Chapter 169

“Do you want space?” Cassidy asked me. She’d helped me and Becca get the boats disconnected again and had followed me up to the Pilot’s Cabin but was lingering in the entryway as I turned over the motor and got the House Boat humming again.

“What?” I asked. “No.”

“Really? Sometimes you need space,” she said.

I reached out my arm to her and she came to me, letting me bundle her up into a one-armed hug as I kept the other on the steering wheel and we started moving. “I don’t want space,” I told her.

“OK,” she nodded and then went on her toes to kiss me before stepping out of the hug and going to hop up and sit on the counter. I reached over and offered my hand to her, and she held it in one of hers.

And we talked. We talked about nothing, and we talked about stuff. We talked about where we would spend the holidays this year - last year we’d spent more time at my Parent’s place when we went home to visit, but there had been a whole issue with my Mom becoming a bit of a Momzilla over the engagement. We talked about my sister and the new girlfriend she had told us she met. We talked about work, and our TV shows, and just about anything that wasn’t sex, or the trip, or the App.

We both just wanted to feel normal for a bit.

Cattie eventually came in to join us, giving us an update that Wanda was still in the room with Terra and JC was posted up outside in the hallway trying to be patient. Heather and Heels had gone back down to Heels’ room to finish the photoshoot that had been interrupted by the cops.

So Cattie joined our conversation easily, slipping into our flow. She was wearing a cute baseball tee in black and white that hugged her body and had a bunch of pagan witchy symbols on it and black bikini bottoms. The outfit worked well on her and split the difference between her gothy and sometimes sporty personality. The only thing missing, my mind errantly thought between conversation topics, was a hat.

Becca ended up leading us into a shallow bay, not as protected as some of the ones we’d found before, but certainly a little more private than just floating out on the open water. There was a low rock shelf that we would be able to butt the houseboats up to and the girls would be able to hop over from the lower patio decks easily.

Once we got the houseboats rigged up, Cattie and Cassidy went to help with dinner prep so I went to check on what was going on downstairs. I found JC still in the hallway, sitting on his butt with his back to Cattie and Heather’s room as he sat with his head in his hands.

“Any word?” I asked him.

He shook his head.

“Wanda still in there?”

He nodded.

“Want me to try some reconnaissance?”

He lifted his head, looking torn, then shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt, I guess,” he said. “How come you and Cass seem fine?”

“Because Cass has a sort of ‘open door’ policy for me,” I said. “Not completely open, but open enough that she wasn’t upset.”

“I really fucked up,” JC sighed.

“Let me see what’s going on,” I said and went to the door.

When I knocked, Terra shouted through it, “Go away!”

“It’s me,” I said.

There were some muffled voices, then some movement and the door opened. On the other side was Wanda.