Amanda figured she’d better get what she could off of the Sea Bright while the getting was good, but didn’t really feel like she wanted Cordy to help her, just because she – and her father – might figure out just how much they were giving to her. Still, getting that stuff off the wreck was now her absolutely, far-and-away top priority!

As soon as she and Cordy were done looking at the wreck, Amanda went back to the Rag Doll, grabbed a bucket of tools and a couple empty buckets and headed back over to the wrecked boat. It turned out that she couldn’t get a lot right then, because most of the fittings were through-bolted to the deck, and bedded well there, too – sometimes it took a chisel to free them from the bedding compound even after the bolts were removed. But there was again the problem of being able to reach both ends of a bolt.

She worked until it was almost too dark to see, and only had a handful of fittings to show for it – but still hundreds of dollars worth. It was almost like a treasure hunt!

Mindful of alligators – although she hadn’t seen many around recently, thank goodness – she knocked it off while there was still some light back in the sky and carried her haul back over to the Rag Doll. It was clear she was going to need some help to finish the job. It would be nice if Ron and Shades could show up this weekend, although she knew they were still on that oil spill cleanup detail.

But as luck had it, Zack showed up the next day, a little unexpectedly since his schedule had been changed around. There was nothing like showing up when he was really needed!

Within minutes they backed her car as close as they dared to the wreck of the Sea Bright and started in earnest on the project. They didn’t have to be anything like as careful as they had been doing the same project on the Rag Doll, and Amanda decided right from the beginning she was not going to try to re-use the stainless steel bolts, so that simplified matters a lot. They even saved the backing plates from behind the fittings.

With the two of them working on it the process went quickly, even though getting into the wrecked and cluttered hull of the Sea Bright was something of an adventure in itself. But while she was there, Amanda saw a few other things inside that might be worth trying to salvage. There were even electronics there, a marine radio, a chart plotter, and other things of that nature. She reasoned it might not be worth the trouble of trying to save them after their bath in salt water and then sitting unprotected for a while, but there were other things that looked like they might be useful, like a marine head and holding tank.

By the end of the day they’d made three trips over to the storage shed with their take from the Sea Bright. The stuff included deck fittings, travelers, and other hardware like a pair of winches considerably superior to the ones she had on the Rag Doll. It also included the solar panels, the head, and a built-in propane gas stove, a propane and electric refrigerator she wasn’t sure would work, along with a lot of other odds and ends. It was clear that someday real soon she was going to have to sit down over at the storage shed and inventory what she had, since there was more than she could easily remember.

It would be likely that she’d still have to buy a few items, but only a few, and some would have to depend on testing items to see if they still worked, like the solar panels.

Solar panels had been on Amanda’s “nice to have, but not absolutely necessary” list right from the beginning. It would save a lot of running the engine generator to charge up the Rag Doll’s batteries to run things like lights, refrigeration, and electronics. They would make living on the boat away from a dock a lot simpler.

It would have been hard to say at that point, but Amanda suspected that she had salvaged at least five thousand dollars worth of stuff off the Sea Bright. She intended to poke around on the boat some more to see if there was anything else that would be worth the trouble. While she was at it, she intended to do a little more poking around in the other junk boats, just to see if there was anything else that might be useful.

There was still a lot she was going to have to buy to fit out the Rag Doll at one time or another, but the list had been cut way down. She still didn’t think she would be done with the boat this winter, but couldn’t see the job lasting through next winter, either.

It was getting pretty dark by the time they transferred the last load at the storage shed. “This has been quite a day,” she told Zack. “I mean, it’s been a real winner! I’d love to have a couple beers to celebrate, but I’m afraid I’m still a couple weeks from being able to go to a bar.”

“Too bad,” he smiled. “I’d love to take you out for dinner and a beer, but I guess we’ll have to put the beer off those couple weeks.”

“I can do that, I guess, but I can stand for just having dinner. We’ll make up for it after I have my birthday, and after Ron and Shades get back.”

“I doubt they’re going to be too much longer on that detail, at least from what I hear around the station. That is not the most fun job the Coast Guard has.”

“That’s what Ron tells me. I guess the guys who were working on the BP spill over in the Gulf a couple years ago really had to work their tails off.”

“That’s what I hear too, and I’m glad I missed it. Tell you what, let’s go have a good dinner since we can’t do beer.”

“Sounds like a winner to me. Let’s swing past the Rag Doll first, so I can wash my face, run a brush through my hair, and feed Beffy before we go.”

They wound up at a pretty good steak house for dinner. Amanda was still excited with the progress that had been made on the boat, and with good reason. They took their time eating, and then just sat around with extra cups of coffee after dinner. “You know,” Zack said over coffee, “I’m looking forward to you taking me out sailing on the Rag Doll. I’ve never been on a sailboat under way.”

“I’m sorry to say it probably won’t be this winter,” she told him. “There’s just too much left to do. I know we’ve talked about it before, but I’ll bet all this boating and sailing stuff seems a little strange to you after living in Kansas for so long.”

“Yeah, it does,” he admitted. “It’s pretty different, but I’d rather be here than back there.”

Maybe, just maybe, this was an opportunity to probe that unspoken part of his past, she thought, but she decided to do it a little obliquely. “Yeah, I was pretty happy to be out of high school, too. I don’t want to say I had a tough time, but it wasn’t teaching me much that contributed to what I wanted to do.”

“High school could have been a lot better,” he admitted, “but it wasn’t the big reason I wanted to be out of there. There were . . . well, let’s just say it’s better here than there. Did you ever think about joining the Coast Guard like Ron?”

“Not really,” she sighed, realizing that she wasn’t going to get anywhere along that line, considering the way he’d changed topics on her. “Like I’ve said, I knew I wanted to get into the family business. Oh, if the fishing were to collapse irretrievably in the next few years I might be tempted, but I doubt if that’s going to happen, at least anytime soon.”

“That’s something else I’ve never had any chance to do,” he shook his head. “I mean, fishing of any kind. All I know is that it involves rods and hooks. I don’t know if it would interest me, and if it did I wouldn’t know how to get started.”

“Guess you’d just have to find someone to show you,” she told him, deciding to drop pressing him about his past, at least for this evening. Somehow, she had the feeling it was something she didn’t really want to hear this evening anyway. “To tell you the truth, from what I know ocean fishing like you’d find around here is pretty different from what we do up on the lakes. Maybe if I find a day off, I might have to find someone to take me out just so I could get a feel for it. I don’t know if I’d be able to find the time or the money for it, though.”

“It’s something to think about,” he smiled. “I don’t know what it would cost, but maybe I could go with you.”

“I’m not sure it’s going to happen this winter,” she replied. “But I’ll keep that in mind.”

The topic of conversation switched elsewhere after that, and they spent an hour or more just sitting and talking about things like Beffy and what she still had to do to the boat. It was a pleasant conversation, but it never again slid near to the questions she had in her mind about his past. Well, maybe it wasn’t that important, she thought. If it is, maybe it’ll come out sometime.

After a couple more cups of coffee they decided to call it a night. He had to be getting back to the station, and she still had quite a bit she wanted to get accomplished tomorrow, including looking over the Sea Bright some more, along with some of the other wrecks out in the junk pile. And then there was going to have to be some planning about what she was going to do with the things she’d found – it was going to mean some revisions in her plans, that was for sure.

Still, when they got back to the Rag Doll, she felt comfortable with him and very glad indeed that he’d been a big help on this day. They had gotten used to having a little peck of a goodnight kiss following their days together, but today she felt like giving him one that was a little more serious. It had been a good day and she enjoyed the closing part of her time with him, too.

Beffy was ready for some attention when Amanda got back into the cabin and shut it up for the night. After all, the kitten had had to tend to herself all day, and she wanted to be petted and do some purring, and Amanda was glad to oblige her. “I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with you today,” she told the little cat. “But it was a good day, a real good day.”

The next day was a good one, too. She managed to salvage a little more off of the Sea Bright and a couple other wrecks back in the junk yard, including a main sheet and some other lines. She might not use them on the Rag Doll, but they were sure to come in useful somewhere else if she didn’t. By the time she was done she’d figured she’d come close to picking the wrecks clean of anything that might conceivably be useful. It was warm enough to work on the deck repair that afternoon, and the next day was still nice enough to finish up that job. That was a big one to scratch off her to-do list; there was still plenty to do, but she could now see the progress she was making.

Of course, her father was happy to hear of the good luck she’d had with finding the fittings that could be used on the Rag Doll. “I’m still working on the Moonshadow,” he told her. “I’ve got a little more work to do, a few piddly things, plus yanking the engine out and replacing it. Another few days work and I ought to be able to wrap that up for the winter. As soon as that gets done I’ll start cutting wood for you.”

“Adam isn’t being too much of a pest about it, I take it?”

“No, haven’t seen him. I figured to see him, oh, last week, but he apparently found something else to keep him busy. It’s kind of a shame, since I wouldn’t mind having some extra hands getting the engine out of the Moonshadow. I don’t know why, but you’ve got more room in the engine compartment on the Rag Doll than he has, so it’s going to be a real bear getting it out.”

“Well, enjoy yourself. While I really have hopes for that engine, I think I’m just as glad to be down here so I don’t have to hear any fancy new cuss words from you.”

“I think you’ve probably already learned about what I have to teach you in that department,” he laughed. “It’s just that you don’t use them much. I’ll bet you’d use them if you were helping me on that job, though.”

After that things slowly settled back down to normal. It turned cold again, even what Cordy thought was cold for the season; the electric heater Amanda had bought for the boat felt very nice to have on some of those nights. After a couple days of such cold temperatures, there were no more alligators to be seen around the bayou. “We might see some if it warms back up,” Cordy told her. “But maybe not, too. It’ll probably be spring before we see very many of them again.”

“Fine with me,” Amanda told her. “But I still don’t think I’m going to allow Beffy to wander around outside by herself. She’s pretty good about staying on the boat while I’m working on deck, but still, I worry about her.”

“It’s probably just as well if she stays on board. There’s too many things around here she could get into that really wouldn’t be good for her.”

It was still several days before Ron and Shades showed up one evening. “I was beginning to wonder if we ever were going to get done with that oil spill cleanup,” Ron reported. “I mean, I know it has to be done and we want to minimize damage to the environment, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a pain in the ass.”

“Yeah,” Shades added. “And a messy pain in the ass at that.”

“The good part is that we got back in time for your birthday,” Ron added. “We were sort of wondering about that. I take it we’re still on to go out and do a pub crawl?”

“I guess,” she told him. “Would you mind terribly if we were to invite Cordy along? She’s become a good friend in a lot of ways, and it was her thinking that set me up to get all the stuff from those wrecks for the Rag Doll.”

“Might as well,” Ron grinned. “She’s a little rough-cut for my tastes but she seems like she could be a lot of fun, not like the bitch she was when we went to pick up this boat.”

“She does have some issues,” Amanda grinned. “But it turns out she’s a pretty good person, and a lot of fun.”

“Would you mind if I brought along a date?” Shades asked. “It would sort of even up the guys and the girls.”

“I don’t have any problem with it if Ron doesn’t,” Amanda told him.

“You’re talking Cyndee, right?” Ron smiled. “She is pretty fun and might keep things from getting too crazy, especially if we have Cordy involved. I kind of have a feeling that if Cordy were to get a few beers in her she might be something of a handful.”

“Yeah,” Shades replied. “Cyndee doesn’t drink much, so it might be handy to have someone who can drive us back.”

“I don’t have any real dress-up clothes down here with me,” Amanda said. “But I suppose we ought to at least wear clean jeans.”

“Might not hurt to dress up a little,” Shades nodded. “If this is going to be a pub crawl we may be going to several different places to give you a taste of what the night life is like around here, not that I’m any major expert about it.”

“All right,” Amanda said. “I’ll tell Cordy it’s a go. I’ll probably see her in the morning.”

As Amanda had said, she didn’t have any real nice clothes with her, but she managed to get by with some tight jeans and a nice top, along with a light jacket. A little to her surprise, though, Cordy showed up with an above-the-knee dress, cut low on top and showing quite a bit of skin; Amanda was surprised to see her friend could clean up so well. Since she wore loose and sloppy clothes most of the time, Amanda hadn’t quite realized that she could look pretty nice.

The guys, and Cyndee, met Amanda and Cordy at the boat yard – Cyndee wanted to see the boat and meet Beffy. She turned out to be a good-looking black girl, several shades darker than Shades, and as well-spoken as he was; there was no “homeboy” in either of their voices and both of them were pretty intelligent. It turned out that Cyndee was a Coastie, too, a Storekeeper Third. “Jeez, Louise,” Cordy said when that fact came out. “Amanda, it looks like we’re really going to be outnumbered tonight. Four to two ain’t good odds.”

“We have the advantage that we’re not going to be out on the water tonight,” Amanda grinned. It looked like it was going to be a good evening.

Amanda’s first legal beer wasn’t at a bar, at least not much of one; they took her to a pretty good restaurant not far from the station, where they had steaks. “Got to lay down a base,” Shades commented. It was a pretty good dinner with lots of teasing, lots of laughs, lots of stories, some of which were pretty Coast Guard oriented.

But it wouldn’t be a pub crawl without crawling some pubs, and they hit several, just for a beer each; by about the third one Amanda was feeling pretty happy. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know what beer was. She’d had one or two now and then at home and very occasionally elsewhere, like once in a while when they wrapped up for the day on the Rag Doll, or the one Adam had bought for her up at St. James months before. But to have several fairly quickly caused her to get to the point where she was feeling little pain.

A couple of the places they went had dancing, just from music on the jukebox. Shades and Cyndee got the dancing going, and Amanda and Zack soon joined in. Ron and Cordy did, too; and they seemed to enjoy it more than anyone else – at least they were dancing closer.

Perhaps it was because Shades and Cyndee were already more or less a couple, at least for the evening, and Amanda and Zack sort of were too, Ron and Cordy wound up together most of the time. A little to Amanda’s amazement, they seemed to be getting along pretty well. They were a little bit physical, touching some, laughing a lot, and having a very good time.

As they proceeded from bar to bar things started to get a little fuzzy for Amanda – not that she was out of it, but she wasn’t exactly with it, either. Finally, as the evening grew pretty late for them, they all decided they’d had enough, especially since Zack was going to have to work the next day. As expected, Cyndee wound up driving them back to the boat yard, she’d had one beer all evening, the one over dinner. Even as drunk as Amanda was – and this was the drunkest she’d ever been – she was still aware of the fact that Ron and Cordy were snuggled up very close together in the back seat, and getting very cuddly, touchy and kissy while they did so.

Of course, she wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention, since she and Zack were also crammed into the same back seat, and they were at least a little touchy and kissy themselves . . . it was fun, it was different, and she kind of liked it. Maybe, at least in a limited way, she really did have a boyfriend after all.

Cyndee dropped Cordy off at the trailer. Ron got out with her, and they stood outside the car in a tight hug and a really serious kiss, that made Amanda wonder just what was going on between the two. It might have been the good times and the beer, she thought, at least dimly through her own alcoholic haze.

It would be unfair to say that the Coasties had to pour her into her bed on the Rag Doll, but they did at least have to help her onto the boat and button it up for the evening. Amanda did manage to get her clothes off and her sleeping sweats on before she crawled into the sleeping bag, but it didn’t take her long to get to sleep with her head spinning.

She awoke the next morning bleary-eyed, fuzzy-mouthed, and with a buzzing in her ear – Beffy was purring loudly and it just about made her head vibrate. It was tempting to turn over and go back to sleep, but there was the pressure of the beer she hadn’t gotten rid of the night before, and it had other ideas. Once she was up and feeling better, she decided there was no reason she shouldn’t stay up, even as crappy as she felt.

Even though she’d gotten up she really didn’t feel like doing much of anything but sit on the bunk with Beffy in her arms, and sip at water occasionally. A beer or two was one thing, she decided, but as many as she’d had the night before, however many it had been – well, that was another. She made up her mind that it was going to be a long time before she tried that stunt again. But it had been a good time while it lasted.

She wasn’t aware of how long she sat there, other than it was well after the time she was normally up and doing things. After a while, she felt someone stepping onto the boat, and a knock on the hatch. “Yes?” she said, not quite ambitious enough to get up.

The hatch slid back, and Cordy looked down at her. “You look like the morning after the night before,” she announced.

“That’s probably a good way to say it,” Amanda said.

“I know it sounds crazy as hell, but get some work clothes on, and let’s head over to Earlene’s and get some breakfast. It really will make you feel better, although there really ain’t nothing that will cure a hangover but time.”

“I might as well, even if I don’t feel like it.” She put Beffy down on the sleeping bag and peeled off the sweat shirt, deciding to wear comfortable jeans and a flannel shirt, along with a jacket.

“Take your time,” Cordy said. “In case you’re wondering, I have a bit of a head on me this morning, too. But wasn’t that a pretty good night?”

“Yeah,” Amanda admitted. “It was.”

“Hey, you know, that’s a pretty neat brother you have there,” Cordy smiled. “If things had been a little different, that could have turned into something real interesting. I’m looking forward to hanging out with him again, but maybe it won’t be so drunk out the next time.”

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