
It was like that with everything. Whenever I dug clams, I took a big batch over to Mom so she could surprise Nana with her favorite dish. Clams Casino. Somehow, Dad always managed to distract Nana by reminding her of some errands he’d been putting off taking her on. I was sure she’d caught on by now that he used the same ruse whenever he wanted to get her out of the house. I was beginning to wonder if she never reminded him about those missed errands because she was letting him save them up for when a surprise came along. Talk about a treat. She’d get to be giddy with anticipation without knowing what was coming her way. I bet that made the reveal that much more exciting, especially if it exceeded what she’d built it up in her head to be.
Nana was a great deal snarlier than Mom, and a bit of a skeptic, so she never built things up too high anyway. Coming home to something she loved always left her in brighter spirits in the days afterward, even if she did eventually revert back to being more sarcasm than sass when she was giving my siblings and me a hard time.
Uncle Baron’s accident meant that I got to get back out on the water for the first time in weeks. I really didn’t mind the chance to spend some time out on the water. Since I’d opened my shop, I tried to volunteer at least two days a month to go out with one of the crews to help on deck. Two extra days wouldn’t hurt anything.
Calling out, I announced that I’d spotted the last of the buoys, a string of five that we needed to pull before we could batten down the hatches and ride out the storm below deck for the night. My cousin Storm and I would probably play Phase 10 again while the rest of the crew played Texas Hold’em. Her old man was the captain of the vessel and my uncle by marriage. He never drove at night, preferring to let his younger brother and relief captain do it to give him a bit more seasoning and experience behind the helm.
I liked this crew and the people on it. A motley pack of European and American Wolverines, we meshed well together, but there were jokes, there were shenanigans, and since I hadn’t been on the vessel in a while, there would be the perfect target for their bullshit.
Me.
And I was determined not to get pranked.
I hooked the first pot and fed it through the pully system, careful to get out of the way before it started hoisting the pot up. I could see that it was full the moment it landed on the tables, water still pouring out of the sides, revealing the bounty of lobsters inside. As always, this area proved to be pure gold for our family. With the rain beginning to come down harder and in thicker sheets, we hurried to empty the lobster into the hold while we stacked the pot on the deck, the boat steaming toward the next buoy. As soon as I finished helping to stack the pot I hurried back to the rail and prepared to throw the hook again, glad I hadn’t allowed my skills to get rusty.
Each full pot helped fill the hold faster, not that it would shave much off our time out here. Maybe half a day, but that would still be an extra half a day to spend with August, even it was from my chair in the corner of the kitchen in his shop. Just being able to be near him calmed something in me. My drawings had come together almost effortlessly in the past few days, and I attributed it to having him in my life.
In hindsight, I might have been thinking about him a little too much when I threw the hook the third time, because the rope wrapped around my arm and flung me over the railing, my body twisting as I flew through the air.
Somehow, I managed to get my free arm loose from my rain slicker in time to yank the other one loose of the sleeve when there was a brief moment of slack. Kicking, I propelled myself away from the rope, shoving at the straps of the suspenders holding my deck boots on. The attached hip waders came off with them, leaving me in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. The jeans I shed with practiced ease. Every year Gramps still took us out on his boat and threw us over to ensure we remembered how to shed our gear so we could swim in case this very thing ever happened.
Now here I was, executing the steps perfectly, despite the throbbing that had begun to radiate in my shoulder, and the echoed shouts in the back of my mind that were starting to give me a headache.
Gregor, you answer me right this gods be damned minute!
Oh, oh shit, my hedgehog sounded pissed.
Just…give me a moment, I thought back to him.
Focusing on that thought slowed down the removal of my double layer of socks, but once I kicked them free it no longer felt like there were five-pound weights on each foot.
I kicked to the surface in time to see a red and yellow life preserver land several feet away, so I swam toward it, hooked my arm around it, and hacked up the water that was threatening to choke me.
S-sorry, I thought to him a little easier this time. I just need a few more minutes before I can communicate clearly.
Just tell me that you’re okay. The demand was clear, he needed at least that much from me. His frayed emotions came through with thoughts that were a blend of impatience and irritation.
About to be, I thought back, refusing to lie to my mate.
As much as I’d have liked to tell him that everything was just fine and dandy, it wouldn’t be until I was back on the deck of that ship and Uncle Curtis had a chance to look at my arm and shoulder, both of which were throbbing now. I tried to turn my head, but that just caused another wave of pain, so I decided to hold off on all of that until there was something far more solid than water beneath my feet.
I guess that’s better than nothing, August thought before going silent as the life preserver was hauled against the side of the ship while they lowered a ladder for me.
I felt less than a half inch tall as I swung my leg over the railing, crew members grabbing my T-shirt and leg to hold me steady as they hauled me back on deck.
“How the hell did you let that happen?”
Uncle Curtis demanded in lieu of asking if I was okay.
He had every right to ask, too, after the disruption I’d just caused his crew, but I couldn’t give him the unabridged version of the events, or I’d never live them down.
“Messed up that timing on the last throw,”
I claimed.
“No shit,”
he grumbled. “Let me get a look at that arm. That’s it for you on hook today. You can help empty and stack the last two pots then we are all getting the hell below deck before something else goes wrong.”
I turned my arm to show him that there weren’t even any bruises forming, then headed to don replacement gear the moment he deemed me fit for work. My heart was still hammering in my ears, and I could feel August’s presence in the back of my mind, waiting for me to keep my promise and talk to him. As much as it might bother him for me to take so long to reach out, I was determined to wait until I was below deck where I could think about him without risking my safety.
I’m safe, I conveyed.
It was the very least I could do, so I added in a little more, just to try to give him a timetable. We’ve got to pull two more pots before we can get out of this weather. Once I’m below deck, I’ll explain everything.
I’m going to hold you to it.
I know.
He fell silent then, though his presence never left me. We retrieved the final two pots without incident, secured them on deck, then shut down everything, locking the hatches tight before we disappeared below deck.
Each and every one of us was drenched to the bone as we headed to the shower room. Storm had her own stall in the corner farthest from the door, where she’d have some privacy, while the rest of us shared the open shower room, quickly washing the salt and grime from our bodies so we could dress in warm, comfortable clothes.
Alls good and we’re below deck for the evening, I conveyed to August. I can’t go to my bunk until later, or they’ll worry that I’m not okay, which I am, I swear. I’m fine. I promise to tell you all about my little mishap once I’m in my bunk for the night.
Fine but that’s the last time you get to put it off.
I know, I’m sorry, just havin’ a hard time concentrating on cleaning up and talking to you without falling over.
If I wasn’t so worried about you, I’d laugh at the thought of that.
Then at least stop worrying, please, I’m all good now.
Harrumph Stop worrying. Like that’s gonna happen.
That was probably the wrong thing to say, huh.
No shit.
Talk soon. Love you August.
I love you too, which means you’d better get your ass back here safe and in one piece.
I was chuckling to myself over his sassiness as I dried myself off. Something about slipping into dry cotton after a day spent soaking wet was a type of luxury most wouldn’t understand. In winter, guys broke out the turtleneck sweaters and knit hats as we unwound for the evenings. Tonight, most of us were in cutoff jeans or sleep pants, T-shirts, tank tops and crop tops as we gathered around the table.
Sure enough, Storm waved the Phase 10 cards at me, and she and I broke off from the others a bit as we slid down to the far end of the galley.
“Must be nice having a mate you’ll nearly get yourself killed being distracted over,”
she said as she shuffled the cards.
Instead of telling her just how good it was, I read between the lines to the way she said it, with a hint of bitterness and envy in her tone.
“I take it things between you and Yoshi aren’t going the way you hoped?”
I asked, wondering when the hell I’d become the type of wolverine to sit and listen to the troubles of others.
Today, I guess, because my cousin quirked her lip at me, sighed heavily and rubbed the back off her neck.
“Is it that obvious?”
“Yup.”
“Yosh is the most unreasonable man I’ve ever met,”
Storm growled as she slapped the cards town on the table a bit harder than necessary.
“You got any specifics for me, or should I assume we’re talking a constant stream of unreasonable that never stops?” I asked.
“Constant, oh my goddess, he’s always trying to anticipate how I’ll respond to something and rushing to solve problems that don’t even exist. If I hadn’t witnessed him shift to his honey badger form right before my eyes I’d have sworn he was a hummingbird with the way he’s constantly flittering around messing with something. It gets on my nerves sometimes. We’ll just be sitting there in each other’s arms trying to watch a movie when he’ll think of something he forgot to do. The next thing I know, he’s rushing around doing that and the other three tasks that memory triggered, while I sit there and finish watching the movie alone.”
Ahh, now we were getting to the heart of the matter.
“Have you tried telling him how it makes you feel when he skips out on cuddle time together to work on some project?” I asked.
A few weeks ago I’d just have called it bullshit, only August had shown me that there was real value in spending one-on-one time together doing something you enjoyed. For August and me it was enjoying a movie and a tray of snacks while curled up together on the sofa of the den on the second level. The in-home theater and snack bar had delighted him, and he’d taken to bringing home treats from the bakery to stock the mini fridge with. Whenever we had any leftover meat, I made kababs and stashed them in the mini fridge with a cold yogurt dipping sauce that was tangy and rather refreshing. My mom had taught me the recipes after one of her cooking classes, they were some of the only recipes that I didn’t have to refer back to a page or a website for.
She shot me a look like she wanted to bite a few of my fingers off for asking that question, so I decided that it might be a good idea to turn the topic of conversation in a new direction.
“Hey, did you see that Aurora’s Blood and Aces of Chaos were playing at Striker’s Friday night?”
I asked. “I picked up tickets for August and I this morning on my way in to work. If they are as good as the last time we saw them, we’ll have one hell of a show to look forward to.”
“I saw them, but the last thing I’m in the mood for is a night on the town with Yoshi,”
she replied. “The color is red now, not tan.”
I looked to where she pointed and realized that I had indeed missed a color change.
“Try to focus above deck tomorrow,”
she grumbled as she drew a card and immediately tossed it in the discard pile.
Yes!
That was the exact card I needed to bridge the gap in my straight and let me go out all at the same time. As she groaned and dropped her cards on the table, I thought about August and how much I’d hate it if we started fighting like that. I might be new to this whole mated thing, but I’d already learned what I considered to be one of the premier rules. Never let your mate go to bed pissed off at you. Once the crack was there, it seemed to be far easier to widen it than it was to repair it. I knew there would be fights somewhere down the line, all couples fought, but I made a vow, right then and there, to never let those fights create fissures or gaps between me and the hedgehog I loved.