Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

“Life is Simple—Eat, Sleep, Fish.” It would be nice if life were that easy.
    She gave him a once over, scowled at his uniform and then went back to filling her hand-held basket, doing her best to ignore him. “Tell you what?”
    “You know what I’m talking about.” She added a few packages of jerky and continued down the aisle like he hadn’t spoken. “The Mystic ,” he pressed.
    The pause in her step was the only indication that the subject rubbed at a tender spot. “I don’t like to talk about it.” Sonya turned the corner down the next aisle, trying her best to keep him behind her, and grabbed half a dozen Cup of Noodles off the shelf, adding them to her already hefty basket of easy-to-prepare foods.
    He reached for the basket.
    “What are you doing?” she asked in an angry whisper, holding tight to the handles. She glanced around at the almost empty store. “Would you leave me alone?”
    “No one is paying us any attention.”
    “Don’t kid yourself. Davida sees everything.”
    “What is she seeing here besides me asking you questions?”
    “You carry my basket and she’ll have us going steady.”
    He laughed, and she slapped his arm. “Stop that. You can’t look like you’re enjoying yourself with me.”
    “Believe me, I’m not.” He rubbed his arm as her frown furrowed deeper. He let her have possession of the basket. “Getting off the subject. If you don’t want to answer my questions here, then where?”
    “Hades?”
    “Now who’s being funny? You asked me to look into the sinking of the Mystic .”
    “I’m sure your fish cop buddies filled you in on what happened.”
    “I want to hear the statement from the only eyewitness.”
    She sucked in her breath and added three packages of Nutter Butters and an equal number of Chip Ahoy’s to her basket. “Fine.” She carried it to the counter.
    Davida looked Sonya over and then glanced at Garrett. “This all for you today, Sonya?”
    “Do you have any ice cream? I’ll even take vanilla, if you have it.”
    “Not going to happen, Sonya.” Davida shook her head, her spiky calico-colored hair not moving. “No matter how many times you ask. Might as well ask me for steak. That would be easier to come by.”
    “Ooh, a steak would do me a world of good.” At any moment Sonya was going to start salivating. “I’m so tired of eating fish. I don’t care what they cost. Add a few steaks to the order.”
    “I said steak would be easier to come by than ice cream, not that I could come by them.” Davida indicated Garrett with long French-manicured nails. The manicure seemed as out of place in South Naknek as a Starbucks. “If it’s red meat you’re after…” She let the sentence trail off into innuendo.
    Sonya scowled and did her best to pretend Garrett wasn’t standing next to her. “Just ring me up. Add a case of Mountain Dew, and I need two spark plugs for a 1985 two-stroke outboard engine.”
    “1985?” she repeated. “I’ll check, but I doubt I’ll have spark plugs for an engine that old.”
    “Is Nikolai making progress on the sunken engine?” Garrett asked, leaning on the counter. She’d be hard pressed to ignore him right in her line of vision.
    “Unfortunately. If Davida has the spark plugs, he thinks it will be fully resurrected.”
    “Your grandfather is one of a kind.”
    A grin softened her face. “Yes, he is.”
    “You’re in luck,” Davida said, returning from the back room with a dusty box of spark plugs. “Two, right?”
    “How many do you have in the box?”
    “Six.”
    “Give them all to me. It’ll save time if Gramps needs more, and he always seems to.”
    Davida began ringing up the items. She printed out the supply list and handed Sonya the charge slip to sign. While she boxed up the contents, she eyed Garrett. “I’m off at eight, if you want to pass that along to Judd.”
    “I’m sure he’ll be pleased to hear it,” Garrett said. Judd had been sulking around the boat like a puppy who’d lost his favorite chew toy.
    “You two have plans tonight?” Davida pried.
    “Yeah,” Sonya said. “I’ve laundry to finish before the opening. I’m sure Garrett has more fishermen to harass.”
    “Is that what he’s doing with you?” Davida asked. “Haven’t heard it called harassment before.”
    “There’s nothing going on between us.” Sonya waved her hand as though dismissing the possibility.
    “Riiight.” Davida gave them a knowing smile.
    “Seriously,” Sonya