Hi, everyone. I got back yesterday from visiting my family but wasn't very well so I didn't feel like updating. So, here is your next instalment. This one is dedicated to ... Love, IJKS xxx

Chapter Six

Evanescence blared from the stereo as Joey knelt on the drive of her boatshed, painting the side of a boat. A woman had won a broken boat in her divorce and decided she wanted to make something of it and turn it into something to enjoy. Having heard about Joey's skills through fortunate word of mouth, she had hired Joey to work on it and make it beautiful. Standing up, she stepped back and admired her handiwork, checking that she hadn't missed anything. This was exactly the kind of project she liked. The boat had been in a terrible state when the woman had brought it to her but already, even after only a few days, it was looking good. And she was going to take the engine apart and put it all back together so it worked perfectly again, which was something she was very much looking forward to.

"Looking good," said a voice close behind her.

Joey jumped in surprise and spilled paint down her white vest. Whirling round, her breath caught in her throat as she came face to face with the woman she had run away from two long years ago. She stared. She tried not to admire how beautiful she was. But it was an almost impossible task. Charlie took her breath away in the same way as she always had.

"What are you doing here?" she managed.

Charlie stepped a little closer. She looked Joey up and down. There was no mistake over how hot she looked. Time had only blessed a woman who had already been stunning.

"I needed to talk to you," she said honestly.

Joey stared at her for a moment longer and then shook her head. Taking her paint with her, she turned and headed into the boatshed. Dumping her stuff, she moved into the back, grabbing a shirt from the back of an internal door. Getting mucky was a hazard of her job.

"Charlie, I've been living an hour away for a year and a half and I didn't drop in for a visit," Joey said when the police officer followed her. "And when I did happen to run into you again, I ran away as fast as my legs would carry me. Does that indicate at all how little I want to talk to you?"

Charlie swallowed, stung but not surprised. Her eyes widened when Joey swiftly pulled her t-shirt off and dumped it in a laundry basket. The back room of the large shed looked as if Joey lived there.

"I know you hate me but..."

Charlie trailed off. She couldn't help but stare at Joey's tanned, toned body, clad only in ripped short denim cut-offs and a pretty bra. Her mouth hung open a little.

"I'm up here," Joey said sharply.

Guiltily, Charlie looked up and into her beautiful, if cold eyes. She apologised.

"But if you will take your clothes off in front of me..."

"You'll what?" Joey challenged. "Feel a burst of lesbian desire, panic and jump on the first man you can find?"

Charlie looked down anxiously.

"I presume that Romeo guy brought you," Joey said. "And he seems to have the same kind of sexual morals you do so..."

Charlie looked utterly horrified.

"Oh, sorry," Joey said bitterly. "I forgot, he already slept with your daughter."

They locked eyes. Charlie sighed heavily, thinking that perhaps all of this hadn't been the best idea in the world. She should have known better than to try and win Joey back. In the silence of the boatshed, Joey pulled her shirt on and began to do up the buttons.

"I'm still in love with you," Charlie blurted out.

"Really?" Joey remarked with a raised eyebrow. "I think you have a very strange perception of love, Charlie."

She moved towards the laundry basket, sitting on top of a washing machine and began to sort out her laundry.

"Do... do you live here?" Charlie asked.

"I live on a boat," Joey replied curtly. "This is where I work."

"I'm impressed," Charlie ventured, daring to step a little closer. "This is the kind of thing you've always wanted to do."

"Yep," Joey replied, putting conditioner in one of the washing machine drawers and turning it on.

After a couple of seconds, it burst into noisy life, making an already nervous Charlie, jump. Joey swung round, fixing her with her sternest expression.

"Seriously, Charlie," she said. "Why are you here?"

"I couldn't... I couldn't let you go a second time," Charlie said. "I've missed you and loved you for so long, Joey. I've dreamed of the day when you'd come back to me."

"I haven't come back to you," Joey said quickly.

"I know but... but you're nearby. You're..."

She stepped closer and touched Joey's hips. They were both surprised when Joey didn't pull away.

"Joey, why didn't you come home?" she asked.

"I did," Joey replied evenly.

Charlie looked confused. Joey pushed away from her and left the room, busying herself with tidying up her workshop. Charlie followed.

"You said you'd be back in three months..." she said. "You never came."

Joey whirled round to face her.

"I regretted getting on the trawler as soon as we left the Bay," she said. "I had half a mind to dump all my stuff and swim back to you. But I waited it out. I tried really hard to get my head together. But two months in I had this crazy revelation that I could forgive you. I loved you so much and I knew then that three months apart wasn't going to help. I needed you. So I came back."

Charlie continued to look bewildered.

"I came back and I was on my way to the police station to tell you how I felt when I ran into this poor, crying woman. She was beside herself because some bitch had stolen her boyfriend. She'd just seem them making out on the hood of a police car. Her name was May. Her boyfriend's name was Angelo. And the bitch's name was Charlie Buckton."

Next time... Charlie tries to explain herself...