Page 50 of Falling Overboard

“I can help you with that. I have good knot-how.”

“Lucky Salerno, was that a pun?”

“No, that’s what yachties call it,” I told him, taking the rope. I showed him the bowline, the most important one; the eight knot, which was the easiest; the clove hitch; the square knot; and the cleat hitch. I completed the knot first, explaining what I was doing, and then handed him the rope so that he could try it for himself.

And I got to see why Kai had told me that Hunter had to step up his game. Knowing how to do those five basic knots was highly important in sailing. I moved his fingers and the rope to make sure he was getting it properly. It was not easy to concentrate on the task at handbecause every time we touched, which was frequently, zaps of electric energy surged through me until my whole body felt like one giant buzz.

“How do you know all of this?” he asked, exasperated after his bowline came apart for the fourth time. He handed it back to have me demonstrate again.

“You pick things up being on the yacht. Although this is a skill that has no real-world application.”

“Depends on what you’re into.”

It was clearly a joke, but that didn’t stop my mouth from going dry, my core from clenching.

I had to change the subject right away. “Just practice and you’ll get it. It does make me worried about you because you’re terrible at this. Is there anything you’re good at?”

“I’m not allowed to show you what I’m good at.”

That made all the air completely leave our cabin. My lungs stilled in my chest, my heart vibrated with tension and want, my stomach heated. I handed the rope back to him, no longer trusting myself.

“Let’s start the movie,” I said. My voice sounded strangled and weird.

“Sure. You can feel free to take your pants off, if you’d like.”

For one completely panicked moment, I didn’t understand why he’d said that to me. Then I remembered earlier, when I’d told him my idea of a good time involved watching a movie with no pants.

“Ha ha,” I said back, setting my laptop on both of our legs so that we could see it.

“You never did tell me why you like musicals so much,” he said.

“They make me happy. I don’t understand why Hollywood thinks everything has to be some depressing, dramatic story about a dysfunctional family.”

“Why do they make you happy?”

“Because they make me think of my nonna. After my stepfather took off, my mom had to work like, three jobs to try and make endsmeet and my younger sisters and I spent a lot of time with our paternal grandmother.”

“Do you still get to see her as often as you’d like?”

Pain lanced my gut. Despite believing that certain wounds had finally healed over, all it took was one question like that to open them back up again. “A couple of years ago, she died from pneumonia.”

“Lucky, I’m so sorry. Your mom and your grandma. That’s rough. Where was your dad through this?”

This wave of pain didn’t feel quite as fresh or intense, probably because it had been so much longer. “He had an aortic dissection right after my twin sisters were born. He was driving with his dad at the time and crashed the car and they both died.”

He was silent for a moment, and I was sure he was tallying up all the people in my life that I’d lost.

Then he did what I’d wanted to do when he talked about his sister. He took my hand in his and held it.

It wasn’t a romantic gesture, but a soothing and affectionate one. “I’m so sorry for all the loss that you’ve experienced.”

“Thank you.” My words were little more than a whisper.

“How do you ...” His voice trailed off, as if he didn’t want to finish his question.

“How do I deal with it?” He nodded, letting me know that I’d guessed correctly. “I don’t know. You just put one foot in front of the other and you keep going. You keep living and do the best you can with the circumstances you’ve been given.”

I also kept my heart locked up so that no one else could hurt it. Because with as kind and gentle as he was being right now ... it felt like I could fall for him. I was so grateful for the nonfraternization rule. I didn’t want any more heartache.

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