Page 73 of Changing Tides
“Let me get a taste for it first and we’ll see.” He tucked back into his food.
When they got the boat out in the bay, Liam’s enthusiasm to get back into this far more intimate form of fishing meant Joey could stand back and watch. An easy morning suited them just fine. They stretched out the knots in their shoulders that had developed from lying with their arms around two bodies instead of one. The posture might not have been ideal, but they’d slept deeply until dawn. Then they’d crept out from the warm bed and left Marianne and Denny with a kiss on their cheeks.I could get used to that life.The lovemaking with Marianne had been as intense as before. They loved how accepted and desired Marianne made them feel. They’d never imagined they could have such a connection with anyone.
“Joey.”
They blinked and focused on Liam.
“I could literally have gone overboard then, and you wouldn’t have noticed.” He was at the wheel with an expectant look on his face.
“What?”
“Where. Are. We. Going. Next.”
They took the wheel. “Just over there. Surely you can see the buoy.”
They were annoyed with themself for allowing their thoughts to drift back to Marianne so easily, but happy to take it out on their youngest sibling.
“Ah, yeah, of course. Silly me.”
As he pulled up the next creel and carefully extracted their catch, Liam turned. “Joking aside, I’m loving this, you know. It’s what it should be all about. Fishing carefully and sustainably. You respect the ocean. What I do is the opposite of that.”
Joey had their opinions about trawlers and mass production ships that caught, processed, and froze their catch at sea, staying out for weeks or months on end. The volume of fish caught was staggering. But was it sustainable? Of course not. But it wasn’t their place to judge how other people made a living.
“You do what you need to earn a wage. It’s not your job to police the fishing regulations.”
Liam baited the pot and lowered it back to the sea floor. “But it doesn’t feel real like this does.”
Joey shrugged as they moved on to the next creel. “Then come home. We’ll buy another boat and widen our market. And I’ve started a long-term project to extend the oyster beds. They’re definitely worth the investment if you’ve got the time to do the work. There are so many options.” They knew Liam would never move home, but sometimes they got so frustrated by the opportunities that passed them by without anyone else to work with them.
“Ahh, I’d love to be back. It’s been great craic this last week, catching up with the lads and revisiting all our old stomping grounds.” He looked back across to where the bulk of Inishderry sat on the horizon. “But Alaska, you know?” He turned back to Joey and held out his hands. “I’m getting to see the world.”
Joey was filled with love for their little brother and pulled him close with a crunching hug he returned with equal enthusiasm. His attempt to lift them from the deck resulted in them scuffling for a few moments, until Joey remembered they were in an environment filled with hooks and knives. They caught their breath and stood laughing.
“Do what you’ve got to do, little brother. We’ll always be here when you come home.”
Liam leaned out toward the island. “Will you, do you think? You’ll never leave? Even just for a while.”
Joey busied themself with a rope. “Why would I? Everything I’ve ever needed is here.”
“Everything?” Liam turned and sat on a bench. “I always thought you enjoyed the solitude. What I would call being lonely as fuck. But being in a relationship has lit you up, Joey. Me and Donal are worried about you when the summer’s over.”
“The summer ends every year, Liam. I cope.”
Liam went to the wheelhouse and started up the engine. They’d never been good at the deep conversations, any of them. Not since their mum had died, anyway.
Joey followed him into the wheelhouse. “I’ll be fine, Liam. Please don’t worry about me. I’ve got Dad, and there’s a whole community of friends here over the winter. There’s Kasia and Tierney, Doc Scott on the mainland, Aoife and Seán. I have plenty of friends.”
He turned, concern etched across his forehead. “But are friends enough for you?”
It was a good question. They always had been before. The conversation was starting to bring out their anxieties about Marianne leaving. They wanted to put their head in the sand and hope everything would be okay. But that wasn’t in their nature.
“I hope so, Liam, I really do.”
Joey addedMarianne’s luggage to the back of the truck alongside the small bag containing their minimal requirements.
“Sorry, it’s all Denny’s stuff, you know?”
Joey suspected quite a lot of it would be Marianne’s clothes, packed to ensure she made the right impact on her city contacts.
