Page 165 of Key West Homecoming

Maeve smiled. “Nothing. That’s the point.”

They rode for a while with the engine doing its quiet work beneath them. A small pod of dolphins appeared off the bow and stayed with the boat for a few minutes.

Emma stood to watch.

She hadn’t been on the ocean since a work retreat in Cancun eight years earlier. She had spent most of that trip answering emails from a lounge chair. At the time, she had considered that dedication. Now it seemed a little sad.

Jake came up beside her.

“You okay?”

“I’m thinking about the last time I was on the ocean.”

“Good memory?”

“Answering emails on my phone.”

Jake smiled. “Sounds memorable.”

“It probably tells you everything you need to know about me.”

“I don’t think it does.”

Emma looked at him but he’d already turned back toward the dolphins.

They ate on the deck.

Maeve had made chicken salad with grapes and tarragon. There was bread from the bakery on Petronia and the plantain chips Emma had brought. Patrick opened four beers and set them on the table.

“Boat beer is different from land beer,” he said.

Emma looked at the bottle. “It appears to be exactly the same beer.”

“Same beer. Different beer.”

“That’s your argument?”

“That’s the philosophy of the boat, and I’ll defend it.”

“Has anyone tested this philosophy?”

“Exhaustively.”

Jake raised his bottle. “I’m willing to participate in further research.”

Patrick clinked his bottle against Jake’s. “That’s the spirit.”

Emma laughed.

“Also,” Patrick said, “beer in the middle of the afternoon is one of the reasons I moved here. That and going barefoot most of the year.”

“Key West seems to suit you.”

“It does.”

Emma looked at Maeve. “What about you? Does it suit an attorney from Boston?”

The question came out more directly than Emma intended.