Emma and her three friends walked toward his boat.
Cap rubbed the back of his neck. This was going to be a horrible afternoon. Four ladies on his boat, taking the charter out of spite and probably had no desire to fish. It was going to be a long afternoon and evening. Maybe they won’t want to stay out the entire time. That would be good.
Tom slapped him on the shoulder blade. “It’s going to be a long afternoon for you, buddy. At least the ladies are easy on the eyes,” his old pal said.
“You had your out, and you blew it. If you hadn’t said anything more, they would have left. But no, you called her back,” Steve, another charter captain, chimed in.
Cap grimaced. He was well aware of that.
All the men under the roof of the fish cleaning station shared a laugh at his expense.
“What’s so funny?” Preston asked as he stepped under the pavilion.
“Your next charter is here and ready to go, kid,” Tom said with a chuckle.
Preston, his first mate, looked at him for an explanation.
“Our bachelor party charter turned into a charter with the not-to-be-bride,” Cap said.
Preston’s brows furrowed. “What?”
“It appears the wedding is off, and the ladies have assumed the charter. I didn’t know until just now. They must have communicated that to Cici because there they are,” Cap said as he pointed to the women.
This was the worst possible time for his sister and regular first mate, Cici, to be sick. She could have handled this situation, but now it would be just him and the kid he borrowed from another charter captain. He worked with Preston before and he was a good first mate, but Cici, would have probably been better under these circumstances. She was more of a people-person than he was. Well, he was just going to have to get used to working without her since she’d just gotten her captain’s license and now captained her own boat. It was the second one they’d added to their fleet.
“Go get the ladies situated. I’ll be right there.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Preston replied.
Cap pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called Cici.
“Hello,” she mumbled as she cleared the frog from her throat.
“You sound like shit.”
“I feel like shit. What’s up?”
“I’ve got four ladies here for a charter, not four men.”
“Yeah, she called earlier and told me that. The groom dumped her. She paid for the charter, so she and her bridesmaids are taking it.”
“You could have warned me.”
“What’s the difference? A charter is a charter.”
He supposed his sister was right.
Cici laughed and coughed. “Take it they don’t look like anglers?”
“Not at all, sis.”
“You’ll be fine. It will all be fine.”
“Easy for you to say.”
“Loosen up a little. It might be fun.”
“I doubt that.”
