Hooked (A Romance on the Edge Novel)

by Tiffinie Helmer

  “I’m sorry.” She tried to swallow her own tears climbing up the back of her throat, but a few slipped past her. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. It just did.” A fat raindrop splattered on her forearm.

  “Heaven help me, neither can I.” He buried his head in her neck. “I wish to God that I could.”

  Another raindrop smacked the side of her face and then the heavens shuddered on a sob.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Earl asked, followed by a hacking cough that turned Aidan’s stomach. “You’re wetter than seaweed. Don’t you have sense enough to get in out of the rain?”

  “Give it a rest, old man.” Aidan grabbed a beer and twisted the top off, taking a long swallow. He normally didn’t drink, but his heart was breaking and the pain was about to kill him. Seeing Sonya loving Garrett, in a way that she’d never loved him, had Aidan needing to drown out the image seared in his memory.

  “Ooh, the boy’s getting a backbone,” Roland commented from a dark corner of the lantern-lit cabin.

  “Yeah, of a jellyfish.” Earl chuckled at his own joke. Aidan took a deep drink and tried to wipe his thoughts of Sonya and Garrett clutched together against the side of that Jeep. Why couldn’t she have ever let go with him like that?

  “So, what had you out in the rain?” Earl asked. “In dire need of a shower?” This time both Earl and Roland cackled.

  “I’m sure it has something to do with that pretty drift boat captain on shore leave next door.” Roland elbowed Earl. “Don’t you think?”

  “Gotta be. Only a woman could tempt a man to stay out in the rain, when he should have the good sense God gave him to come in out of it. So, things square with you and Sonya?”

  “You could say that,” Aidan muttered, taking another swig of the beer and dropping into a chair. The liquid was bitter against his tongue, but the more he drank, the more he found the taste palatable.

  “About damn time. You gotta date set?” Earl asked, a smile twisting his normally stoic face, making him resemble the Joker in Batman.

  “A date?” Aidan asked, confused. “For what?”

  “A wedding, boy.”

  It was Aidan’s turn to laugh, though the sound held no humor. “There’s never going to be a wedding between me and Sonya.”

  “Don’t tell me you screwed things up again.”

  His whole life was nothing but a series of screw-ups. None as big as the screw-up he’d made of his relationship with Sonya. “Yep, I sure did. Fucked it up big time, Pops.” He finished the beer, thumping the bottle down on the splintered table, and without a second thought, reached for another.

  “Watch your mouth, boy.” Roland indicated the loft where Aidan knew Lana was not sleeping, though it was quiet as church up there.

  “Why? No one else does around here.” He toasted Earl and Roland. “Just following the examples given.”

  “If you followed my example, you’d make Sonya change her mind,” Earl said, his lips twisting into a cruel line.

  “What?” Aidan scoffed. “Like you did with her mother?”

  Earl’s chair scraped against the scarred-plank floor as he leaped his feet. “Shut the hell up. You will not talk about Kyra.”

  “Why not?” Aidan shrugged. “You have no problem discussing Sonya, but not your own failed attempts with her mother?”

  The fist came out of nowhere, slamming into Aidan’s cheek with the force of a sledgehammer. Shit, he’d forgotten the lights-out power of Earl’s right hook. It knocked him out of his chair and flat onto his back on the floor, his beer spilling into a puddle next to his head.

  He should get up and hit the bastard back, but it was just so much more comfortable here on the floor. Besides, the colors swirling in front of his eyes were pretty.

  “Get up, you sorry excuse for a Harte,” Earl said.

  Aidan made out his blurry image looming over him. Now why would he get up for more of what he’d already received? See, he had learned a thing or two.

  “Earl, leave the boy alone,” Roland said, though his voice seemed to come from far off in the distance, instead of across the small room. “Can’t you see he’s messed up over Sonya? When’s the last time you saw the boy help himself to a brewski?”

  “What he needs to do is put Sonya in her place.” Earl kicked Aidan in the side, seeming satisfied with the grunt of pain that escaped. He walked over to his chair and retook his seat. “Damn kid never learns a thing. Too much like his sorry bitch of a mother.”

  Aidan continued to lie on the floor with no desire to get up. His only thought before blackness took him was that he wished he’d been able to finish the last of his beer before it was spilled on the floor.

  What a waste. Much like himself.

  “Dag nabbit!” Gramps threw his rain hat to the ground.

  Sonya had met Gramps and Aidan the next morning, as agreed upon, to mount the outboard onto the skiff.

  The jinxed outboard lay buried underneath a mountain of mud.

  Some time during the night, a section of the bluff collapsed due to the deluge of rain that had fallen and still continued to fall.

  Sonya bit back a laugh. Maybe now, they could buy a new engine.

  “Don’t go thinking what I know you’re thinking.” Gramps pointed at her.

  “What?” She gave him a wide-eyed expression.

  “I’ll save her. I’ll dig her out, clean her up, and she’ll be good as new.”

  “Gramps. It’s covered in mud. There comes a time when you have to bury the dead.” A chuckle did bubble free after that and she slid a glance toward Aidan. He hadn’t said anything since they’d rendezvoused this morning, other than a greeting for Gramps and a nod for her, keeping his distance from her.

  Aidan’s gaze met hers and his lips curved into a grin.

  “Nope,” Gramps snapped. “I’ll resurrect her. Just you two wait and see if I don’t. Wipe those grins off your faces. You look silly. I’m getting out of the rain.” He grumbled off down the beach toward the cabin.

  A taut silence settled between Aidan and Sonya, while rain spattered around them in big fat drops. They started back the way Gramps had huffed off.

  “Listen, Sonya, about last night.” Aidan hunched his shoulders into the depths of his rain jacket. “I understand now that we—” he swallowed and gauged the encroaching tide “—can’t be together. I don’t want the change in our relationship to affect the one I have with your family.”

  “Of course not, Aidan. I know how much they mean to you, and you mean a lot to them.” She slid her hands into the wide sleeves of her rain jacket. “Just so that you know, I never told them what happened between us.”

  Aidan gave a huge sigh of relief. “I appreciate that.”

  They fell into step, not completely comfortable with each other but not quite strained either.

  “How’d you get the other black eye?” Sonya asked.

  Aidan flushed and tightened his lips. “Just one of those things, you know.”

  She was afraid she did.

  “What’s your next move?” Aidan asked before Sonya could ask anything else.

  It was obvious that he didn’t want to talk about how he’d come by the new shiner. Sonya decided now wasn’t the time to press. Their relationship was shaky after last night. No sense in rocking the boat. “Set netting this afternoon, just like you.”

  “No, I meant what’s your next move with this Kendrick mess?”

  “That will depend on what the medical examiner finds, I guess.” She shrugged. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t let anyone know about Garrett and me. The less who know the easier, understand?”

  “Yeah, fishermen are already upset with you fishing both gear types. Add you being sweet on a fish cop and your name will be mud.”

  “Exactly.” She lowered her ball cap over her face to help with the rain.

  “You sure don’t like making it easy on yourself, do you?”

  She indicated his new shiner. “I could say the same about you.”


  Set netting that afternoon turned out to be a bust. Just as Sonya had predicted, the southeast wind had driven the salmon deeper into the bay and away from shore where the nets waited. The rain continued to fall, the wind to blow, and the temperature to drop. All in all, it was chalking up to be one miserable day.

  Sonya also felt the piercing looks and the whispered accusations from the other set netters when they passed by. It seemed like the bay hummed with rumors and speculation regarding her involvement in Kendrick’s death.

  She sat hunched into her raingear at the stern of the skiff, the boat bobbing in the choppy, gray water tied to the running line. Wes was in the bow, sitting much the way she was. Anything to lessen the rain pelting them.

  Peter was warm and dry aboard the Double Dippin’, anchored off the end of the running line’s buoy. Lana kept him company.

  There were no fish in the net to pick, as Sonya and Wes had just finished a wasted run-through. Now they sat and hoped that something fishy would swim into it.

  Sonya looked left at Aidan huddled down in his skiff. Farther up from him, on the Hartes’ other site, were Cranky and Crafty. The weather seemed to appeal to them. They were smoking cigarettes and sucking dry a cooler full of beers. A laugh would cackle over the water every now and then. Mostly they sat and waited for fish like the rest of them.

  “This is ridiculous.” Sonya stood. “Let’s tie up to the Double Dippin’ and get out of this rain. I’m cold to the bone.”

  Wes nodded. “I doubt we’ll catch any more fish freezing our digits off out here than sitting on the boat where it’s warm and dry.” He indicated Aidan. “You want to invite him?”

  She didn’t, but then felt like they’d come to an understanding, and Aidan wouldn’t see the overture as an invitation from her this time. “Aidan,” she hollered, cupping her hands around her mouth. His head snapped up at his name, like she’d woken him. How could anyone sleep in this weather? “Want to join us aboard the Double Dippin’?”

  He nodded and started his engine. Sonya did the same. The sooner she was out of this wet, miserable weather the better. Someday she needed to fish on an ocean where she could wear a bikini and actually get a tan.

  They met at the drift boat. Sonya left the men to tie the skiffs to the painter’s line, so they could drift behind. She stepped up to the pilot house and called Peter’s name. She heard some muffled cursing and entered the small room to find Peter and Lana struggling into their clothes. “Whoa.”

  “It’s not what it looks like.” Peter pulled his sweatshirt over his head, his face popping up out of the hole.

  “It looks as if you two were fooling around.” Sonya glanced at Lana. Her shirt was inside out and the blush on her skin rivaled the pink of her shirt. “Better fix your top, Aidan’s right behind me.”

  “Oh, no! He can’t find me like this. If he tells my dad, I’m dead.”

  Letting Crafty know what his daughter had been up to with Peter aboard the Double Dippin’ went against Sonya’s survival instincts too. “Down to the bunks,” Sonya said, pointing to the ladder that led below. “He can assume you had to use the head.” She heard Aidan and Wes on the steps outside the pilot house. “Hurry.”

  Lana gave her a grateful look and scrambled down the ladder. Sonya glared at Peter. “How long has this been going on?”

  Peter was saved from answering when the door slid open and Wes and Aidan filled the room. Sonya sent Peter a look that clearly said their conversation wasn’t over.

  “Where’s Lana?” Aidan glanced around for his cousin, as he unsnapped his rain jacket.

  “Down here,” came Lana’s muffled reply. “I’ll be up in a minute.”

  “Why don’t I make some hot chocolate?” Sonya suggested hoping to cover any questions Aidan might pose over Lana’s whereabouts.

  “I’ll get out the cookies.” Peter grabbed a bag of Nutty Butters, obviously thinking along the same lines as Sonya.

  “How about I break out the cards?” Wes hung up his raingear on the hooks by the door next to the others, and rubbed his hands together.

  “As long as we aren’t betting with money this time,” Aidan said. “I’m still trying to recover from the last time you cleaned out my pockets.”

  Lana joined them and Sonya was glad to see her clothing in the right place and her blushing under control. She helped Sonya fix instant hot chocolate for everyone. Cards were dealt around the bunk, Aidan and Wes at opposite ends. Sonya took the captain’s chair, which left Lana and Peter to pull out the bench from under the bunk. It was more than cozy in the small room, and it didn’t take long for the windows to fog with condensation. Sonya found herself laughing for the first time in a long time. This was another thing she enjoyed about fishing. The camaraderie between friends. Downtime filled with conversation and the occasional game of Rummy.

  “I’m out.” Wes laid down his hand, much to the good-natured complaints of the others. Points were counted up, and more groans were given as Wes took the lead.

  The cards were handed to Aidan for his turn to deal. “So what’s everyone planning to buy after the season?” This was another game they hadn’t played yet this year. Hearing what everyone dreamed of buying with their percentage of the season’s take.

  “A new laptop for me.” Lana picked up her cards and stacked all the high cards to the left like she always did. She really needed to mix it up, especially playing with Wes who had an eye for such tells.

  “I’m hoping I make enough to buy this sweet motorcycle a friend of mine has for sale,” Peter said, a dreamy look on his face as he gazed at Lana.

  “The one that he wrecked last fall?” Sonya asked. A motorcycle? What about tuition, books?

  “He fixed it up and promised me a good deal. Don’t worry, Ducky, I know what I’m doing.”

  The hell he did. He was thinking like a teenager after a thrill, not a responsible adult with college on the horizon. The way he was puppy-worshipping Lana, Sonya knew he had visions of the girl wrapped around him as he drove her to some secluded place where they could be alone.

  “What about you, Sonya?” Aidan changed the subject, obviously realizing Sonya was ready to go all parent-like on Peter’s behind.

  “What about me?” she asked, looking at her cards but not really seeing them.

  “What great plans do you have this year? It will be hard to top last year, since you did go out and buy a drift boat.”

  What did she hope to buy with her money? If she actually made any. “I haven’t really thought about it.” Except to wait and see if she were pregnant. Then she’d need every cent she could scrape together.

  “Ah, come on. There has to be something you’ve been wanting?” Aidan pressed, laying down three jacks and ruining the straight she had going.

  “Actually, what I would love right now is a pint of Haagen-Dazs black raspberry chip ice cream,” she finally said.

  “Ice cream? You are my kind of woman.” An uncomfortable pause followed Aidan’s slip.

  “Just so you know, if I had a pint I wouldn’t share one bite of it,” Sonya added and was glad when a few laughs followed her words. The afternoon had been going along fine and she’d felt like she and Aidan were on better footing. His gaze toward her now was bittersweet, but he smiled as though he was grateful for her dispelling the tension. Sonya realized then that even though they were no longer together, not losing the friends and family connection was just as important to Aidan.

  “Well, I plan on buying a cherry red ’67 mustang,” Wes said, closing his eyes and humming. “Man, that is one sweet ride.”

  “You and the cars,” Peter said. “Don’t you already own, like, five?”

  “Your point?” Wes asked in all seriousness, which had everyone chuckling.

  “How about you, Aidan?” Sonya asked. “What grand plans do you have this year?”

  “A house.” His smile was wistful. “I’ve always wanted a real home, and I hope this year, with what I’ve been saving, I’ll have e
nough for a down payment.” His eyes met hers again but then they dropped to the cards he held in his hands.

  Sonya knew Aidan’s greatest wish was to have a family of his own, and she felt a twinge of sadness she couldn’t help provide that for him. He really was a good man and someday, if he continued to work on his issues, he’d be a great one.

  “Well, would you look at the grown up?” Peter said. “You live in downtown Seattle, right in the heart of the city. Why would you want to trade that for mowing a yard, fixing a sink?”

  “Because it would be mine. A place to raise a family. All the things that make life worth living.” He looked at Peter. “Someday you’ll realize that.”

  “Hopefully not any day soon. I’d like to play a bit before I’m saddled with all that responsibility.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Lana said, picking up a card, shuffling it to the left and then discarding a four from the right of her hand. “A man who’s looking to make a life with someone is real attractive.”

  Peter seemed to sit a little straighter at her words, though Sonya doubted he totally got their meaning. He picked up a card and laid down three sevens, leaving him with only two cards in his hand. “There’s plenty of time for that stuff.”

  Sonya glared at the hand she’d been dealt. She had nothing. “Time flies faster than you think, wolf man.”

  It was Wes’s turn. He laid down three aces and discarded out, winning another hand. How did he do it?

  “Sorry folks.” His smile clearly said he wasn’t.

  “Ah, man. Not again.” Peter tossed his remaining cards down on the bunk.

  “I’m just glad we aren’t playing for money.” Aidan started counting up the points left in his hand, but then paused, and cocked his ear to the side. “Sonya, I think you’re about to have company.”

  “Double Dippin’ prepare to be boarded.”