Page 29 of Tender Heart
“Picked a good day for it, at least.” He nods to the trapdoor in the deck floor, his dark brown eyes narrowing.
“Yeah, right. Had plans today,” Callum grunts.
I suppress the need to roll my eyes at his quick change of mood. From lying on the deck with me, shuttling back and forthstories, to all business and gruff. Not that I don’t enjoy both. It’s the transition that gets me.
“What plans you have?” Emmett shoves him and drops to his knees, flipping the door open.
The stench of the electrical burn is worse, I swear.
“Shit, Cal. You’re lucky you got as far as you did.” Emmett waves a hand over the opening, leaning back a little. “Debris in the heat exchanger. It’s overheated then melted anything within six inches around it. Hell.”
“Dammit.” Callum runs his hands through his hair. It stays messed up as he drops his hands and sinks to his knees by his friend. “Any chance of fixing it now?”
Emmett shakes his head. “Nah, even if I clear out the heat exchanger, your wires are exposed. You’re going to have worse problems if you try to run her like this.”
With a heavy sigh, Callum pushes back to his feet. “Give us a tow back to the island, then?”
“You sure? You’ll both be stuck there till I can get back out to fix it.” Emmett’s stare swings between Callum and me.
“It’s okay. We’ll make do,” I offer. The last thing I’m going to do is be a burden to one more person.
Callum holds my gaze for a beat before nodding.
“Tie her off up front. I’ll take it steady.” Emmett jumps over, back into his boat. He sends her forward. Next thing, he is tossing a rope to Callum, now standing on the bow.
“Sit down and hold on, Evie,” Callum calls as the rope pulls out, wiggling out some of the slack.
He’s back in the cabin before I find a place to sit. As my butt hits the deck and I lean against the port wall, the slack disappears, and we’re tugged forward in the water with a bustling jerk. The Coast Guard vessel is bigger than ours. This old fishing tub against Emmett’s shiny service boat. Callumglances over his shoulder, as if checking I’m still on board before flipping the radio to another channel.
“Coast Guard One, do you read? Over.”
Static hums back before Emmett says, “Coast Guard to Firefly, copy. Over.”
“How long will the parts take for this old girl, Em? Over.”
“Maybe three weeks. Depends on stock. This is what you get for your lack of mechanical skills.”
Callum scoffs a laugh. “Yeah, right. What else would you be doing today, bud?”
The formal vernacular between the men drops to the wayside.
“For your information, McCreary, I had plans, also.”
“Yeah, with who?”
“Not over the radio, you idiot.”
Chuckling, I turn my face away. For two burly grown men, they are ridiculous. It’s hilarious. I rock with the boat as we slowly make our way back to Fire Island. Something familiar blooms in my chest when the lighthouse comes into focus. Maybe it’s because this place is the first to feel safe after so long. Or maybe it’s the unfiltered, uncomplicated company I keep out here. Either way, content is what I am when we slip up beside the dock.
No! No. No. No.
Ugh. I push my laptop away and screech an unflattering sound as I jolt out of the chair so fast it topples backward and hits the floor.
Why can’t I get this?
How is something so simple, something carried out by millions of humans every single day, evading me with such intensity?
I mean, come on! How hard is it to write a freaking sex scene?
