The Haven Herald's crossword puzzle wasn't as challenging as the ones offered in larger papers. Most of the clues dealt with fishing or town gossip. The real challenge was finding enough time in the day to complete it. Meeting that challenge was something Duke looked forward to as he settled down to a very rare delivery, restaurant, and trouble free afternoon. Well, that and the beer getting cold in his refrigerator. Which was why the familiar sound of Nathan's Bronco approaching his boat just as he'd completed the "across" words was such a let down. Looking up, he could see that the two officers approaching his boat weren't happy. While Nathan's brooding glare was nothing new to him, seeing the same look on Audrey's face was. Duke tried to recall if he had performed any blatantly illegal acts lately and came up with nothing. In fact, he'd been pretty well behaved. The cause of their sour moods had occurred before they came to the marina. Just to be safe, Duke flashed them one of his more disarming smiles.

"Afternoon, officers. Wasn't expecting to see either of you today." He said. As they came onto the deck, Duke noticed that Nathan looked worse for wear. He was more banged up than usual and there was a bandage on the side of his head. "What happened to you?"

"We weren't expecting it either." Nathan replied, pointedly ignoring the question. "But that little problem with the rocks from yesterday seems to -."

"What happened is someone can't grasp the concept that just because he can't feel he can still be injured!" Audrey jumped in, answering the question Nathan had avoided.

"For the love of-would you rather I hadn't pushed you out of the way?" Nathan argued. Duke gave the other man a look of pity as he realized that this wasn't the first time today that they'd had this conversation.

"You know, I was just about to grab a beer. Anyone want one? No? Be right back up." Duke said as he retreated inside. His offer was ignored by the two friends as they continued to fight. Whatever they had come to discuss with him was going to have to wait until they'd finished this round.

The angry voices continued upstairs as he pulled out a bottle and popped off the top. Duke considered the owners of those voices as he took the first sip. They were both right in their own way. Nathan just wanted to protect the people around him, especially Audrey. That was becoming harder and harder to do as things heated up in the town. Audrey just wanted him to stop acting like he was part human shield/part battering ram. It certainly wasn't the first time in recent memory that he'd been witness to this particular "discussion." Duke didn't like that there was so much constant tension between two people who were normally so in sync. He'd give them a few suggestions on how to deal with that tension, but, he didn't have a death wish. Most of them may not work on Nathan anyways.

The voices on deck had suddenly grown quiet. That could mean that the situation was resolved for now. Or, one or both of them had walked off in a huff. Either way, it was time to get back up there. When Duke reached the deck, it was all he could do to keep a grip on his beer. He hadn't needed to give them any suggestions about tension relief after all. Nathan was in the chair he'd recent vacated with Audrey on his lap, kissing her like it was going out of style. The groan Nathan made as her fingers dug into the base of his neck assured him that he didn't need to worry about certain methods working. He was certainly enjoying himself. Well, that was interesting. When did Nathan start feeling Audrey? Duke realized he had two options: A) He could start grilling them on this new discovery or B) He could kick them off his boat.

He chose option B.

"Excuse me." He called, trying hard to keep the laughter creeping up on him out of his voice. The couple froze and looked towards him. It was apparent that they'd forgotten anything in the world except each other.

"Sorry." Audrey apologized, turning bright red as she hopped off of Nathan. "It's, well-"

"Stop." He ordered, holding up his free hand and finally letting some laughter escape. "Congratulations on coming to your senses. However, I have a rule: No one is allowed to get lucky on my boat unless I'm involved. Since I don't do threesomes that involve another guy, you're going to have to finish this somewhere else. If you still need to ask me about your case after that, I'll be around."

Audrey giggled as she grabbed Nathan's hand and pulled him out of the chair. He wore a wide grin that looked goofily out of place as she practically dragged him off the deck and towards the Bronco. As they drove away, Duke settle back into his chair and smoothed out his paper. Before starting the "down" words, he flipped out his phone.

"Dave? Hi, it's Duke. I've got good news and bad news about the pool: Good news is that you were right on when. Bad news is that we were all wrong on where!"