Amanda felt as if something had changed as she watched the Knick-Knack motor out of sight, with Adam doing just exactly what she’d once planned to do, and there was still a part of her that wished she was doing it instead of him. He ought to have a good time, she thought, if he doesn’t get too cramped aboard, or maybe just too bored. Her time would come, she knew – just not this winter – and the Rag Doll would be a lot more comfortable way to do it.

It was still early enough that she hadn’t gotten started on anything on the Rag Doll yet, and she hadn’t had breakfast, either. That was easily solved; she put Beffy in the cabin, closed it up, and got in her car to head to Earlene’s Kitchen.

She arrived only a couple minutes behind Cordy, so they sat down at the same table, as they often did. Amanda had a couple things to tease Cordy about, and planned on making use of them while they were still fresh. “Well, good morning, Cordelia,” she grinned. “I can’t get over how cuddly you were being with my brother yesterday.”

“What can I say?” Cordy shrugged. “There’s something about him that turns me all mushy, goopy, and girly.”

“He is a nice guy, but I didn’t quite figure he was your type.”

“It surprises me too,” she replied shaking her head. “It just seems like, well hell, it’s nice being mushy, goopy, and girly with him. I’ve never had that happen before.”

This, Amanda thought, shows signs of getting a little more serious than I expected, but it wasn’t something she wanted to say to her friend. She settled for saying, “I guess he likes it when you go all mushy, goopy, and girly on him, as you put it.”

“Actually it scares me a little,” Cordy admitted. “It’s strange, but I think I like it. But I have to say that you weren’t exactly being mushy, goopy, and girly with Zack, even though I could see he liked what he was seeing of you in that bikini you were wearing yesterday.”

“No,” Amanda sighed. “I mean, I don’t think I’d mind if it happened, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Zack is a nice guy, but there’s no real fire burning there, if you know what I mean. Actually, it’s probably just as well. It’s only going to be a couple months, maybe a little more, before I head back north and he’ll still be here. Where would that leave me?”

“Yeah, you have a point at that.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind if it happened with someone, but I don’t think it’s going to be him. Maybe it’s just as well. I’ve got things I want to do in the next few years, and having a guy in the Coast Guard would make them a lot more complicated even if it meant I could do them at all. Now if I could find a guy who will go along with what I want to do things could be a different story.”

“Well, yeah, I can see that, but there aren’t a lot of guys with money and that kind of free time. I’ve never seen one, unless it’s that Adam friend of yours.”

“That’s a little different, even if you don’t consider he’s my father’s age,” Amanda replied. “Don’t get me wrong. Adam is a nice guy, even though he had a real bitch of a wife before he got rid of her. I mean, I knew her a little and I know what I’m talking about. He has free time, he likes to go exploring, and he’s lonely. On top of that, he has money. I don’t mean lots and lots of it, but he isn’t hurting, and he’s careful with what he has. If he wants something he’ll get it but that doesn’t keep him from getting the best deal he can.”

“You know,” Cordy grinned, “when you say that and stop to think about it, it makes him sound like a pretty good candidate.”

“Well, yeah, but only as an example,” Amanda sighed, exploring that angle on things in her mind a little. After all, Adam was planning on a trip in the Moonshadow next summer that she would dearly love to take – but she was going to be working up at Winchester Harbor while he was out by himself. “But on top of the fact that he’s my father’s age, he’s sorta family. We’ve been sailing before, and we even spent a night together on his new boat back last fall but it was in separate bunks. He is a nice guy, but he doesn’t exactly get me what you call ‘mushy, goopy, and girly,’ either. In a way I wish he did, but he doesn’t. But finding a guy isn’t something I need to push myself on right now.”

“You might want to put a little more thinking into that,” Cordy snickered. “I mean, older than you, so what? Single, money, nice, likes boats? What’s not to like?”

“It just doesn’t seem right,” Amanda shook her head. “I mean, it’s not like you and Ron seem to be getting. If nothing else, he’s sort of family, and that makes things a little different.”

The conversation turned to other subjects, including how crazy they had to be to go swimming in the ocean the day before and how Cordy had obviously enjoyed waving her barely-bikinied butt around in front of Ron. After a while they finished up their meal; they both had things to do, so Amanda went back to the Rag Doll and found a project to work on, not that finding something to do was much of a challenge.

It was a relatively nice day so she was working on the deck, with Beffy helping her out a little, of course. However, Amanda couldn’t get the conversation with Cordy out of her mind. And Cordy may have had a point. What if she could arrange to get away from working at Winchester Harbor next summer? Adam was looking for someone to go with him on the Moonshadow, after all, and he had planned what would be a heck of a trip, Newfoundland, then down the east coast to Florida. She would dearly love to be on that trip . . . and if they were to get close, maybe it would be for the best . . . but she just couldn’t quite imagine herself in that situation in reality.

After all, for years she’d been looking forward to being the captain on one of the fishing boats next summer. It wouldn’t be all the time, of course, since the family rotation would still apply, but if they wound up getting an extra deckhand, even part-time, it could well be she would be out on the Chinook or the Coho without one of her parents watching directly over her shoulder. That had been a big goal too, and one to not be denied.

But still, it wanted some thinking about. It wasn’t like she had to do anything about it right away, and couldn’t, for that matter. Adam would be back in a couple months, and maybe she could drop a hint or two about her going with him on the Moonshadow, whether it meant anything or not. She’d have to talk her parents into it, of course, since the family business got involved, but there was the possibility her folks would let her go for a while. They liked Adam too, and Amanda felt, as her father had hinted, that his experience was a little on the thin side for a boat like the Moonshadow, especially on a trip that long.

It would probably come to nothing, but at least there was an idea that she hadn’t considered before. After all, it wasn’t as if what there was of her relationship with Zack was exactly going anywhere, either. He was a fun guy to hang around with so long as it stayed at that level, but there was still that unknown side of him that troubled her. It was probably just as well that she was going to be heading back to Winchester Harbor in March.

At least that was a problem that Cordy and Ron weren’t going to have to face. He wasn’t going to go back north in a couple months. As far as he knew – and the Coast Guard could always surprise him, of course – he’d probably be in Jacksonville for another year and a half to two years. There was plenty of time for both of them if things were to happen. Amanda wasn’t real sure how she wanted that one to come out, either; while she liked both Cordy and her brother, she had a little difficulty putting the two of them together in her mind. But stranger things had happened, she knew all too well.

Those thoughts kept kicking around in her mind for the next few days, not really going anywhere. She often thought of Adam, sailing her old Knick-Knack down the Intracoastal, wondering what he was seeing, how he was liking it. It seemed incredible that he’d be taking a trip that long in a boat with as cramped a cockpit as the Knick-Knack had, but he’d seemed to be looking forward to it.

New Year’s Day was nothing special, at least as far as Amanda was concerned. It was a day off for Ron and Shades, although not for Zack, who had the duty in the harbor patrol. She’d pretty well figured the two guys would be finding a nice comfortable bar with a big-screen TV so they could watch football games, so she didn’t expect to see them at all. But no, along in the morning both of them showed up ready to work on the boat. As soon as Cordy found out Ron was there – and maybe it had been worked out ahead of time – she was there with them. Amanda and Shades were making good progress on a couple of chores, but Ron and Cordy just weren’t being all that efficient about working on the boat – it seemed as if they had other things on their minds.

That changed suddenly when, along about midday, Ron and Amanda’s father pulled his pickup truck to a stop in front of the Rag Doll. Amanda had known he would be showing up soon but hadn’t known for sure when, but she had been looking forward to what he was bringing with him. As soon as they got through the hugs and happy-to-see-you stage, her father asked, “Has Adam come by this way yet?”

“Yeah, he was here for a few days, and headed south about a week ago. He left his truck and trailer parked here.”

“Well, I’m a little sorry I missed him, not that I have anything for him. If he was down here a week ago, then it must be that when he took the idea in his head to come down here for the winter he didn’t let very much stand in his way. I was just curious how well it went.”

“No major problems,” Amanda told him, “other than the fact that he said it went pretty slow coming down here. That boat is almost too much for his truck, but he made it all right. He decided to start his trip here so I could keep an eye on his truck and trailer, and maybe come and get him if something went wrong. We got him set up to go, and he took a bunch of us out for dinner, then was on his way the next morning. I haven’t heard anything since.”

“That’s not unlike Adam. He tends to live his own life and not let one hand know what the other one is doing. We may find out how it went after it happens and we may not. I know there was a little more to his trip to Georgian Bay last summer than he let on, and I’d be willing to bet a woman was involved, but if there was he never gave a hint of it.”

“That’s all news to me,” she shrugged. “He never mentioned anything like that. He did spend some time talking about going to Newfoundland to see Mary and his grandson.”

“I can’t blame him. He had a good time, and that’s an interesting place. I haven’t seen Mary in a while myself and I wouldn’t mind seeing her again. I sure hope he manages to get along in the Knick-Knack all right.”

“He seemed to be looking forward to it. I hope he has a good time.”

The pickup was loaded pretty close to the gills, and it was nice to have the extra hands there to help unload it. The load consisted of tools, including some power tools, a lot of marine plywood, some of which had been precut for assembly, and the engine that had formerly resided in the Moonshadow – the pickup had to be pretty much emptied to get it unloaded. It was heavy, of course; they thought about manhandling it, but that thought only lasted long enough for Cordy to head into the work shed and fire up the shop’s fork truck. In less time than it takes to tell about it, the engine and the pallet it was sitting on were on the ground in front of the Rag Doll. “Is that what you were looking for?” her father asked.

“That’s it,” she said. “I thought you were going to strip the parts I needed off of it.”

“That was originally the plan, but I figured sure as hell if I did it that way we’d need something I left up north,” he said. “So, anyway, there it sits. I also have what I think will be most of your interior here. Most of it will have to be sanded and varnished when it gets into place, but I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten enough of a head start on it for the job to go pretty quick.”

“Well, good,” she said. “It’s going to be tough to have to live in there around your carpentry for the next couple weeks.”

“I was thinking about that on the way down,” he said. “It would definitely slow things down. I think it would be best if you moved Beffy and your stuff right off the boat and stayed in the motel with me while I’m concentrating on the interior. It might only be for a week or ten days, but it’ll make the work go a lot faster.”

“I could do that, I suppose,” she said. “I guess there’s no reason I can’t bring Beffy over with us.” Amanda had been living aboard the Rag Doll for two months at that point. It had been a pretty primitive existence but it was cheaper than staying in a motel room. Still, in two months she’d gotten used to the arrangement; she knew where things were, and had what she needed. Therefore, it wasn’t an easy job to move completely off the Rag Doll, except for some tools and supplies she left up in the forecabin. But, by the end of the day, the main cabin was as empty as it had ever been since she’d owned the boat, and her father was busy removing pieces of the rotted interior woodwork she’d lived with and gotten used to.

While Amanda and her father were busy with that, it proved that Cordy, Ron, and Shades had eyes on the motor. Amanda hadn’t given a great deal of attention to that part of the problem in her work over the last couple of months, mostly because there hadn’t been a great deal she could do about it. Now, things had changed; in the course of the afternoon it got more attention than it had since she’d gotten the boat. In fact, about all that had been done there was a general cleanup along with the inspection of the engine, and there were a number of things they were still not sure about. They knew it was loose enough to turn over, but that was about it.

Although her father had said that the Rag Doll’s engine compartment was larger than the Moonshadow’s, it was still pretty tight. Cordy managed to wiggle her way into it enough to be able to work on the engine, but not with a great deal of extra space. One of the things that had gone missing from the engine before Ron found the boat was the starter, but now they could take the starter from the Moonshadow’s engine to see what they were really dealing with. It was late in the afternoon before they had the starter installed, and they still had to run jumper cables from the pickup to get it to turn over, which it did. Cordy ran a quick compression test and reported that it was a good, tight engine, and there was very little doubt it could be made to work again. As far as Amanda was concerned that was great news, right up there with the new interior, and was cause for celebration.

That also was cause for the day to wind down. After some discussion, they decided to call it a day, move enough stuff for Amanda and Beffy to live with into the motel room, clean up, and have dinner, along with a couple of beers to celebrate, of course. Amanda wouldn’t have said that Ron and Cordy were extra snuggly over dinner, but there was enough of it going on for her father to pick up on it.

Nothing was said until Amanda and her father got back to the motel room. “Ron hasn’t said anything about it to your mother and me, but I have to say that tonight it looked like he’s found himself a girlfriend.”

“I’d have to say it looks like it to me, too,” Amanda agreed. “Bear in mind that I don’t know any of the details about what may really be going on between the two of them, but I have to admit that it’s showing signs.”

“Yeah, it does to me, too. I know I met Cordy when I was down here the last time but I didn’t see anything going on between them then.”

“I don’t think there was,” Amanda shrugged. “This only started in the last month or so. I’m still not sure what happened but it looks like both of them lit each other’s fire right about the same time.”

“Well, I suppose it’s all right, not that there’s anything I can do about it, even if I wanted to. Don’t get me wrong, I like Cordy. She’s like you in that she’s not some little potted plant of a girl. She’s a worker and doesn’t seem to mind the idea of getting her hands dirty, but she strikes me as a little rough-cut, not that there’s anything wrong with that, I suppose.”

“I like her. We got off to a bit of a rough start, but she’s a good, solid person, and really, the best friend I’ve made down here. I have to admit I have a little bit of a problem imagining Ron and her together, but the more I think about it, the more I think it might work.”

“I guess it’s not our choice to make anyway,” her father said. “It’ll be interesting to see what your mother is going to say, though. That’ll be interesting, but unfortunately I won’t be here. Or, maybe fortunately I won’t be here.”

“Mom is coming down?”

“I think so, it’s not all nailed down yet. What we were talking about before I left is that she hasn’t seen the Rag Doll and hasn’t seen you for a while. So, when I get pretty well done with what I came down to do, she’s going to fly down and I’m going to fly back so I can run the snack bar while she’s gone. If we time it right we won’t have to close it down at all. I don’t think she’s planning on spending more than a couple weeks down here. I may fly right back down when she comes back, or I may stay north for a while, depending on what we’ve got to do here and on a few things up there.”

“She doesn’t know anything about Ron and Cordy then, right?”

“No, it was a surprise to me this afternoon, and I’ll bet it’ll be a bigger surprise to her.”

“I’ll bet it will be, too.”

“She’s been hoping Ron will meet some nice girl and hit it off with her. I think Cordy sort of pushes the limits of ‘nice girl,’ but I’ll bet your mom will like her. So how are things going with you and this Zack guy?”

Amanda was aware that her father had changed the subject on her quickly in hopes of getting an honest reaction. The one she gave him was no different: “We get along all right, but it’s not going anywhere. He’s fun to hang out with, but I’m not going to be sorry to leave him behind when I have to head back north.”

“You’re not real sorry about it not working out, are you?”

“No, not really. He’s a nice guy, but there’s no spark. In fact, I think I’m probably just as glad things don’t look like they’re going to work out. I mean, it could be a real pain in the butt if they did, and he was down here while I was up north in the summer.”

“You know, there’s a chance something like that could happen.”

“I know it, and that’s why I’m being careful. I figure I’ve got time enough to do at least some of what I want to do before I have to get involved in that issue. I really want to continue with working at Winchester Harbor, and maybe the time will come that coming down here in the winter won’t work out quite as well. I mean, there’s no point in lousing up a good deal too soon.”

“At least you’re thinking ahead on that one,” her father smiled. “But I can tell you from experience, sometimes these things come along when you least expect them. I mean, I thought your mother and I were just good friends, and then, all of a sudden without any warning, things went nuts on us. My head is still spinning a little.”

“I’ve heard that story more than once,” she giggled. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen to me any time soon.”

It was good to have a nice, warm shower that evening, and to have a comfortable bed to sleep in, rather than an air mattress on a none-too-soft bunk. It looked like there might be two or three weeks of that, too, right in what could be expected to be the coldest time of the year, so Amanda didn’t complain about that, either. It may have been a little strange, but having Beffy sleeping on the pillow next to her head made things seem a little more familiar.

As she lay there with Beffy purring by her side, she was satisfied. Having her father down to help with the carpentry and the engine was going to make a big change in Rag Doll. In a way, she was a little disappointed that she wasn’t going to be doing some of the work herself, but the boat had turned into a bigger job than she had hoped for. She was still pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to get it wrapped up this winter, but maybe next winter she could head south toward warmer weather and new adventures like Adam was doing on the Knick-Knack.

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