Cruising right along… Ch. 3 of "The Abalone Shell"

I am loving how easily this story is coming together. After fighting one book for six months last year (The Road to Collins, I'm looking at you), it feels great that the words are just flowing. For a writer, there are few better feelings in the world.
Anyhow, here's the third chapter of The Abalone Shell. This follows right after the last scene I posted (I'm calling them chapters from here on out, because I decided to go with a one-scene-one-chapter format rather than a two-scenes-per-chapter...