“Your account is overdue, Miss Allie.” Dino the grocer said this pleasantly enough as he rang up her current purchases early Monday morning, but a thread of worry underlay his reminder.

A lot of people had voiced doubts that she could continue to run the charter service by herself. When Johnny had been strong and vibrant-until as recently as a couple of years ago, in fact-Remington Charters had made plenty of money, enough that Johnny could cover his bills and pay Allie a decent salary. He’d also allowed her to sleep in the V-berth, which meant she had socked away savings instead of spending all her salary on rent.

But as Johnny had weakened, so had the finances. Johnny had urged her to find another job where she could earn what she was worth, but she hadn’t even considered leaving him, not when he had no family to take care of him. Pat, his only love, had died many years ago. They’d never had kids, and he’d never remarried.

So she’d stuck by him, took care of him and buried him. Once a decent interval had passed, she’d started taking on charter trips again, after spending more than she could afford to have both engines rebuilt. But business was sparse, and she couldn’t take on the large parties like before-she couldn’t coach more than four fishermen and serve snacks and captain the boat.

Still, the busy tourist season was about to begin and she was optimistic that she could turn a financial corner soon. Once she cleared the most immediate debts and did some maintenance on the boat, she could hire an assistant, get the Web site back up, do some advertising.