No Tan Lines

"I don't see anything," I said.

"It's a shallow reef," Dave said. "Under six or seven feet of water so you'll never see it until you run up on it, and there've been more than one or two boats have hit it in bad weather. More back in the old days, without GPS and all the navigational equipment." He grinned. "Supposedly some Spanish treasure ship hit it a few hundred years ago, but nobody's ever found anything."

"Gold?" I asked. "Doubloons? Pieces of eight?"

"You have no idea what they are do you?" He was laughing at me.

"No," I said. "I read it in a book about pirates."

"I'll show you when we get back to the Marina," he said. "I've got a couple down in my cabin."

"Oh no," I squealed. "You do? You're a pirate? You're going to take me to your cabin and tie me down and ravish me?"

He looked at me, and the look he gave me took my breath away. "Later," he said. "We have to hook up to one of the buoys first."

"Boys?" I asked, puzzled. "What did they do? Do they leave them here in the water to hold on to the boats?"

He laughed. "Buoy. Bee You Oh Why. Buoy. See, that big ball shaped thing floating there with the ring on top. That's a buoy."

"Why do we tie up to that?"

"Otherwise we have to anchor, and anchoring damages the reef. So they put a few permanent buoys in for boats like us to hook on to. Now, I've got a job for you. Come down with me..."

I did, and he showed me how to use the boathook to hook the buoy and then hold it as he moved 'No Tan Lines' up, and then he apparated down to the bow to join me and tied a line.

The reef had another boat on it, tied to another buoy, looked like a family outing on one of those floating condo things, big and boxy.

"Carver 36," Dave said. "Look at how she's rocking in a one foot swell." He grinned at my look. "Hey, they're not bad, but they're inshore boats. Inshore and on the inland waterways. Nice in a dead calm. Weather like this, you could take one and make a dash for the Bahamas, but you wouldn't want to do it in anything too rough. Six, ten foot waves, you'd be in big trouble."

"What about 'No Tan Lines'?" I asked. "How does she handle waves like that?"

"She's a Bertram," Dave said, and he grinned. "There's an old advertisement, 'Thank God it's a Bertram.' I'll dig it up online tonight and show you. They designed to go out five hundred miles into the Atlantic, game fishing. They'll survive pretty much anything the sea can throw at them if the guy driving her knows what he's doing. I've had 'No Tan Lines' out in a couple of storms I shouldn't have been out in, and we sat them out. She's tough."

"You know, between her and you, I'm feeling really safe," I said.

"Good," he said, taking my hands, looking down at me. "Because you are, Jenny."

Somehow, we weren't holding hands anymore. Somehow we were kissing and my arms were around his neck and it was my boobs against his chest that reminded me I wasn't wearing my bikini top and there was another boat over there and I'd been giving them a good look. If they were looking.

In Dave's arms, I didn't care at all. They could look all they liked, because looking was all anyone else was getting. I was Dave's.

"Time to go snorkeling," Dave said, before he kissed me again.

"I thought we were," I said, coming up for air five minutes later, and we both laughed.

"Come on," he said, patting my butt. "You go get your top on and put on more sunscreen. Lots and lots more sunscreen, and I'll get the snorkeling gear out."

"Here, try this," he said, when I'd climbed back out into the cockpit, handing me a mask and a snorkel and fins, and he helped me get them on.

"You can swim, can't you?" he asked suddenly, half way down the ladder to the water, and I was sitting on the swim step, feet dangling.

"Yeah," I said. "In a swimming pool." No edges here, and the only out was back up onto 'No Tan Lines'.

"Okay, I'll be right beside you the whole time," he said. "So don't worry. I'll be watching you, and we won't be going far from the boat."

"Okay," I said, not worrying at all because he was there and he'd said he'd look after me, trusting him, sliding off the swim step awkwardly, and splashing into the water beside him.

"Just keep the snorkel in your mouth, use it to breathe through and keep your body face down and level," he said. "I'll keep a hand under you while you get used to it."

"Okay," I said, putting the mouthpiece in, and yeah, I could breathe through it, so I ducked and floated, face down, and the air kept coming and I could see all the way to the bottom through the mask, and Dave was there, face down beside me, looking at me.

I gave him the thumbs up, and he beckoned, moving forward, so I kicked with the fins. Amazed at how fast I moved. The water was as clear as glass, fish everywhere, sand and coral, just beautiful, and it was almost like flying. Drifting in the water, just looking and looking.

When I popped my head up, Dave did too, and I was grinning. "This is fantastic."

"Okay, you want dive down a bit?"

"Sure, just don't go too far, okay. I don't think I can hold my breath for too long"

"Okay."

Mask back on, mouthpiece in and I duck dived down, following Dave, almost touching the bottom, and 'No Tan Lines' seemed to be floating in air above us, the surface a glass mirror, and yeah, I couldn't stay down for that long, but it was worth it, it really was, and I duck dived again and again until I could barely move, before swimming slowly back to the ladder, almost drifting, Dave beside me.

"I'm about done," I said.

"Here, hold on to the ladder. I'll take your fins off," Dave said. "And your snorkel and mask. That was almost an hour, you know."

"No wonder I'm exhausted," I said, struggling to climb up the ladder onto the swim step, and then up into the cockpit, but he was there with me, his hand helping me, and I was way more tired than I thought.

"Go take a shower," he said. "Don't worry about water. We've got a watermaker, makes as much as we need. I'll make lunch."

"We", I thought. He said "we."

Oh, that shower. Bliss, although it took forever to shampoo the salt out of my hair. Afterwards, standing in my cabin, and yeah, I did think of it as mine now, I thought about it for a second, then slipped into one of the other bikini's. The plain white one, just the bottom, but I did slip a t-shirt on over the top.

"Oh my god," I said, when I climbed up the stairs. "You did make lunch."

A pitcher of iced lemonade, salad, fruit, cheese, cold cuts, fresh bread, and it really was fresh. Like, right out of the oven fresh, soft and hot and heavenly.

"Breadmaker in the galley," he grinned. "I started it before we left. Sit down. Eat."

I sat. I ate. I was hungrier than I'd ever been, and I demolished the iced lemonade as well.

"I don't know what to say, Dave," I said. "I feel like I've wandered into some kind of dream." I looked around. "I'm on this amazing boat, doing stuff I never dreamed I'd be doing like snorkeling on a coral reef, with the most amazing guy I've ever met, who's swept me off my feet and treats me like, I don't know, some kind of princess."

I looked at him and smiled. "I don't know what I did to deserve this."

"Chance brought us together, Jenny, and you were you," he said. "It was that simple." He smiled, stood, reached for my hand, and yeah, he was right. It'd been that simple, and my hand found his, and I knew I'd found him. That special guy.

"Come on up top. We need to start heading back."

"Jenny?" Aunt Suzy said, as I watched Dave eating sweet and sour pork with steamed white rice.

I'd already finished. Never took me long, I just didn't eat that much. No appetite when it was this hot, and I knew I'd lost some weight but after that day on the boat, I'd eaten more than I had in a long time.

"Can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure," I said.

"Your Mom called me today," she said. "I told her you were out on a boat for the day. She said you hadn't called her since a couple of days before you went into hospital. She was worried about you. Could you call her back tonight?"

"Oh jeez," I said, and yeah, I did glance towards Dave. "I plain forgot. I'll call her when we get back to the boat."

"You're planning on staying on that boat of his tonight too?"

"Yeah," I said, my heart beating faster. "Yeah, I am."

"I thought that was what you'd say," Aunt Suzy said. "Just, be careful, Jenny. I don't want you hurt."

"He said that too," I said, looking at him, and I was smiling, just watching him eating. "I like him a lot, Auntie, I really do, and he likes me, but he said he doesn't want me hurt. He really cares."

"He just met you Jenny. Some men are really persuasive. They can fool you completely, and hurt you when you're not expecting it at all."

"He's not like that, Auntie," I said, and I knew he wasn't.

"Just be careful, okay."

"I will," I said, turning and hugging her. "Don't worry." I smiled. "Thank you for inviting me down here, Auntie. I'd never have met him if you hadn't."

"Just call your Mom, okay, Jenny," she said. "I didn't tell her you were staying over on his boat more than that one night, after you got out of that clinic. That's your business, but if you're going to stay there any longer, you better talk to her and let her know. You're eighteen, you're old enough to make up your own mind, but she is your Mom, and you should tell her."

"I will, Auntie," I said, wondering how I was gonna break it to my Mom. I didn't think she'd like it so much, and I wasn't even going to think about my Dad. I had no idea what my Dad'd say. "We're going fishing tomorrow, Dave said we should go early so I'll see you tomorrow night, after we get back, okay?"

"If I said it wasn't, would that change anything?" she said, kind of dryly, but when I glanced at her, sort of surprised, she was smiling.

"Not really," I said, knowing it wouldn't. Not now.

"You're really serious about him, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am." I didn't need to think about that one, and I was smiling.

"Use some fresh fish tomorrow evening, Wayne?" Dave asked, as we were leaving. "I'm taking Jenny out, I can bring you back a few, depending on what we catch."

"You betcha, Dave," Uncle Wayne said. "Always in demand."

"You got it," Dave said. "As long as we catch any. Speaking of which, we better go."

"See you tomorrow night, Uncle Wayne," I said, and we were out the door and into his truck, and he was holding my hand as he drove.

"Jenny! Where are you? Suzy told me you hadn't been well. Suzy said you'd been out on a boat all day. You must be feeling better. Where did you go? Whose boat is it? I hope you're being careful. Does it have lifejackets? ..."

"Mom! Slow down, okay."

"Okay, okay...."

God, Mom. Totally hyper. She exhausted me at the best of times, and this evening I was already exhausted, and I was yawning.

"Yeah, I was a bit sick, that pneumonia came back but the doctor here was really good, and I'm over it now, pretty much. Still got to take the medication for a few more days, but there's nothing to worry about."

"Oh, good. I was worried when Suzy called, but she said it was all being taken care of. Send the bills up for your Dad to claim, okay."

"There's no bills, Mom. It was under Dad's deductible, and Dave took care of it."

Oh shit. I shouldn't have said that.

"Dave? Is he this guy with the boat? He paid your medical bills?"

"Uh, yeah," I said, really casually. "We met a few days ago, after I got here, and when I got sick, he took me to his doctor, his doctor's a friend of his, and Dave, he's a really cool guy. Auntie Suzy knows him." Sort of. Like you knew your customers. She knew him better now, anyhow.

"Oh, okay, as long as Suzy knows him, that's fine," Mom said, totally blasé, like, some guy taking care of my medical bills was just fine. One of those things, how my Mom would react. "She said you were spending a lot of time with him?"

"Yeah, he's sort of taking some time off, and it's a really nice boat," I said. "He lives on it. He's taking me fishing tomorrow."

"That sounds like fun, send me some snaps after you get back."

"I will, Mom." I yawned. "I'm really tired, Mom. I'm going to bed now, call you in a couple of days, okay. And don't worry, I'm feeling much better. I think I'll do what you and Auntie Suzy talked about, and stay down here until summer, it's been so good for me, I feel way better." I did, too.

"I'm so glad we sent you down to stay with Suzy and Wayne for the winter, it seems to be really doing you good, you do sound really chirpy."

I giggled. "Yeah, you could say that I guess. Goodnight, Mom. Love you. Give Dad a hug from me."

"I will. Goodnight Jenny, talk soon. Call whenever you have time, okay. Love you dear."

"Love you too, Mom," and she was gone.

Phew. Guess I could tell her about me and Dave some other time, after I figured out how to break it to her. That'd be kind of a gulp moment. Didn't want to think about how I was going to break that one to my Dad.

"You finished talking to your Mom?" Dave asked, his head poking up through the flybridge hatch.

"Yeah," I said, relaxing. "It went okay, she didn't ask about you and me, so I didn't say anything much, just told her a little bit about you." I looked at him anxiously. "You don't mind, Dave? I need to figure out how to let them know, properly."

"Take your time, Jenny," he said, sitting down next to me on that sunbed in front of the helm, and I slid into his arms. "It's might be tough, wait until you're feeling better."

"Yeah," I said gratefully, resting my head against him. "I will. I'm exhausted."

"Long day," I heard him say, and I was yawning, my eyes closing.

"Huh?" I jumped, and I was lying back against him, half sitting, his arm around me, and he was lying back, smiling as he looked at me. "Did I go to sleep?"

"You've been asleep for two hours," he said, kissing my forehead. "It's after midnight."

"You should have woken me up?" I said softly, not moving.

"You were so tired," he said. "And I enjoyed sitting here watching you."

"Let's go to bed," I said.

"Okay," he said, sliding to his feet, taking my hand, helping me to stand, leading the way down the ladder to the cockpit and inside. He followed me down the stairs, stopped with me outside my cabin door.

"I'm going to take a shower and clean my teeth," I said.

"Okay," he said, holding me, kissing me. "Sleep well."

I smiled, not taking my eyes off him as I walked into my cabin and began undressing, enjoying his eyes on me, watching me, as I peeled my t-shirt off.

"You're so beautiful, Jenny," he said, and then he was gone, and I crawled into bed and I was asleep in seconds.

"You take her out through the cut, Jenny," he said, and the sun was barely breaking the horizon. "It's a nice morning, not too rough. Good day to fish."

"I've never been fishing," I said, concentrating, because some of the waves were breaking.

"Give her a bit more power," he said, and I did, and she handled better, and I was steering her as if I'd been doing it all my life.

"Jesus, what's that?" I said, startled, coz this boat'd come from nowhere and it was powering past us, crashing through the waves.

"That one?" Dave watched the grey boat pass us like we were standing still. "That's a Midnight Express 37. Quad 300 horsepower outboards. That's a beast, it can hit seventy-five knots. Probably DEA going out after someone. See the guys in it?"

"Yeah." A dozen guys in grey, and there were guns.

"Probably an intercept. You get all sorts coming across from South America, but mostly cigarette boats running drugs."

"Oh."

"Hey, no need to worry. Those guys are good, and I know a few of them. Worked with them now and then when I was in the Navy. I was based out in the Keys for a while. Anyhow, forget about that." He grinned. "We're going where the fish are, today..."

center> * * *

"Jenny," Dave called. "We're ready to start fishing now. I'm coming up for a minute."

"We are?" I asked, watching him climbing up onto the flying bridge. "We aren't rolling nearly as much as I expected." Coz the waves seemed pretty big to me. Bigger than last time we were out. A lot bigger. "How come?"

"She's got a Seakeeper 16 gyrostabilizer. Eliminates about ninety five percent of the roll, and don't ask me how, I'd have to dig out the manual." He grinned. "It works really well, that's all we need to know."

"Yeah, okay," I said. But I was going to look that gyrostabilizer up later. I wanted to find out how it worked. "Are those for fishing?"

"Yeah, these are our rods," Dave said, gesturing, and he'd rigged up a couple of big heavy rods, and a couple of smaller ones. "See the birds over there." He pointed.

"Yeah." A lot of them, swooping and diving, almost a cloud.

"There's a school of fish under the birds," Dave said, taking over the helm, slowing us down. "I'm going to point the boat at them and let out the lines. When we go through we should hook whatever's feeding on them, probably mahi-mahi. I've got to get you rigged, though."

He set 'No Tan Lines' to a slow cruise, flicked the autopilot on.

"Come on down, she can steer herself now."

"This here's a fighting rig, Jenny," he said, putting a harness on me. "You won't really need it for mahi-mahi, but it'll help you get used to it. You put the butt of the rod here in the holder on your stomach. What happens is that a fish will get hooked, and when that happens, you take the rod out of the holder, set the butt in place and hit the drag, and that should hook it for sure. That rod's oversized for them."

"Okay," I said, totally confused.

"I'll walk you through it when we hook on," Dave said, letting out the lines. "I've already baited them. Here, take your rod and sit in the seat. More comfortable for you."

I sat there holding the rod as we dragged the line past the edge of the pod, and there were fish flashing on the surface, even some leaping from the water, and it seemed like a huge area of water was a seething mass of fish and birds. I jumped as all of a sudden the reel on my rod began to scream out.

"Pick up the rod and put the butt in the holder," he said from beside me, calmly.

I got the rod into place, butt in the holder and whatever it was had stopped, but the line was taut and still.

"Hit the drag," he said, showing me how, just as the line started to run again, and I nearly dropped the rod when it went taut and the monster I'd hooked fought against it.

"This must be a huge fish!" I yelled.

Dave laughed. "Not that big. Just reel it in. Your line's way strong enough. Just reel them up to the boat. I'm throwing some chum out there to bring more of them up to us."

He opened the top of the live bait tank and scooped out a mess of sardines with a scoop, tossing them over the side, and now there were fish breaking water all over the surface, flashing silver in the sunlight.

"Dave," I said, holding my rod tight. "It's nearly up to the boat. What do I do now?"

"Nothing," Dave said, taking the rod from me, setting it in a long tube on the stern, where I could see the line tracking backwards and forwards as the mahi-mahi tried to escape. "The other fish'll be attracted to it because it's excited and they can't tell the difference between it being on a line and feeding. So now we really fish."

He grinned, taking one of the smaller lighter rods, taking a small live fish from the aquarium and hooking it on by the tail. "Cast it like this," he said, passing me the rod after he'd flicked the fish on its hook out into the churning water. "Close the face of the reel and then hit this switch." He pointed, and I did. "That way, when a fish hooks on, it can run with the line for a while. Give it a few seconds, then flick the switch back, and hang on." He grinned.