“You work here long?” David asks, and I like that he can make conversation but doesn’t need to fill all the quiet spaces.
“We only opened yesterday.” I don’t add “for you,” but he drops his gaze and smiles quietly, so he probably knows it anyway.
“And what did you do before?”
“I’m a fisherman.” Was. I don’t mention the other odd jobs I’ve done. Anyone who fishes has cobbled together a career from other stuff in the off-season. Along with plowing and painting, I’ve also worked in construction and collected garbage. None of it’s ever really stuck. Nothing except being out on the water. “We’re all fishermen in my family. My uncles. My dad.”
David nods. “My dad was a miner.”
“Really?”
David blinks at me, then shivers, even under his heavy coat. “Wow. I haven’t talked about him in a long time. I don’t know what made me think of him now.”
Well, I’m not one to pry. “Forget I said anything.”
“No.” He scans the water in front of us, but his frown says he’s gone deep inside himself. “I dunno. He was always the outdoorsy one. Loved hunting and fishing. He’d probably think a place like this was too nice. If your fishing lodge isn’t ready to fall over in a stiff breeze, is it even worth the trip?”
I laugh at that. “Sounds like we’d get along.”
“No.” He glances at me, and his brown eyes have gone hard. “He’s a racist, homophobic asshole, and I’m assuming you’re not.”
Well then. “When you put it like that... I had my first boyfriend in high school. Would be hard to be homophobic at this point.”
He scowls into his empty mug and doesn’t reply for a minute. Finally, he hands it back to me. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“My pleasure.” Something has changed, and I’m sorry for it. I was enjoying his company, but if it’s about his dad, that’s not something I can make better.
He climbs wordlessly down the ladder from the flybridge, and the employee manual probably says I should follow him. Maybe even walk him back into the hotel. But I stay where I am because he clearly wants space.
He doesn’t turn until he’s made it up to the dock in one long step. David shades his eyes as he looks up at me on the bridge. “I’ll see you later.”
“I’ll be here. It was nice to meet you, David.”
