Waters Edge

Prologue

Edgeli Addison

My phone rang loudly in the middle of the night. "I swear to god, EJ, I will kill you," Skye complained and I picked up my phone. I didn't have a lot of contacts who would call me in the middle of the night, especially when I was on Charter.

I got out of bed, grabbing my phone and a hoodie before heading out of the cabin onto deck. It was the same time out here as in Florida so there was no way it was someone back on shore calling me about my apartment.

"This is EJ Addison," I said with a yawn.

"Edgeli, it's Easton," he said and that shocked me. I hadn't spoken to him in years and I was amazed he even still had my number after all this time.

"Why are you calling me, it's the middle of the night here?" I asked him, feeling incredibly annoyed that he couldn't have done this at a more reasonable hour.

"Dad just died."

I dropped down onto the sun bed. "Edge, you still there?" Easton asked me.

"Uh...yeah, I'm still here," I said and I wasn't sure I believed him. "What happened?" I asked him.

"He's been suffering from heart disease for a while, something finally gave out," He told me and it seemed surreal. "You need to come home, Edgeli," he said and I couldn't right now.

"I'm not even in the country right now, Easton," I told him and I couldn't just leave now, with two weeks left in the season. I also had things to sort out in Florida when I got back before I could go out to California.

"When can you get back home, Edgeli?" He asked me.

"A month maybe?" I offered, not that I particularly wanted to go back but I had to for presumably a will reading that I'd been cut out of, a funeral that I was probably about to miss anyway and some display of unity and grief with people I'd said goodbye to half a decade ago.

"You'll miss the funeral," he told me, "surely you can get grief leave for the funeral at least?" He questioned but this industry didn't work like that.

"I can't just leave mid-contract, and with the season ending in two weeks, they won't find anyone to replace me at such short notice or pay for my flight home," I told him, "if I handle some things long distance, I can maybe get there in two and a half weeks," I said but I really had said all my goodbyes when I left Neptune Waters, well most of my goodbyes at least.

"Just get here as soon as you can Edgeli," Easton demanded and hung up on me before I could argue about having my own life to sort out.

I didn't know how long I stayed out on the deck but the sun was rising when Martine, the head Steward, found me. "Why aren't you dressed and working?" She asked me, about to get real angry at me.

"My dad died last night."

And the bitchy angry face fell, "oh my god, I'm so sorry, EJ," she said and sat next to me. "How long have you been out here?" She asked me.

"I don't know," I admitted, "what time is it?" I asked her.

"Six a.m.," she said and I didn't realise how cold I was.

"Six hours then," I said, "It's weird, every night I'd go to sleep thinking that maybe one day I'd grow up and go home and see my dad but I just didn't grow up fast enough and I'm never going to see him again," I said and I didn't know how I felt about it.

"You are not working today," she decided but I wanted to work.

"I need something to do, I can't just sit around in the cabin or I'll just keep thinking about it," I told her and I just couldn't do nothing.

"Okay," she agreed, seeming to understand why I couldn't just do nothing, "you can do turn downs during meal service and I'm sure the bosun can find you something to do out of the way but you're not interacting with the charters today," she informed me, "I'm going to tell the captain and the bosun," she added and I appreciated that. I was going to have to tell Skye at some point but I wasn't ready to say it out loud to a second person just yet.