Two Captains, One Chair: An Alaskan Romantic Comedy Read Online Free PDF

last I’d seen a rounder one, and so clearly, too.
    “Well, there’s gotta be another landing, right?  Another way to get on the river?”  Her tone was impatient, her hands on her hips.
    Nathan shook his head.  “No, ma’am.  This is the only one.  I mean, there are a couple state parks with boat ramps farther up the highway, but they’re just for camping.  There’s no long-term parking…”  His voice broke and then trailed off, quelled by whatever he saw on her face.  Nathan was beginning to sweat.
    “You’ve got to be kidding,” she said.  “You’re telling me this overpriced dump , manned by a child , is the only way to get on the river.”
    Oh, I really hadn’t wanted to get involved, but this was an injustice, this bitchy Outsider picking on an innocent kid.
    “Leave him alone,” I said.
    She spun around to glare at me, turning the brunt of her holy fury my way.  Her face was unnaturally perfect, her skin clear, the lines of her brows artificially sharp.  She was beautiful, but she was also fake as a three dollar bill.
    I stared right back, ignoring the fact that she was bigger than me.  Everybody was bigger than me.  “If you don’t like the prices, leave,” I said.  “It’s that simple.  In fact, the river’d be the better for it.  We don’t want you and your attitude here.  So take your Mercedes, and your big shiny boat, and scurry back to town.”
    The woman sucked in a big lungful of air, and I knew she was prepping to unleash hell, when Clea, the manager, stepped up from the side.  “Is there a problem here?” she asked.
    The bitch wheeled around and railed at her about her prices, her dirt, her stupid employees, and her stupider customers.
    Clea glanced over at me.  I shrugged.  Not my fault.
    “Here, come into my office and we’ll talk,” Clea said, and led the unreasonable woman away.
    A blond man detached himself from a nearby display—I hadn’t even noticed he was there, but as he passed me I realized he had one of the prettiest faces I’d ever seen on a guy—and trailed after her.  He had a taut, muscular body that I couldn’t help but appreciate as he sauntered away.
    I set my drinks on the counter.  “You get people like that often?” I asked.
    Nathan shook his head, and rang me up.
    When I drove down, the fuel truck was just finishing up.  I pulled Manny’s trailer behind the building supply truck, who was waiting for his turn.  Ed and Avery’s guy already had most of a load of alcohol stacked up against the drums of diesel.
    “This okay?” Ed asked.
    “Perfect,” I said, handing him one of the drinks.
    We got everything loaded up by 11 a.m., and then started the slower, heavier trip back up the river.  The sun was climbing in the sky and things had warmed up considerably, so Ed carted his chair out onto an empty sliver of deck.  He reclined in the sunshine as we cruised back upstream.
    I scanned ahead continuously, but my eyes kept getting drawn back to Ed’s riffling hair.  Ed was interesting.  He was quietly competent, which in my book was one of the highest recommendations you could give a man.  He was laid-back; he didn’t seem to have any issue whatsoever letting me drive the boat.  Truly, he seemed to get more attractive with every passing hour.  Even his beard…
    Nah, his beard is still scary , I thought with a grin.  But I had no idea why I’d never noticed him before.
    The Fremonts’ place was our first stop.  Wayne and Shelly Fremont met us on the shore.  I lowered my ramp, and we unloaded the cabin kit onto their property.  It was nice when the people I delivered to had heavy machinery—bulldozers, forklifts, trucks—but more often, they didn’t.  That’s why I had Jimmie, to help me carry an entire cabin, one piece at a time.
    But Ed seemed to be working quite well in his stead.  He stripped out of his float coat, rolled up his sleeves, and went to work with a smile.  He easily handled multiple sheets of