And if she knew anything about her bestie, Bobbie wouldn’t hesitate to offer to carry Lace’s child after she was finished incubating her own, if Lace was unable to do so.
Especially…
Nope.She wasn’t going to think about Vince being the father of a biological child right now. Her focus was, and should be on Inez.
Whatever else followed, would simply be icing on the cake.
“Heiger!” the evil voice she hated hearing, barked loudly from somewhere forward.
Lace closed her laptop.
Having nearly finished her current chapter, she sighed. She would havelikeda few more minutes to complete the questions, but if the day went as planned, she’d be back at it on the trip home, having all the coursework submitted by the time they docked.
She rose to her feet.
“Yes, Captain,” she responded with a strident shout, while hurrying toward the wheelhouse where he stood at the helm.
He barely glanced at her as she entered.
“Change of plan today. We’re headed to Tillie’s Bank. Word’s out there’s a big school feeding there. I thought you’d want to let your bosses know,” he clipped.
Lace bit back a moan. Tillie’s was farther south than their normal stomping grounds, so it meant a longer day, but still…
Wow.
It was actually pretty nice of the asshole; giving her a heads up.
Lace blinked, unsure of how to respond for a moment before finding her tongue. “Uh, thanks. I’ll let them know.”
True to form, the prick didn’t turn around or address her any further, which Lace took as permission to skedaddle back to her previous position.
She opened her computer and typed off a quick missive to her office, outlining the change of location for today’s data.
They’d get it fairly quickly.
With the advent of the new technology that Starlink afforded, lagging upload times from the old, traditional VSATs, or traditional satellites they’d always used at sea, no longer made speed and reliability an issue. It was just too bad she wasn’t allowed to use the technology for personal stuff. She would have loved being able to check in with Vince during the day.
Lace pressed send, and within a few minutes received a response.
Understood. Proceed as usual.
Short. To the point. But that’s how Lace liked it. Her bosses trusted her to do her job, and knew she didn’t need any micromanagement.
But since this trip to their new destination would now take a little longer…
Yup.
Lace opened up her computer and got back to it.
Four hours later, Lace was doubting the captain’s competence.
Why had they made this trip to Tillie’s Bank? Where had the man gotten his intel? There were no huge schools of tuna here, and no other fishermen were nearby, which meant no one else had “gotten the word”.
All in all, it would probably turn out to be a very boring day, but for some reason, the captain still seemed upbeat.
Very odd.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE