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His jaw set, grim, and it didn’t take a genius to know that he was thinking of Lauren’s chances if her boat should encounter a wave like that.
Yeah, they would not be good at all.
We drove forward through the slanting rain. All the while, the beeping signal increased in volume.
“We should be getting close,” I said a few minutes later.
Deacon was already looking out the cabin windows. I grabbed my own set of binoculars which hung nearby. The gray rain still drove in sideways, mist coming off the rolling slate ocean. It was hard to see.
“I think… I think that’s them!’ Deacon shouted.
“Where?”
“That direction—they’re between the waves right now.”
He pointed and I turned the rudder. I didn’t see a thing, but I trusted him. I advanced Bessa cautiously, not wanting to risk running them over.
Then I saw the top of the sail.
Oh no. Well, that answered the question of whether the other guest was knowledgeable or not. I didn’t know who up there liked idiots, but somehow Lauren and her friend had managed not to capsize in the crazy high winds. Probably because all the sail lines were either slack or tangled.
I watched one figure running back and forth, trying to trim the sail while the little boat wobbled side to side like a drunk.
I reached up and blew the horn. Both turned to look—their faces like ovals at this distance—and then started jumping up and down, waving and hugging each other.
“Neither one of them are wearing lifejackets,” I muttered. “Heaven preserve me from idiots.”
Deacon grinned.
* * *
It took some navigating to pull Bessa up to the poor beleaguered boat. Lauren and the other guest—a man I didn’t recognize on sight—were still hopping around, waving and yelling like banshees as if afraid we would leave them again.
I knew they were just scared, but I was in no mood to be charitable. They were in danger of capsizing themselves.
I pushed the tiny cabin window open and bellowed, “Sit down and stay still!”
They did what they were told. Amazing that they heard me over the howling storm.
“I have to keep us close beside the other sailboat,” I said. “Can you help them aboard?”
Deacon nodded. “Yeah.” He turned and tossed a look over his shoulder. “I’ll get them lifejackets, too.”
The next few minutes watching Deacon awkwardly help Lauren transfer from one boat to another was awful. Bessa’s deck stood taller than the sailboat, making it quite the leap from one to another. There were no easy ramps to connect the two. My heart was in my throat the entire time, certain one would slip and drag Deacon down with him.
Apparently, chivalry was dead because the man reached out for Deacon’s hand first. Deacon gamely pulled him across before he reached out for Lauren.
Just as their hands clasped, a new guest of wind whipped up out of nowhere and caught the little boat’s sails.
With a heave, Deacon pulled Lauren across just as the sailboat was dragged away, listing dangerously to the side.
I watched it go, saddened. If it didn’t capsize in the next few minutes, it would probably run aground on some hapless reef or sandbar. What a waste. It wasn’t the sailboat’s fault that it had been boarded by idiots.
I glanced back in time to see the moment when Lauren recognized her savior as Deacon. Her jaw dropped. She stood on the deck, soaked to the skin, looking utterly at a loss for words.
I couldn’t hear what was said between them, but when Lauren moved as if to throw her arms around Deacon in a hug, he instead pressed a lifejacket into her hands.
The other guest kept exclaiming something and trying to shake Deacon’s hand in thanks. Deacon just shook his head and pointed up to the bridge—at me.
