Page 29 of Sailor's Delight

“Yes, thank you for the tour, Benjamin. Everything was wonderful.” Jenn pulled a twenty out of her skirt pocket. “For you.”

The young man smiled. “Gracias, Señora.”

Jenn pulled the note back temporarily as she had a sudden thought. “It’s Señorita, Benjamin.” She winked.

Benjamin grinned. “Of course, señorita. Lo siento.”

“Never miss an opportunity to make a woman feel young and beautiful without being creepy, and you’ll always find yourself with plenty of these,” she said quietly, buckling her helmet with her free hand.

“Si. Gracias, señorita.” Benjamin reached out to take the bill tentatively. Jenn released it.

“Hang on, I’ll come with you!” Casey called out, pushing his chair in.

“Good luck,” Jenn said, switching on the power to her electric motor. She raced away, pedaling hard and zipping through the streets toward the ship and the docks.

Chapter 8

Trey had never given up his watch. His stomach growled as he swept over the end of the dock with the binoculars again.Where had she gone? And with Casey?!

He squeezed the body of the optics, a long, heavy breath whistling out through his nose. He couldn’t believe she’d done that. Left him on board without so much as a word, and gone to spend the day doing God knew what, God knew where withCasey, of all people!

There! His eyes narrowed as he spotted Jenn’s yellow blouse— now soaked in perspiration.Good God!

Trey followed her progress with the binoculars until she was within a hundred yards of the gangway, then dropped the optics on their leash around his neck and began alternately hopping and limping toward the hatch that would take him to the elevators.

He tapped the button then stood muttering, “Come on, come on,” under his breath until the doors dinged and opened.

Trey skip-limped as quickly as he could down the hall toward his room. When he reached the door, he slid the keycard and slipped inside, closing it quickly behind him and tossing the binoculars onto the bed.

He stood there, his eye pressed to the peephole and fought to get his breathing under control as he waited for Jenn to appear.

He checked his watch. Minutes passed by, and Jenn still hadn’t appeared. He was on the verge of giving up and trying to text her again when he heard voices in the hall. He stiffened.

It was Jenn. She said something out of sight and walked to her room. Trey took his eye away from the hole in the door and took a breath. Here went nothing.

He pulled the door open.

“Jenn?”

She paused in her doorway, her hand on the handle.

“Were you waiting for me?”

Trey hesitated, but only for a moment.

“Maybe,” he said with a quick smile. It faded as he saw it wasn’t returned.

“Did you need something?” Jenn’s voice was flat, carefully devoid of all emotion.

“I just wanted to see how your excursion went.” Trey left all judgment and attack out of his voice. It wouldn’t make him any headway right now.

“It was fine.” Jenn glanced at him, then turned to look longer when she saw the bandage around his foot. “What happened to you? Where did you go?”

Trey forced a laugh. “Nowhere. I never made it off the ship.” He tried to adjust his pant leg to cover the bandage unsuccessfully. “Did you do what we were planning on?”

Jenn scoffed. “The couples massage and retreat at the spa? No, I didn’t do that by myself.”

Trey couldn’t keep the skin around his eyes from tightening in suspicion. That wasn’t completely a “no.” One could argue that Jenn could have been telling the truth, even if she’d taken Casey with her in Trey’s stead.

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