The bright sun made a blue ocean ripple with gold as they walked along the embarcadero the next day. Ross pointed out a few of the sailboats in their slips as ones he'd crewed on when he was young, giving her a background on different races won and races lost.
As they approached a yacht that seemed to gleam as though it's owner spent every hour of the say polishing it to perfection, a shaggy head of hair rose from the cabin and a voice called out a greeting.
"Hey Ross." The young man grinned and waved. "Haven't seen you in ages. What are you doing in this part of town? Slummin'?"
"That handsome man there is my cousin Tag Carrington," Ross told her, pointing to him. "He's a good example of what I was talking about." He grinned at his cousin. "Tag, meet Charity Ames."
Tag gave her a bow. "Pleased to meet you, beautiful lady. I hope Ross is treating you well?"
She smiled and nodded. "About as well as can be expected," she said.
A tiny tot with a head of blond curls appeared beside him, looking at them curiously.
"Is that Mickey's little girl?" Ross asked.
She nodded vigorously before Tag even had time to answer.
"Yeah," he said. "It's Meggie alright."
"I'm Daddy's girl, too," the four year old lisped very seriously.
They all laughed and Tag called up to Ross, "We're heading out to sea. Want to go along? We'll be back by sundown."
Ross shook his head. "Thanks, but we're just on a lunch break." He raised an eyebrow and his expression was evidence that he was about to fire a barbed comment. "We actually have real jobs, where people expect us to get things done, and we have to get back to them."
Charity gasped and pulled on Ross's arm, but Tag only groaned as though he'd been hit by a lethal shot, then shook his head and called back, "Some of us know how to work, and some of us know how to live. I guess you know which one I've always chosen."
Ross laughed and Charity could see that this was a long-standing tug-of-war between them. Ross waved at Tag and Meggie and they began to stroll back up the walkway to the area where stores and small cafes lined the waterfront.
"Now you see?" he said. "Does Tag look like a rich Carrington?"
"Not really," she admitted. "But he does have a yacht."
"They live on that boat, he and Meggie and Meggie's mom, Mickey, the woman he married about a year ago." He made a sweeping gesture as he pointed out the café ahead of them. Mickey's on the Bay said a large sign out front.