Read Online Blue Water by A. Manette Ansay - Free Book Online Page A

don’t you think?” she said, eyeing my own row of fenders. Without waiting for an answer, she perched on the combing, legs extended, to fend off the impact of Chelone ’s hull. “I’m Bernadette.”
    â€œMeg. My husband, Rex.”
    â€œChrist almighty,” Eli called, jutting his chin at Rex’s shoulder. “What the hell did you do to yourself?”
    Rex laughed. “Bet it didn’t hurt as much as those tattoos.”
    â€œCan’t tell you if they hurt or not,” Eli said. “Drunk as a skunk when I got ’em.”
    Our hulls kissed. Bernadette and I traded lines. Five minutes later, I followed Rex aboard, clutching the bottle of cleaning solution like a housewarming bouquet.
    â€œYou’re a couple of funny-looking angels,” Eli said, “but we’re awful glad to see you anyway.”
    The Hales, we learned, had been living aboard Rubicon for nine years. At the end of each summer, they headed south to the Caribbean; in spring, they made their way north again, eventually arriving in New Bern, North Carolina, where they owned some property. This year, their departure had been delayed by a medical appointment, but Bernadette was still hoping they’d make Houndfish Cay—another four hundred miles to the south—before hurricane season started in earnest. Nearly a hundred cruisers wintered there—Americans, Canadians, a smattering of South Americans and French—anchored in a series of small, sheltered bays. Together, they homeschooled their kids, organized book clubs, participated in talent shows, fishing trips, dine-arounds. There was a pageant at Christmastime, an Easter-egg hunt in April. The Hales had been lots of places, but Houndfish Cay was their favorite.
    And of course, their little guy loved it there.
    Rex and I exchanged the tolerant glances of people who don’t keep pets.
    â€œWhere are you folks headed?” Eli asked.
    I looked at Rex; he shrugged. “Bermuda, for now. After that, we’ll see.”
    â€œNow that’s the cruising spirit,” Eli said. “Go where the wind decides to take you.”
    Bernadette laughed. “ What wind?”
    Like farmers, the four of us stopped talking for a moment, stared reverently, beseechingly, at the sky.
    â€œWell,” Eli finally said, “I better take a look at that water maker.”
    â€œNeed a hand?” Rex asked.
    â€œWon’t say no.” He was already in the cockpit, tossing aside cushions and hatch covers, lifting the bench seat to reveal a wide access hole. With amazing agility for a man his size, he slithered down into it. Rex followed, moving deliberately, holding his right arm close to his side.
    â€œLooks like he messed up that shoulder pretty good,” Bernadette said.
    Up close, I saw she was younger than me, her pretty face weathered by wind and sun. Eli, on the other hand, seemed ageless. He could have been thirty-five, or sixty. The dreads, the tattoos, the excess weight: each was its own disguise. He reminded me, a little bit, of Toby. It made me like both of them all the more.
    â€œMight have been worse, I guess.”
    â€œYes.” She responded seriously, as if I’d said something insightful, unique. “No matter what it is, it can always be worse.” She glanced at the sky. “I’m baking. Let’s get into the air-conditioning.”
    I must have looked surprised. “ Rubicon has air?”
    â€œYou bet,” Bernadette said, unlatching the doors to the companionway. “I told Eli from the start, I’m not going anywhere without AC.” A puff of cool air hit my face, along with the faint, familiar odor of bilge, and something else, something I couldn’t quite place: pungent, fruity, unpleasant. Immediately I thought of the dog. But there was no sign or sound of any animal as Bernadette led the way down the stairs.
    Despite Rubicon ’s rough-looking exterior, her salon