Clear Harbor: Men of the Bay by Tallulah Scott

Author:Tallulah Scott [Scott, Tallulah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Craig steered the boat slowly, cutting the engines as the watercraft drifted in, thumping against the rubber bumpers on the dock. James stood on the dock, waiting, as Craig tossed a thick mooring rope. James caught it, wrapping it around the bow post. Craig stepped down to the dock, going to the stern, wrapping another mooring rope there, securing the boat to the dock.

"Sharon still here?" he said, the early dawn light not yet reaching down into the cove. He'd been gone the entire night.

James nodded. "You think she'd leave him while you were still gone?"

Craig took off, marching briskly up the hill to their home. Inside, Sharon sat at the table, eyes red, drinking coffee.

"Enjoy your time?" she asked, and Craig detected some bitterness in her voice. Not that he blamed her – he'd been so overwhelmed with anger and frustration and hurt, he simply was lost in his own emotions, his own feelings.

"Shar—" He stopped when she looked at him, anger flashing through her eyes.

"You think you're the only one who's angry?" she asked, standing to face him. Her voice was sharp, hard. "Goddammit, Craig, I'm upset too. Hurt. Mad. Lost. I mean, I call one number and they tell me one thing, I call another and they tell me something else. I call supposed patient advocates and find out they're insurance company employees and don't give a damn about the patients.

"I'm fucking angry too, and I have nowhere to go, and the one person I turn to runs off in a snit, spending all his time alone, on his precious water.”

Craig reached out, grabbed his sister and pulled her against him. When he did she simply cried, weeping, her face buried in his chest. He looked out, saw James standing at the door, concern and hurt on his face, but he kept a respectful distance. This was family time, and as much as they loved James, he wasn't…family.

That thought sent another pang of guilt and pain through Craig. As much as they'd taken James in, as much as he'd simply stepped in and done whatever needed to be done, watching their dad, working the boats with Craig, he was still slightly apart. And that hurt Craig.

But not as much as his sister's cries did, as his father's raspy breath from the other room, and the fact that the system that was supposed to be taking care of them, the one they'd paid their taxes and premiums and everything else into, was essentially telling them to go take a flying fuck now that they needed the system.

Finally, Sharon's cries grew silent. She pulled away, sat at the small kitchen table. Craig sat opposite her. "I'm…I'm sorry about last night, about leaving," Craig said, before growing silent.

They sat for several moments.

"What, no explanation, no 'I couldn't take it,' speech justifying you taking off like that?" Sharon asked.

Craig shook his head. "No. I was wrong. I won't do it again."

Sharon exhaled long and deep. She tried lifting her cup, but her hand shook too violently.

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