Page 25 of One Night in Alaska

Then, my best friend’s attention was back on me. “Hey, I had an idea,” he said with a goofy grin on his face. “What if we made this a habit?”

I arched an eyebrow having no idea what he was talking about. “Made what a habit?”

“Finding hot girls on cruise ships and making them miss their boats. Then, we could keep them with us a night or two, have a good time, and then send them on their merry way.” He chuckled, but I didn’t think it was funny. “Come on, man. It’s a great way to get girls. Of course, I couldn’t afford to drive them to Juneau every time, so they’d be on their own, but what’s the harm, you know? Hot sex with different gorgeous women all the time? Sounds like a good plan to me.”

I knew my best friend was trying to cheer me up or make me laugh at the very least, but it wasn’t working. All I could do was shake my head. “No, thanks, Ryan. You do you, but I’ll give that a hard pass.”

“It’s a cash cow for beautiful babes,” he argued.

“Nope. That’s not what I want, Ryan. You can sleep with a million girls on a thousand cruise ships, but this wasn’t just some random woman to me.”

He stared at me for a second, a questioning look in his eyes, before he asked, “Then what was she to you, bruh?”

Clearing my throat, I told him the truth. “Georgia was one in a million.”

14

GEORGIA

My eyes stayed locked on the point in the distance where I’d last seen the coast of Alaska before it disappeared in the distance. Even though I knew I couldn’t even see the shore from here, I still envisioned Beau standing next to his truck, waving goodbye to me. It would’ve been better if he’d been running toward me, arms open wide, but none of that had happened.

Not that I blamed him. It would’ve been ridiculous for him to try to talk me into staying. After all, we both had lives to get back to. He had a business to run with all of those properties to care for, and I also had a job.

My mind went to my laptop sitting in my stateroom, waiting for me to return to it. I thought about all the work I’d have to do in order to make up for the days I’d missed. Mrs. Clarkson was expecting a pretty complicated spreadsheet to be filled out and returned to her tonight, and I hadn’t even started on it yet. God, the idea of her yelling at me made my stomach churn.

“There you are!”

Carol’s voice behind me had much the same effect. Cringing, I took a deep breath before I managed to plaster a friendly look on my face and turn to look at her. “Oh, hi, Carol.”

“We’ve been looking for you,” she said, swinging her arm with a fist, like a little kid in a movie from the 1920s. “Where have you been hiding? Did you disappear into your stateroom for two whole days? The other cruisers were looking forward to getting to know you, Georgie.”

I wasn’t sure if she was trying to give me a fun nickname that I instantly detested or if she couldn’t remember my actual name, but I chose to ignore her. “Sorry. I actually wasn’t here for the last few days.”

Carol nodded. “I understand. Sometimes I feel like I am missing from my own life, too. It’s completely normal. Have you considered talking to a therapist?”

“While that does sound like a good idea,” I admitted, “that’s not what I meant.” I could definitely use a therapist in my life right about now after everything I’d just been through. “When I got off at the last port, I missed the ship. It was one of the reasons why I hadn’t planned to get off in the first place, if I’m honest.” Time management was only my friend when it came to work, not to things like being on time.

“You missed the boat?” Her eyes were wide with alarm. “I had no idea.”

“Really? You weren’t one of the people standing on the deck cheering for me to run faster?”Or fall on my face.

“No. You see, when the ship left Sitka, I was in the middle of trying to fix a situation with two of the other guests.” Leaning in closer, she said, “You know that older gentleman with all the tattoos and piercings? Motorcycle Mike?”

“No,” I freely admitted. “Should I?” He sounded like a cartoon character.

She didn’t answer my question. “Well, it seems he and Sasha, that former exotic dancer, mother of four, decided to take advantage of the low numbers on the boat and climb into the hot tub to get to know one another better. Unfortunately, his Prince Albert got stuck in her hoo-haw, and I just happened to wander by in time to help. Believe me, I would’ve rather spent a few days in Sitka than have been in that situation.” She laughed and patted my arm, but a big part of me wanted to hurl myself off the ship and start swimming far, far away. The images her story created in my brain simply couldn’t be unseen.

All I could manage to say was, “That sounds painful.”

“Oh, no. I’m fine. Pinched my finger a little, but other than that, I’m good.” She held her hand up to show me. I shook my head. I hadn’t meant painful for her, but I saw no need in wasting my intelligible words on her dense ears.

“I think I should go,” I said, taking a step backward.

“Right, right. I don’t blame you. But you know, Juneau was our last stop, so it’s a good thing you got back on here. If you’d gotten left behind at this port, you would have to fly home. And who would want to take a plane when they could be on this majestic ship with all of these amazing people?” She spread her arms wide, cueing me to take in all of the wonders around me. While it was true the landscape outside of the boat was beautiful, I didn’t see anything to revel in when I looked at my fellow cruisers walking by.

Clearing my throat, I said again, “I’m gonna go.”

“Okay, Georgie. I’ll see you later.” She scrunched her nose up with a bright smile and waved enthusiastically at me.

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