“Yes, right?” I squeezed her arm. “I like you, Feish. Maybe we can be friends.”

She startled. “I have no friends.”

Maybe it was the kava kava running through my veins, but I was feeling all soft and squishy, “That’s not good. I don’t have friends either.”

“Friend,” Robert said from behind us. I waved a hand in his direction.

“I’ll amend that to girlfriends. I don’t have a girlfriend.”

Feish looked sideways at me. “I’m ugly to humans.”

I shrugged. “I’m overweight and apparently past my prime. So, they don’t much credit me either.”

“You are pretty to humans,” Feish said.

I frowned. “No, I don’t think so. Especially not to the men. I speak my mind. They say they want that, but that’s not really true. That negates any amount of straight teeth or green eyes.” I pointed at my own eyes and jabbed myself. “Ouch.” Note to self, don’t poke yourself in the eye. Yes, the kava kava was definitely kicking in high gear.

She sighed. “Men are strange. Men of the river or men on the land.”

I lifted my teacup and downed the last of it. From there on out, things got rather blurry. Feish loaded me into a boat (I think), and then we drove down the river at high speed while I sang “Row, row, row your boat” (I think), and then we glided down a small tributary where the trees hung low over the water’s edge where the Spanish moss was almost within reach.

“Stay in the boat,” Feish snapped, grabbing my belt and yanking me back into the seat. “You want to fall in with the alligators?”

I blinked a couple times and a splash of water to the face snapped me out of the worst of it. “Was I singing?”

“Yes. And talking about the boss’s ass.” Feish grimaced. “Please don’t do that. I don’t like seeing it on display.”

The kava kava must still have been in play because my mouth opened, and a question popped out. “Are you two a couple? You and Crash doing it?” Yup, definitely the kava kava working overtime. Who said “doing it” anymore?

The boat motor slowed as her hand eased off the throttle. Her lips twisted into what I suppose would make for a fish grimace. “Me and Boss? Gods of the sea, no! He’s very ugly to me, and I don’t like his temper. Too mercurial.”

“But you’re all protective of him,” I pointed out. “I thought it was because I was a woman in your territory?” Damn, I was getting bad at reading people apparently.

Feish docked the boat against a log, stepped out and held it steady. “Here is your drop-off point. Follow this trail. But watch for booby traps.”

“No, you tell me, why didn’t you like me?” I kept my butt in the boat. “Poison, remember?”