Thank for all the encouragement and the reviews! I really do appreciate them :) Like I said on Ch.1... I own nothing but the OC character.


Angela looked down at her beeping phone and read the text message from Matt: "is she ther?" She sighed. "Not at the dock" she typed back to her husband. It didn't make sense. This one seemed so much different than the previous girls Norman dated. She seemed to genuinely care for him.

I'll go check, she thought.

"I'm heading out to the car, I forgot something," Angela told Louise, not wanting to say she was going to see if Lisa was there, in case she wasn't. "I'll be right back."

"They'll be here in 20 minutes," Louise said distractedly, nodding in Angela's direction while watching her kids run around on the dock.

Angela made her way up the pier to the security gate and saw the crowd of fans. Toward the front of the crowd she saw Lisa, who looked like she'd been crying.

"Angela!" Lisa called out, edging herself out from the crowd. "They won't let me through!"

On the Northwestern, Matt Bradley pulled his phone out of a pocket when he heard the text alert.

"Shit. Not again," Matt muttered as he saw his wife's text. Edgar Hansen looked at Matt. "She hasn't shown up," he said quietly so his voice wouldn't carry up to the wheelhouse.

Edgar ran his hand through his tangled sandy-blond hair.

This is not freakin' fair, he thought. How many times has Norm got his hopes up over a girl and the bitch dumps him? At least he's not giving up fishing now for them. That was stupid. He lets himself get wrapped and they walk all over him. He watched his brother come down to the galley and rinse out his mug. Norman had his poker face on.

"So Norm, ya got a girl coming to meet you tonight?" asked the cameraman, swinging the camera in the direction of his reluctant subject. Norm ignored him and walked out on deck. The cameraman went up to the wheelhouse, knowing Sig would have something to say to the camera. Edgar followed Norm outside.

"Can I stay at your house for a day or two until I can catch a bus to Spokane?" Norm asked, not turning around to face his brother as he walked up beside him. "I shoulda drove myself."

"You don't know if she's there or not," Edgar said. "She seemed pretty sweet on you. Did you try to call her?"

"She's not picking up," Norm said, keeping his voice neutral. Inside, he wanted scream and punch something for getting taken again. "She's just like the rest."

He stared blankly ahead as the boat eased its way past the docks to its home berth, bracing himself that no one would be there waiting just for him.

At the marina in Ballard, word had spread that the Northwestern was on her way in and the crowd was getting rowdy and large.

"Hey you! Security guard, get over here!" Angela screamed over the din from the fans. "You gotta let Lisa through the gate. She's family."

"Yeah, no problem," the security guard said, pulling out a set of keys. "We didn't know who she was."

"I told you who I was," Lisa said. "You didn't believe me."

"Hey it's nothin' personal lady," the guard said as he swung the door open. "We can't be too careful. There's a lot of crazy fans who'd love to go down on the docks."

"Thank you," Lisa said to Angela. "I didn't know what to do. I couldn't reach anyone on their cells."

"No problem," Angela said. The girls walked back down the pier to the Northwestern's boat slip. "I didn't think you'd blow this off."

"You're here!" Louise said, running up to them and giving Lisa a big hug. "Let's clean your face up a little. Looks like you've been crying."

Louise dabbed a tissue at Lisa's face and smiled. "There. That's better. They're almost here."

Angela laughed, imaging the reaction her text was going to get on the boat as she sent Matt, "she's here."

Standing on the boat deck, Matt smirked as he got the text.

He elbowed Norman in the ribs and showed him the phone. They were at the rail ready to cast lines to tie up at the dock. Norman grinned when he saw the text, relief washing over him.