Suitcase City by Watson Sterling

Author:Watson, Sterling [Watson, Sterling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2015-02-08T18:30:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

Dean was up in the bow with a flashlight, poking its long beam down the narrow channel between the slips. Teach had taught her to tie a bowline, and she was proving she could do it under pressure. Docking was always the dicey part of the cruise. Many a marina had rung with the angry words of husbands at the wheel and wives in the bow; marriages had ended with the sound of fiberglass tearing as big boats sailed inches too far in the last seconds of a long day.

Teach and Dean had had a good cruise. They’d trolled for sea trout and caught some. He’d taught her the rudiments of chart reading and some knots and splices. They’d taken the inflatable Zodiac ashore to explore an old Spanish sugar mill that was part of the state park system.

They’d had some good talks, mostly about what Dean wanted to do with her life. To Teach’s surprise, his daughter had said she didn’t want to dance in New York. Maybe, she’d told him, she’d go to law school after college. Teach cringed, and they both laughed. Dean said, “Well, if not a lawyer, maybe a cop. I’m interested in the crazy things people do.” She looked at him, serious, questioning. Was this all right with him?

He smiled, showing her the face of approval while he tried on the idea of his daughter wearing a badge and a gun.

Teach turned the boat in its slow ponderous swing to the slip.

“Watch this!” Dean called. He watched her lean, strong legs run to the pulpit, her golden arms fend the bow away from a piling. Then she jumped to the dock with a mooring line, flipped it into a quick bowline, held the knot up for him. “Ta-DAH!” She fed the bight through the loop of the bowline, made a lasso, and slipped it over a cleat.

Teach shifted the auxiliary into reverse, gave the screw a rev that snubbed the line and brought the Hunter to a shuddering stop. He cut the engine.

Dean jumped back aboard, stood in front of him. “Dad, that was great. Let’s do it again soon.” She reached up, and he bent to her quick hard hug.

“Sure, baby,” he said, struggling for more, the right thing. “You’re growing up so fast now, and we won’t . . .”

But she had already turned away to pick up some gear. What the hell, Teach thought, you don’t have to say everything. People know what you mean. Still, picking up a tackle box and some dirty clothes for the walk to the car, he wished he possessed the skill with words he had with a boat, had once had with a football. And he wished Paige had been here for this, had shared Dean with him these few sunny days. She would have seen that his recent trouble had done nothing to damage Dean’s spirit.

When all the gear was stowed in the car, Teach and Dean stopped in at the Stone Crab, a restaurant and bar across from the marina.

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