Page 103 of Falling Overboard

“This is your great wisdom?” I had been hoping for more.

She let out a small sigh. “You’re a grown woman. You can figure out what you want and what you are or are not willing to do just fine without my input. The person you should be talking to is Hunter. Feel out where he’s at, and then I think you’ll know what to do next.”

“Okay, that was actually good advice,” I said.

“I’m the best,” she agreed. “Now get out of my room so that I can get up and start cleaning for rich people who don’t appreciate it.”

I hugged her and then went off to do the same. There was a lot to fill my time but it did not occupy my mind. I couldn’t think about anything else but him. The only future I wanted to imagine was one where we left the boat together, where I could put down my cargo ship–size baggage and let myself be vulnerable and happy with him. It would be terrible to stay put and have to keep things as they were now.

Because I was pretty sure Georgia was right and I was in love with him. I’d had past relationships, but the feelings I’d had for those men paled in comparison to how I felt about Hunter. Like holding up a light bulb next to the sun and asking which one was brighter.

I came across him tying up some lines. “Look at you with that bowline!”

He grinned at me and I knew he wanted to hug me or take my hand. He folded his arms across his chest instead. There were cameras everywhere—it wouldn’t have taken much for the captain to catch us in the act.

“Despite what you might think, I am good at things.”

I had a very personal and intimate experience of just how good he was at stuff. I hoped I wasn’t blushing. “I know you are.”

He took a step closer. “Do you also know the reason why I couldn’t do the knots when you showed them to me?”

“Why?”

“It was because you made it impossible for me to concentrate on what you were doing because you kept brushing your fingers against mine. I can’t think when you touch me or kiss me.”

He left me with that emotional drive-by and went up the stairs to the sundeck.

Hunter made it so that I couldn’t think, either.

And if neither one of us were thinking ... that would only lead us to some very rule-breaking places.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Lucky

As we settled into our bunk that night, I suggestedCalamity Janefor our movie and he agreed.

This was the first time he had held me while we watched something together, and it was so much better than just sitting side by side. Another thing I should have been doing since the beginning.

As I searched for the movie, he was playing with the ends of my hair with his free hand. He said, “Today was a really beautiful day. I wish we could have called in sick and played hooky together.”

His words made my stomach flutter. That he talked about us like a couple and all the ways I imagined we could play hooky. It made me believe that we would work out and ride off into the sunset together.

“Yachts don’t really do sick days,” I told him. “Unless something’s broken or we’re in need of surgery, we have to soldier on. I personally wish there were such things as calling in healthy. ‘Sorry, Captain, I’m not coming in today because I feel great and I don’t want to spend my time scrubbing a toilet with a toothbrush.’”

He smiled and I turned my face up toward his. He reached over and brushed his knuckles against my cheek. “I’m trying very hard to respect your rule but you’re making it extremely difficult.”

“I am?” I asked in surprise. “I didn’t do anything.”

“I’m tempted just by you existing.”

I sucked in a sharp breath. I understood that feeling all too well. Worry and concern intruded their way into my brain and forced me to ask, “What if it’s just sea goggles?”

His hand stilled. “What?”

“It’s what yachties say about being on board a ship. That someone who is like a four on land is a nine on a boat because your options are so limited.”

Hunter’s blue eyes were so sincere that I didn’t doubt his next words. “There are no goggles here. I see you clearly. Land or sea.”

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