“I don’t think you’ll need to worry about it, but since we’ll be on a boat, I thought it was important to tell you.”
“Are we going on R.J.’s boat?”
“It’s my boat.” He snickered.
“Yesterday, when you gave me the ride up the driveway, you called R.J. a douche.” He didn’t respond. I let a few moments go by. “Jamie?”
“He can be, but he wasn’t himself in that interview. I think it was a case of paranoia, to be honest with you.”
“He had a funny way of showing it . . . by hitting on me?”
Shaking his head back and forth, he said, “I know, he was an idiot. R.J. usually tries to do the right thing, but sometimes it just backfires.”
I quietly watched Jamie for a few minutes and studied his tattoos as he turned the steering wheel.
“Where did you get your tattoos? They all look different.”
“I’ve gotten them all over the world. I traveled a lot after college.”
“They’re really interesting. Not typical at all. Do they mean anything?”
“Yes. Some do.” He looked over, wearing a small, sad smile, so I decided to drop the subject.
“Where are we going, exactly?”
“We’re sailing out of Sausalito. That’s where I keep my boat. We’re almost there.”
The sun was moving lower in the sky and the air was much cooler when we stepped onto the docks in Sausalito. “There she is.” He pointed to what looked like a thirty-foot standard keel sailboat. When I got closer, I noticed that it was an older boat with beautiful, polished wood decking, sleek lines, and a very tall mast.
Once we reached the boat, Jamie immediately started unhooking cords and coiling up lines on the dock. He unhooked the safety cable and stepped on board easily, then turned and held out his hand for me. “Step up on the block there, Katy, and then onto the boat. You can have a seat. I need to get a few things ready.” He gestured toward a bench in the cockpit behind the large steering wheel. I watched as he removed covers from the rolled-up sails, hooked lines, and then removed the door leading into the bedroom below. He went down the ladder and then returned a few moments later with a blanket and red wine in a stemless glass.
“Here you are. It’s going to be really chilly out on the water.”
“I feel so spoiled. Is this what you do for all the ladies who visit R. J. Lawson Winery?”
“Hardly,” he said as he continued setting things up and tugging at lines. “I usually sail with Guillermo, sometimes Susan or her son. I don’t really like going out alone, but I’ll go on short runs with just Chelsea once in a while.”
“Cute. She hates me, by the way.”
“Maybe she’s jealous of you.”
“Are we really having this conversation about a dog?”
“She’s like a person. You said it yourself.”
“True. So tell me about the boat. How long have you had it? How long have you been sailing?”
“I learned how to sail as a kid with my dad up north, but it wasn’t until last year that I had a boat of my own. I restored this beauty. I bought her for fifteen hundred dollars last year and spent three months bringing her back to life.”
“Why am I not surprised? What’s her name?”
“Heartbeats.”
“Why?”
“You’ll see.”
The sun was setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge. To say it was picturesque would be a gross understatement. I was in awe. Jamie backed the boat out of the slip and then moved forward out of the channel to the open water.
“Katy, what do you know about sailing?” His back was to me.
“Nothing. I’ve never even been on a sailboat.”
“You’re kidding. Please tell me you know how to swim.”
“Of course I do.”
“Well, I don’t think you’ll want to swim in this water, but it’s good that you know how. The life vests are under your seat just in case, and there’s a little emergency beacon and radio that you can turn on if something happens to me.”
“That sounds very scary.”
“Everything will be fine.”
“What shall I call you? Captain Jamie?”
“Or Captain Fantastic. Either one will do.” He turned to me and smiled.
Once we were in the open water, Jamie stepped aside and said, “Okay, your turn to steer.”
“Me?” I said with a shriek.
“Yes, I need to raise the sails. We’re going to turn into the wind. See the arrow up at the top of the mast?” He pointed up.