“Cast me off,” she ordered.
Oh, hell no.
Once he loosened her lines, he knew she’d be gone, and he was not about to be left behind. He wouldn’t put it past Bobbie to head to her mooring where she’d spitefully stay and sleep on her boat tonight, even if it meant abandoning her stuff on the dock.
Not happening.
Casually uncleating the stern-line, Buck then walked the length of the boat. In one smooth move, he un-cleated the bow of theSmall Dreamand…hopped aboard.
Bobbie’s jaw dropped.
Hah. Nowshe was looking at him.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she barked.
“Taking the ride out to your mooring with you.” Buck shrugged and hauled in the bumpers she would no longer be needing tonight. He loved the way her eyes snapped as she debated what to say; the blue so vibrant it put the colors in the sea and sky around them to shame.
“Well, you’ve got guts. I’ll give you that,” Bobbie returned testily. “You know, one loop of my anchor line around your feet, and…oops. No more Buck.”
He knew she was teasing…
Uh,at least hehopedshe was.
But even if she wasn’t, he’d let her know that getting rid of him before they had their chat wasn’t going to be all that easy.
“Right. Except that I’d surface pretty quickly. As every good Coast Guardsman, I never go anywhere without my trustyknife.” He pulled his ever-present blade from his pocket before stuffing it back in.
He got a snort.
“I’ll have to get more creative, then,” she gritted out.
Buck almost sighed. Talking with her wasn’t going to be easy. But if this is how she wanted to engage, he’d play along.
“What about poisoning my food?” he suggested, tongue-in-cheek. “I’m a big eater, so I probably won’t stop chowing down to see if you’ve messed with it.”
“Nope.” She shook her head, looking like she was taking his silly suggestion almost seriously. “Too cliché for a chef. I’d be the first person the authorities would suspect. Butnaturalpoison isn’t a bad idea. Maybe a puffer fish…”
Buck rolled his eyes mockingly as he watched her head for her mooring where her little dinghy, theWee Dream, bobbed. “Not efficient enough,” he countered. “It’d be just as likely to make me sick as it would to kill me. Then I’d insist that you be the one who nursed me back to health.”
“In your dreams,” she scoffed. “I’d dump you on your mother’s doorstep first. You’d be her problem, then.”
“I can see you haven’t really thought this out.” He stroked his chin, reflectively. “The two of you would end up bonding over a cup of tea, thenyou’dfeel guilty for trying to kill me.”
The dark banter, if that’s what you could call it, ended abruptly.
“I’m not the one who should be feeling guilty,” Bobbie snapped sharply, then became all business.
She pointed to a boat hook that was strapped to the inside hull near his knees. “Use that and grab the mooring.”
Buck was happy to oblige. He quickly unfasted the pole, then leaned over the side and snagged the buoy that marked Bobbie’s spot. He grabbed it up with his hand and easily attached theirbow line, letting the rigging splash back down into the water once the boat was secured.
“Done,” he told her as she turned off the engine. “You want some help buttoning her up?”
“You’re the one who came for the ride without an invitation. Do what you want,” she bit out.
Bobbie’s tear-down protocol was clearly on auto-pilot. She bustled about doing her thing and trying to ignore him, but on a thirty-foot craft, that was difficult. As they lashed things up and closed hatches, they kept bumping elbows, which—if Buck were honest—wasn’t exactly an accident.
“Cut the crap, Sothard,” Bobbie ultimately snapped at him when he brushed her shoulder with his for the third time. She faced him with both hands planted on her hips. “What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish here? Are you trying to get a rise out of me?”
