‘Thanks.’ I took off my jacket and shook the water off, hanging it on one of the coat hooks beside the door. The room was cozy and warm, filled with the smell of coffee, woodsmoke and chowder. It was busy enough, people clustered around the tables and at the bar.
‘You OK?’ Taylor asked as I perched on a barstool. She placed a coffee in front of me.
‘Just worried.’ I smiled to hide my panic. ‘I’m no doubt completely overreacting. Typical city girl. This is probably a normal day around here, right?’
She didn’t try and comfort me with false hope. ‘No. This storm is a big one.’
Jack emerged from the back, wiping his hands on a towel. Taylor shot him a questioning look and he shook his head. She exhaled softly.
‘What is it?’ I asked, feeling the panic settle like lead in my stomach.
‘Jim’sAmber Dawnisn’t the only boat out. There’s another one out there. TheGolden Pearl.Skipper is a guy named Dylan Salisbury. He’s nowhere near as experienced as Jim, and neither are the two young guys crewing for him. One of them is seventeen and as green as they come.’
‘Most likely both boats are sheltering somewhere,’ a man down the bar piped up. ‘Waiting out the storm.’
‘Yeah,’ Jack agreed. ‘Dion’s probably right.’
‘Then why haven’t they radioed in?’ an older man at the other end of the bar pointed out, and the mood grew solemn again.
‘Search and rescue is on standby just in case,’ the man, Dion, added. He looked towards the windows that rattled in their panes. ‘Not much we can do in this weather though.’
I wrapped my hands around the coffee and focused on the steam that lifted off it, trying to drown out the hubbub of noise around me. There was a radio behind the bar, and every now and then it crackled to life and Taylor would yell at everyone to shut up. It was always other boats checking in though. The bigger fishing vessels. Warning each other of rogue waves the size of buildings and gale-force winds that had torn the rigging clean off one boat. The was no word from Jim or the other guy from Pine Harbor, Dylan.
I hadn’t realized my untouched coffee had gone cold until a hand landed on my shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze. I turned to see Sophie, Jonah’s sister-in-law, smiling wanly.
‘Thought you might be here,’ she said, pulling out the stool beside me.
I looked over her shoulder. ‘David’s not with you?’
She pulled off her mittens. ‘He’s parking the car. Heads-up, Eleanor and Gray are on their way here as well.’
‘I didn’t think this would be Eleanor’s kind of place.’
She shrugged. ‘It’s everyone’s place at a time like this.’
A few minutes later they walked in. Eleanor’s face was tight, and she looked at me coldly as she joined us. ‘Have you heard from him?’ she asked. Straight to the point. No greeting.
‘Not since this morning.’
‘And? Did he say they were heading in?’
I shook my head. ‘No, just that they were keeping an eye on the weather and they’d be back tomorrow as scheduled.’
‘This is precisely why I didn’t want him working on the boats,’ she said angrily. ‘I knew this would happen. And now here we all are, sitting here, worrying. This is so selfish, and so typically Jonah.’
‘You say that like he planned this,’ David said, frowning. ‘Not even Jonah can control the weather.’
‘Of course he can’t,’ she snapped back. ‘But he shouldn’t be out there in the first place. Putting himself in danger just to spite me.’
‘That’s not why he’s out there,’ I replied, feeling the urge to defend Jonah in his absence. ‘It has nothing to do with you.’
She arched her eyebrows. ‘And what would you know? You’ve been in his life for all of five minutes, and you’ll no doubt be gone again as soon as he’s bored.’
‘Jesus,’ Sophie muttered under her breath. She held out a hand to get Taylor’s attention. ‘Can I get a whiskey on the rocks please?’
‘Make that two,’ David added. ‘I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.’
‘You need to calm down,’ Gray told Eleanor gently. ‘Jim is seasoned and very capable. And this is Jonah. He’s going to be fine.’
