Page 145 of At First Catch

The marina feels alive now in a way I could only have imagined when I first bought the place, half destroyed and drowning in storm damage.

I should feel nothing but satisfaction.

This is what I worked for.

What I gambled everything to build.

Yet the accomplishment feels secondary tonight because every good thing that happened this weekend came with Hadley standing beside me.

Celebrating.

Laughing.

Talking to visitors as though she’d been part of the marina from the beginning.

Existing in my space as if she belongs here.

“You hiding from people?”

I turn. Hadley walks toward me along the dock carrying two beers while the last of the sunset spills gold across the water behind her.

There she is again. The center of every thought I’ve had for weeks. The woman I love.

“I’m supervising the marina,” I tell her.

I gesture toward the docks.

“Somebody has to make sure Walter isn’t reorganizing my lumber again.”

She smiles.

“Did he?”

“By color.”

“That sounds helpful.”

“It absolutely wasn’t.”

She snorts and hands me a beer. “Very important work.”

“Critically important.”

She settles beside me against the railing while the bay stretches dark and endless around us.

For several minutes, neither of us speaks.

We stand shoulder to shoulder, watching boats shift against their slips as the marina lights reflect across the water.

The silence feels intimate. I never knew love could feel this calm.

Hadley nudges her shoulder against mine. “You disappeared earlier.”

There’s no accusation in her voice.

Only concern.

She is always concerned about me, even when she doesn’t make a production out of it.