Blue Moon Read Online Free PDF Page B

double doors. Recognition shoved its way between the drums pounding in his temples. The more he saw of the lady doctor, the less she looked like one. Certainly the long golden legs that ran all the way from her deck shoes to the stretched edge of her pink jogging shorts didn’t belong to one. He’d thought some flaky college coed had wandered aboard looking for charter.
    â€œWell, well, it rises from its drunken sleep to the light of day,” Remy Primston jeered, drawing Gabe from his wonder to where the man stood on the lower deck, looking ready to abandon ship at any moment. “Best move, Jeanne, before he or that dog of his drools on you. Where is the beast?” he asked, the starch crackling in his voice.
    Last night, Gabe had felt sociable. So after changing into dry clothes, he’d gone back to the cantina to celebrate his good fortune. Today, head pounding and stomach growling, he felt anything but. “You know, Primston, you are an—”
    â€œIs Nemo aboard? May I take a look inside?” Jeanne interrupted quickly. “I mean, everything looks fine up here, but I’d just like to see the rest of the boat.”
    Gabe twisted his lips, mentally shifting from assault to politeness for pretty-in-pink. “Nemo went home with my first mate . . . he’s got divided loyalties when there are kids to play with,” he explained. With a sweep of his arm, he motioned to the companionway. “Be my guest.”
    As Jeanne descended the curved stairwell, Gabe turned to Primston, who started up to the bridge to follow. “Remember, Prim. She’s the boss, not you,” Gabe growled out the side of his mouth. “You stay topside like a good professor until I finish showing the boss around.” It wasn’t polite, but frankly, Gabe couldn’t care less what Primston thought.
    By the time Gabe entered the small galley, Jeanne had already wandered down the forward companionway. “Sorry about the housekeeping,” he called out, walking over to the small stainless sink and filling a glass of water. After ferreting two aspirin out of a bottle stored in the built-in cabinet behind the faucet, he took them. The water from the Angel ’s water purification system wasn’t the best, but it was safe and was wetter than his mouth.
    â€œWhat happened to your second stateroom?” she asked.
    â€œI converted it to storage, which I needed more than a second pair of beds.”
    Leaving the near-empty water glass on the counter, Gabe started down the forward corridor, combing his hair off his face with his hands. As he bound it at the nape of his neck, Jeanne closed the open stateroom door and turned into him, her upturned nose slamming into his breastbone.
    â€œOh—”
    Gabe caught her by the shoulders as she fell back. “Whoa, doc. No traffic lights here, so proceed with caution,” he teased.
    Color sufficient to match her shorts outfit climbed to her cheeks as she backed away into the open door of the forward cabin. “It-it’s just perfect.” She cleared the nervousness from her throat. “I mean, we don’t need staterooms, since we’re operating from the base at Punta Azul. And the extra room will be perfect for storing artifacts when we find them.”
    â€œWhen?” She was confident, Gabe would give her that.
    â€œWhen,” she replied, jutting a stubborn chin in the air. “‘If ’ is not an option.”
    Gabe placed a hand over her shoulder, leaning against the bulkhead. “What makes you so certain?”
    Shoving her hands in the pockets of her shorts, she examined the unmade bed in the vee of the bow as if the answer were there. When she met Gabe’s skeptical appraisal, she decided to just jump in.
    â€œBecause a chance like this comes along once in a blue moon, and while it may sound crazy to you”—she took a deep breath—“I know it came from the hand of