Love on Loch Ness Read Free

to ya, sista," Tom muttered under his breath and left for the cabin on the boat, as if he couldn't stand to be on the same deck as a nonbeliever.
    Gail bristled, sending lasers at his back.
    Flynn patted her on the back. "He's a rough-mannered guy, but I'm sure he'll grow to like ye as he gets to know ye."
    "No thanks." Gail stepped away from his touch. "I'm just here to do my job. Not make friends."
    "O-kay." Flynn raised an eyebrow in disbelief, then turned away to hide his disappointment. Somehow, being hard to get only made him like her more. He was a cryptozoologist. Mystery lured him, and Gail was a puzzle he wanted to solve. Something drove her to create such a hard exterior, such blatant skepticism. What was the secret behind Gail Phillips?
    Watching Gail set up her equipment from the corner of his vision, Flynn untied the anchor to the dock and jogged to the controls in the cabin. The motor hummed as the boat slowly backed into the open water. The rise and fall of the waves under his feet made Flynn feel as if he was home. He'd spent thousands of nights just like this, scouring the lake waters and watching the stars twinkle like ambivalent observers or eager cheerleaders egging him on. The atmosphere depended on the night and his mood.
    Low clouds on the horizon obscured the sunset, bringing on the gray twilight sooner than expected. A full moon peeked through the clouds and hung in the sky like a silver coin, reflecting on the black waters. Flynn maneuvered to the center of the inlet by their cabin, from which the strange, guttural calls most frequently emanated. He dropped anchor, casting his boat lights on the waters. The cool night air gave him an exciting sense of anticipation as he joined Gail at her equipment.
    "So you're a captain as well?" Gail looked him up and down with what appeared to be a new level of respect.
    "I run tours on Loch Ness. This is my boat, the Nessie ."
    Gail glanced at the wind-battered paint crusting on the cabin and the cracked wood under her feet. He expected some sort of wisecrack, but instead she smiled. "I like it. It's got character."
    Makes sense a marine biologist would like boats. Flynn shrugged as his neck grew hot. "Gotta do something to pay the bills."
    "I have a boat too. It's a forty-two foot power boat. I bought the vessel with grant money to research the effect global warming has on the reproductive patterns of tuna." She pursed her lips. "Can't steer it, though, so the dead boat sits in Boston's Back Bay. The captain I hired just quit."
    Was Gail hard to work for? Was he an ex-boyfriend? Flynn leaned on the railing as if this were just small talk when he was truly interested in getting to know more about her. "Why'd he quit?"
    Gail flipped a switch and the screens on her equipment blinked to life. "He retired."
    "Oh." An older guy. Not a boyfriend. Somehow, he was placated. "So, what's all this stuff?"
    "Sonar and camera equipment." She pointed to a torpedo-shaped vessel the size of his leg. "This is a high-quality drop camera system. It'll take pictures of the bottom."
    Flynn's eyes widened.
    Gail held up a finger. "Don't get your hopes up. Because of the rotting vegetation, I doubt we'll capture anything exceptional."
    Flynn had struggled over the years to photograph anything because of the peat moss. He'd tried a slew of underwater cameras in his day. "If you don't think anything is down there, then what are you looking for?"
    "Fake fins, plastic humps, any proof of hoaxers." She moved to a box with a small screen. "This is a digital sub-bottom transmitter. The device can send out and receive sonar echoes."
    "You mean you can talk to Nessie?"
    "Or whatever else is down there, yes."
    Flynn traced his finger across the screen. "That does seem helpful."
    "Only if something's there to talk back. I've used the sonar waves on dolphins before, but never a mythical creature."
    "She'll talk back. Nessie's lonely. She's the last one of her kind."
    Gail stopped fiddling with the