Page 34 of Faking It at Sea

So, when I woke the next morning to daylight streaming through the sheer curtains and an empty bed beside me, I wasn’t ready for the hollow ache that threatened to swallow me whole.

I wasn’t a fool. I knew June asked for a one-night fling to get me out of her system, but all last night did was reinforce that she was it for me.

That was why I flew out of bed and threw on the same shorts I’d been wearing the day before. I shoved my arms back in the sleeves of my dress shirt because it was the first fucking thing I could find and raced up to her deck with a lump in my throat that was roughly the size of my heart.

There was just one problem, I didn’t know which suite was hers. I didn’t have her phone number. All I knew was her name, and when I walked down the barren passageway, housekeeping was already hard at work in a couple of the rooms.

My stomach dropped.Please tell me I didn’t miss her.

I caught the attention of a small woman pushing a cart of supplies between rooms. “Has everyone from this deck already disembarked?”

She nodded. “Disembarkation for suites began at seven a.m.”

“What time is it now?”

She glanced at the bulky black watch on her left wrist. “Eight-thirty.”

Pain bloomed in my chest.What the hell am I supposed to do now?

By the time I made it back to Colorado the following day, I’d almost convinced myself that things had turned out the way they were supposed to. I might not have said the words, but unlessshe was oblivious to the signs, there was no way she didn’t know how I felt.

June, on the other hand, had remained steadfast in her mission. After all, she was the one who proposed the fake relationship. She imposed the one night limit. And she was the one who snuck out without so much as a goodbye.

Regardless of how twisted up I might be about the whole mess, I was the idiot who fucked up by falling for a woman who clearly wasn’t interested in more.

13

JUNE

“Oh my god,” Missy huffed. “Just admit it.”

I glared at her across my kitchen table. “There’s nothing to admit.”

“Bullshit.”

We stared at each other for a ridiculous amount of time before I gave up and shifted my gaze to the sliding glass doors leading out to my balcony. My wooden chair felt like stone beneath me, and despite the light spilling in through the windows, it felt too dark for the middle of the day.

In truth, since returning home after the cruise, nothing in my life had felt right. Even my time at the wildlife rescue couldn’t fill the emptiness.

“See?” Missy said, pointing her manicured finger at me. “You’re too stubborn to lose a staring contest when you know you’re right.”

I rolled my eyes. “Women in their thirties do not have staring contests with other women.”

“You slept with him, June.”

A fact I now regretted sharing with her. “It was one night. Can’t I have just one freaking one-night stand?”

“Please, we both know you’re not that kind of woman.”

“Maybe I am. People change.”

“Not like this.” She leaned back in her chair and tapped her French tips on the polished wood. “He was what, the fourth guy you’ve ever slept with?”

“Now you’re tracking my body count?” When she just stared at me, I shook my head. “Let it go, Missy.”

“Like you let him go?”

I winced. “Low blow.”

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