Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

of yours.”
    Sonya sucked in a breath. She could have lost him. Tears she’d been keeping wrangled sprang free.
    Garrett came over to her. “It might look like a lot of damage, but once we get the mess cleaned up, it shouldn’t interfere with the running of your boat. Though you’ll want a welder to fill in these holes after the season.”
    She slapped his arm. “That isn’t it, you idiot. I don’t care about the boat, well I do, but Judd’s right.” She reached up and gently touched the side of his head where a white bandage covered his stitches. “You could have died.”
    “As could you.” The breath from his words caressed her face.
    She’d been strong for her family, but now she wanted his strong arms around her, his broad shoulders carrying the heavy burden of worry, while his body made her forget all that had happened here tonight.
    He stepped back from her, putting distance between them.
    She turned and pretended to assess the condition of the net while she corralled her scattered feelings. What was wrong with her? She wasn’t the weepy kind of woman who needed a man to help shoulder the load. Her emotions must be out of whack.
    Was she pregnant? That would account for the weepiness. She’d heard that pregnant women cried all the damn time. She did some calculations, trying to remember when her last period had started. Hell, she wasn’t even sure what day it was. With everything that had gone on this summer, how was she to keep track of it all?
    One thing at a time.
    The net. It would have to be laid out to assess the full damage, but it seemed to have fared pretty well considering. Singed in a few areas that they would have to mend, but it would fish the next opening. The worst of the damage—besides the embedded nails—were the broken windows. Out of the six in the pilot house, she was down to three. The front two windows remained, but one had a perfect spider web crack, which would make seeing out of it difficult if not impossible. The windows over the bunk, and to the side of the captain’s chair, were history. Cleaning up the boat would take the rest of the day. Somehow she’d need to find a way to cover up the windows without losing visibility.
    Sonya left Garrett and Judd on deck to take a look at the pilot house herself. She entered to find glass shards sprinkled like the devil’s confetti over everything. An ocean breeze teased through the broken windows as if finding amusement with her situation. There was lot of work to do before fishing this afternoon. First order of business was to locate a broom.
    Did she even own one? A punch of sadness caught and seized her breath.
    How did she deal with it all? Everything she’d thought she knew was wrong. Twisted.
    All these years, she’d blamed the wrong man. Had her family’s actions soured Chuck Kendrick into the ornery man he’d become? Had she been responsible, in part, for his death? The fight she’d started at the Pitt had been unfounded. She’d provoked a man who was innocent. Though innocent did seem the wrong word to describe Kendrick, but he surely wasn’t guilty of what she’d charged him with.
    Her family had fished next door to a killer all these years. Broke bread with him. Celebrated good seasons and bad, right alongside him.
    She’d made love to his son, and would probably have married him if Aidan hadn’t shown her a side of himself that she couldn’t live with. Earl would have been her father-in-law, grandfather to her children. She shuddered.
    “Don’t think about it,” Garrett said. She hadn’t heard him come up behind her. Hadn’t realized how long she’d stood there staring at the destruction. “Just focus on the job at hand, and we’ll get through this.”
    “Can I start cleaning up now?”
    “Let Judd get some snapshots, and then we’ll clean up.”
    Her gaze flicked to his. “Aren’t you leaving with Judd?”
    “No. You’re stuck with me until Roland’s found.”
    “You’re staying?”
    His jaw tightened as though he was gearing for an argument. “Yes.”
    “Good.”
    His eyes narrowed. “You aren’t going to fight me on this?”
    “No. I’m too tired and right now, you aren’t much of a competitor. Besides, with everything—” she shrugged “—I’d rather not be alone.”

    Judd showed and shooed them out of the pilot house so he could snap a photo spread. Then he was gone, along with the Calypso , leaving Garrett and Sonya alone.
    “I need to find a broom,” she