Page 80 of Pull Me Under

He’s trying not to smile. Failing. ‘For the record – the Mary Jane was named after our great-grandmother too. Similar sort of woman, apparently. Tough as old rope, and a menace to all who met her.’

‘So our great-grandmothers were both terrifying.’

‘Seems to run in both families.’

‘Did you just call me terrifying?’

‘I said it runs in the family. You drew your own conclusions.’

I shake my head, but I’m fighting a smile. ‘Drink your coffee, Harding, before I throw you in the harbour.’

He drinks. I drink. The silence is oddly comfortable.

‘So,’ he says, eyeing the engine parts across the deck. ‘Need any help?’

I laugh before I can stop myself. A real laugh, surprised out of me.

‘Help or hinder?’

‘I can be useful.’

‘Can you?’ I gesture at the dismantled fuel system. ‘Tell me what that is.’

He squints. ‘A … thing. A metal thing. Possibly important.’

‘It’s a fuel injector.’

‘I was going to say that.’

‘No you weren’t.’

‘No,’ he admits, the corner of his mouth twitching. ‘I wasn’t.’

‘How can you run a fishing business and not know what a fuel injector looks like?’

‘Because Kit does the boats and I do the books.’ He says it simply, like stating weather. ‘The contracts, the quotas, the accounts, the chandlery orders, the harbour fees, the insurance. Everything that doesn’t require getting your hands dirty. Kit could strip an engine blindfolded. I can tell you what it costs to replace one, how long the lead time is from the supplier, and which insurance clause covers it.’ He shrugs. ‘We were a good team.’

‘Were?’

‘Are. We are a good team. When he’s here.’

The way he says it. That slight flattening. I file it away.

‘So mechanical engineering isn’t your strong suit.’

‘Definitely not. Kit got those genes. I got the…’ He trails off. ‘I don’t know what I got, actually.’

‘What is your strong suit?’

He’s quiet for a moment. Looks out through the shed doors at the water, then back at me. More open than I’ve seen him.

‘You mean other than being a wannabe surf bum?’

There he goes, hiding behind a joke.

‘For someone who dresses like a surf bum, I haven’t actually seen you surf.’

‘Watching me closely, Trelawney?’