Five for Forever by Alex Ames Read Free Book Online Page A

former production floor or boathouse. “It’s a long-term rental, they say, on a private estate,” Josh said. “Direct deposit, every month for the last thirty years. Thirty years! Isn’t that crazy!”
    “Know the size of the boat? Judging from what we see here it must be over forty feet,” Hal estimated.
    Josh checked in his email. “John’s son said about sixty feet. Quite a big boat. For a wooden one, I guess.”
    “Size doesn’t matter when it comes to wooden boats. Much longer boats were in existence,” Hal remarked.
    “Wow!” Rick said, and Hal held his breath. As the video panned out and the grandson climbed onto some ladder or big box to change perspective, they saw more of everything. The space was almost completely filled with a yacht made of brown wood. Even though the picture was not optimal quality, you could see rotten wood, holes in the hull, and everything metal either rusted or covered with some sort of sheen. What excited the two wood builders was the design. A sixty-foot yacht with a shape that couldn’t be described as anything other than unique—the way the keel line ran from the bottom as thinly as possible up to where the main body became wide for the last sixty inches or so.
    “I guessed right. You guys know a beauty when you see it,” Josh said, observing their reactions.
    Hal pointed at the screen. “Elegance, pure elegance. It was made for one thing only: speed, speed, speed.”
    “This baby is big, but it will react like a boat half its size,” Rick said. “The slightest pull of the rudder will turn it around; it will dance over waves instead of fighting them.”

Louise
    Louise listened to the boat talk while sitting behind the other desk in the room, which clearly belonged to Rick Flint. Where Hal’s desk was pure post-tornado, Rick’s had a clear structure of clean heaps of paper, probably one for each current project. She studied the family pictures beside the big computer monitor. Four kids, can you believe it? So sweet, especially the little one. And a lovely wife. You are a long way away from that picture at thirty-six, Lou-baby, she thought.
    “Josh, you have something very special here. Broken, but special,” Rick summarized. The camera had made a complete walk around the yacht. As the structure had to be over ten feet high, it could only capture the underside view; no deck structure nor interior was visible.
    “The photos show a little bit more,” Josh said, and Hal began scrolling through.
    The three men were scrutinizing the photos, zooming in here and there, oohing and aahing in various places over “the lines” and “the prospect of sailing her on a stormy day.”
    “You guys sound like you’re poring over Taylor Swift nudes,” Louise said from her side of the desk.
    Hal was looking up. “You got some?”
    “You are not serious, right?” Louise stared at him.
    “Every male is serious about TS,” Hal defended himself.
    “Especially in the nude.” Josh nodded seriously.
    “And it’s a fact,” Rick added.
    “Guys! Maybe she’ll reconsider her stance on that topic after I’ll tell her when we have lunch on Thursday,” Louise said. And with a nod to the pictures in front of her, she looked at Rick and added, “And I’ll tell your wife.”
    “If you do, make sure to tell her that I love her,” Rick said, but without a smile.
    “I will,” Louise said, but she saw that she had hit a touchy spot, as Hal was cringing and giving his partner a look.
    “So, guys, back to the real beauty here.” Josh pointed at the screen. “What would be the course of action if I want to see this baby in the water by summer?”
    Hal and Rick looked at each other.
    “You tell him or me?” Rick said, shrugging at Hal. “It’s no problem at all, Josh. If we are talking summer next year. Or the year after.”
    “You guys need a year and half to repair a boat? Or maybe even longer?” Josh asked incredulously. “You are aware that money is no objective