A Light For My Love Read Free Page A

quiet exaltation. “She came to me thanks to
the owner’s folly and a pair of threes.”
    Jake almost laughed at the bartender’s amazed
expression.
    “You mean she’s yours? And you won her in a
poker game?”
    “She’s mine, all right, Pug. Every inch of
her canvas.”
    Pug slammed the flat of his hand down on the
bar, his face split with an incredulous grin. “Well, I’ll be damned
for a one-eyed dog! She’s really yours? What’s her name?”
    “The Katherine Kirkland .”
    Obviously impressed, Pug straightened his
stained white apron and back up to salute him. “So it’s Captain
Jake, is it? And a tycoon, too? I’m surprised you’d want to come
back to the old Blue Mermaid.”
    “Come on, Pug,” Jake mumbled, slightly
embarrassed. “I’m not any different. And I’m sure as hell not a
tycoon.”
    Pug punched him in the shoulder, his smile
undimmed. “I’ll bet your old man is proud of you. What did he
say?”
    Jake looked away and drained his glass. “I
haven’t seen him.”
    “You probably will while you’re in port. You
might even catch him in here—the rheumatism keeps Ethan on shore
most of the time now.” Pug poured them both another drink.
    Jake sipped this one more slowly. With his
stomach empty, that first shot had gone straight to his head.
“Things weren’t so good between Pop and me before I left. You know
that.”
    “Yeah, I know. He didn’t like the company you
were keeping, hanging around up at Brody Sullivan’s house, if I
recollect.”
    Jake took another drink of scotch. “That and
some other things.”
    Pug glanced at him, then pushed a bar rag
down a short length of countertop between them. “He meant well, but
you and him were too much alike to keep from butting heads. To him,
you being friends with Quinn was bad enough, but wanting to leave
Astoria . . .” Pug shook his head, letting the
sentence hang unfinished.
    Jake wasn’t comfortable with this topic. He
and Pop were nothing alike. A familiar pain, a dull anguish he had
believed healed long ago, suddenly rose in his chest. His thoughts
turned down old paths he’d rather they not take. Especially when he
thought of the reason that had driven him to leave Astoria in the
first place. The echo of arguments and accusations rang through his
memory: Pop’s voice raised in fury, Jake’s own voice shouting back,
an image of his father’s set, angry face.
    Changing the subject, Jake said, “Can a man
still buy a meal in here? I haven’t eaten since daybreak.”
    Pug’s face took on the expression of a
concerned hen. “Anything you want, we can cook it for you. You want
oysters? We got oysters. Steak? Fish? Ham? The food isn’t fancy,
but it’s good.”
    “A steak would be fine. I haven’t had one in
weeks.”
    “You got it, and all the trimmings.” Pug
turned toward the kitchen door. “Jimmy!” he shouted.
    No one appeared.
    Pug shouted for his cook again. “Jimmy, damn
it!” He turned to Jake. “He’s a nice kid and a good cook. Came from
Piraeus by way of a Lisbon steamer. But he hasn’t got much English,
and I don’t know any Greek except for swear words.” After a third
try, Pug went to the kitchen himself, yelling to Jimmy in his
limited Greek.
    Jake grinned, recognizing every curse. He’d
worked with a few Greek sailors himself. Good old Pug—except for
some gray hair he hadn’t changed one bit, and Jake was glad for
that.
    He nursed his drink while he waited for his
dinner, drawing solace from the fuzzy, relaxed comfort the whiskey
gave him. That made it easier to push thoughts about Pop to the
corner of his mind for the time being.
    But the chief cause of their old
arguments—well, she was as clear as ever. How would she view him
now? If China Sullivan saw him today, captain and owner of his own
ship, would she still look down her nose at him? Or would she
instead see him for the man he’d become?
    Now and then he glanced at the mirror on the
back bar, casually watching the people