Jesse waved from the distance and motioned for them to head upstairs to the open deck. They grabbed drinks at the bar and climbed up the spiral stairs to the top deck. They stood by the railing, and soon the boat cast off and they headed into the harbor.
“Oh, look. Dolphins,”Heather pointed out beside the boat.
Olivia shaded her eyes and caught sight of a pair of dolphins arcing out of the water before splashing back down.
They watched as the boat slipped away from Moonbeam, sliced through the waters of the bay, and headed for the coast.
“Hey,”Jesse said as he walked up to them.“Beautiful night.”
“It is,”Olivia agreed.“And Jesse, you’ve really done your magic on the boat. She’s wonderful.”
“Thanks.”
“It really is nice,”Heather added.“You’ve done a great job refurbishing her.
Jesse’s eyes lit up at Heather’s compliment.
But then Heather and Jesse stood silent. She wanted to roll her eyes at them. Or shake them. Or something. She’d have to try to break the ice herself.“So, you’ve got another skipper, I take it?”
“Yes, I actually have two other qualified captains now, so it’s not always just me. Plus a few deckhands, and then the cook and servers.”Jesse’s eye shone with pride.“It took a while to get to this point, but I’m pleased.”
“And now that your friend got your website updated and running, I bet that helps, too,”Austin teased.
“I do appreciate all you did on that, buddy. I do.”
“Austin is like magic when it comes to all things internet and online,”Olivia said, smiling at Austin and tucking her hand in the crook of his arm.
Then silence again. She wished someone else would pick up the slack tonight. She eyed Austin.
He nodded in response and turned toward Heather.“So, do you have a website for your art?”
“I do. It’s fairly simple. I think it loads slowly though, with all the photos of my work. And I really need to get an updated list where my work can be found. But my web person is so hard to get ahold of for updates.”
“I could help you update it and make it so you could do all your future updates yourself,”Austin offered.
“You could do that?”
“I could.”
“I’d love that. I hate to be dependent on anyone for…well, anything.”Heather shrugged.
Jesse had to keep himself from laughing out loud at Heather’s understatement. No, she didn’t like to depend on anyone but herself. Ever. For anything. Never had.
Austin and Heather chatted a bit about her website and he watched her from the corner of his eyes. She loved her career, that much was evident. He was happy she’d found such success with her work. Her work seemed to hit the emotional spot that made people connect to it. From her heartwarming scenes to her quirkier, humorous work on some greeting cards he’d spotted at the card shop. He’d secretly bought a couple of cards and put them in his desk. Not to send to anyone, just to help him still feel connected to Heather.
He rarely admitted to himself how much he missed her. Sometimes he wished they were back when they were kids and could have a do-over. Maybe she’d never have moved away.
Or something.
But life didn’t give a person do-overs. You lived with the consequences of the choices you made.
“Jesse?”
Livy’s voice brought him back to the present.“What?”
“I was asking if you could join us for dinner, or if you’re going to be too busy with the boat.”
“If you don’t mind waiting a bit, I can join you. Just let me go check on a few things.”
