Book 9 - Page 57 (1/2)

“I’m Curtis,” the man said and his Irish accent still lingered. It brought back a lot of memories. Most of them uncomfortable but some of them, a few of them, good.

Suddenly, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t say anything at all. I was standing in front of my father, the man who had abandoned me all those years ago, left me with my mother and a nanny but with no wages to pay a nanny. He f**ked off and he ruined everything – or at least he didn’t help. Over the years I had come to realize that everyone was at fault, not just him. Still, even facing him in his wheelchair, all these years later, I couldn’t help but think of him as a coward.

I vowed right there and then to never do that to my child, no matter if he saw ghosts, was as normal as apple pie, or happened to be the anti-Christ. There was love and there was pride and the former should always trump the latter.

“My name is Dex,” I said, and I swear I saw his brow raise for a minute. He reminded me a lot of Gregory Peck, all overgrown black eyebrows and silver-coated hair. “This is Perry, my fiancé,” I said, motioning to her. She smiled sweetly and I knew it warmed him over just a bit. Despite what she thought, she had that effect on people. She counteracted me in the best way.

“Very nice to meet you,” he said with a sharp nod, though his eyes were focused on me. He looked like he was trying to jog his memory, perhaps trying to place my name or my face and was coming up empty. “So you’re interested in buying Green Gla.s.s, is that it?”

That must have been the boat’s name. I figured we only had a finite amount of time before we had to come clean.

“Could you answer a few questions about her?” I asked, without saying yes or no.

He nodded and his palms kneaded the armrest of his chair. “Why not?”

“I read in the paper that you won a regatta. Has the boat won anything else besides that?”

He grinned, just for a moment. He had nice teeth. I guess the rich could afford that. Then again, I had nice teeth because of the settlement he left me through my mother, so I shut that thought up.

“That was a good ol’ fluke,” he said. “My buddies and I, we’re always racing off of Nantucket, Martha’s, all the haunts. I decided to go for it, you know, have a laugh or two. I took my buddy on as my skipper since I can’t do much with this d.a.m.n arthritis and all. Somehow we won. But, if you paid attention to the ad, I never pa.s.sed the s.h.i.+p off as a racing boat. We were just lucky.”

“Arthritis?” I asked and his face immediately went sharp.

“Yes,” he said defensively. “Plus I had an accident a few years ago. I don’t let that stop me from doing things though.”

“That lady,” Perry said, “is she your wife?”

He nodded. “Aye. Margaret. Been married about…”

While he trailed off I said, “at least fifteen years.”

He frowned but said, “That seems about right.”