Mariah Stewart - Coming Home

“Things should be pretty quiet out here today,” Hal told Grady as he cut across the river channel and out toward the Bay. “The herring run ended about a week ago, and the commercial crabbers won’t be ready to head out for about another week, so we’re sliding in between the two.”

“Herring’s fished out of these waters?” Grady sat in what Hal referred to as the copilot’s chair, the one that stood opposite the captain’s.

Hal nodded. “The blueback migrate into the Bay’s freshwater rivers to spawn. Used to be a big business, but between the water being overfished and polluted, and the river habitats being destroyed, it’s nothing like what it used to be. Conservationists are trying to help the fish make a comeback, though. We’ll see how things go, another ten years down the road.”

Hal cut the engine and waved to a passing boat. The woman behind the wheel cut hers as well, and steered in the direction of the Shady Lady.

“What’s up, Hal?” she shouted across the water.

“Not much, Doreen.” He waved back.

“You on your way back?”

He shook his head. “On my way out.”

She laughed. “Good luck, my friend. I’ve been out since five-thirty and I’ve caught one rockfish and one puny flounder. Not even worth the gas I used getting out there today.”

“Tell me where you were so I know to avoid it.”

“Doesn’t seem to matter,” she told him. “I saw Pete Marshall and Joe Grant. They’re both on their way back in, too. Said nothing’s catching.” She waved again and moved back to her wheel. “Have a good day, though, whatever you decide to do.”

She gave the engine some gas and headed off in the opposite direction.

“Well, that’s not sounding so good now, is it?” Hal pulled his baseball cap down over his forehead a little more. “Want to give it a try anyway?”

“Sure. Why not? We’re already out here,” Grady said. “Of course, if you’d rather go back in, that would be fine, too.”

“Nah. Nothing going on back there in town today. Let’s just take our chances. I know a spot where we can tie up and see if the blues are hungry. If they’re not, well, I’ve never been one to complain about having to spend an hour or two on my boat on a nice day like this one’s turning out to be.”

Fifteen minutes later, they’d dropped anchor, baited their lines, cast off, and were sitting on a couple of folding chairs Hal brought out of the cabin.

“Just put your rod right in there”-Hal pointed to a hole near the railing-“and sit back down and wait to see if there are any takers down there.”

They sat for a few minutes, watching the lines, but nothing was happening.

“You do much fishing out there in Montana?” Hal asked.

“Just some lake and stream fishing.”

“You have much luck with that?”

“Some.” Grady nodded.

“You’re talking trout, pickerel, bass…?”

“Right, but mostly trout.”

“I heard that can make for a good day.”

“It can, yes, sir, if the fish are biting. Otherwise, it’s pretty much like sitting right here. It’s a pleasant enough way to pass some time on a nice day, like you said.”

“So how do you feel about your little sister getting married?” Hal asked.

“I think she’s made a good choice. Beck makes her happy. That’s good enough for me.”

“We’re pretty pleased with his choice, too. Mia is good for Beck, in a lot of ways.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why she needs a full week of events leading up to the wedding.”

Hal laughed. “You know Mia. She’s always looking for ways to get people together, especially people she loves. She did say that she thought it was important for her family to get to know Beck’s. Of course, we don’t have as much family as you do. It’s just me, Beck, and Vanessa. Mia and Vanessa have gotten real close, you probably know, which is good for Ness. She never had a sister. At least, not one that any of us know about.”

Hal slanted a glance at Grady. More than once that week, he’d seen Grady watching Vanessa when he didn’t know anyone was noticing.

“Yup, she’s like a daughter to me, Vanessa is. She’s one hell of a girl. We’re real proud of her, Beck and I are, despite her issues.” Hal bit the inside of his cheek and told himself to shut up. Grady didn’t press, and Hal was grateful for that. He’d already said more than he should have. The last thing he’d want to do would be to scare the boy away. There weren’t any young men in St. Dennis that he thought were good enough for his girl. Mia’s brother, now, Hal thought he might be a possibility, but Hal had opened the door for Grady to talk about her, and he hadn’t, so maybe he wasn’t all that interested after all. Damn.

“Beck mentioned the other night that you used to play semipro baseball.” Grady glided smoothly right past the mention of Vanessa.

Hal nodded. “That was a long time ago. I got picked up right out of college. There were some who thought I could make it in the majors. But, like so many of us back then, I got drafted and sent to Vietnam. One minute on the pitcher’s mound, the next minute jumping out of a low-flying plane into the jungle. Spent the next year trying not to get killed.”

“What happened when you came back? Did you try to reconnect with your team?”

Hal shook his head. “I wrenched my shoulder a couple of times over there. My throwing arm was never right again. Besides, when I came back, I found the girl I left behind had married someone else. I came home to St. Dennis, got a job with the local police force. Made it all the way to chief.” He paused for a moment. “I hear you were in law, too.”

“FBI. Jokingly referred to as the family business.”

“I heard about your dad and your uncle, your cousins, all going into the Bureau. That must have made for some interesting family dinners.”

“There was never any lack of conversation, that’s for sure.”

“You have any thoughts about going back?”

Grady shook his head. “No. I knew what I was doing when I left. I’d had enough, seen enough. I figured I could find something else to do.”

“Did you?”

Before Grady could respond, Hal’s line took off, and both men lunged for the rod. A few minutes later, Hal had reeled in a nice-size bluefish. He slipped it off the hook and into the ice chest he’d brought with him.

An hour later, they still had only the one fish in the cooler and no other nibbles. Hal didn’t really care if the fish were biting or not, but by midmorning, he figured they’d spent time enough on the Bay for one day. He had other things to do, and he suspected Grady might as well.

The closer he got to 309 Cherry Street, the slower Grady walked. On a scale of one to ten, baking cookies with the girly girl would have been at point-oh-five. But Mia had all but begged him.

“Why me?” he’d asked after he had been summoned to the house she shared with Beck with a come-quick-I-need-you phone call on the morning after Grady’s fishing outing with Hal.

“Because I have someone to help me and she doesn’t,” Mia explained. “We need about a thousand cookies for wedding favors by Saturday and we won’t have time to bake them all if we don’t double up.”

“You’re just now figuring out that you need a thousand cookies?”

Mia had nodded somewhat sheepishly.

“So what’s the big deal? I passed a bakery on the way in. I’ll bet they have cookies.”

“I want Mom’s cookies.” She moved several bags of flour and sugar around on her kitchen counter. “Where did I put those measuring spoons?”

“Mom’s cookies?”

“Mom’s lemon cookies.” Mia found the orange spoons under a bag of flour. “Remember them?”