Page 15 of Falling Overboard

But then I realized that she had just revealed something important about herself. I wanted to understand her better. “Rules are important to you, aren’t they? I thought I heard you saying something to ...” What was that dude’s name? “I want to say Kai.”

“Yes, Kai,” she confirmed.

“You told Kai that you think rules are important so that the world doesn’t devolve into chaos.”

“I did tell him that.”

Rules had never been my thing, but it sounded like they made her happy. Maybe that would be a strong enough incentive to behave. “I respect that.”

I might not have liked it, but I would respect it.

“And,” I added, “you can do this. Herd kittens. I have faith in you.”

It felt like she needed the boost.

Which she confirmed with the way she said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Good night, Lucky.”

“Good night, Hunter.”

I heard her roll over and I stared up at the ceiling above me.

When I had agreed to this, no one had mentioned that I would be sharing a room with a tempting, sexy woman who made me laugh, and who I admired and respected. I wondered if my parents had done this deliberately. To make sure I failed.

Because if there was anyone who could distract me from what I wanted to accomplish, I suspected it would be Lucky Salerno.

Chapter Six

Lucky

When my alarm beeped the next morning, I quickly shut it off. Hunter was lightly snoring above me and it made me smile.

Not so perfect after all.

Nope, couldn’t let my thoughts go there. I had just been feeling vulnerable yesterday. I would get over it. I would get used to his flawless face and we would be fine.

I kept running last night’s conversation through my head. It had seemed like Hunter cared whether or not I was willing to break rules. I decided it was due to my overwrought imagination and to stop interpreting our interactions through my touch-deprived filter. I’d just been out of the dating scene for so long that I was no longer fluent in subtext and could easily misunderstand.

The best thing for me to do would be to throw myself into mindless cleaning and burn off my inappropriate feelings with hours of physical labor.

But then I stood up and saw him. He was curled on his side in a ball with his blanket tucked in around him. His hair was messy and his expression soft. It was one of the most endearing things I’d ever seen and the sight of him knocked the wind out of my sails.

I found myself reaching out to push back some hair that had fallen over his eyes. I immediately retracted my hand, told my percolatinghormones to stop their unbridled ogling, and whirled around, grabbing my clean uniform from the closet.

As I got ready for the day, I kept telling myself that this was because so much had changed so quickly. I was now chief stew, we had a new charter season starting, new owners of the boat—everything was different.

There was upheaval and uncertainty. It made sense that I would be reaching out to hold on to something just to anchor myself. Someone who had been nice and helpful.

That’s all it was—nothing more.

I went into the laundry room and started multiple loads, throwing in Hunter’s handkerchief, and then headed over to the galley, where Andre was already prepping for the day. Captain Carl had gone over the guests’ preference sheets with us and I was pleased to see that Andre would be catering to their pescatarian wishes.

We were welcoming Robert and Donna Carmine in honor of Donna’s seventy-fifth birthday. Robert was a movie studio executive and they had attended the film festival in Cannes. They would be celebrating her birthday here on the yacht with four friends. They had requested a pink and gold theme for the party and I’d already put in a call to the provisioner for decorations and costumes for the stews.

I reminded Andre about the cake and he made a growling sound. Most yacht chefs despised baking. I would’ve offered to make it for him but he would have taken that as an insult to his culinary skills. I scooted off to the stew pantry because it was in dire need of cleaning and reorganizing before the guests arrived.

Thomas found me while I was cleaning the coffee maker. “Have you seen Hunter?”

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