ROYAL ROCK(107)

I laughed at her, genuinely amused. She really had no clue who she was talking to or what I had done in my life, but I didn’t need to correct her. She could think my attitude was just some act or whatever she wanted.

Truth was, once you were a SEAL, you were always a SEAL. The shit you did for your country, the amount of training, it all made you into the person you were. There was no getting rid of it, not ever, no matter how hard you tried. I was just embracing my identity.

We walked down the dock and saw Tommy leaning against a wooden pole up ahead. He had all of his stuff still out on the dock, not packed on the boat like it had been the day before.

I liked Tommy. He was a no-bullshit kind of guy, a local his whole life. He probably disliked working for men like Jonathan as much as I did, but I wasn’t going to make any assumptions about him. Tommy was in his mid-forties and affable, basically a decent guy so long as you didn’t have high expectations for him.

“Morning, kids,” he said as we approached.

“Morning,” I grunted in return.

“Looks like an ugly day,” Claire said.

Tommy nodded. “Actually, looks like we have this afternoon off.”

“Why’s that?”

“Had a bunch of cancellations this morning, so I decided to call it entirely.”

Claire frowned. “Really?”

“Yep. Sorry about making you guys come all the way down here. I’m going to make the calls; you two can head on back.”

Claire looked out across the water while I was already planning my day in my head.

“Hey, Nate,” she said, “let’s go out anyway.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s going to rain and we have no customers. No, thanks.”

“Come on. It’ll be fun. You can show me how to fish some more.”

“No, thanks, babe. I have a long run calling my name right about now.”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid to go out in the rain?”

“You know I’m not.”

“So what’s stopping you?” she pouted, clearly trying to play it up. I shouldn’t have fallen for her shit, but I was having a hard time saying no.

“Mostly just that I don’t feel like it.”

“Fine. I’ll go out alone if you’re so scared.”

I sighed and looked at Tommy, who just shrugged. “You two do whatever you want,” he said. “I’m heading home.”

He stood up, gathered his stuff, and walked back toward the parking lot.

I turned back toward Claire. “You really set on this?”

“I am.”

“Fine. Let’s do it.” I hopped on board. “You untie the lines.”

She did as told, which brought a nice little smile to my face as I climbed up into the pilot’s room. There was nothing better than a hot as fuck woman that obeyed commands. I briefly wondered what else she’d do.

I started the engines and enjoyed their hum as I sat back and waited for her to finish. I didn’t know what she was playing at trying to get us out on the bay alone in the rain, but I couldn’t exactly back down. I wasn’t a coward, but I just didn’t see how it was going to be fun. Then again, seeing Claire get soaking wet might be worth it.

“Let’s do it,” she said, appearing in the cabin door.

“Full speed ahead.” I hit the throttle and we were off, pulling out into the bay.

She sat down next to me and put her feet up on the dash.

“Nothing better than the open sea,” she said.

“Didn’t know you were into it.”

“I wasn’t, I guess, but it’s really growing on me.”

“All you needed was a SEAL to show you the ropes.”

“Yeah, right,” she mumbled.

The clouds began to grow darker in the sky, and I frowned down at the little radar screen. We clearly had a storm coming, but Claire was probably right. It was going to be mostly rain, which meant the water shouldn’t be too choppy. We’d be fine out in the bay.

“Where to, then, captain?” I asked her.

“I’m the captain now?”

“Honorary. We both know who’s really in charge.”

She laughed. “I don’t know. Let’s go to the same spot as yesterday and do some fishing.”

“Roger that.” I tapped a few buttons and set the course. The ship could probably navigate by itself if I let it, but I liked having control over the steering. As we began to get farther out away from land, the rain started, a little drizzle at first that quickly turned into a real, steady rain.

“Looks like I was right,” Claire said.

“Seems that way.” I peered out at the clouds. There hadn’t been any lightning yet, which was good.