7 Dating

Two months later

Rebecca settled into her new job better than she expected. In fact, it was a perfect fit for her, being her own boss. No nagging officers above her, just her having fun with the boat and having chats with the customers.

Kate and Rebecca alternated between making the voyage to the medical lab on the island with supplies and samples. Easiest money earned thought Kate. Since Rebecca was on board, Kate now had room to breath and could spend more time on the administration at the office.

The Hammersley had returned from a patrol, and the crew was on shore leave. Dutchy had noticed that one of Kate's boats was moored, and he wanted to see if he would be lucky enough to meet up with Kate. He found the office and entered.

"Hi, I'm Dutchy, an ex-colleague of Ms McGregor's. I just wanted to know if she's in and if she's available?"

"Hi, yes, you're in luck today, she's in. Just walk through and knock on the door," Helen Marshall answered.

He knocked the door and smiled when he heard her familiar voice. He opened the door and went in.

"Hey, I wanted to see how you're doing. Better than email, isn't it?"

"Dylan! What a surprise!" Kate smiled from ear to ear. She was wearing her green suit and had her hair in a knot.

"Have you had lunch already?"

"No, not yet, but I'm starving."

"Well then, now's the perfect opportunity. It's splendid weather outside," he said smiling.

Yeah! I'm lucky!

"Yeah, I'm coming, just give a minute." And she went to the ladies room.

Yes! He came for me! I'm going to look my best. With a little bit of luck I can restart a relationship with him.

She untied and combed her hair. She grabbed a bottle of perfume from her handbag and looked at herself in the mirror.

How do I look? Hmm not quite ready. She unfastened one more button of her blouse and arranged it a bit so there was more on view. She looked again and produced a big smile.

Yeah, that's much better.

She left the room.

"Hey, I'm ready."

"Hmm, nice perfume and you look even better now. Less formal, less Navy-like"

"Thank you," she beamed.

When they were sipping from their drinks at the terrace Kate started. "How's things going on the Hammersley, with Nikki and the new XO?"

"Depends . Nikki is good, but a bit too nice for the job she has to do. And sometimes her temper can be a bit explosive. I think that she's growing in her job . And Wilkinson, our X, he does his job well, but he lets the daily things linger. He doesn't chase them up like you did, so I have to do that for him, and that's a difficult situation. He's okay, certainly not a bad guy, and he's good with the crew as well. But we miss both of you. Really, we're missing the atmosphere, the buzz that you both brought on board.

"That's nice, thank you. But not so good for the Hammersley. What about the others? Do they think badly about me and what happened six years ago?"

"No, not at all, they all find it a pity that it happened that way. No one thinks bad of you."

"That's very nice to you? How are you doing?"

"Me? Pfff. What can I say?" Dylan shrugged. "Life's a bit boring, really. It's just patrols, shore leave, a few drinks with the guys, a bit of flirting, a few weekends at the farm alone, but nothing, and no one exciting. These days I'm happy to be back on board."

Kate nodded.

"But how are you doing? Aside from the emails, it's the first time we've met since… you know."

"Yeah. I'm doing well. But, you're absolutely right, we should have done this earlier. I don't know why we didn't? Maybe I wanted to run away from the past, but then you run away from all the good things too, didn't you?. Anyway better late than never."

She took a sip from her glass of wine.

"Actually, I've had my second boat for just over a month now. The business is doing well. I've got help from Steve Marshall's wife and I've got Bomber, Rebecca, on board, it's just great. My little Stephanie is a diamond, and Maxine is more like family to me. But," she sighed, "I want more in my life. I want to move on," she said looking straight at him.

Dylan nodded. "I understand, me too. Uh… Mike?"

"No, he's a closed chapter," she said firmly. "Until a couple of weeks ago, I was still getting upset when I thought back to all that went wrong during those days. But I've made up my mind and I've locked it away. Now I can talk about it without becoming a mess... What are you staring at?"

"You. You are just gorgeous."

"Come on, you're making me blush."

"No, it's true."

"Thank you," she said smiling, her blush increasing.

"You know, I want to meet Stephanie . I never got to meet her in real life. You emailed me photos, but that's not the same."

"That makes me happy. I've already told her a lot about you. Let's say this: Next weekend, if we are both on shore, then we will call each other to fix something up. Ok?"

"Great, sounds good to me!"

They got their lunch and talked quite a lot until Kate looked at her watch.

"Sorry Dylan, I have to go. I still have a lot of paperwork to do. We'll keep in touch though, right?"

"Yeah, we will. See you!"

He kept looking at her until she disappeared between the other pedestrians. He emptied his glass, still enjoying her presence. Repeating the words in his mind she had said.

Yeah, the next weekend looks promising. I think I'll step on board for the first time with reluctance after that weekend.

Kate entered her office with the jacket of her suit over her arm.

"Hi Helen, it's splendid weather outside," she said enthusiastic.

"Hey Kate, do I hear here some joy in your voice?"

"Yeah, maybe," she said smiling.

"Let me guess, that big, strong, blond guy?"

"Yep! I feel alive again."

"Well, Kate, dear, you deserve that after everything. I hope it works out for you!"

"Yeah, I hope so too." She entered her office. There it took quite some time before she could concentrate on her paperwork again.