Gale Force

87

“Captain Rhodes.” Matsuda gave McKenna a smile as he let himself into the wheelhouse. Then he noticed Harrington. “Please, forgive my intrusion.”

McKenna glanced back at the champagne bottle, the empty glasses, felt herself start to blush. Busted, she thought. No way to hide it.

She cleared her throat. “No problem at all. What can I do for you?”

“I had another proposal I thought you might be interested in,” Matsuda told her. “No obligation, of course.”

“Of course.”

“We need to transport the Pacific Lion to Seattle,” Matsuda said. “We will unload the cargo there, and have the vessel inspected by a proper shipyard. Her engine is, of course, out of operation, and in any case, your Coast Guard would not permit us to sail the ship to Seattle ourselves.”

McKenna got it. “You need a tow.”

“We do. You’re the closest boat, and we’re confident in your capabilities. Gale Force Marine is my company’s first choice.”

McKenna thought about it. It was probably a ten-day tow to Seattle, she figured. McKenna had been hoping to get home fast, had imagined she was done with the Lion.

“We would pay a fair rate,” Matsuda continued. “You, your boat, and your crew, plus all expenses. Essentially, Captain Rhodes, you can write your own contract.”

The Gale Force did have to get home somehow. It would be a nice little bonus if the ride home wound up paying. Hell, McKenna thought. When did Dad ever turn down a job?

“I’ll have to check with my crew,” she told the executive. “But this sounds good to me.”

Beside her, Harrington raised his glass. “Consider one crew member on board already,” he said, and those green eyes sparkled at her again. “When do we leave?”

McKENNA THOUGHT ABOUT IT. Kept it in her mind all through dinner, as she pitched the job to her crew, and all through the night and the next day, as the Gale Force worked with the Coast Guard and Matsuda and his colleagues to ready the Pacific Lion for the tow.

It was a nice thought. A week or so on a boat with Harrington, nothing really to do but sleep and eat and relax, catch up with the architect a little more, see if there really could be a spark there again.

And McKenna knew if she turned down Harrington’s offer, she would spend the next ten days wondering—and probably more—because she was still attracted to him, kind of, even as cocky and smartass as he might have been. It had been a solid couple years since her last decent relationship, a long time to live without human companionship. Part of her wanted to say, To hell with it, and just dive in to ten days with Harrington, a pleasure cruise on the way home to reality.

She avoided Harrington as the Coast Guard surveyed the Lion again, searching for flooding and finding none. Thought about the architect as she and Nelson Ridley lashed the freighter’s massive rudder into a fixed position. As they worked to repair the ship’s emergency generator and restore power. As she worked with Ridley in the tug’s engine room to make a proper fix to that portside intake pipe. She was tempted, really tempted. She almost told Harrington yes.

But she didn’t. She didn’t because she had enough in her life to worry about without getting moony over the crew, Harrington in particular. She was happy with her career, and her life on the tug, and she’d been down this road with Harrington before. The architect was way too smart to wind up with some awkward moody bitch of a tugboat captain anyway.

Why tease each other? Why start something they knew could never end well?

So, at the end of the second day, with the Lion cleared for departure and the crew of the Gale Force prepping to cast off in the morning, McKenna sat down with Harrington in the wheelhouse and told him she was sending him home.

“I told you I’d get you to a hospital,” she said. “You shouldn’t even be here right now, not after that fall.”

Harrington laughed. “I’m fine,” he said. “We’re talking ten days of rest and relaxation, not another salvage job. I think a cruise would do me good.”

“And if you reaggravate an injury?” she asked. “You could mess yourself up for life, if you don’t treat this right.” It all sounded so weak when she tried to explain it.

“So you’re kicking me off,” Harrington said. “That’s what you’re doing?”

McKenna shrugged. “Come on, Court,” she said. “There’s no point, for either of us. You get back to dry land, back south again, you’ll wonder what the hell you were doing wanting aboard a smelly tug for another ten days.”

Harrington didn’t say anything. Pursed his lips and looked off through the window, and let the moment stretch out, the gulf widen between them.

Captain up.

McKenna stood. “I’ll book you a flight home,” she said, crossing the wheelhouse to the phone. “No sense dragging this out any longer.”

McKenna met his eyes, and his eyes were stone hard, but she could see behind them that she’d hurt him. He was hurt.

But he looked away. “Aye-aye, captain,” he said. “Whatever you say.”