Home > By The Light of Dawn(2)

By The Light of Dawn(2)
Author: Adrienne Wilder

Joey glanced down at the form, then held out a clipboard to me. “You’ll need to sign here.”

It was a typical yes-this-is-my-property-no-I-won’t-sue-your-grandkids form. The name of the boat’s owner had been typed into the first and last lines. I handed it back. “Morgan’s boat, not mine.”

The man laughed.

I didn’t laugh.

Morgan didn’t either.

“Look, Mister. I need the person who arranged for the pickup to sign off on it so no one can go say’n we didn’t pick it up.”

I tilted my head at Morgan. “And there he is.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope.”

“He called and arranged for pick up.” It was a dare, not a question.

“Well, the dog didn’t call, and since I had no idea this was even happening…” I directed him with my spatula.

The guy gave me a look, one I’d gotten more than once when a stranger underestimated Morgan.

With great reluctance and while glaring at me, the guy handed Morgan the clipboard and pen.

Morgan took it and stared at the form. He tapped the pen against the clipboard. He turned it one way, then the next, over, then back upright.

“What are you looking for?”

“Making sure I had it right side up.”

Joey gave Bill another desperate look. Bill went on checking the tie-down straps like the man was invisible.

“It’s okay, I figured it out.” Then Morgan stared some more.

Joey crossed his arms and uncrossed them.

Morgan continued to stare.

“You gonna sign or not?” Joey took off his hat and scrubbed a hand through his hair.

“Hang on, I’m just trying to remember how to spell my name.”

“You’re trying to…” Joey huffed out a breath and rolled a look up at the sky.

Morgan tilted his head at the truck driver but kept his eyes on the ground. “I’m sorry this is taking so long. It’s hard to remember sometimes. Too many letters.”

The guy’s mouth fell open, and he seemed to have trouble closing it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it. Grant?” Morgan set the tip of the pen on the line. “Doesn’t my name start with an M?”

I had no idea where he was going with this, but that was nothing new. “Yup.”

Morgan carefully drew out the letter M with exaggerated care. “Then an O.”

“Sounds about right.”

“B?” Morgan shook his head. “R. It’s an R. R and B look a lot alike, you know. I get those switched around sometimes.”

The truck driver shuffled his feet.

Morgan penned the next letter. “G?”

“Yeah, it’s a G.”

Joey leaned my way, “I’m not sure if that’s legal if he signs it.”

“Why not?” I widened my eyes and gave him my best clueless expression, which was nothing compared to the face Morgan could pull. But I’d been practicing.

“Well…he’s…”

“What?”

“You know…”

“No, I don’t.”

The guy’s face turned a shade of pink that clashed with his hair. “Look, I just gotta make sure…”

“What comes after the A?” Morgan tapped the pen against his temple. “No, wait, I got it.” He concentrated on the paper again.

“We’re good at our jobs,” Joey said. “But it don’t mean something can’t go wrong, and if it goes wrong, I need someone who’s legally able to sign that form.”

“Morgan’s legal. Hell, he’s twenty-five.”

“Twenty-six in another few months.” Morgan jerked his right shoulder. “That’s a two and a six. Side by side, not together, you know, so they’d make eight.”

“That’s not what I meant.” The guy gritted his teeth.

“Oh?” I could play dumb hick with the best of them.

“Okay, all done.” Morgan held out the form. His name in big kindergarten letters across the signature line. “See, I spelled everything right.” He gave the clipboard back to Joey. “Now it’s your turn, you have to sign your name that you witnessed it. Witness that means you saw me write my name with your own eyes. Not someone else’s, but yours.” Morgan peered over his shoulder.

“Uh, yeah.” The guy signed the paper and tore off one of the carbon copies. He tried to give it to me, but I pretended not to notice. He frowned at me and gave it Morgan.

The guy started to turn.

“Wait,” Morgan said.

“What?”

Morgan turned the sheet around and pointed to the guy’s name. “This isn’t right.”

“What do you mean, it’s not right?”

“You’re supposed to sign it.”

“I did sign it.”

Morgan glanced at the paper and shook his head. “But you’re supposed to sign it with your name.”

“That is my name.”

“No, it’s not.”

Joey tensed up. “Look, I know my name, so how the hell can it be wrong?”

Morgan gave the paper to the guy and tapped the line where he’d signed his name. “Because that’s not how you spell asshole.”

Joey’s face darkened to a shade close to magenta. Bill brayed like a mule, and Joey snarled at us, then his companion, before storming off.

Dog sat beside Morgan regarding the two men with the kind of serious expression that did not belong on the face of any animal.

“That was mean.” I bumped Morgan with my elbow.

“Maybe.”

“No, it was definitely mean.”

“And your biscuits are burning.”

Before I could ask him what he meant, the smoke alarm screamed in the house and a puff of black escaped from behind the screen of the back porch.

“Son-of-a-bitch.” I shot toward the house.

The scent of scorched grease clogged the air with clouds of gray. There were no actual flames, but breakfast had been reduced to small charred lumps. I got the pans off the stove and another trickle of black eased from the vent hole on the back burner.

I yanked open the oven.

Once again, Morgan was right. My biscuits had burned.

 

 

Chapter Two

 

 

I scraped the remnants of breakfast out of the skillet while watching Morgan through the kitchen window pay the truck driver.

They exchanged a few words, and Morgan headed back toward the house.

I put the pans into the sink to let them soak.

Morgan walked into the kitchen. “They said they should have the Starry Night there by tomorrow morning. You should go pack. We need to leave by noon. Otherwise, they’ll get too far ahead of us, and I want to make sure they don’t do something dumb like drop my boat.”

I leaned against the counter. “You can’t put it in the water until it's licensed and registered by the state.”

“It can be licensed here and Florida will honor it. Which is why I had fish and game come out and look it over.”

“When?”

“Somewhere between last week and this week, probably Monday. If you’d pay attention more, you’d have known that.” He flashed me a smile. “In your defense, you were in Maysville getting that fancy new cell phone.”

Hot Books
» House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)
» A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire
» From Blood and Ash (Blood And Ash #1)
» A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime
» Deviant King (Royal Elite #1)
» Den of Vipers
» House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2)
» The Queen of Nothing (The Folk of the Air #
» Sweet Temptation
» The Sweetest Oblivion (Made #1)
» Chasing Cassandra (The Ravenels #6)
» Wreck & Ruin
» Steel Princess (Royal Elite #2)
» Twisted Hate (Twisted #3)
» The Play (Briar U Book 3)