Thank you guys so much for all the reviews! Glad you all seem to like it so far. These chapters are quite a bit longer than the usual ones I write so I can't promise that I'll be able to update quite so frequently, but I'll do my best!
Oh and a certain scene with Sig in this chapter is for Emily : ) She knows what I'm talking about ; ) lol!
Crush
Sasha was busy setting up her nursing station in her small, private stateroom aboard the Cornelia Marie. She was just organizing some of the bandages when someone knocked on her door.
"Come in!" she shouted.
"Hey there," said the attractive, blonde deckhand, "Just checking in on you. We're almost at the fishing grounds."
"Already?" asked Sasha as she sighed, "Wow…okay well I'm almost all set up here. I just have to finish sorting the bandages. I already got all the other…"
"Sasha," interrupted Dave as he laughed slightly, "It's okay. It's not like the second we start fishing we're gonna need medical attention."
Sasha narrowed her eyes at him, "Well you never know," she replied curtly as she turned to finish her work.
Dave smirked as he watched her. Her dark brown hair was sleek and tapered off at her lower back. Dave swallowed as he looked a little bit further down…
"Is there anything else?"
Dave jumped slightly and his eyes flew to her face in a panic.
"Huh? What? Oh….um, no that was all," he stammered out quickly, "Yeah um, well I better go. I'll see you later? I mean, you know I guess we will because we're on the same boat, so it's kind of hard not to see each other...okay I'm gonna go now."
Sasha bit her lower lip to keep from laughing as she watched Dave stammer and walk out of the room rather quickly.
"He's cute," she murmured to herself as she sat another package of bandages up on a small shelf.
Just then a loud noise came from the galley. She looked out into the hall and frowned when she saw who it was. She rolled her eyes and turned around to go back inside her stateroom.
"Josh get off!" screeched an outraged Jake Harris.
"You ate my piece of cake!" boomed Josh as he lunged at his younger brother.
Another crashing noise echoed down the hall and Sasha winced slightly at the sound.
"Looks like I'll need these bandages before they even hit the deck," she muttered under her breath.
"DING! DONG!" roared an outraged Phil Harris from the wheelhouse. He stomped down the stairs grumbling angrily as he walked into the galley, "Get the hell out of my galley before you tear it apart! Get off of him Josh!"
Sasha laughed to herself as Phil stalked back up into the wheelhouse. A few moments later, she caught a glimpse of Jake and Josh walking down the hall, sulking and muttering threats to each other. Josh caught sight of Sasha inside her room and he stuck his head in the doorway.
"Hey!" he exclaimed excitedly, "How's it going?"
Sasha smirked, "Better than it's going for you apparently," she commented as Jake also poked his head in the doorway.
The brothers both had bruises and marks on their faces from their fight in the galley. Their hair was sticking out all over the place. Sasha rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation.
"Do you two need some bandages before you head out there?"
"Who, us?" asked Jake, "Nah, we're tough…we can handle it."
"Okay…well don't go out there and get each other killed, okay?"
Jake smiled broadly, "Of course we won't! I know you'd miss me too much."
"Oh, yep you got me," muttered Sasha sarcastically as her hazel eyes sparkled mischievously.
"Come on little bro," grumbled Josh, "We got work to do…let's go. I'll see you later, Sasha!"
"No you won't," argued Jake as they walked down the hall, "I'll be seeing her later."
"Wanna bet on that little bro?" challenged Josh as they disappeared outside.
"Oy," sighed Sasha, "Those two just don't give up do they?"
She smiled to herself as her thoughts wandered back to Dave Millman. The older deckhand was about as handsome as it got with sandy blonde hair and crystal blue eyes, he was definitely a head-turner. But even more than that he was a gentleman. Sasha wasn't naive or blind. It was rather obvious that he found her to be attractive as well…but he wasn't pushing it. He was giving her space and that meant a lot to her. It had been awhile since she had dated a man and she was slightly nervous at the prospect of trying it again, especially while she was supposed to be taking care of these guys on the most dangerous body of water in the world. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and laughed at herself.
"I'm being ridiculous," she murmured to herself, "There's no way Dave Millman would really ever give me a second glance…no way…"
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Maggie sighed as she made her way up into the wheelhouse. She had just finished getting herself settled in to her new room and put away all of her supplies. Now all that was left to do was to sit around until someone needed her assistance. In her mind she couldn't think of anything more boring.
Jonathan had just been discussing the possibility of going further north to search for king crab when Maggie walked into the galley. Jonathan nudged his brother slightly as he stood up from the captain's chair.
"Well I think that's all we need," he said grinning like a Cheshire cat, "I'm going to the galley…gotta get me some coffee."
Jonathan nodded to Maggie as he passed her and shot a look over at his younger brother. He gave him a thumbs up as he descended the stairs, laughing to himself all the way down.
Andy wanted to deck his older brother upside the head. Jonathan couldn't be sneaky or sly for the life of him. His hints were ridiculously obvious and Andy found himself praying that Maggie hadn't noticed. He glanced over at her as she sat down in the co-captains chair across the wheelhouse. She was gazing out over the ocean, not paying him any mind. Andy breathed a sigh of relief at that and returned to studying the GPS system.
Maggie was starting to wonder how in the world she had been assigned to work on a crab boat. She had worked so hard all through college to make the grades she needed to become a nurse. Had she known that this was where it would lead, she would have chosen a different career field. She had no desire to be stuck on a boat full of men and now here she was, in the middle of the Bering Sea with a bunch of crabbers. For her, it was a living nightmare.
Andy glanced back over at Maggie. She looked absolutely miserable. He sighed quietly to himself, wondering what in the world he could do to make her happy. Something inside of him desperately wanted to make her happy…and he wasn't quite sure what it was. Earlier Jonathan had told him he was merely in denial. He was in love with this olive –skinned, dark hair, dark-eyed beauty and didn't even realize it. Andy just brushed him off and ignored the comments…but now they were circulating throughout his mind and he couldn't ignore them anymore. It was really starting to play on his nerves. Hell they hadn't even made it to the fishing grounds yet and he was already starting to go crazy.
"So…how are you holding up?" he asked once the silence became too much to bear.
Maggie glanced over at him and shrugged, "Okay I guess."
"Just okay?" pressed Andy as he gave her a smile.
Maggie felt herself smiling back, "Yeah…okay. Why?"
Andy shrugged, "I dunno…you just didn't look too terribly happy. Just wanted to make sure that everything is okay."
Maggie smirked, "Well thanks…I'm okay though I promise. Just, well…trying to adjust to this lifestyle. I'm not really used to living on a boat I guess."
Andy smirked, "Oh it's not all that bad. Things will get more exciting once they guys go out on deck and start setting gear."
Maggie raised an eyebrow at Andy, "You call that exciting?" she asked skeptically.
"Hey now," laughed Andy, "Don't knock it till you try it!"
"Sorry Captain Andy, I just don't see how crab fishing can be all that exciting."
Andy's jaw dropped and he gawked at Maggie like she had just grown another head.
"You can't be serious!" he exclaimed, "Oh, hun you haven't seen anything yet. Just you wait. When you see that first full pot of crab clear the rail you'll be ecstatic. Just trust me."
Maggie couldn't help but smile at Andy's enthusiasm. He really did seem to love his job. His eyes lit up as he talked about it and he seemed genuinely excited about setting the first string of crab pots. Her dark eyes sparkled as she watched Andy animatedly talk about his job and all the different processes that went on to catch crab.
Andy felt his heart skip a beat when he saw the excited gleam in Maggie's eyes. When she laughed lightly he had to pause for a moment to regain his composure. It was like music to his ears. Her bright smile seemed to warm the wheelhouse and Andy continued with his wild gestures and loud explanations and descriptions of the job. Eventually he made his way over to her, demonstrating how to coil a line in the process.
Maggie was laughing so hard that she had tears in her eyes. Andy finally broke down and started laughing with her. He leaned on the back of her chair for support and Maggie placed her hand on top of his.
"Oh Andy…you're too much!" she breathed in-between bouts of laughter.
Andy felt the blood rush to his cheeks at her light touch. He smiled down at her.
"See…now that's the Maggie I wanted to see," he said as he flicked her lightly on the nose, "That's what I knew was deep down in there somewhere."
Maggie glanced away as she felt herself blush under his intense stare. When she turned back to look up at him, the sudden intensity in his eyes shocked her. They stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity. Just as Andy began to draw closer to her, Jonathan walked into the galley.
"Hey you two, Russell's cooked us up some food for the last meal before we head out to work," he announced before he disappeared back down into the galley.
Andy cleared his throat awkwardly as he turned back to face Maggie. She smirked slightly as she narrowed her eyes playfully at him.
"Guess we better go down, huh?" asked Andy, shuffling his feet awkwardly.
Maggie laughed, "Sure Captain…let's go," she replied as she gave him another long look before walking past him and down into the galley.
Andy sighed and shook his head, "God help me," he muttered before he followed Maggie into the galley.
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Jenny ran up the stairs to the wheelhouse and squealed excitedly as she rushed over to the co-captain's chair and sat down. She leaned up and stared out the window, looking absolutely enthralled with what was going out on deck.
Keith took off his sunglasses and gave the nurse a strange look as practically pressed her face against the glass.
"Um…Jenny you okay?" he asked hesitantly.
Jenny shot him an excited look, "What? Oh yeah! I'm great! This is so cool…so what are they doing over there?" she asked, pointing to the top of one of the stacks of pots.
"Um, well they're untying the pots from the stack so we can start setting them," explained Keith, still giving the young woman a very confused look, "Why?"
"This is so cool!" she squealed as she bounced up and down in the seat like a little kid.
Keith just gazed at the girl while she stared intensely out at the deck in front of her. She glanced around quickly and stopped when her eyes crossed over someone at the bottom of a stack of pots. Keith followed her line of sight and smiled to himself. Jenny had her eyes set on one of his deckhands.
Crosby glanced up at the wheelhouse and smiled when he saw Jenny up there watching him. He gave her a wave and she returned the greeting, her smile widening even more.
Keith just smiled and shook his head at the sight. They had just started fishing and already the young woman had picked one of his guys. Although Keith couldn't complain about her choice. Crosby was one of his best deckhands and a good man too.
Keith smirked when he saw the excited gleam in Jenny's brilliant green eyes as she gazed down at the curly-headed deckhand.
"Well this should be interesting," he muttered quietly as the crew launched the first pot of the season.
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"Hey there Captain," crooned Amber as she walked up the stairs that led to the wheelhouse.
Sig smirked slightly when he heard her voice. He turned around and gave her an appraising look with his topaz eyes. She smiled back at him as she handed him a cup of coffee.
"No creamer…I promise," she laughed.
Sig took the cup from her and gave her an appreciative nod.
"Why thank you young lady," he said cheerfully, "I just might keep you around for awhile."
Amber felt her face flush at the intense look in Sig's eyes. They had been flirting with each other for the past few hours ever since the rest of the crew had hit the deck to start prepping the pots and Sig was starting to get more and more bold with his comments and lingering stares, and frankly she didn't mind in the least.
Sig pushed up his sleeves and Amber swallowed as she felt her heart skip a beat at the sight. Everything this man did drove her mad. Sig glanced at her from head to toe as she hovered next to him.
"You could really use another seat over here," she commented as she glanced across the wheelhouse to the co-captain's chair, "That one's too far away."
Sig smirked, "Well until now there wasn't anyone on this boat I wanted sitting next to me to be perfectly honest.
Amber smiled sheepishly and glanced away for a brief second. When she looked back at Sig she felt her heart do a quick flip when she saw the darker gleam in his blue eyes.
"But…if you really want to sit down," he said as he patted his lap.
Amber felt her face immediately turn a deep shade of red. She swallowed nervously and bit her lower lip, a sight that drove Sig absolutely mad.
"Are…are you sure?"
Sig gave her a look, "Yeah…I'm sure."
Amber approached him and turned to sit down on his lap. Sig snaked an arm around her waist as she settled down. Her long blonde hair brushed across his face. It smelled like honey and Sig closed his eyes for a brief moment, lost in her scent. She gazed out the wheelhouse window and smiled to herself. Although she barely knew this man, she did know one thing…she was falling for him very, very quickly…
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Whew! That was a long one! Hope you enjoyed it!!! I'll get started on the next one right away…not sure when I'll be able to update it though now that the weekend's over and these chapters require a lot more work, but I'll do my best!
PLEASE REVIEW!!!