Page 30 of Forbidden Girl

“Yeah, and I’d toss it into the harbor like English tea if it meant I got to be with you.” She squeezes me tighter to her side. “This is the wildest conversation I’ve ever had naked.”

We both fall to pieces laughing. About how unbelievable our lives are; about how unlikely a romance like ours is to exist, much less thrive; about the unfettered audacity we both have to want it so badly that we’d do anything, give up everything, just to keep it.

“Jesus Christ, we’re fucked,” Rowan says once she’s composed herself.

“Thoroughly.”

“I’d like to stop thinking and just… go see some goddamn whales.”

“That’s the best idea ever. I’m one thousand percent on board.”

“Good.” She kisses me hard, grimacing as she pulls away. “For real, we need to brush our teeth.”

And then, like two little girls playing in a park, we’re laughing uncontrollably again.

FOURTEEN

ROWAN

I don’t like the schedule, or the size of the crowd waiting for the next tour liner to depart. I see a middle-aged guy down the dock, mounting fishing poles to the back of a Stratos single-engine cuddy cabin boat, and am struck with an idea.

“Come on.” I grab Jules’s hand and steer her toward the slip. “Hey, man, how are you?” I ask the guy.

He looks up from his task. “Fine. You?”

“Good, thanks. I’m Rowan; this is my girlfriend, Jules.” Jules gives him a little wave. He grins at her.

“Kevin.” He thrusts his hand out for a shake, and I oblige him.

“Nice to meet you, Kevin. We were hoping to do a whale watching tour, but it seems wicked crowded. Any chance you do charters?”

“I do, but it looks like a good fishing day,” he says.

Jules purses her lips to keep herself from smiling. She knows me too well. On the rare occasion I want something, I get it. She calls it my “can’t stop, won’t stop energy.” She’s seen it exactly four times: Right now with Kevin, once when a parking attendant tried to close up the public garage we’d parked in to have sex, the other day when I paid off the restroom attendant at the Harbor Hotel so we could have sex in the bathroom, and two months ago, the first time we kissed. She fought so hard against the longing, trying to see us as Calloway vs. Monaghan. I fought harder to get her to see us as Juliet and Rowan.

“How much will it cost to make it look like a good whale watching day?” I fish a stack of bills from the back pocket of my jeans. For someone who advocates bank accounts, I sure the fuck don’t take my own advice sometimes.

“Um…” I watch him try to do math in his head.

Bro, just hit me with a number. It ain’t rocket science. “A thousand for four hours sound fair?”

“Yes.”

That was easy. He mumbles something about paperwork. I can’t be bothered with any of that shit; I count out a grand and pass it to him. He examines the money, motions us onto the deck. I get on first, then help Jules on board.

He unropes us from the slip and it becomes evident that Jules does not have sea legs. She grabs hold of my shoulders as we motor away from the pier. “Oh, babygirl, you’re not a water sports person.”

“Correction, I’m not a small boat person. I’m a cruise ship person. Like, the city-sized ones big enough to have water parks on them.”

I hug her. “Uh oh, no lido deck here. If you start to feel seasick?—”

“No. I refuse to throw up.”

“There’s no shame in it.”

“Rowan, we’re Irish, yes there is!”

“That only goes for holding your liquor, silly goose.”

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