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Her mind was already picturing how terrifying an intense battle would be, hearing the massive booms, the panicked screams and hollered orders amidst the chaos. To think that another ship would be nearby, doing the same,aiming for them – that was jarring, and she was glad not to be a sailor or pirate in the eighteen-hundreds.
“Now, let’s go fire the swivel gun mounted on the railing of the deck,” Jared invited, grinning.
As the day wore on,Calista surprised herself at how much she was enjoying this unexpected trip. She really needed to thank Athena for orchestrating this from her remote post, because this was extraordinary.
Each of them got a chance to fire the swivel gun, which was a tinier cannon mounted and loaded from the rear instead of the muzzle… while the rest of them were handed fishing reels and shooed to the other side of the ship. She had never fished a day in her life.
It was honestly absolutely glorious.
Calista stood there at the railing, holding the reel in her hand, and listening to the instructions that were being provided by Bo and Shepherd. There wasn’t any fancy casting, but rather they ‘dropped line’ from a reel that looked like it was about seven feet long.
Red was struggling with his pole, fighting something, and she was shocked to see Bo move quickly into place to help him. The two men brought up a brightly colored fish called a snapper as several people patted him on the shoulder, praising him. A few others caught some fish that would be cleaned and cooked for dinner… but not Calista.
She didn’t get a single ‘bite’ on her line.
It was almost laughable, because this was so ‘real’ and couldn’t be faked or produced in the slightest. There was no staging area, no makeup or costumes, no teaching orprompting, but just you and the ocean… and this was just how it was.
The entire trip was educational and eye-opening… and as she turned in the breeze, realizing she was going to have quite a tan from the sun reflecting off the waters, she spotted Will.
He was standing at the helm, looking off into the horizon, with one hand on a spoke of the wheel. The sails above him billowed, and there was a sense of wonder at this world around her. She could hear the waves lapping at the ship, the call of birds in the distance, the silence dotted by the occasional voice, smelling the salt and gunpowder in the air.
There were no cars, no ringing telephones, no dogs barking or sounds of civilization… just you, on the ocean, and she could certainly see the appeal of such a life – and the captain.
He seemed so peaceful in this element, as if he needed this undeveloped wildness to soothe his soul… and she couldn’t imagine meeting him at the corner coffee shop to chat over a cappuccino. It wouldn’t suit him. No, being here, among the elements, seemed such a perfect fit – and pointed out the glaring differences between them.
This was his world… and hers was waiting for her return.
9BELAY THAT ORDER…
WILLIAM
He could feelCalista’s eyes on him and struggled not to look, almost afraid that she would notice his scars or see disgust on her face. Instead, he focused on surveying the horizon because they were getting close to the shipping lanes, and he wanted to avoid them – and the gigantic tankers that traveled them. Their wake always caused problems for his ship that felt quite large at times, but compared to the tankers?
They were a speck on the ocean’s surface.
Calista was probably the first person other than his team that had looked at him or treated him like a person instead of ‘the captain’. She had this way of looking into his soul and speaking to it that was slightly unnerving, but only because she was so pretty.
Gorgeous actually,he amended slightly, fighting back a rueful smile. He sounded like some lovesick kid instead of a tired, world-weary, forty-year-old man.
During that time, Will felt like he had lived an entire century. He’d seen battle, held people as they died in his arms, explored the world, drank alcohol with the boys until the early hours of the morning before throwing up in gutters, and had been intimate with many women, never settling down… until now.
He felt almost like he was finally… ready.
All the wild urges, the partying, the recklessness and rambunctiousness that once filled him – was maturing, and he recognized it. While he loved being the captain of his ship, mentoring his crew, befriending his team like they were family… a part of him wondered what it would be like to hold his own child.
“I’m almost too old for any of this,” he muttered under his breath, and hesitated as his mind whispered softly to him.
…Or is this your next adventure, Kidd?
Will wasn’t the type to wear a suit into the office – and never had been. Mowing the lawn, hanging Christmas lights on the house, or picking out bushes to landscape the yard wasn’t his thing. No, the sea called to him because he respected it, understood it, and there was a wildness in it as well that he ‘felt’.
He watched as the team moved, guiding and instructing the others how to adjust the sails, drop the lines once more to catch fresh fish, and then heard another bang from the swivel gun, making him smile. It was actually a relief that none of them suffered from PTSD after that last fight. No, they struggled in their own ways, but loud noises wasn’t one of them.
Seeing the doctor hold up the snapper proudly in front of him while someone else took a photo with his cell phone, he fought back a laugh. It didn’t matter what classin society you were, what level or station, when a boy caught a big fish? He wanted evidence to show his friends.
Maybe that was what he loved about this life… the simplicity of it.
If you were hungry, then you found a way to get food and ate. If you were tired, the hammock or bunks were waiting. If you were in danger, you protected yourself with the weapons or munitions around you… and if there was a beautiful woman in your midst that fascinated you?
