by Chris Niles
Yes, this was a man worth letting in.
But the smile faded from her face as the Irishman leaned forward and whispered, “But you know this isn’t over, don’t you?”
Chapter Forty-Seven
Kate shifted in her nest of pillows and reached for the crutches that leaned against the side of the table.
“Oh, no, you don’t. Where do you want to go?” Tony hopped to his feet with annoying speed.
“I want to go to the bathroom. And while you can carry me there in the privacy of my home, this is a public restroom where women don’t look too kindly on men hanging around waiting for their invalid women to pee.”
Tony grinned as he lifted her from the chair. “You just admitted you’re my woman. I’ll take that.” He cradled her in his arms, and squatted so she could grab the crutches. “I’ll carry you as far as the door, then let you take it from there. Let’s call it a test.”
The test was a qualified success. The crutches hurt a little more than Kate wanted them to, but not so much that she had to call for help. And the more she used them, the better it felt. Three days ago, she could barely sit up on her own. So, this was progress that she’d take.
With Whiskey inching along beside her for every painful step, she crutched to the edge of the deck and glanced across the parking lot. At the head of the lane, Eddie and Colton were tossing a football back and forth with Shelby. Slothie lay in a heap in the grass.
“I’m glad they’re getting some time together. Colton is going to miss him when they go.”
“Yeah, he will. But he’s used to people coming and going. He’ll be okay.”
“Keane said they were leaving first thing tomorrow.”
Tony lightly supported her elbow to steady her. “That’s the plan.”
“Where are they headed?”
“No clue. Keane won’t tell anyone. But Babette tucked a tracker into Slothie when she stitched him up. Michelle is testing a new integration with her app. We can keep an eye on them, and Eddie will never lose that thing again.”
Kate giggled as she settled back into her throne at the head of the table. “Stalker.” She waved toward the little group. “Go play. I’m fine here.”
He handed her a paperback, then trotted down the steps with Whiskey right behind him. “I’m still in shouting distance. Holler before you try to go anywhere.”
As he meandered across the lot and Kate settled back into the Adirondack, Babette set a basket of grouper bites on the chair’s wide arm and planted a bottle of island tartar beside it. “Lunchtime.”
Kate popped a hot, crispy bite of fish into her mouth, then groaned.
“Thanks. I haven’t figured out how to carry stuff yet.” Kate tapped the top of a crutch.
“Don’t fret. You’ll be back to gettin’ around on your own before you know it.”
Babette spoke from experience. She’d had her own brush with incapacitation almost a year before when she’d been stabbed by a thug working for the developer who’d tried to steal Shark Key out from under all of them. “Until then, enjoy this royal treatment. It won’t last!”
“I don’t expect it to. I don’t even want it to. It’s hard letting everyone do everything for me.”
“I know, hon. But after what you’ve done for all of us, it’s our pleasure. It’s how family works.”
“Sure, sure. One Human Family.” Kate nodded toward the bumper sticker tacked up behind the bar. No matter how different everyone was, they’re all still family. And family watches out for each other.
Babette picked up Kate’s plastic cup. “Let me get you another refill. Every trip to the head is a chance for more physical therapy.”
“Thanks. It seems like every time I get up, it gets a little easier.”
At the east side of the deck, Keane followed Steve up from the docks, his arms piled high with boxes and a bright orange extension cord trailing along behind him like a long tail. The two men pulled bundle after bundle of outdoor lights and began to untangle and test each string.
“Thanks for inviting me to join in, after everything…” Keane plugged another string of lights in then watched the white bulbs blink.
Steve smiled. “I think the parade is exactly what we all need right now.”
“Ho ho ho!”
They all spun around toward the bar to see Chuck toddling out wearing bright red board shorts, a white tank, and a fuzzy red and white Santa hat. Over his shoulder dangled a fuzzy red jacket with white lapels and a glossy black belt.
“Justin got that tree set up yet?” Chuck slipped his arms into the jacket and buckled it just as a clatter arose from the parking lot.
“Santa!” Eddie shouted, climbing from the fallen bicycle and running toward the deck with Shelby chasing behind him.
Chuck winked at Shelby, pulled off the hat, then crouched to catch Eddie as he barreled up the steps, dragging Slothie by the arm. Eddie reached up and touched the short, thick, salt-and-pepper beard Chuck had been growing back for the past week. It was more salt than pepper. The boy’s double take broke Kate’s heart. “Chuck?”
But Chuck winked again at Eddie. “You caught me, buddy! Santa isn’t a big fan of the heat down here. He can handle it in December, but he asked me to fill in for him while he keeps all the elves on task in the workshop. He’s got a lot of good boys and girls to bring toys for this year.”
Eddie looked down at Slothie lying at his feet. “I haven’t been good this year. He’s not gonna come for me, is he?”
Chuck lifted the boy’s chin and stared straight into his eyes. “He can. But that’s up to you. Do you believe in him?”
Eddie’s hair bounced as his head nodded up and down.
“And are you sorry for when you disobeyed your mom?”
He turned to look at his mom, his little eyes serious. “I’m sorry for being bad, Mom. I’ll try to be better.”
Shelby crouched down beside them. “Oh, baby, you’re not bad. You’re perfect. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes. You just need to tell an adult the truth. help to make it right, and try not to make the same mistake again, okay?”
“But what if I make another mistake? Will Santa give up on me?”
She pulled Eddie into her arms. “No, baby. Santa never gives up on us.”
Eddie peeked over her shoulder at Chuck as he pulled the hat down over his forehead and winked, then he stood and shuffled down toward his boat.
Chapter Forty-Eight
At five o’clock, Kate felt strong enough to crutch down to the docks and climb aboard Tim’s boat by herself. She settled into a lounge chair in the cockpit, and Whiskey leapt over the gunwale and curled into a ball on the deck beside her.
Steve and Tim had spent their whole afternoon stringing lights around the rails of Tim’s cruiser and Chuck’s Boston Whaler. William had pitched in to help, stringing the Hopper Too with lights, garlands, and a huge twinkling wreath, and then decorating the Hopper’s flying bridge as Santa’s sleigh.
Tony perched on a fish box beside her as Tim eased his boat away from the dock then idled in a slow circle out in the channel. William and Michelle rounded the northern point in Chuck’s Whaler, then Steve pulled past them both to take the lead in the Hopper Too, with Santa Chuck waving from his sleigh with the two boys beside him.
As they motored slowly north then eased around west toward town, more boats joined the tail of the caravan. By the time they rounded Fleming Key with the sky glowing orange and purple, the parade was thirty boats long.
The radio crackled, then Steve’s voice boomed through the speakers. “Lights on!”
Tim Keane grinned as he flicked a switch and a thousand twinkling lights burst to life along the rails of his cabin cruiser. Tony helped Kate to her feet, and she leaned over the port gunwale to admire the lights blinking to life in the dusk.
They eased south down the channel toward Key West Bight as the sun set, passing a packed Mallory Square to cheers and whoops from the crowd.
By the time the caravan e
ased north into the channel and motored toward the Shark Key bridge, the line of decorated boats stretched behind them as far as Kate could see.
Tony pointed up at the crowd lining both sides of the bridge. “Didn’t know Christmas in July was such a big deal.”
Kate grinned. “Every holiday is a big deal to Chuck, even the ones he’s manufactured himself. It’s mostly locals down here this time of year, and since so many of them end up working through the actual Christmas holidays to cater to the tourists, he thought it would be fun to give them a little celebration.”
“Little?”
“Well, I guess it’s grown a bit over the years. Just wait ’til you see what Babette and Kara’ve got waiting for us when we get home.” Kate shifted in her seat. A twinge in her side reminded her of her injuries, but the combination of the ibuprofen and excitement kept the pain at bay. She swung her feet around and pulled herself up on her crutches.
“Kate, wait,” Tony pleaded. “You need to sit. Rest. Let your body heal.”
“That’s what I’ve been doing for days now, but moving actually helps me feel better.” She ignored the dull pinch in her ribs. “I can’t just sit around for weeks waiting to feel perfect.”
She carefully crutched aft then leaned against the transom. “Look.” She pointed at the thick milky band streaking through the pitch black sky, stretching as far as infinity, then ending in a sharp line that marked the horizon. To the north, clouds broke up the view of the galaxy, and beneath the clouds, lights from houses and cars twinkled in bursts along the shore, but above the boat’s wake, the black of the sea stretched to the edge of the earth, then exploded in a billion tiny pinpricks of stars. Kate stared into the expanse.
“They call space a void, but look at that. It’s empty, yet it’s bursting with light. It’s a vacuum, yet everything is weightless. Timeless.” She turned to Tony. “You know, when we were kids, space was magical. Astronauts were heroes and kids aspired to travel into space. To explore the unknown. Now? They want to be rappers and NBA stars. What do you think life is going to be for kids like Eddie and Colton when they grow up? Where’s the wonder? Where’s the adventure? What’s our version of the moonshot?”
Tony traced a finger across the goosebumps forming on her bare arm in the cool night breeze, then stretched his warm arm gently around her shoulders. “I’m not worried about Eddie and Colton. Those boys play pirate with driftwood swords, and they have a host of grownups showing them they can be whatever they can dream. I’m worried about the kids who never get to see places like this. Kids who stay locked up in their rooms and only experience the world through a video screen with a game controller in their hand.”
“What did you want to be when you were a kid?”
Tony gazed across the dark ocean, his eyes soft. “I pretty much always wanted to be a sailor. After my dad…” He cleared his throat. “Growing up on the bayou, I knew I wasn’t cut out for land. In a lot of ways, my childhood was like Chuck’s. Fishing, diggin’ in the mud, catching crawdads. I guess if I hadn’t joined the Navy, I might have been a shrimper. But I never really thought of much else.”
“And what about now? You’ve still got your whole life ahead of you.”
He gently squeezed her shoulder and kissed her forehead as the boat slowed then idled under the Shark Key bridge. “I dunno. I’m kind of enjoying being a beach bum.”
Kate closed her eyes, wrapped in his warmth shielding her from the cool breeze until a low growl then a splash jolted her back to the night. She spun around to see Whiskey swimming toward the eastern shore of the Key.
Through a break in the hedge, she spotted a flickering glow and beyond it, the lights of a pickup truck.
“Tony, that’s your kayak, isn’t it?” Near the shore, a shredded plastic shell bobbed on the wake from the incoming boats.
“Dammit.” He turned up to the bridge. “Keane, pull into that first dock there. Hurry.”
As the cruiser approached a small wooden dock, Kate saw flames licking up through the hedge and heard Whiskey’s deep snarls. Tony climbed up on the gunwale and looked down at Kate. “Call 9-1-1. And stay with Keane.” He leapt onto the dock then sprinted through the hedge.
Keane slammed the boat in reverse, spun it around, then raced up to the main dock while Kate fished her phone from her pocket.
An hour later, the firemen packed their hoses back into the truck and left Kate and Tony standing beside the burned-out shell of his Airstream. A police cruiser blocked the lane, its red-and-blue lights flashing with rhythmic soft clicks in the darkness. In its backseat, Colton’s father Corey sat with his hands cuffed behind his back.
The deputies had dispersed the crowd that had formed, and Kate could hear faint music up on the deck where Chuck was trying to rescue his celebration. At least fifty boats and their passengers had tied up at Shark Key for the party, and Chuck wasn’t about to let them down.
The deputy shook Tony’s hand. “I’m sorry about your trailer, man. You have insurance?”
Tony shook his head. “Nah. But it’s okay. I hadn’t gotten too far on the restoration. It’s just a few tools, a sleeping bag, and a microwave. Nothin’ I can’t replace.”
“Got a place to stay?”
Tony’s gaze landed on Kate, then quickly dropped to the ground before he looked up at the cop. “Plenty of empty spots around here this time of year. I’ll be fine ’til I can get her replaced.”
As the emergency vehicles crept down the lane and the sheriff hauled Corey away, Tony helped Kate onto the little green golf cart. “Let’s see if we can salvage Chuck’s Christmas.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Whiskey followed on Kate’s heels as she and Tony climbed the three steps up to the restaurant deck, and their friends immediately crowded around them.
“Guys, guys, hang on. Tony needs a drink.” Kate swept a path with her crutches, her friends stepping out of her way and clearing a path to the bar. Chuck gave up his barstool, and Kate gingerly climbed onto it, then leaned her crutches against the rail.
She ordered a cranberry and soda. Justin poured the spritzer into a plastic cup, garnished it with a slice of candied orange and a cinnamon stick, pushed it toward her with a wink, then pulled a pint of beer for Tony. He let the foam slide down the side of the glass onto a thin white cocktail napkin.
Chuck shook his head as Tony chugged half the beer, then leaned against the bar and sighed. He reached down and scratched Whiskey behind the ears. The dog stretched his nose as high into the air as his neck would allow, and Kate could have sworn the beast was grinning.
“He looks pretty proud of himself.”
Tony grinned. “He should be. If it wasn’t for him, that bastard’d still be wreaking havoc. By the time I got over there, Whiskey had the guy pinned against the hedge by his arm. Dog’s jaws are tighter than a vise! I didn’t have to do a thing but wait for the fire truck.” He squatted down and ruffled the dog’s fur. “Who’s a good boy? Yeah, you’re the good boy.” Tony grabbed a French fry from a basket on the bar then gave it to Whiskey, who snarfed it then stared up expectantly.
Jodi joined the group and nudged her way to Tony’s side. “I’m sorry. I feel like it’s my fault.”
Tony’s eyes grew soft. “It’s not your fault at all. You are not responsible for his bad actions. I’m just glad he came after me and not you or Colton.”
Kate looked across the deck to where the two boys were darting around tables and in and out of breaks in the hedge, chasing each other with toy space blasters that had been from Santa Chuck. They raced across the stage, nearly tripping guitarist Branson Tillman as he played Christmas songs with a tropical flair, then slamming into Kara, who was dressed as Sexy Mrs. Claus. She deftly kept her tray of drinks aloft, then crouched in front of the boys. “Run and play all you want, just do it where you’re not likely to get a tray of drinks dropped on your heads, okay?”
The boys raced off to the docks.
Shelby slid up to the bar, wrapping her arm o
ver Jodi’s shoulders. “You and I have a lot to be thankful for, kiddo.”
Justin popped over to the group and began to refill their drinks. “Hey, did you see that gorgeous yellow go-fast tied up on the east dock? Was it in the parade?”
Steve swooned. “I did, and it was… but it was near the end, so I didn’t see her ’til long after we were docked.”
Justin winked at him, “And did you see the beauty piloting her?”
Steve shook his head. “And the hulk who was with her. You better keep your eyes on your own paper, kid.”
“Can’t hurt to admire, can it?”
Chuck rolled his eyes. “For someone who thinks he’s a grown man, you got a lot to learn, Justin.”
Justin whirled, his dreads flying out like a debutante’s skirts, and began making drinks for a group of fishermen at the end of the bar. As he passed their orders across the rail, Kate heard a loud roar from the east dock. Justin’s eyes flared, and she could tell he desperately wanted to go admire the fast boat and its owner before they were both gone. But one glance from Steve kept him behind the crowded bar.
Over the next half hour, the crowd began to thin, and as boats left the dock and cars left the lot, Shark Key Campground and Marina settled back into a more normal off-season murmur.
Sitting on the stool beside Kate, Shelby sat up and looked around, her brow furrowed. She turned to Jodi. “Where are the boys?”
Jodi shrugged. “They were running all over the place with those guns. I’ll bet they ended up at Chuck’s. That’s where I always find Colton.” She waved Chuck over. “Are the boys at your house?”
Chuck’s head shook. “I don’t think so. I locked up because of the crowd and haven’t been back yet.”
Kate hopped down off the barstool, landing on one leg and sweeping her crutches under her arms. “Tony! Guys! We need to find the boys.”
