“Still seems odd that you have to zigzag to move in a straight line.”
“The wind doesn’t always blow in the direction you want to go.”
“So true.”
Her thoughtful tone massaged his brain. All his life, he’d had favorable winds. His family loved and supported him. He had the personal traits needed to excel and the opportunities to do so. It might not always be that way. It wasn’t for most people.
Arch’s parents wanted their only son to take over their business, but he’d bucked their desires and joined the Navy, straining against the current.
Running with the wind wasn’t the only—or even the best—way to sail.
“Ready about,” Jim called to Arch.
“Aye aye.” The yachtsman gathered up the sheet lines, ready to spring to action. “Hard-a-lee.”
“All right, Mary. Turn her hard into the wind.”
She did so. The sails loosened, and Arch ran out lines to compensate.
The bow pointed straight into the wind, and the boat paused, holding its breath.
“Oh!” Mary paused too.
“No. Don’t stop now.” Jim gripped the wheel and kept it moving. “We’ll be in irons.”
“In irons?” The sails luffed, jangled on their rings, and snapped in the wind.
“Stalled. Stuck.”
Arch ran out more lines, the mainsail puffed up on the other side, and the boat sailed smoothly.
“Hold her steady.” Jim wrapped his hand around Mary’s slender wrist. “Very good.”
“That’s exciting, isn’t it? A lot of noise and motion.”
He released her wrist for his own sake. “As you saw, when the sails start luffing, you can’t let the noise and motion distract you. You have to keep moving.”
“Hmm. I understand.”
“Good. This weekend we’ll make a sailor out of you.”
Mary smiled, snatched the white cover from Jim’s head, and snugged it over her wind-whipped hair. Much cuter on her. Very cute.
The goofy grin—he could feel it undoing months of hard work trying to look sophisticated. He plopped onto the seat in the stern. “You have the helm, Captain. Since I’ve been demoted to landlubber.”
Her laugh sparkled. “So what shall we talk about, since Arch has forbidden all talk of war and sabotage?”
Arch wanted to placate Gloria by avoiding her least favorite subjects. If Gloria failed this weekend’s test, it wouldn’t be due to lack of effort on Arch’s part to satisfy the girl’s demands.
Too bad, because the events in the news would give them plenty to discuss. President Roosevelt had signed the bill to extend the draft, increasing the length of service from twelve to thirty months. US Navy planes now flew from Iceland, covering Allied convoys. And still the carnage continued in the North Atlantic, with multiple freighters and tankers falling prey to Nazi U-boats almost every day.
“Well?” Mary looked like a pinup girl in Jim’s cover, her nautical bathing suit, her playful smile, and too many curves for Jim’s well-being.
He leaned back, draped one hairy leg along the brass railing, and laced his hands behind his head. “Anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.” But the way she squinted and pursed her lips made him regret it.
