Page 106 of Love Overboard
“You seemed to be enjoying the cruise.” Jon massaged his forehead. “Are you sure you don’t want to take the boat home?”
“And miss the chance to fly in a private jet? No way.” Collins pushed his sweatshirt sleeves to his elbows and reclined on the cushions.
Jon lowered his head and banged it on the desk again.
The office door rasped on its hinges.
“Do you require help, Jonathan?” Mr. Eliot stood in the doorway, biting his lower lip. He crept into the room and waved at the desk. “Can I fetch you an aspirin?”
Jon shook his head. “No thank you. I don’t deserve an aspirin.”
Mr. Eliot bit his top lip this time. “I’ve scheduled one more meeting with a Monarch supplier while I’m here. We’ll leave for the airport in two hours. Are you sure you don’t want me to get you a hotel room where you can rest?”
“No thanks.” Jon leaned back in his seat. “I still have things to think about.” He whirled his chair around, pulled the cord to raise the blinds, and stared at the distant MSBuckingham. Late-afternoon sunshine streamed through the window.
The couch cushions squeaked as Collins moved. “What kind of things?”
“How do you fix a mistake that’s unfixable?”
Mr. Eliot tut-tutted. “Nothing’s unfixable. It depends on how much effort the mistake maker is willing to put in.”
“Effort?” Jon turned.
“Yes, effort.” Mr. Eliot undid the top button of his suit coat. “Take this morning. I bumped into you on the pier, and you dropped your phone in the water. A major mistake.” He skirted around the desk and leaned uncomfortably close. “And I beg your permission to say again how profoundly sorry I am.”
“I wasn’t talking about the phone.” Jon waved for him to back up, tired of telling the man to forget it.
Mr. Eliot straightened. “It’s impossible to retrieve your cell, and I could choose to accept the bitter truth and do nothing more. But no.”
“Please don’t tell me you hired divers.”
“No, sir. A waterlogged phone wouldn’t do you any good. I had corporate email me your information, and I sent one of the people from this office to purchase a new one. Same model, same color, and same number, with all your contacts loaded. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it’s better than apologizing and leaving you to clean up my mess.”
Jon nodded, his gaze unfocused. “Clean up my mess.”
Mr. Eliot hovered. “Would you like me to fetch you anything while we wait?”
Collins revived. “How about a sandwich?”
Jon ignored him. “Please get my father on the phone.”
Mr. Eliot somehow managed to bite both his top and bottom lip at the same time. “Your new cell isn’t here yet.”
Jon forced himself to take a breath before he answered. “Any phone will do. I need to talk to my father.”
“Yes, sir. Immediately.”
The secretary scuttled away, and Jon spun to the window.
Okay, God. I neglected to pray about it the last time I had a brilliant idea. We all know how my proposal turned out. What do you think I should do?
Instead of calculating the risks or worrying about what might go wrong, he sat in silence, waiting for direction from the One who already knew what was going to happen.
In the distance, a white plume of smoke drifted across the sky as the MSBuckinghamsailed away from the pier.
Lacey stood by the balcony of Cloud Nine and watched the quickly receding shoreline. Cozumel grew smaller by the minute. The giant propeller of the ship revolved in an efficient, uncaring rhythm, taking her farther and farther away from Jon. The churning, tumultuous water in the ship’s wake reminded Lacey of her soul.
Disturbed.
