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lover’s legs, the bulge he spent a lot of up close and personal time with.
    Damn, he looks hot.
    Jerald glared down at Alan from the dock.”Where’s your charter?”
    “Bad shrimp scampi last night. They’re going out tomorrow instead.”
    Jerald squatted down so he wouldn’t have to yell over the noise of the engine. “Where the hell are you going then?” he grumbled.
    “Chill out. I’m not even going as far as the head marker. Tide’s coming in. I’m going to stay close to the flats, hit the back country, piddle around Indian Bay for a while. Maybe run up as far as Bayport into the river. No open water, I swear.”
    Jerald’s radio squawked. He listened for a moment, then turned it down. “Be careful, please?”
    “I promise.”
    Jerald glanced around, apparently didn’t spot anyone paying attention to them. He crooked a finger at Alan, who stepped to the side of the boat. When he did, Jerald leaned in and kissed him. On the lips.
    Stunned, Alan broke into a grin as Jerald stood up and slipped his sunglasses on. His lips curled in a playful smirk. “See you tonight, Captain .” He turned and walked down the dock, leaving a stupefied Alan in his wake.
    That was the first time, ever, Jerald had done something like that in public. Especially considering they were in “home territory,” so to speak.
    Laughing, Alan cast off his lines and slowly pulled his boat out of the slip. He motored out of the marina at idle speed, then turned north toward Hernando Beach. A few natural channels deep enough for his boat to navigate, especially at high tide, wound from the woods and wetlands into the sawgrass flats. He could try his luck in the canals and sheltered coves.
    Not too many small boats out on a day like this, grey and breezy, choppy. He thought he spotted a bright splash of color a hundred or so yards in the distance, in some shallows at the edge of the sawgrass flats.
    Probably a loose crab buoy.
    He motored into a relatively calm inlet and almost immediately hooked several small snook, which he released. An hour later, his phone buzzed.
    He took a quick glance at it before answering. Jerald’s private cell. “I’m in a little place nearly as calm as a lake,” Alan immediately said. “I’m fine.”
    “When are you coming in?” Jerald growled. “I’ve got to run down south to Hudson and take a look around. A crabber reported someone’s tampering with his traps.”
    “Hang on to your balls, buddy. It’s rough out there. And you gave me shit about being out in open water?”
    “Yeah, bite me. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Your ass better be at the marina before me.”
    Alan laughed. “Stay safe. Love you.”
    Jerald didn’t hesitate to reply. “Love you, too.”
    Alan put his phone back in the console. Okay, so it wouldn’t hurt to go back in to humor him. Especially considering what he looked forward to that evening. Not just a barbecue, but attending a barbecue with his boyfriend . Add to that the fact that Jerald had agreed to try living together.
    Jerald Carter wasn’t a difficult man to get along with, as long as you practiced the fine art of compromise and didn’t mind his normally stony facade.
    Jerald could sometimes make Mt. Rushmore look talkative.
    He cranked the engine before pulling anchor. When he emerged from the sawgrass flats, he spotted that same strange blob of color.
    Curiosity got the better of him. What the hell, why not look? He checked the depth finder and raised the engine as high as he could to protect the skeg and prop. As he neared, he couldn’t get any closer than twenty yards away because the bottom grew too shallow.
    That’s when he realized the bright splash of pink wasn’t a loose crab buoy, but a one-piece swimsuit on a woman’s body.
    Oh, fuck.
    He hit the mark on his GPS to save the coordinates, threw the anchor, then prepared to call in his find to Jerald. That’s when the woman raised her head before exhaustedly collapsing again.
    He ripped