Page 71 of Life, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness

“How about you, Gus? Will you give up your convenience store and gas station for the high life?” Merrill asked.

“Hell, no! I’ve had the high life, and it’s not what it’s cracked up to be. And I don’t care about having a big bank account, either. Had that, too. Time to concentrate on finding a good woman and settle down to raise some kiddies.”

He winked at Delilah.

To Merrill’s relief, she just laughed.

“Personally, if my itty-bitty share is enough, my dream is to just finish fixing up the diner and motel and try raising my daughter in a safe, peaceful place.”

“Did I mention . . .” Gus waved his hand at Delilah.

“Shut up, Goose,” Merrill said, and didn’t care if it revealed his feelings for Delilah.

The others laughed, thus proving his theory that he and Delilah weren’t fooling anyone by their discreet actions aboard the ship.

“Personally, I don’t have any dreams at all. How sad is that?” K-4 said.

Everyone knew by now that K-4’s wife had died of cancer some years ago, and he still hadn’t recovered from his grief.

“And how about you, Charlie?” Merrill asked. “Guess we know what you’ll do with your share.”

She nodded. “My family is gonna be back in the commercial fishing business. Any money left over will go to my sister Ann Marie who wants to be a doctor.”

“By the way, Charlie, I was talking yesterday to my housemate, Janice Franklin. She works in the marina office in Hatteras, and she mentioned a yacht that pulled in a few days ago. Name of the yacht was Sweet Charlotte. The owner was asking how to get to Bell Cove.”

Charlie’s face turned pink.

“Jan said that this guy looked like a cross between Matthew McConaughey and Chris Hemsworth. I think his name is . . .”

“J. L. Landry,” Charlie finished for her with an exhale of disgust. “I told the fool that I’d shoot him in the nuts if he followed me.”

They all gave Charlie a second look then to see what a cross between McConaughey and Hemsworth would see in their Charlie. But then, Merrill noticed that the woman was looking surprisingly pretty tonight. Her cap must have fallen off in the process of their drinking toasts, and she had a mass of brown waves spilling over her shoulders and back. Her eyes were dark and sultry under the influence of alcohol. Hard to tell what her figure was like in her usual overalls and T-shirt, but he was beginning to suspect they had a Cajun hottie on their hands and never realized it.

“Okay, here’s the deal,” he told the group, before they got wasted and were unable to carry out their duties. “Someone needs to be up topside all night, keeping guard. I’ll take the first watch, until eleven. At two-hour intervals, we should probably change off. How about you taking over from me, K-4, and then Gus or Famosa can come on at one and three?”

“Is it really necessary?” Delilah asked. “I mean, really? Pirates?”

“Oh, yeah!” everyone else said.

“And we will have to take the boat in to refuel and flush out soon,” Charlie pointed out. “That’s when we’ll be most vulnerable. Try as we might, word might get out, and the site will be flooded with pirates, news media, spectators.”

“Too bad we can’t have your friend with the yacht come park over our site,” Merrill said, in jest. “Now that would be some security!”

“Yeah, but what would I have to promise in return for the favor?” Charlie scoffed, taking his suggestion seriously.

“On your back, in the sack, would be my guess,” Famosa said.

Instead of being offended, Charlie replied, “On my back, in the sack, with a ring on my finger.”

Again, everyone looked at Charlie with speculation. McConaughey-Hemsworh was looking for her, not only to rescue her from her money problems, not only to get her into his bed, but he wanted to marry her, as well.

Well, well, well.

“By the way, folks, don’t go on a spending spree anytime soon,” Merrill warned. “It will probably be months before we see any cash from this operation.”

“Plus, it will alert the busybodies in town,” Gus pointed out. “Not to mention the press.”

“Right,” Merrill concurred, and the others nodded in agreement.