Page 14 of Sail Away with Me

There was a niggling sensation in the back of her mind, reminding her she’d heard his name mentioned with sailing or boating. Not that she knew the difference. Or maybe it was with rowing? Galvin wasn’t sure, but she knew it had to do with him and the water, which she thought was irony since his name was Sail.

And then it came to her.

“Wait, you’re the captain dude, right? The one who has some weird nickname?” She snapped her fingers, trying to remember what she’d heard the other say about . . . “Blue balls!”

Sail’s expression morphed from happy-go-lucky to utter horror. His eyes widened to the point Galvin thought they were going to pop out of socket.

Maybe she had the nickname wrong?

“Is that not your nickname?”

“Hell no,” he said, having to swallow in between words. “Why? Wh-what?”

“Are you okay?”

Sail let out a strangled breath, combined with a jumble of incoherent words. “Who told you that?”

Galvin shrugged. “Pretty sure someone at the diner mentioned it. Honestly, I’m not really sure. I wasn’t paying attention.”

He stared at her.

Was he dumbfounded she hadn’t listened clearly?

People talked a lot in the diner. If she listened fully, she’d have too many voices running through her head and wouldn’t be able to keep anything straight.

They stared at each other. It was like one of those who would blink first type of competitions, only neither of them agreed to take part. Doing so gave Galvin unsolicited minutes to really take Sail in, every inch of his flustered look. He dressed nice, especially for someone who was going to go play on a boat. Clearly, he didn’t care if he got wet or fell in.

Sail had the brightest blue eyes she’d ever seen and wondered if that was why his parents gave him the name they had. His darker hair was the perfect contrast to his eyes and seemed to go well with his tanned skin. Now that she’d studied him, he looked a lot like his father, Jack. Galvin could easily see the resemblance.

What she liked best was that he looked like the type of guy she imagined herself with when she started law school. Her friends would dub Sail as posh or even snobbish. But to her, he was class and attitude. He had the appearance of the type of guy she wanted to be with although she didn’t know him yet.

“You’re talking about my brother.” The words sputtered through Sail’s gritted teeth. “I am nothing like Dune.”

The realization washed over Galvin. “Ah,” she said, regarding her innocent mistake.

“Ah? What does that even mean?”

“It means . . .” Galvin stopped talking when she realized she didn’t actually have an answer for Sail. Wasn’t “ah” just one of those words people used when they had nothing clever to say?

“Huh.” Sail grunted.

“You grunted.”

“So?”

“So,” she said, with a hint of snark and sass. “Do you always grunt your responses?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Why?”

Sail looked at her with his eyebrow lifted. Was this banter? Flirting? Galvin wanted to flirt with him but knew doing so would only lead to trouble. There was only one rule when dating: stay away from your boss’s son.

Well, for Galvin, there were more rules. Another she’d add to the list: don’t do it. Law school was far more important than having someone to cuddle with at night.

“I—I don’t know,” Sail finally said. “It’s a guy thing, maybe.”

“Do your brothers do it?”

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