Page 54 of Catch of a Lifetime
It might be time to consider giving my old therapist a call and restarting it. While I was at it, I should also let Charlotte boss me through some more yoga. And borrow Biscuit.
“Thing is,” Jerry said, “this situation you’ve got going on with Dave isn’t going to last forever. Dunno as if you’ve noticed or not, but he’s staying here longer than when you first took up with him. Comes a little earlier, stays a little later.”
“I had noticed.”
“You’re probably worrying over nothing. Maybe one day, he’ll stop having to leave you for six months out of the year. Or five and a half, as it was last year. Maybe by the time you’re my age, he’ll be living with you full time, or near as.”
That would be…god. That would be heaven.
“Alternatively,” he added cautiously, “by the time you’re my age, or most like a lot sooner’n that, might be you find yourself in a place where you’re happy to head off with him on theRosy Dawn. When you’ve not got anything tying you to land.”
He was talking about Grandpa and Art.
Grandpa was in his late eighties. Art was in his early eighties. The main reason I hadn’t been able to follow Dave was because I needed to be contactable and able to fly to Kos on short notice.
Jerry was right. Like it or not—and I absolutely did not—the day would inevitably come when I didn’t need to be available for that anymore.
“Yes,” was all I said.
“Except if you’re planning to go sailing off into the sunset or anything like that, you’re going to have to actually learn how to do it proper.”
I sat up. “I can sail.”
He made a rude noise. “Barely.”
“I go out on theRosy Dawnall the time!”
“Uh-huh. Ever taken her out more than two hours from shore?”
“…no.”
“Not to worry.” He braced his hands on the table and shoved up to his feet. “I can teach you.”
“Icansail,” I muttered resentfully.
“I’ll teach you to be apropersailor. But you’ll have to call me Captain.”
“Wow. No.”
He laughed and carried our empty mugs and my breakfast plate over to the sink, dumping them in unceremoniously.
I’d told him a hundred times, they go in the damn dishwasher.
“Don’t have to worry about any of that now, anyway,” he said. “That’s in the future. Only future you need to be worrying about is the long hot summer of mad shagging ahead of you. Need me to pick you up some B12 supplements? I’m going into town to get Biscuit’s deworming tablets later.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Think you meant to say,I’m good thanks, Captain.”
“No. I definitely did not mean that.”
Jerry laughed again, then groaned when his phone buzzed. “That’ll be Vinny, fussin’ at me to get a move on. Better head out.”
I followed him to the door and showed him out. “Jerry,” I said, once he was halfway down the path.
He paused and looked back over his shoulder.
“Thanks.”
