Chapter 79
Speakerphone
"It is not an altar," he said.
"It has a card, a phone, coffee, and two anxious worshippers."
"Fine. It is a tasteful altar."
She smiled, but her hands were cold when he took them.
The captain's card lay face down this time. ANCHOR looked up at them in blue ink.
At 10:03, Nathan dialed.
Speakerphone.
The line rang twice.
"Mercer."
The voice entered their kitchen with such immediate physicality that Marissa closed her eyes.
Nathan saw it.
Dane probably heard the silence.
"Nathan? Marissa?"
Nathan found his voice. "Both here. Speakerphone."
"Good morning."
The absurd politeness of it nearly made Nathan laugh. Good morning, from the man whose name had been whispered in their bedroom like a live wire.
Marissa leaned closer. "Good morning, Dane."
There was the smallest pause.
"How are you both?"
Nathan answered honestly. "Nervous."
"Good. Nervous is often wiser than certain."
Marissa's mouth curved.
Dane continued. "Before route details, I want to ask one question. Why are you calling?"
Nathan looked at Marissa. She nodded toward him first.
He swallowed. "Because last night did not feel finished. Not because we think another charter will fix anything. Because it gave us a way to talk and feel and see each other that we do not want to lose."
The line stayed quiet.
Then Dane said, "Marissa?"
She stared at the word ANCHOR on the card. "Because I want to be honest about being drawn to you without using that truth to run from my husband. And because Nathan being honest about his jealousy and his curiosity made me feel closer to him, not farther away."
Nathan closed his eyes for one second.
Dane's voice softened but did not warm into indulgence. "That is a serious answer."
"We are trying," she said.
"I can hear that."
There was paper movement on Dane's end, or maybe charts. Nathan pictured him at the marina office, sunlight on maps, the Midnight Mercy visible through glass. The image irritated and steadied him.
"Black Lantern is more remote than the cove from your sunset route," Dane said.
"No restaurant lights, no quick audience, no easy distraction.
If weather turns, we divert. If either of you calls anchor, we return or create distance, depending on what is needed.
You will have the cabin. I will have the helm and the upper deck unless invited elsewhere with explicit agreement from both of you. "
Nathan appreciated the plainness and hated how his pulse responded to it.
"What does explicit agreement mean?" he asked.
"It means I ask. You answer separately. No one answers for anyone else. Silence is not yes. A look is not yes. A previous yes is not yes later."
Marissa looked at Nathan with something like relief.
"Good," he said.
"Hard limits?" Dane asked.
The question made the kitchen feel suddenly too bright.
Nathan and Marissa had made a list the night before on the back of an envelope. It had been awkward, tender, and occasionally so earnest they had both needed to stand up and walk around.
Nathan read from it now. "No private communication. No humiliation that is cruel. No pressure. No decisions made after drinking. No disappearing with Marissa where I do not know where she is. No pretending I am not there."
Dane answered immediately. "Agreed. Marissa?"
She took the envelope. "No being treated like a prize being passed. No using my wanting to punish Nathan. No rushing. No assumptions that if I enjoy being seen, I owe more than I have chosen."
"Agreed," Dane said.
Nathan felt his respect for his wife sharpen into desire so sudden he had to look away.
"Soft hopes?" Dane asked.
Marissa's cheeks flushed.
Nathan almost rescued her. He stopped himself.
She spoke carefully. "I want the feeling of being courted in front of my husband, not taken from him."
The words entered the phone line and changed the room.
Dane did not answer at once.
When he did, his voice was lower. "Understood. Nathan?"
Nathan looked at Marissa. She held his gaze.
"I want to learn whether watching can be part of loving instead of proof I have failed at it."
On the other end, Dane exhaled softly.
"Then you are not booking a charter," he said. "You are booking a very honest night."
No one spoke.
Finally Nathan said, "Is Friday available?"
"Weather permitting," Dane answered. "Yes."
Marissa's hand found Nathan's beneath the table.
The tide reached the shore.