Two Captains, One Chair: An Alaskan Romantic Comedy

by Marlow, Shaye

  I put my fists on my hips.

  “Where do you keep the Band-Aids?” Ed asked, reminding me of my head wound.

  Oh god. Had it reopened? It had to be a real gusher if it had already soaked through my Band-Aid. Head wounds bled a lot, or so I’d heard. Was it actively seeping? My forehead did feel a little wet…

  “Medicine cabinet in the bathroom,” I said, my voice a little high. I leaned back against the counter as he moved away. I closed my eyes. I hated cutting myself, hated blood, hated wounds.

  I hadn’t looked at my forehead, even after I’d come home and gotten dressed. I’d combed my hair, but I had deliberately not looked in the mirror.

  Ugh, I’d tried to flirt with Ed with a big, fat Band-Aid on my forehead. I probably looked like the Alaskan Bush version of Frankenstein, except, of course, Alaskan Frankenstein would have been put together with duct tape and zip ties. Maybe I should have directed Ed to my duct tape drawer.

  “Suzy.”

  His warm voice came from directly in front of me, and I opened my eyes to find he was back. He was only a foot or two away, and I was struck again by how tall he was. He was also very solid, and incredibly present. If that made any sense.

  “You look kinda pale,” he said.

  He’d seen me at my most embarrassing moment—floating face-up in the river, after having fallen out of a boat. And now he knew about my handicap: I was a damn wuss.

  I straightened up, trying to will color into my face.

  “Here,” he said. His hands closed gently but firmly on my waist. I gasped and gripped his arms as he lifted me.

  He plunked me onto the counter, sliding his hands to my upper arms as he watched me closely. “Don’t think about it,” he said. “I’ll get you fixed right up.” He opened the box of bandages.

  My breath came faster as I clenched the edge of the counter.

  “Let’s distract you,” he said.

  Little did he know, he was distracting me just fine as his hip brushed my knee. He was very close, almost between my legs. His clean, woodsy scent wrapped around me, making me lightheaded for other reasons.

  “Tell me something,” he continued. He set a fresh pair of Band-Aids on the counter.

  Oh, geez, it was a two-bandage wound? Would it be cheesy of me to faint into his arms?

  I girded my loins. “Something?” I rasped.

  “Yeah. Anything. You’re up on neighborhood gossip, right? Anything interesting going on?”

  Helly and Gary are getting married! But I didn’t say it, because One: He hadn’t asked her yet, and Two: I had some modicum of self-control, dammit! Gary’d asked me not to tell.

  But Ed could be trusted. Probably…

  No! No, Suzy, tell him something else.

  “Um.” I gritted my teeth as he reached up and started peeling at the bandages on my forehead. “Shelly’s granddaughter made the honor roll,” I said.

  His hands paused, and he peered at me from under them. “Shelly’s got a granddaughter? On the honor roll?”

  I shrugged. “She said she started early.” He was confused because Shelly was in her late forties, and for her to have a granddaughter old enough to be on the honor roll… Well, I guess a lot of it depended on when her daughter procreated as well, but still.

  “Huh. What else?” he asked.

  “The Bransons are thinking about selling,” I said.

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. They’re looking at the possibility of starting a fishing charter in Mexico. Apparently, it’s ‘too cold here for their old bones’.”

  Ed chuckled, his eyes warming. “What are they, like fifty?”

  “Fifty-seven and fifty-nine, actually.”

  His smile widened. “Close your eyes,” he said.

  I shivered, resisted asking why, and closed them. I winced as the Band-Aid pulled away.

  “Can you do that with everyone on the river?” he asked.

  “Do what?” I peeped one eye open.

  “Tell me their exact age.”

  “Most,” I admitted. And birthdays. I tilted my head. “I don’t know yours, though.”

  “Would I be giving you another tidbit to add to the rumor mill?” he asked, his fingers gentle as he applied a fresh Band-Aid.

  I rolled my eyes. “Hardly. An underage abortion would be a tidbit. A gambling addiction. Your age is barely a blip on my radar. Besides, I’ll tell you what I tell all my friends. If you have something you don’t want repeated, just tell me that. Say, ‘Suzy, don’t tell anybody this, but…’”

  He grinned. “Suzy…”

  “Yes?” I couldn’t get enough of the way he was looking at me. I wanted to stay up here on this counter and bask in the warmth of that smile forever.

  “…don’t tell anybody this, but…”

  “Yes?” This was it, he was gonna tell me his secret. I sat forward, breathless.

  “I’m twenty-six.”

  “Oh.”

  He barked a laugh. My breath caught as he braced his knuckles on the countertop to either side of me. His eyes were dancing. “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  I straightened, wondering how long I’d been staring at him goggle-eyed. “Fine.”

  “Good.” He moved the couple feet over to the sink, and my propane heater kicked in as he turned on the hot water. He glanced back over at me and smiled. “We keep winding up in these positions…”

  I wiggled toward the edge of the counter, feeling a little guilty for sitting around while he worked.

  He reached out and touched my knee. “No, stay. I’m good here. Just sit and talk to me.”

  “Talk to you?” Was he for real? I don’t think I’d ever had a man say that to me. Especially not while he washed my dishes.

  “Yeah. Tell me something else.” He squirted some dish soap into the sink. “Tell me… is anyone on the river doing anything illegal?”

  “Ha! When are they not?”

  We lived in the middle of nowhere. The nearest police station was at least thirty miles away, and we had no road access. Basically, as long as you weren’t really blatant about it, in these parts, you could get away with murder.

  Most of us didn’t go around killing each other, but minor, more civil crimes were rampant. Cutting down a tree on state land. Building without a permit. Not registering your canoe with the State of Alaska. Driving without a seatbelt. Operating a boat while intoxicated. Fireworks, throughout most of the state. The list went on.

  “Well… The Aemons are growing pot.” They were selling it, too, but who cared, with marijuana now legalized in Alaska?

  Ed nodded, looking unsurprised. When had a man doing dishes gotten so sexy? I liked the way he had to stoop a bit to reach the bottom of the sink, the crisp roll of his sleeves. The towel on his shoulder. His forearms plunging down through the fluffy white bubbles.

  I watched his strong hands curve around a mug, trace a dish rag around it. His touch wasn’t delicate, nor too rough, but rather strong and sure and careful. When he slid three fingers inside, I pressed my knees together and looked back into his eyes.

  “The Talliverts are poaching fish,” I offered.

  He cocked a brow at me. “Oh?”

  “Yeah, their guides help their guests get several times their bag limit. I’ve sat up on my deck on several separate occasions, watching them fill up the boat. Sometimes they even dip them out with a net. I actually called Fish and Game on them once,” I mused.

  “You turned them in?” Ed asked, his eyes sharpening.

  “Well, yeah. Salmon numbers have been dwindling for years—there’s a reason there’s a bag limit!—and watching them blatantly break the law was pissing me off.”

  Ed grunted. “What happened?”

  “Fish and Game came out to check it out, didn’t catch them doing it, and instead, gave me a ticket for my dock.” Yet another thing Alaskans were doing illegally, most of them without even knowing it.

  “A ticket for your dock?”

  “Yeah. Apparently, you
need a permit to have a dock, even if it’s the size of a postage stamp, like mine. It’s a friggin’ farce, the legal system in this state. It’s actually the reason why I haven’t called the Troopers yet about my nugget.” Shit. I bit my tongue.

  There it was, that sharp look again. “Nugget?” he asked.

  Think fast! Ugh, my brain was drawing a blank. Shit, he’s still looking at me! “Uhhhh. Nothing?”

  The corner of his mouth kicked up, and he looked up at me through his lashes. It was a dark-eyed, smoldering look, one designed to make me tell him my secrets. Or at least, that’s the way it seemed. In that moment, I really, really wanted to.

  My gold nugget’s been stolen, I thought. I clamped my mouth shut.

  I turned a little red as the silence lengthened and Ed scrubbed, but his eyes were on me. You’d think, with all the talking I did, I’d develop a talent for lying. But I never had. Usually I just told the truth; I dished the dirt. Like right now; I was tempted to tell Ed he was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.

  Seriously, was there kitchen porn? Because I was into it, if it existed. Maybe next time I visited Helly, we could use her internet to find out. Except the men in anything we found wouldn’t be Ed.

  I frowned. Unless he was secretly a porn star. I looked him up and down, and decided it was possible. He was a fine specimen of a man, under his excess of clothing. The only thing that didn’t quite jive was the beard—unless it was seventies porn, of course.

  Damn Helly for showing me those videos. And damn me for having drank a bit and dredged up those memories.

  “Are you still hungry?” Ed asked.

  “No. Why?”

  “Because you’re looking at me like you looked at that peach crisp after you pulled it out of the oven.”

  Okay, yes, I’d been ogling him. Ogling him again. Was he weirded out by it? It didn’t seem so.

  No, he looked amused. And handsome. And handy.

  He glanced back at whatever he was scrubbing and my eyes caught on the clock over his head. It was 10:45, and I had to get up early tomorrow. We had to get up early, if he was still willing to help.

  “You still coming barging with me tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Yes.”

  “You don’t have to, but it would be a huge help.”

  “I’ll come,” he said, slanting a look at me.

  “It’ll be an extra-long day. I’ve gotta take a trip to Costco, and I’ve got four separate shopping lists. I wouldn’t normally ask you to come, but I’ve also got another load of diesel, and I need help with those drums.”

  “No problem. How would you feel about staying in town overnight?” Ed asked.

  “I… what?”

  “I inherited Dad’s house in Anchorage. I’ve got some errands to run in town, too. How about I help you with your Costco trip tomorrow, and instead of rushing back to the landing that evening, we just stay the night at my place? Come back in the morning.”

  I slipped instantly into furious-thinking mode. Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting? Me spend the night at his place, alone with him? Was he going to try something? Did I want him to? If I said yes now, would he take that as me saying yes to sex? Did I want to?

  Well, yes, but Ed still had secrets. I guess the better question was: Did I want him without full disclosure? Could I use his body the way I’d been planning on using the brothers’… or did I want more from him?

  Maybe he misinterpreted my speechless stare, because Ed laughed. “Suzy, I’ll help you. I’d love to help you. I’ll be here at six tomorrow morning, and we’ll go shopping. You can take as long as you need, and I’ll help you with the drums. We can come right back in, or we can stay overnight, your choice.”

  I eyed him. “I’d rather pick you up on the way in.”

  “That’s fine. Pick me up at my place, six a.m. I’ll be there with bells on,” he said, setting a baking dish on the rack to drain.

  A faint bit of brown marred the gleaming white ceramic, catching my eye. I leaned over his dishpan. “You missed a spot,” I said, tapping it with my nail.

  Silence greeted my declaration, so I turned my head.

  Ed was close. Very, very close. My knee had pressed against his hip when I moved. My breast was inches from his chest. His face was just above mine.

  I licked my lips as heat flared. Some of it was probably steam from the hot water beneath me, but the rest? An intense chemical reaction that was all Ed. His body called to mine.

  I curled my fingers in the front of his shirt, delighting in the texture of it, the firm chest underneath.

  He swallowed. The silence was so complete, I could hear the fine popping of soap bubbles. The catch of his breath as I leaned in.

  Eyes still open, I brushed my lips over his. They were as satiny soft as they looked.

  He didn’t run, so I did it again. More firmly.

  One of his hands pulled up out of the water. I could hear it dripping as he hesitated.

  I slid my other hand around his neck. Closed my eyes. Breathed him in.

  My body reacted, blood pounding, heat settling. My breasts tingled, and dampness gathered between my legs. I moaned softly against his mouth.

  Water splashed as his hands came up. They cradled my face, and suddenly he was kissing me back, angling our mouths to deepen the embrace. The Ed from my yard, from my kitchen this afternoon, the one that’d looked at me over that generator, was back.

  His tongue thrust in my mouth, and I found he tasted like peaches and cinnamon. Like lust and secrets.

  His hand slid down my hair. Dragged down my back.

  I tugged on his shirt. Dug my fingers into his skin. He was driving me out of my mind. My blood pounded through my veins, rushed…

  He pulled back slightly, gave me just enough room to murmur his name. The sound was broken, wanting. Then he was back, moving directly between my knees.

  I sucked his lower lip into my mouth, loved the sound of his groan as I bit lightly down. My thighs clasped around his hips, tugging. Willing him closer.

  I leaned into him, and the aching points of my nipples pressed against his chest. The feel of his hands on me, holding me, only made them harder.

  Our tongues tangled in a molten dance. Our panting breaths were harsh, erotic.

  An urgent, needy sound broke from my throat, and I rocked my hips toward his.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly, and for no good reason… he let me go. Ed stepped back.

  I almost fell off the counter.

  I tried to tug him back. He resisted.

  Then the phone rang.

  I stared into Ed’s eyes, befuddled.

  He stepped away to scoop my phone off the table. He handed it to me, and then side-stepped to plunge his hands back into the dishpan. I was suddenly jealous of my own dishes.

  I closed my eyes a moment, then clicked ‘accept’ and lifted the phone to my ear. “Yeah?”

  “Suzy.” The voice was crisp, authoritarian.

  My dad’s. And I could tell from that one word, he was angry.

  Shit. “Yes?” I said cautiously.

  “I’m going to have your friends arrested,” he said. His voice was quiet. It was never a good sign, my dad going quiet.

  “What? Why?” My fingers tightened on the phone. Which ones—though I had a damn good idea—and what had they done now?

  “They need to be taught a lesson. They can’t trespass and defile private property like they’ve been doing, and continue to get away with it. They’ve done it for the last time.”

  “What are you talking about?” I demanded.

  “As if you don’t know,” he mocked.

  “I don’t.” I slid down from the counter and started to pace.

  “Their nocturnal visits? Sex,” he said. “On my picnic tables. Ringing any bells?”

  “Oh.” Holy hell, had Helly and Gary just gone over there?

  “Yeah, ‘oh’. I’m tired of it. It’s disgusting. Filthy. Perverted.”

  I rolled my eyes
as he gave me a few more synonyms.

  “I don’t have proof,” he said. “But I will. You tell them: One more time, one wrong move, and I’m sending them straight to jail. It’ll be my pleasure.”

  My eyes met Ed’s. I wondered how much of this conversation he could hear. “Okay, dad. I’ll tell them.”

  “I’m not kidding, Suzy.”

  I sighed. “I didn’t think for a second that you were.”

  He didn’t say goodbye. No, he just sort of grunted, and the line went dead.

  I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it. Why couldn’t I have a normal dad? Like Helly’s dad, all laissez faire. Or Ed’s dad, lecherous, but otherwise a good guy. Hell, any dad. Any dad that didn’t cart around a chip on his shoulder the size of a Volkswagen, along with a bouquet of handcuffs. He had no sense of humor, and honestly, sometimes I wondered how I sprang from his loins.

  Ugh. I tossed my phone on the table.

  “I should be going,” Ed said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. That would probably be for the best, even though his kiss was still tingling on my lips.

  Chapter Eleven

  We arrived at Costco just a shade before noon. The barge trip to the landing had passed without incident, and the subsequent drive had given me lots of time to think.

  Ed had kissed me. I guess technically I’d kissed him, and he’d only kissed me back—both times—but I still couldn’t stop thinking about it. Last night, Ed had stopped before it could really go anywhere, but while it lasted, it’d been… amazing. Better than amazing. And it had left me wanting more.

  But Ed was hard to pin down. Something was holding him back, and I didn’t know what it was. His pursuing Helly in the past? Or maybe he really was a virgin—though I doubted a virgin’s eyes could hold as many dark promises as his had in my kitchen last night.

  As we crossed the parking lot to the main entrance, I dug the four shopping lists out of my purse. I may have been a barge captain, but I still had a pretty purse. I imagine I looked much more feminine than usual, as I’d also eschewed my overalls in favor of a pair of light brown corduroy pants and a slim, flowered T.

  “Who’re you shopping for?” Ed asked. He’d been on his best behavior this morning, sending me not so much as a steamy glance.