way to launder his ill-gotten funds. Then he hooked up with a local baker, who wanted to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. They fought so much that one of them—not clear who—shot a hole through the hull and it foundered. Instead of trying to salvage it, they towed it here and beached it. They never spoke a word to each other again.”
Darius stared at him, noting the usual laughter in his gray eyes. Nate was an easygoing guy who loved a good laugh, so there was a good chance he’d made up that entire story. “You’re serious?”
“I know it sounds far-fetched, but yeah. If you don’t believe me, ask Jessica at Sweet Harbor Bakery. That baker was her mother. After the boat sank, the Dixons opened up the bakery and never looked back.”
Darius shook his head with a laugh. “Seems like there’s a moral in there.”
“Don’t launder money?”
“I was thinking more like a metaphor. All the stages of a relationship are right there. You start with the naive dream. You progress to the fighting, which ends up with a bullet hole in your planks. Then you drag the rotting remains to a mudhole and try to forget about it.”
Nate waved away an ember riding past on an air current. “Such a romantic.”
“Hey. I was. That was the problem.”
Though why he was getting onto that topic, he had no idea. He didn’t really care for digging around in the past.
Nate took over the hose. “If you’re trying to get me to disinvite you to the wedding, not gonna happen. You’re coming, romantic or not.”
“Of course I’m coming.” Nate and Bethany were planning a summer wedding, and it was already marked on his calendar. Hard for a fire chief to ignore his crew’s big life events. “I’m not against marriage. Fuck, I did it twice. I’m against marriage for me. You and Bethany, different story. I think you two might have a chance.”
Nate gave a hearty laugh. “The optimism, it burns.”
“Sorry. Translate that into happy-fluffy language and you know what I mean.”
“You think I’m happy-fluffy? Seriously, man, I was the last person who thought I’d be getting married this summer. I used to be as cynical as they come.”
Darius didn’t buy it. Nate was the kind of guy who would do anything for anyone. A solid, loyal, down-to-earth man loved by all. Also, he hadn’t been married and divorced twice, the way Darius had.
They shifted to stamping out hotspots, bringing the heavy stream of water closer to the houseboat to hem it in. The fire was losing its fuel, dying back, like a dragon collapsing into itself.
It occurred to Darius that he might be able to quiz Nate about his new landlady.
“Do you know someone named Kate? Friend of Maya and Jessica Dixon?”
Nate squinted off at the ocean. “Couple of Kates in town. Does she run that Thai place with her husband?”
“No, no. Not Kate Saelim. Kate Robinson.”
Nate kicked at a smoldering plank, which split open and disgorged a pile of sparks onto the mud. “Oh, you mean Naughty Kate.”
Darius gave a double take, nearly losing his footing on the smoldering debris. “Naughty Kate?”
“It was a nickname she had for a while, to distinguish her from Nice Kate. She was kind of a wild child when she used to come here. Her grandmother runs that peony farm up on the ridge.”
“Right. Emma Gordon.”
Nate gave him a speculative glance but went on without any ribbing, which Darius appreciated. “Emma’s daughter ran away and got pregnant. Married a dude who turned out to be a small-time grifter type. Then they got divorced and sent Kate to Lost Harbor every summer just to get her out of the way. Kate did a lot of acting out, I guess you could say. Shoplifting, underage drinking, minor stuff like that. But then she got her life together and became a lawyer. I haven’t seen her in years.” Nate jerked the hose to unkink it. “Is she back?”
“She’s back. I pulled her out of the mud the other day.”
“Now that’s interesting. She and Maya used to be best friends. Why don’t you ask Maya more about her?”
Darius shrugged. “It’s not that important, that’s why.”
“Bullshit, boss. This is the first time you’ve asked me about a specific woman since you’ve been here. There’s gotta be some kind of reason.”
“Yeah. There is.”
“I knew it!” Nate jogged back to the engine to turn off the stream of water. Darius shook off the remaining droplets and began the process of coiling the