Page 22 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

But then he considered the prize. Delilah. Definitely a pain in the ass. Definitely worth the pain.

Unless the question he needed to ask her brought an answer he couldn’t live with. Then she would be out of his crosshairs faster than he could say adultery.

He couldn’t wait any longer. Once they hit the deck, he asked, “Are you married?”

“What? Where did that come from?”

“I heard this morning that you have a child.”

“And?”

“It takes two people to make a baby . . . usually.”

“But not two married people.”

“Which means . . . ?”

“Yes, I have a child, an almost-five-year-old daughter, who will be moving here later this summer. But there is no husband, never has been. You have a problem with that?”

“Not a bit.” He was practically doing a Snoopy dance in his head.

“You’re grinning again,” she pointed out.

No fuck!

He didn’t take much time showing her around up top, knowing she wouldn’t be interested in the actual salvage equipment, especially when she observed, “It’s not very pretty.”

“I told you it was no yacht.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t say it was a rust bucket.”

“Hey, this ‘rust bucket’ has all the bells and whistles needed for a salvage operation.”

“In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover?”

Or a person by her sexual history? Which he wasn’t about to ask out loud. Instead, he chose the safer: “Or a boat by its rusty patches.”

“Right. I’ve become an expert on rust, y’know, refinishing that diner of mine. Maybe in my spare time, I could work on prettying up Sweet Bells.”

I have other plans for your spare time, baby. “Go for it,” he said. “I’d love to see you hanging over the side on a rope scaffolding.”

“Maybe not.” She laughed. “I was just kidding, anyhow. About how the boat . . . ship . . . whatever . . . looks. What I know about water-going vessels of any kind, including a rowboat, wouldn’t fit in a thimble.”

“What’s a thimble?”

“Seriously?”

He grinned. Some more.

Going down the narrow staircase of the hatch to the cabin, he waited for her to follow and then showed her the salon, a large rectangular room with wide, cushioned window seats that provided storage and could serve as beds in a pinch. A long counter with four high stools screwed to the floor divided the lounge area from the kitchen. Off to the right was a dining table, also attached to the floor, with benches.

Delilah immediately went to the kitchen and began opening cabinet doors and peering into the stainless steel range and fridge, both of which were commercial size.

“You can see that I bought basic, nonperishable food supplies, figuring I would get the fresh stuff as late as possible. I assumed that all of us team members would share cooking duties, which probably would have been a disaster. So, your offer to cook really was opportune.”

She just grunted as she continued to examine the goods on hand.

“If you need extra fridge space, there’s a unit off the engine room, intended for fish, but I guess it would serve any purpose.”