“I’m doing fine, Maggie,” said Eva, sitting down on the worn wicker rocker as she held the smartphone to her ear. The view of the water always made her exhale. She knew it had to be good for the tiny life growing inside her.

“Of course I’ve been to the doctor… yes, I’m going to Annapolis… oh right, like there would be an OB/GYN on the island!? There isn’t even a veterinarian! Or any doctor! I’m lucky to even be on the phone with you right now since they haven’t even turned on the damn cell tower yet… Who knows?… Yeah, they built it but they never activated it… Yeah, that’s phone companies for you. When are you coming down so we can go over this wedding stuff?... Oh great!... I’d love to have a girls’ weekend…. Yes, see if Lisa can come!... We can work on the bridal shower… a WHAT?... No, I don’t want to talk about a baby shower… Yes, I guess you can call it denial. I’ve decided to stay in a tiny bubble of denial for a few more weeks until ‘maternity clothes’ becomes an unavoidable part of my vocabulary. I will force myself to deal with everything then… Well, I’m just about to tell him..... Oh, well, um, no, he doesn’t know either…. Because I don’t know… maternity clothes policy and denial, remember?! I have to wear maternity clothes to my sons’ high school graduation, Jesus effing Christ. Yeah, you and Lisa can help me deal with my lifepocalypse when you come down… OK… Love you, too, Maggie. Bye for now.”

Eva gently rubbed her hand across her ever-slightly-bumped belly and pushed the “end” button on her iPhone 6—she’d switched to the friendlier smartphone when she’d retired from her corporate America rat race in favor of the slower-paced lifestyle of consulting law and island life. She opened the tide app and checked the low tide schedule. She didn’t know how long in the pregnancy she would be able to go sea glass hunting with Jo—or at least sea glass bending. She figured they’d still walk the island’s few remaining beaches together and Jo would just get all the good pieces while she was along for the fresh bay breeze and exercise. She was actually thinking about getting one of those scoop picker-upper things because she couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to sea glass hunt all summer long. Though they normally kayaked there, Eva couldn’t do that as easily lately so she had been telling Nathan she had a sore back and asking him to use his small skiff to take them to a nearby beach with great sea glass on it—her favorite place.

Nathan.

No sooner had she thought his name than she heard the wheels of his truck crunch across the oyster shell driveway, immediately bringing a smile to her face. Dating a man of few words had certainly come in handy in a situation where she really didn’t know which ones to use. She hadn’t exactly browsed Pinterest for adorable ways to announce her pregnancy. She’d spent weeks considering abortion. As a divorced woman over forty with twin sons graduating from high school, it really seemed like the easiest, most reasonable option. Catholic upbringing aside, her parents were dead and she really couldn’t think of a good reason to bring a child into the world.

And every time she went through that list of rational thoughts, this happened. Nathan opened the creaky wooden screen porch door and walked in. He took off his worn, fishing-gear logo baseball hat, revealing his mop of unruly salt-and-pepper hair. He took her in his arms and kissed her. She loved the feel of his prickly beard and mustache, the intensity of his dark steel blue eyes as he gazed intensely into her own mirrored dark blue ones from atop his four-inch height advantage.

“How was your day, beautiful girl?” he asked.

Always, always the first thing he did was ask about her day. One of many reasons why despite all more-than-many reasons she hadn’t been able to stop herself from falling in love with the decade-younger waterman. There were a dozen great reasons why becoming a mother wasn’t a convenient decision, and there was one reality, one truth: she was in love.

“It was just fine,” said Eva. “I’m happy to see you. How was your day on the water?”

“Busy,” said Nathan. “Still bringing in some oysters, crabs are starting to run.”

“I have some more depositions scheduled for later in the week,” said Eva. “The class action lawsuit against DNR is developing into a huge case. It’s still hard to say how far we’ll get with it, but it’s definitely lighting a fire against the state and I think it has the potential to be a real three-ring shit show.”

“It’s David and Goliath,” said Nathan, walking in to grab a beer from the fridge and returning to sit beside Eva on the porch.

“Well, then we hit them in the eye with the rock,” said Eva. “This state needs to learn they can’t bully watermen anymore with outdated, unrealistic regulatory expectations while at the same time expecting them to provide a billion dollars a year worth of seafood on the plates of Americans.”

“Uh-oh, here you go, Judge Judy…” said Nathan, smiling.

“I’d love to have my day in court with these idiots,” said Eva. “They sit in their cubicles in government buildings and issue stupid laws and regulations and have no idea what goes on in these watermen communities and how hardworking you guys are…”

“You’re right,” said Nathan. “I ran into the captain from the Delmarva fishermen’s association up at the docks in St. Mike’s today and he was talking about how much work you’ve done. Anyway, I just wanted you to know how much we appreciate… how much I …”

He paused and looked at her. “I am thankful…”

She swallowed a lump in her throat. The pro-bono work she was doing on behalf of the watermen community wasn’t just because she was in love with her boyfriend. She honestly felt connected to this place because she grew up here, because of how her parents felt about this land, and because of the centuries-long injustice inflicted by the state on a hardworking way of life with a simple goal of feeding people.

“I know,” said Eva. “You don’t have to thank me.”

She was proud to return to her community. The place she once wanted more than anything to get away from. She’d spent her whole life working to leave this place. She’d run so far and so hard—to college, to law school, to big cities and corporations and names on buildings in New York to escape the horrors of her childhood, her drunk father—but it all came back to this. You could take the girl from her home but you could never take the importance of her home and what the place meant from her heart.

“It’s sunset,” said Eva. “Take me for a boat ride, captain.”

“Always,” said Nathan. So they set out for Cattail Harbor and a sunset sail on the Lady Grace.

The wind and the water were calm as they sailed around the southernmost tip of Matthew’s Island, where the Talbot River met the Chesapeake Bay. Eva liked to sail past the Sharps Island lighthouse, the namesake for Sharps Island Inn, the spot at the southernmost point of Matthew’s Island, where Maggie and Dave would be married on Labor Day weekend. The 1882 lighthouse had floated off its foundations and five miles down the bay in an ice storm (with the lightkeepers still inside) and was now partially tilted to one side, abandoned, endangered, and for sale. It was picturesque, and Eva and Nathan liked to fantasize about having a few million dollars, fixing it up, and living in it.

Nathan anchored the boat. Eva stood and walked over to the leather captain’s seat, wrapping her hands around his neck in an embrace, admiring the sunset and the view of the lighthouse structure, leaning as it did at a dramatic angle, floating peacefully in the bay.

“I want to live in the lighthouse,” said Eva.

“I know,” said Nathan, turning to face her. He stood and kissed her. She returned the kiss eagerly. There was nothing sexier to her than Nathan in his “captain” mode: in full command of this majestic vintage boat. While she normally saw Nathan in his waterman’s working boat, this vintage sailboat, one he’d worked to rescue and restore, this was his pride and joy—he’d spent countless hours polishing its hardwoods, scavenging boatyards and the Internet to find the rare, necessary replacement parts for repair. It was where he was happiest, and she felt that in his whole attitude when he was here.

Being pregnant, though it had made her feel awful in the first few months, oddly seemed to make her want sex now. She’d learned from the doctor it was perfectly safe at this point. His kiss aroused her. It had been weeks since she had wanted sex. She felt her tender breasts swell as the Chesapeake Bay breeze blew between her and Nathan; her breath quickened. She darted her tongue into his mouth. He took her hair in his hands, brought her mouth closer. She wore an oversized T-shirt and capri leggings: standard gear lately. His hands went down her back, slipping inside her T-shirt and up the bare skin of her back. She shivered.

“That feels so good,” said Eva. “Your touch.”

“Plenty more where that came from,” said Nathan.

He reached down, taking her T-shirt in his hands, and lifted it suddenly over her head. She laughed, looking around. They were far from land, no boats anywhere in sight, anchored in the middle of the bay. There was no one to see them.

Light as a feather, he gently ran his calloused waterman’s hands down her arms, across her sides, across the tops of her breasts. Her nipples grew hard inside the silk of her pale aqua bra. She relaxed her shoulders, her head falling back, and he kissed her neck, running his tongue across her clavicle. She automatically brought her black yoga capris closer to his jeans, felt them grow tighter against her, the soft cotton of his worn T-shirt against her belly. In response, he put his hands around her waist, kissing her deeply, pulling her closer to feel his arousal. She leaned backward against the ship’s wheel, which he grabbed in the nine and three positions to steady, pinning her there for a moment as she worked her hips against his stiff dick.

His hands occupied for the moment, she now used hers to explore the outline of his dick from the outside of his jeans. She traced it with her fingers as he moaned. She slipped her ring finger inside one pocket of his jeans, finding the tip of his cock, feeling the wetness that had formed there, gently rubbing, feeling the twitching motion as he responded to her touch. He loosened his grip on the captain’s wheel, allowing her to take control of the ship. She unzipped his jeans with the other hand, inserting two fingers to rub the underside of his rock-hard arousal, reaching all the way in to gently massage his entire undercarriage area. It drove him wild. She watched as his eyes rolled back in his head, eventually closing, and he sighed with pleasure. He had dropped his hands from the wheel.

It excited her even more to see him in a state of full arousal like this. Her nipples rock hard, he looked down and seemed to enjoy seeing her this way as well. He rubbed her stiff nipple peaks, moving his hands around to her back to unlatch her bra and remove it. The bay breeze and the kneading motion of his rough fingers had her already-super-sensitive nipples aching for more. She gently rolled her grip across his penis with one hand inside his jeans, grazing her fingers across its wet tip through the pocket with the other as his whole body shuddered in response. The motion of the sailboat beneath them was gentle, rocking them as they moved against each other, barely able to contain their passion.

She dripped with wetness for him, feeling her clit now pulsing with anticipation for the moment she could match his own twitching need with hers. He lowered his hands from her breasts, reaching down to feel the wetness between her legs. He started to lower her capri pants, which she thankfully scrambled out of, letting them fall to the deck. He rubbed her clit expertly with two fingers from his right hand, keeping the fingers of his left hand in a gentle twist around her left nipple. She greeted the fingers of his right hand by pushing her hips forward toward him.

She gently lowered the waistband of his boxers and jeans, letting the items fall with the rest of their clothes to the deck. They were now ass-naked to the Chesapeake Bay and far too turned on to give a damn. She pulled him toward her to feel his hardness more closely against the softness of her ever-slight belly bump, using her fingers to rub the pre-cum between her tits.

Nathan was taller than Eva; she only had to lean down slightly to take his ramrod shaft between her swollen breasts. He squeezed his muscular ass cheeks, while Eva squeezed her tits together to form a valley for his shaft; he rocked against her for a moment while she licked and kissed his ripped abs, but wouldn’t be able to stay there long. Watching a million diamonds of the dying sunlight reflect on the water, he let his eyes close, his salt-and-pepper-topped head falling back with pleasure in the fading daylight.

He stopped, bringing her face back up to his, leaning down to kiss her. She grabbed the back of his tousled hair, desperate, lowering her hands to pull his hips against hers. She brought her aching mons against him; she needed the pressure there, she wanted him so badly.

He placed his hands around her waist, scooping her up and lifting her, turning her around, and placing her down on the wide, soft, worn leather captain’s chair atop its raised wooden platform. As he faced her, she immediately took him into her hands, bringing her lips to taste his saltiness, taking him in, but she would allow this only for a moment before stopping.

“Nathan, I need you,” said Eva. “Take me.”

The captain’s chair had sturdy leather armrests, and she gripped them, opening her legs. If he stood on the deck of the sailboat below the platform on which the pilot seat rested, he was at the perfect height to reach her. He smiled. Lowering his head, he took her in with his mouth, teasing her clit with his tongue. Standing, he placed the tip of his cock just at the opening of her velvety wetness, using his fingers to arouse her further as she arched her back to try to bring him inward. The boat’s motion was on her side as the Chesapeake Bay waves moved them closer to one another. He grazed the palms of his waterman’s hands with the lightest amount of pressure over her aching nipples and she brought her hands down, one to grab the base of his cock, bringing it to its full hardness, feeling it twitch as she ground her hips in a circular motion, around and around against the amazing pressure, the other to gently graze her fingers against his tender, sensitive skin beneath while he rocked into her.

Nathan placed one hand on the armrest to steady himself as he made love to Eva and she grabbed his ass, screaming out in pleasure as she came, came hard against his motion in time with the waves of the bay. Nathan moaned out loudly too at the sound of her bliss, unleashing all of his desire into her in an explosive orgasm.

“Oh, God, Eva,” he said. “So fucking amazing.”

“Damn right about that,” said Eva. She panted, trying to regain her breath and composure.

Nathan reached into a storage compartment for towels, handing one to her, gathering their clothes.

“I don’t want you to be cold,” he said.

“So sweet,” said Eva, putting her things back on. “We have a few more minutes before we have to sail back? Let’s sit and watch the lighthouse just for a bit.”

Nathan dressed. “Of course.” He embraced her, and they sat on the historic mahogany bench with the best view of the sun dropping toward the horizon.

“Would you raise our baby there with me?” said Eva, pointing toward the lighthouse. “If we won the lottery and fixed it up.”

“Of course I’ll raise her there with you,” said Nathan.

Eva looked at him quizzically, smiling. “You know, don’t you?” It wasn’t a question. She had spent these months worried about how to tell him. How silly. He’d known all along; of course he had.

“Of course I know,” said Nathan. “I see you every day. I just made love to you. I know your body! Your moods, your tiredness, your eating habits. I wasn’t going to talk about it until you were ready.”

“’Her?’” said Eva. “You said you’d raise ‘her’ in the lighthouse with me?”

“Oh,” said Nathan, “well that’s just an educated waterman’s guess.”

“Fifty/fifty,” said Eva. “A waterman’s guess is as good a guess as any.”

She leaned toward him, resting her head on his shoulder to watch the gorgeous colors of a Chesapeake Bay sunset: the streaks of orange and yellow and red, and the cotton candy pink and purple clouds in the sky around it. And in that moment, watching the leaning lighthouse at sunset, it was decided. This baby was part of a new family.

Eva touched her belly again, what had been her secret for so long. So few people even knew she was pregnant. Her ex-husband and two sons had found out only the weekend before when she’d asked to have a “family” dinner. She couldn’t wait any longer. Of course seventeen-year-old boys didn’t look at their mother in a way that would recognize a first trimester pregnancy, but in another month even they would’ve known the truth. And since Eva’s ex-husband was a pediatrician, the time had simply come. How humiliating was it going to be to attend her sons’ high school graduation in a maternity dress? Oy, she’d think about that much later.

The dinner had been fantastically awkward. Joe had turned bright red. You’re what? And the worst part had been the look on his face when she knew he’d been calculating whether there was any mathematical way the baby could have been his. There was most definitely not. And then to pile on the awkwardness, her son Calvin’s innocent excitement. Hey, we’re going to have a little brother or sister—that’s cool! And his more cynical brother Graham’s response, You mean half brother or sister.

Half, thought Eva, as her hand rested on her abdomen. Nathan of course would never wonder for a moment about the paternity of the baby. Why should he? He didn’t know anything about her “goodbye sex” in New York with her ex-lover the chef, Charles, whom she hadn’t even seen since. He seemed to be so far away, light years away from a past she’d left, her corporate life, its madness and money and stress traded for the peace and pace of this tiny island and a very different second half of her life.

She’d been to the obstetrician, who had explained the risks of amniocentesis, which Eva had remembered from what seemed like ages ago with the twins: miscarriage. She certainly wouldn’t risk that in order to discover the paternity of the baby and besides—she didn’t exactly have a willing participant for a blood test.

She looked over at Nathan and he smiled at her, beaming with pride, so handsome in the ending light of day.

“I have something for you,” said Nathan, returning from a small storage cabin near the cockpit to where Eva sat. “It’s just a small gift. I’ve been keeping it here in the boat, saving it for something special, your birthday maybe… but I think today might be a good day, with this pretty sunset.”

“What is it?” asked Eva, accepting the small box, pleased at the surprise.

“I just want you to know this isn’t any kind of pressure or commitment, I don’t want you to feel like it’s too much or anything,” said Nathan, “it’s just something I thought you’d like so I had it made for you, just something to remind you of how much I appreciate you and…I love you.”

Eva looked at Nathan questioningly; it was so unusual for him to do something so elaborate, to give speeches like this. She opened the box and gasped.

“Oh my God, Nathan,” said Eva, holding her hand over her chest. She took in another deep breath. “This is just amazing, and it’s the most thoughtful thing I’ve ever had anyone do for me.”

“Try it on,” said Nathan. “I brought the piece along with another one of your rings to Carter’s Jewelry one day up in Easton so she could size it, I hope it fits OK…”

“My favorite piece of red sea glass…” Eva said. “It’s perfectly stunning.”

Nathan had taken Eva’s most special beach find, a perfectly wave-tumbled, worn piece with raised round bumps (probably once an old piece of depression-era glass) shaped almost like a triangle, and had it set into a sterling silver setting, with a small diamond on either side. It made for a breathtaking piece of jewelry.

“I don’t even know what to say,” said Eva. “It’s the most beautiful thing anyone’s ever given me.”

“I’m so happy you like it,” said Nathan. “I know sea glass hunting is your favorite thing, so I thought you might like to wear your best piece, especially when there are rainy days you can’t get to the beach.”

Eva felt a wave of emotion at the thoughtfulness of the gesture, at his love for her. The red from the ring reflected the red of the fiery sunset. She put her arms around him and kissed him, so thankful for the love she had found on this tiny island.

“I love you, Nathan,” said Eva, “and I will wear this ring as a symbol of our love. Thank you for this gift. I will cherish it forever.”

“Eva, I will cherish you forever,” said Nathan. They embraced, watching the sun dip just below the horizon line on the Chesapeake Bay beside the leaning lighthouse, perfect in its imperfection.

Nathan sailed the Lady Grace back to Cattail Harbor and the pair went back to Eva’s cottage together. Nathan made sweet, gentle love to her. Eva thought about how there had been a gentle quality to their lovemaking in recent months. Now she knew why. She loved the fact that he had let her bring up the pregnancy in her own time. As he fell asleep beside her, she turned the stunning ring on her finger, its small diamonds glistening in the moonlight, and she couldn’t help but wonder once again about the baby’s paternity.

It wasn’t like she was going to ask Nathan for a blood sample, though she had actually considered lying to him and saying that because of her “advanced age” the doctor wanted to run some diagnostic tests to determine whether their combined blood types triggered any warning signs for birth defects. She’d thought about it, but she couldn’t do it. She refused to do an amniocentesis and risk miscarriage, also because of her age.

This Maury Povich/Jerry Springer “who’s your daddy” situation would have to play out on its own, she thought bitterly, as Eva rolled onto her side, away from Nathan, feeling an inner sense of shame. She wanted so badly for him to be the father.

She thought of her one golden ticket, a solution. She’d done an Internet search on paternity DNA testing and been absolutely shocked to discover how very simple it was in this day and age to find out the identity of the father of your baby. You didn’t need a blood test or an OB/GYN or a hospital. All you needed was $100 and an Amazon order and in two days with free Prime shipping, you were the proud owner of a “Quickee Paternity At-Home DNA Test Kit.” How trashy is that? Eva thought.

Sitting inside the zipped lining of a suitcase in the guest room closet of an upstairs bedroom was the test. All Eva had to do was find the courage to explain the situation to Charles in New York, ask him to do a cheek swab with a Q-tip and send it back in the mail along with her own swab, and when the time came, within three to five business days she’d know via email who was the father of her baby.