Status Updates From The Sailor (Alpha Cove #2)

We’re all a little broken inside, for different reasons. But we’re stronger together than apart.

Even when I was in the Navy, on a ship full of people, working with the other sailors in the galley, I felt alone. Everyone was doing their own thing, in their own world. Having your stuff in my place, mixed with mine, tripping over your boots . . . it reminds me that I’m not alone. That you’re here.

Zach is 6’ 6”.

“How are things with you? How’s your shoulder?”

“How’re your knees?” Linc countered.

Zach snorted. “About as good as they can be.”

“There’s your answer for me too then.”

think now you’re an honorary Lobsterite. That’s what we call those of us who live and work at Lobster Cove.

How does grilled chicken, asparagus, and peanut butter pie for dessert sound?

Not lobster?

I can mix it up every now and then.

in the summer, no pots can be hauled on Sunday, yeah?

Uh-huh.

Far from simply standing there, watching work going on, captain of lobster boat had active role in harvesting. He was responsible for hooking pots, and Marit would help bring them on board. Then she took out lobsters, and Jonah would rebait and push them back overboard. It was smooth operation, and three of them worked together as if they’d been doing it for years, rather than just few short weeks.

I begged their dad to give me a girl, but his sperm insisted on producing boys.

Lobstering was a year-round job, but even more important in the summer months, when the weather was better and there was a greater demand from tourists.

As long as we’re taking care of our own issues and being good human beings, we shouldn’t care what others are doing. We can’t control them anyway. All we can control is ourselves.

“You’re laughing?” Zach asked in surprise, pulling back and trying to catch her gaze.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. Only you would intimidate someone by threatening to fry his balls before shoving them up his ass.”

fancy restaurant?

Yeah. Like The Lost Kitchen. You know, the one that’s so popular that in order to get reservations, you have to send in a postcard and it’s a lottery system?

queen-size bed—which he slept in diagonally, in order to fit—

“I’ve been on the water most of my adult life,” Zach told her. “Of course, most of that time I was in the belly of a huge ship making meals for the thousands of sailors and Air Force personnel aboard, but one of my favorite things to do was go up on the outer decks at night when most people were sleeping and stare at the stars. It reminded me so much of home.”

I was an oops baby. A preemie at that.

When he’d taken her hand in his, she couldn’t say, but she was grateful. It felt like if he wasn’t holding on to her, she’d splinter into a thousand pieces.

it made her long to find someone who loved her as much as Chad loved Britt. To find someone who understood her, support what she wanted to do w/her life. Someone she could laugh, cry, simply coexist with peacefully in same space.

It had been her experience that peaceful coexistence was hardest part. Her own family couldn’t figure out how to do that. How could she find it w/someone who didn’t share blood?

Marit saw water views every day, all day. She’d thought she was immune to the beauty of coastal Maine. But she was wrong. The sun was just starting to set, the trees around the cove were in full bloom …

“She has to suspect something’s up,” Knox said, as they all made their way toward the deck door. “It’s not as if they’ve ever actually found any sea glass on our beach. There just isn’t much glass in our cove.”

“True. But I think she’s gonna be pretty happy with the rock she finds this evening,” Evelyn practically cackled.

“If I do anything out of line, I give you full permission to take me to the ground. It would serve me right.”

With my size, I’ve had to be sure I can protect myself. I can and will do whatever it takes to disable anyone who dares to think I’m an easy mark. And I already know your knees are your weak point. I can have you on the ground in seconds if you decide to try to overpower me.

Zach was done with one-night stands. True, he wasn’t old at thirty,

“Had two knee surgeries when I was in the Navy. Every now and then they ache. Especially when I’ve been standing for a long time. It’s one of the reasons I got out of the military. Spending all that time standing in the galley was hell on my body.”

As a small woman, she always wanted to be ready to react however a situation merited. Whether that meant getting out of the way of a fist swung by a drunken lobsterman in a bar, or clearing the area of ropes that a careless coworker had coiled wrong on a boat . . . or figuring out what kind of mood one of her brothers was in so she could respond accordingly.

while she’d always be grateful for working on the boats, she wasn’t sure she’d want to be around them forever, especially if she could no longer do the work. If she married a lobsterman, she’d end up tied to them for life.

he was a giant. He towered over her five-two frame by more than a foot. Her head barely came to his shoulders. But she’d long gotten over being intimidated by men who were taller than her . . . simply because just about everyone over the age of twelve was taller than her.

Marit is 28.

That was one of the most egregious mistakes you could make . . . the females with eggs attached to their bellies were the future of lobstering. And any lobsterman worth his salt knew to notch the tails of those females and throw them back.