James Colley had his failings. He was stubborn. Sometimes he did dumb stuff. And Ben was still not on board with his decision to work on one of those blasted trawlers. But he could be disarmingly honest and straightforward and Ben liked that about him.

With some effort, he sat down behind his son-in-law. "I take it that's what the bottle's about?" he asked instead. Once upon a time, he would have approached the topic more aggressively - probably emptied the bottle into the harbour, and called James every name under the sun for turning to drink while he had a family to think of; threatened him with what he would do if he saw it again. But James was just a little older than Simon would have been now... That was enough to give him pause whenever he felt the anger rise.