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I could have raged about Jamie’s greed and how he turned Hayes in to the authorities but why bother at that point. “Nope,” I responded. “That ship has sailed.” I laughed at my nautical themed answer and smiled at Lucas. “In fact, my harbor is empty, so to speak.”
“There’s always ships on the horizon, stud. You’re too good of a guy to be alone. You’ll see,” he said, bro-hugging me before I climbed into my truck. “Don’t be a stranger. Stop by anytime for anything, ya hear me?”
The ride to Bluffton was a bit more than fifty miles and after arriving at the marine supply store I found out half of my order hadn’t arrived. The parts manager said the balance of the order would be there in two days so I headed back to Beaufort and parked my truck at the marina instead of back at Lucas’s lot.
The time was still early at eleven AM so I decided to head out to check my traps as well as bait them for the following day. I’d started trapping five days a week and working on shack projects during the weekends. If I headed out right away I could be home by two and putter around my property. The burn pile from the storm was still big so I figured I’d work on that project while I fished from the dock for dinner.
I left the few captured lobsters in my traps and decided to return and harvest them the next day. After baiting the traps I headed home and ate a quick baloney sandwich and drank a Mellow Yellow. After changing to swimming trunks and grabbing my cell phone, I headed for the burn pile and poured kerosene on the branches before I lit the debris. My plan was to lay on the dock with my feet in the water and fish a bit while I fed the fire every thirty minutes or so.
I gazed across the river at a family of herons in an oversized nest. Their lone chick was flapping its wings and testing its ability to leave mom and dad. They were squawking and carrying on over a crow that wouldn’t leave their family home alone. “Fuck off,” I muttered at the crow, realizing the damn bird couldn’t care less about my lame ass. The buzz of my cell phone startled me when it vibrated on the dock. I held it and recognized the area code of the caller as being from the Charleston area.
“Hello?” I questioned, wondering who had my number.
“Boregard?” she asked. I recognized her fancy voice immediately. “This is Katherine Crawford calling, son. Hayes’ mother,” she added for clarification.
“Yes, ma’am. I know who you are.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Boregard, but I need a favor from you.”
I hated the use of my formal name but knew that Katherine Crawford was a woman that did as she pleased, and if calling me Boregard was better for her, I could swallow my pride. “Yes, Mrs. Crawford. What can I do for you?”
“I need you to return to Charleston immediately,” she announced like she was the Queen of England and was recalling her explorers.
“And why is that, ma’am? Is Hayes okay?”
“He’s not,” she stated. “He needs you and that is why I am calling you.”
“As much as I’d like to help you, ma’am, Hayes and I are not involved any longer and I’m pretty sure if he needed me he’d be the one calling.”
“Hayes is like his daddy, Boregard. He is too prideful and blind to see what’s best for him and I am worried about his health.”
Her announcement regarding his health immediately piqued my attention. If Hayes was ill or in trouble I’d swim across oceans to get to his side, but I was sure that this call was simply a worried mother who didn’t see her child as often as she wished. “Things didn’t work out for us, ma’am. I’m sure Hayes would prefer you help him instead of me.”
“He’s been hospitalized, Boregard, and you are going to come here and rescue him again. You saved him once before when he was in need and you are going to do the same thing again,” she declared. “I’m not asking you, son.”
“But . . .” I began. She interrupted me before I could form an excuse.
“Listen, Bo.” She called me Bo.What the hell?“If I am going to be your mother-in-law, you better learn the ground rules quickly, you hear me?”
“Mother-in-law, ma’am? I’m afraid you’ve lost me,” I admitted. “What ground rules?”
“The first rule is you do as Momma asks,” she advised. “I know my son and I know what he needs. Actually, I know what hewantsbut he’s too damn headstrong to see the forest for the trees.”
“That didn’t help much, ma’am.”
“He’s killing himself, Bo. He’s overworked to the point that he’s been hospitalized due to exhaustion and starvation, and you are going to come here and do whatever it was you did there when he washed up on your shore.”
“I am?” I asked. “And what exactly was that, ma’am?”
“You are going to love him, Bo. You are going to stand by him and help him through this even if doing that causes you to take him away from me.”
“I’m sorry that you think I can make Hayes listen to me. I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to simply accept my help,” I stated.
She sighed heavily on the other end of the line. “Listen to me, Bo. I’ll admit that the changes in my son after being there with you were fleeting at best. But at least for a few days after he was released from his—umm—his psych evaluation, he was more relaxed and happier than I have ever seen him. That was all you, Bo.”
“And then the Hayes you knew replaced the one I’d met,” I stated. “He isn’t the man I first met any longer, Mrs. Crawford. I’m sorry.”
“Bo, please?” she pleaded. “Just please listen to me. I need your help with this. Hayes loves you, son.”
