Page 141 of Falling Overboard

And she was accusing me of doing just that.

When I didn’t answer she added, “I saw you two. On the monitors.”

What were the odds? That must have killed Lucky. It was bad enough that Emilie had pounced on me. I had immediately put a stop to it. I would have told Lucky about it after I’d spoken to the captain.

I understood how this would have crushed her, but a part of me was hurt that she didn’t trust me. Hadn’t even tried to talk to me about it. If I hadn’t been in this tender, she might have left the ship without saying a word to me.

Did I really mean so little to her? Had our situations been reversed, I never could have done that. “Emilie must have set me up.”

“You’re saying she knew I’d look up at the exact right moment and catch you?”

I knew how far-fetched that sounded but I didn’t know how else to explain it. “I have no idea what’s going on in that evil mind of hers. But I didn’t kiss her. She kissed me.”

Lucky made a sound of disbelief.

My heart hurt. “Do you really think I’m the kind of man who would tell you I love you and then turn around and cheat? I would never do that to you.”

She looked conflicted. Like she wanted to believe me but she couldn’t get past what she had seen. Or the part of her that expected to get hurt.

The part that had been waiting for me to screw up.

Lucky was pushing me away, not the other way around.

“Emilie told me that she didn’t think you’d be around for much longer and then said she thought we would be good together and then, without warning, kissed me. I immediately stopped her and said that I was going to report her to the captain. That’s why she went to him first.”

I wanted her to understand. To know what had really happened. I wanted to beg her not to do this. To not end things between us over a misunderstanding. But half the crew and all the guests stood behind us.

“Did you see me push her away?” I asked.

She shook her head.

“The captain should have fired me, too. I was on the other end of that kiss with you,” I said.

That seemed to spur her into speaking. “So that we can both be out of work? I don’t want that. I want you to keep your job.”

She still cared. She was angry and hurt and confused and so was I. But she still cared about me.

“What about your bakery?” I loved her too much to let her lose it, but there wasn’t anything I could do to stop this. It was already done. I would call my parents and make them understand what had happened.

“My bakery was on the line the first time we kissed. It was stupid to think we could keep hiding it. Especially after you told everyone that we were dating.”

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could go back and undo that.”

There were so many things that I wished I could change.

“And if I can’t undo it, I’ll do the next best thing,” I said. “I’ll talk to the captain. I’ll talk to my parents. I’ll fix it.”

“If you do that, you’ll lose all credibility with your parents. You’re working hard to overcome their negative perceptions. You will wreck that.”

“I don’t care!”

But she did. “No.”

I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to leave with her. To throw everything else away and just be with her. But what did I have to offer her? I didn’t have a job. Money of my own. I didn’t have a place wherewe could live or a way to support her. I couldn’t offer her anything that she needed.

I wasn’t good enough for her yet.

The tender was nearly to the pier. It was almost time for us to disembark.

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