Chapter Five
Andrej
I HAD NO idea why my father agreed to let me take the boat. It was an off-the-cuff suggestion I was kind of hoping wouldn’t work because then I could just offer to get a hotel room with Quinn.
But as it turned out, Dad was pleasantly buzzed enough that he agreed to help that nice boy out.
It had been a while since I’d done a night trip, but the rules of the water never changed.
My grandparents had insisted that we learn how to use the boat if we were going to have one, and I took the full Maritime Rules course and got licensed as a captain.
I wasn’t a pilot, that took a lot more years than I wanted to put in, but I kept up with everything I needed.
Max had his driver take us up to the Marina in Salmon Bay. Dad didn’t want a mega-yacht, so the Tahitian Moon was nice fishing boat with a lot of amenities.
“Do you need me to come along?” Sofia asked as we climbed out of Max’s car.
“I’m good, I’ll check in with the harbor master,” I answered.
“Alright,” she said, and snuggled back into Max. “Be careful. Don’t be stupid on the water.”
“I never am,” I said, and closed the door.
The Tahitian Moon was about a quarter mile down in the slips, and we headed straight there while I was dialing the lockmaster to get him to send us through the lock.
“You’re sure you’re okay with this?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
“Lockmaster,” His voice on the other end tired, yawning and not interested in talking.
“Hi, George,” I said. “It’s Andrej Krastins.”
“That’s nice.”
“I need you to run the lock for me.”
“First run is at six a.m.”
“I need to take—”
“First run is at six a.m., Andrej. I’m not making an exception for you. You can leave at six a.m.”
He hung up.
I could see the grimace on Quinn’s face, and I shook my head. “We won’t be able to leave until then, but it’s a forty-five-minute shot across the water.”
“Dude, where are we supposed to sleep? Max just left! We’re in the middle of nowhere. I don’t have—”
“The boat,” I answered. “We can sleep on the boat. It has a bunk, and there’s some dry stores there we can whip into food if you’re hungry.”
“We’re just going to sleep on the boat?”
“Yeah, it works like any other bed. I have the keys; we can lock ourselves in. It’s a closed marina anyway. I think there are a few other people who crash here once in a while.”
He let out a deep sigh. “This was not how I imagined this night going.”
I realized that he was really not happy about any of this. “I’m sorry, Quinn. I really am. I didn’t know the lockmaster was going to say no.”
A beat went by. “No, it’s okay. I should have set my alarms to remind myself to get to the ferry.
I’m not used to ferries, and I should have realized that.
I am worried about my sister, but I also know she’s pretty good at dealing with things herself.
She just asked me to be there tomorrow for the therapist. He’s new and… ”
Oh. He was new.
“Does she have any friends who can go over and hang if you can’t quite make it there?”
“My sister has Rheumatoid arthritis and while her meds are working well, we want to make sure that she’s going to continue to do well.
So, this is physical therapy and neither of us have met him.
I’m very careful with her, and she hasn’t had a lot of chances to go out because of her pain levels.
She doesn’t let a lot of people in. It’s taken me years to let go enough to trust her to live alone.
I need to be there. So if we can’t get across the Sound by nine in the morning, I need to get a rental that I can’t afford—”
I laid a hand on his arm. “I will have you back to the house by eight in the morning. I promise. George will have the lock running at six in the morning.”
He took a deep breath. “If you can’t, please, please just get me to the ferry.”
“I swear.”
“Swear?”
“Absolutely, swear.”
He took a beat, then nodded. “Ok. Sorry. I worry about her. Let’s get what sleep we can and get going as soon as we can in the morning.”
I took his hand again and led him through the marina. The Tahitian Moon was most of the way down, and it was a nice boat. Dad had always been proud of it, and it gleamed nicely in the moonlight.
I walked up the stairs and popped over the railing onto the deck. Quinn was right behind me, and followed me through the door to the main galley after I punched in the door code to let us in.
Letting out a sigh, I looked over at Quinn. “I was going to offer you a drink, but…”
“If you have water, let’s just grab those and hit the hay.”
“That sounds like a plan.” The fridge always had bottled water, and I quickly grabbed two of them. The bunks were up and down, but the owner’s suite was down, and I figured that was the best place for us.
I kicked off my shoes and crawled onto the bed. He did the same, and I quickly turned on some music just to fill the silence and turned on a few alarms so I could get the boat going bright and early.
I had wanted to go in for a kiss goodnight, but I didn’t remember much beyond my head hitting the pillow.
***
Quinn
The bed was moving. A lot.
It wasn’t the first time I had woken up to a bed rocking, but this was different. There was slapping and the smell of salt water and the hum of a motor.
No, that wasn’t just a hum. It was the sound of an engine being made to work.
Opening my eyes, I realized I was in the bed at the bow of the Tahitian Moon , and we were moving . Like really tearing across the water.
I jumped up and grabbed my shoes, shoving them on my feet. The pilot house was three decks up and I felt like I flew up the stairs to find—
Andrej sitting behind the wheel, singing along with Hamilton at the top of his lungs, and wiggling a bit in the seat as if he was dancing.
Glancing at the clock, it was just seven thirty in the morning and the sun was peeking over the horizon behind us.
I had really wanted to be mad at him last night. But how mad could I be at him when I’d forgotten that the ferries stopped running. The Staten Island Ferry in NYC ran all night, on a reduced schedule. Not to mention there were a hundred different ways to get out of the city at all times of day.
Seattle—and most of the world—didn’t have that. I now lived in Seattle. This was my fault, and he was helping me fix it.
“Hey, good morning,” he chirruped spotting me there in the stairwell. “Made coffee if you want some. It’s down in the galley.”
“You got this undocked without help?”
“I’ve done it a few times, but no. There was a dock hand doing early morning checks who helped me out. The boat is easily handled by one person.”
Glancing back at Seattle and the mountain, I was pleasantly surprised. “How long since you undocked?”
“Oh, I was about ten minutes late getting through the first lock transit, so we’ve been in the Sound for about ten minutes. Sorry about that.” With a little jump of surprise, Andrej turned down King George and looked at me sheepishly. “Sorry. I love this soundtrack.”
“It’s fine,” I grinned. “You could have gotten me out of bed. I would have helped.”
“How much do you know about boats?”
“I used to have a sailboat, so I’m pretty good.”
“A sailboat?”
“ Come Sail Away , she was gorgeous. A forty-footer. Benateau Oceanis Forty-One One. I miss her.”
His eyebrows rose. “Solo sail?”
“I was almost there,” I smiled. “So, if you need help, please let me know.”
“I’m good right now, go get you some coffee. We’re due at Bainbridge just about eight fifteen.”
The smile spread across my face. “You really did it.”
“I said I would.” He winked. “Get you some coffee, come back up and we can yell about the room where it happened.”
The coffee was just as bad as I remembered boat coffee to be, and I climbed back up. I sat down in the bench seats behind the captain’s chair and watched the water around us starting to come to life.
“It’s this busy on a Sunday?”
“It’s always busy. Most of these are heading to Tacoma, they come in early to get down there and get some dock time. The Seattle ships will be later.” He sipped the coffee and grimaced, then turned up the music a little bit, singing along with Eliza.
I chuckled. “Genuine question. You are singing show tunes like a pro, and you had no idea you were gay until last night?”
He blushed. “No. I didn’t really think about it. I just thought that sex was okay, and everyone had a few thoughts about the same sex. I never objected to sex with women, and I thought that only some people had mind blowing sex, and hard attraction.”
“And my kiss was your catalyst?”
“I’ve never been kissed like that… Kissing was always nice, but that was mind blowing, and I didn’t need convincing to get excited.”
Grinning, I stood from the bench. “So, you liked that kiss.”
“Very much,” he hummed.
“Are you on auto pilot?” I asked, looking ahead of the boat.
“Yup,” he said, suddenly realizing how close I was. “But you know the limitations, sailor.”
“How long do you think I can hold my breath in a kiss?”
“I think we’re about to find out.”
“Damn skippy,” I answered and pressed my lips to his. His happy little mew was delightful, and I could feel him getting hard against my leg.
We couldn’t do much more than some good long kisses because you didn’t fuck with crossing the Sound, but we absolutely made the best of that time.
***
“Oh, my God, I didn’t know where you were!” Tara practically leapt out of the chair. “I was so worried. I thought that you were going to be home last night! You only sent one message and I didn’t hear anything else.”
I hugged her. “It’s fine, T. I’m fine. I’m sorry I wasn’t home last night. I should have given you more information, but I was processing the whole night and what happened.”
“What happened?”
Way too much, but I had to find something to take her down a notch so that she didn’t freak out on me completely for not being a little better of a twin and texting her properly.
Easy.
“I wound up hanging out with Max Rocher and his date.”
Her face dropped. “You’re a liar.”
“I am not. I’ve known Max for a long time, but I haven’t seen him in like seven years.”
She slapped my arm. “You know Max Rocher?”
“For years,” I answered. “But he wasn’t The Max Rocher when I knew him. He was in chorus parts in Broadway shows and did singing telegrams to make rent.”
Tara cocked her head. “Wait, Max Rocher did singing telegrams ?”
“Yeah, back in the day. But I got to catch up with him last night.”
“We need to discuss more about that, but how was your date?”
“He was… interesting. Very interesting. Very nice, cute.”
She squinted at me. “Oh, reaaaaally?”
“What?”
“Nice? Cute?” She pressed her hands together and perched her chin on them. “With that blush?”
Blushing? “I don’t blush.”
“Oh, you are, brother dear. You absolutely are.”
My cheeks did feel warm. “He was very sweet and straight when I got there, gay when he dropped me off at the marina.”
“You swung him? Wait, marina? Oh, my god I don’t know what I want to know more about!”
The laugh escaped me. “Tara, sister dear, I’ll tell you everything. But we need breakfast and to get set up for the therapist.”
“You promise?” Her hands perched on her hips.
“I do, I do. Let’s eat first.” I held up the bag of bagels and cream cheese I managed to pick up just outside the marina. “We have about fifteen minutes.”
“Are those warm?”
“From The New York Bagel Source.”
“Lox cream cheese?”
“We’re in the Pacific Northwest, of course there’s lox.”
Snatching the bag from my hand she trotted into the kitchen. “Yay!”
She was moving well. I was hoping this therapy would keep that going—moving from juvenile idiopathic arthritis to adult rheumatoid arthritis was unfair, but we had to deal with it. Her injections were helping, clearly. And now some new therapy with hopefully good results.
“Come on, mange !”