Yiannis flinched, leaving Tom certain he’d guessed correctly.
“I dropped a bag onto the jetty when our guests were leaving,” Yiannis said, devastated, as if he’d tossed a child overboard rather than dropped a piece of luggage.
“That’s no reason for violence.”
“Oh, no,” the deckhand backtracked. “I tripped over my own feet.” He touched the spot on his cheek that, now Tom peered closer, was more scuffed than bruising. “Caught myself against the rail. That’s when I dropped the bag.” His next words were hushed, the tip of one finger tracing the compass logo on his crew T-shirt. “He said he’d complain about me. Make sure I don’t work again in this business.”
Tom picked up a pencil to log the details, his eyes narrowing. “People say a lot of things.” And dammit if for the third time that morning, Nick might as well have been in the room with them, sliding uninvited onto Tom’s lap and promising he’d do better like he hadn’t always planned on leaving. “They say a lot, but that doesn’t mean you should believe them.” He set the pencil down rather than stab himself as a distraction from any more pointless wondering. It was a battle he soon lost.
I shouldn’t have pushed him away when he tried to kiss me, Tom couldn’t help thinking. If I hadn’t, he’d still be here, and I could….
Tom could what exactly?
Give in the moment Nick turned his sea-glass gaze Tom’s way again?
Relent, and make him the exception to his no-fucking-the-crew rule?
Go on shore leave with Nick instead of alone, like usual? And do what next? Sail off into the sunset with him, forever? All of that was bollocks, nothing more than a midlife crisis.
He forced himself to tune back in to his deckhand.
“I- I’m not sure I’m cut out for this job,” Yiannis said, his shoulders slumping. “Working on a charter yacht isn’t anything….”
Like he’d expected? Crewing for rich clients wasn’t all sleeping in and sunbathing.
Like he’d hoped for? It actually meant seeing more of cleaning supplies than exotic beaches.
Sympathy rose in Tom, wave-like and familiar. The real world hadn’t met his teenage expectations either. “Hey, listen to me for a moment.” He waited until Yiannis looked up. “Okay, so not everyone is cut out for the job, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be great at something else.”
“Something else?”
Tom opened the ship’s safe and withdrew some sealed envelopes. He shuffled through them. “I know you’ve only been aboard for a short time, but it’s been long enough for me to notice where you’ve got real potential.”
Those slumped shoulders started to straighten.
“You’re great with kids. Patient, and very good at helping them learn to dive and snorkel. You’re a natural with them in and out of the water, so focus on what you’re good at.” He set one of the envelopes face down. “The first deckhand I hired this year is a great example of someone who did that. He was a natural in the galley. Now he runs a five-star kitchen, and he’s a whole lot happier for it.”
“That was Jude?”
Tom flipped over the envelope to show Jude’s name written neatly. “How’d you know that?” Jude had left months before this kid’s arrival.
Yiannis smiled, relaxing. “You called me Jude half the time when I first started. The other half of the time, you called me Nick.” He tilted his head. “You did that whenever I got something wrong, so what was Nick a natural at before I replaced him?”
Nick?
Tom held an envelope with that name written on while he thought. Nick had been a natural at telling tall stories and flirting; at starting chores but never finishing, all of which had been a distraction, Tom was pretty sure now, but from what he never discovered. Never would, he accepted with a sigh that slipped out. “He didn’t stick around long enough for me to notice.” It troubled Tom more than it should have done. Another sign perhaps, that like the Aphrodite, his days at sea were close to over. Relationships didn’t last in the charter-hire business, crews changing from port to port, most of them fair-weather, not cut out to last the distance.
He put Jude and Nick’s envelopes into his back pocket before sliding the last one across the table. “Here’s your end-of-charter bonus and a reference.” Complaint or not, Yiannis had more than earned it. Tom offered a verbal tip along with the cash. “Next season, find a hotel with a pool and kids’ club.