"Tomas sits in," Imani said. "Destin does not. Destin has a boat to run. Keon does not. Keon is not responsible for educating a broker."
"Agreed," Frank said. He hesitated, then added, "For what it's worth, I should have pushed harder in March when the committee tried to bury the apprenticeship clause in an appendix. I told myself the signature was enough. Signatures aren't culture."
Imani studied him. Frank was not asking for absolution either. He was naming a failure with the same bluntness he used for shoals. "Then use Thursday," she said. "Use Wednesday. Use the ninety-day guest-privilege rule you drafted and never publicized. I read it in the agreement packet. It's useless if it stays in a drawer."
Frank almost smiled. "You read the whole packet."
"I sign things," Imani said. "I read what I sign."
Outside, walking back along the boards, she passed slip C-14. Grant's boat was a neat forty-two-foot cruiser named Second Draft, which she found almost funny and then not funny at all. A woman in a sunhat was wiping the stainless. Valerie, probably. Imani did not stop. She owed Valerie neither a nod nor a cold shoulder; she owed herself the conservation of energy.
On Infinity Liquid, Yara caught her at the passerelle. "The overnight guests left a tip envelope. Destin wants to know the split for apprentices this season."
"Same as we published," Imani said. "No special cases. Special cases become resentments."
Yara hesitated. "Keon asked if Mr. Holbrook was going to be around the docks a lot."
"Tell Keon the docks are public under harbor rules, and his job is the boat," Imani said. Then, softer: "And tell him he can come to me if Holbrook speaks to him. Not if. When. People like that test the edges."
Yara's eyes were steady. "I already told him."
Imani felt something in her chest loosen and tighten at once. This was the part of ownership nobody put in the pitch decks: not the liens, not the insurance, not even the racism in its blunt forms, but the constant small labor of making sure the young ones did not learn to swallow glass and call it professionalism.