The Reef

an arm over her shoulders.
    “It feels good.” Tate lifted her face to the wind that rushed through the partially open windows of the bridge. “I guess I’ve been a passenger too long.”
    “Sometimes your mother and I will hop aboard and sail to nowhere for a day or two. I’ve enjoyed that.” Eyes on the horizon, he sighed deeply. “But it sure feels good to be sailing to somewhere. I’ve been wanting this for a long time.”
    “I guess I thought you’d put the Isabella, and all of it, pretty much behind you. I didn’t realize how much you still wanted her.”
    “I didn’t either, really.” Out of habit, he checked the course. She, the boat and his daughter, was right on the mark. “After we lost the Marguerite, and you went off to college, I just drifted awhile. It seemed like the right thing to do. I felt so helpless about Buck. He and Matthew off in Chicago, and Buck just wouldn’t let me connect.”
    “I know that hurt you,” she murmured. “You’d gotten so close that summer.”
    “He lost a leg. I lost a friend. All of us lost a fortune. Neither Buck nor I handled it very well.”
    “You did the best you could,” Tate corrected. She had lost her heart, she thought, and she, too, had done the best she could.
    “I never knew what to say, or what to do. Sometimes I’d pop one of the videos your mother had taken during those months—watch and remember. It got easier to just drop a letter in the mail now and again. Matthew never let on how bad it was. We might never have found out if we hadn’t taken a trip to Florida and gone by the trailer.”
    He shook his head, remembering what a shock it had been to see his friend drunk, stumbling around a filthy trailer, surrounded by trash, covered in shame.
    “The boy should have told us what a bind he was in.”
    “Matthew?” She glanced back in surprise. “It sounds to me as if Buck was the one in trouble. Matthew should have stayed and taken care of him.”
    “If he’d stayed, he couldn’t have taken care of Buck. He had to work, Tate. Hell, money doesn’t just float in on the tide. It must have taken him years to pay off the medical bills. Fact is, I doubt he’s managed it yet.”
    “There are programs for people in Buck’s situation. Subsidies, assistance.”
    “Not for people like Matthew. He’d ask for a loan, but never a handout.”
    Disturbed by the idea, she frowned. “That’s stupid pride.”
    “Pride, anyway,” Ray agreed. “It was after I saw Buckagain that the Isabella started preying on my mind. I couldn’t shake it. All those what ifs. So I went back over my old research, started new.”
    He looked far out, toward something she couldn’t see. Or had forgotten to look for. “I guess I started thinking if I could find some new clue, it would be a way to pay Buck back for what he’d lost as my partner.”
    “Dad, that was no one’s fault.”
    “Not a matter of blame, honey. A matter of what’s right. It’s come full circle, Tate. Something tells me it was supposed to.” Shaking off the mood, he smiled down at her. “I know, it’s not logical.”
    “You don’t have to be logical.” She rose on her toes to kiss him. “I’ll take care of that part.”
    “And your mother’ll keep things shipshape.” Over the memories, the old excitement began to brew. “We make a good team, Tate.”
    “Always did.”
    “Mermaid off the port bow,” he murmured.
    So it was, Tate saw. She had to admit, it was a stunner of a boat. Those twin hulls cut through the water like diamonds through glass. Though the sun tossed light from the windows of the pilothouse, she could make out Matthew at the helm.
    He pulled alongside until there was barely ten feet between them. She saw him turn his head in her direction, and sensed his challenging grin.
    “Looks like he wants a race,” Ray said.
    “Oh, does he?” Planting her feet a bit farther apart, she gripped the throttle. “Well, we’ll just give him one.”
    “That’s my girl.” With a hoot, he raced from the bridge, calling for Marla.
    “Okay, Lassiter,” Tate muttered to herself. “You’re on.”
    She punched the throttle, turning the wheel to give him her wake. The thrill of the competition had her laughing out loud as she felt the power hum under her hands. The New Adventure wasn’t any Sunday crusier, and with the Atlantic spread before her, Tate let it have its head.
    At twelve knots, it was purring.
    It didn’t surprise her to see the Mermaid coming