Page 6 of One Night in Alaska

Thoughts of Kaylee filled my mind. The feel of her soft skin, the way she smelled, how happy she’d been when she’d held up that black and white photograph and shown it to me. God, she’d been glowing. I’d never seen her more beautiful than in that moment, not even on our wedding day.

Sighing, I pushed those thoughts aside and finished pulling the boat into the dock. Maybe I’d have better luck next time. One thing was for damn sure. I was looking forward to the beer I was about to drink with Ryan.

It didn’t take long for me to make my way to West Wharf. Of all the bars in town, it was our favorite. Not too big or crowded, it was a great place to shoot some pool and chat with the guys without having to worry about loud music or young folks who were always loud and annoying.

Unless, of course, a cruise ship happened to pull in. Then, a person never knew what they might encounter. Usually, the folks unloading from there would go elsewhere. West Wharf wasn’t exactly the flashiest place in town. But some of the cruise directors insisted on putting West Wharf on their itineraries as a place to get an authentic feel for Alaskan life, whatever the hell that meant.

When I walked inside, there were only about six other people there. Two at the bar, a few seated together near the window, and an older, grumpier guy sitting by himself. I acknowledged old Lester with a nod and headed to the bar, taking a seat and ordering a beer. Ryan could catch up when he got there. Shouldn’t be too long now. The bait shop closed up about now.

I’d just taken a big gulp of my beer when I heard the people sitting behind me at the table begin to curse. Wondering what was the matter, I turned around and saw a huge cruise ship pulling into port.

“Fuck,” I muttered. So much for a slow night. There was a chance they might go elsewhere, but with the luck I was having recently, they’d all pour in here.

If I hadn’t promised Ryan I’d meet him, I would’ve been long gone.

4

GEORGIA

What the hell have I gotten myself into?The Alaskan shoreline grew closer and closer as we pulled into yet another port. Standing on the balcony of my small stateroom, I stared out at the shrinking expanse of blue between the cruise ship and wherever the hell we were going now.

I hadn’t gotten off the ship at the first few stops. Hell, I’d hardly left my stateroom at all except to grab something to eat or wander around late at night when all of the other singles were already matched up and in bed or crying into their pillows at being all alone again.

“Singles,” I muttered under my breath, shaking my head despite the fact that I was alone. No one had mentioned that this was a singles cruise until after we’d left port in Seattle. By then, it was too late for me to get off. The director, a chatty petite woman named Carol, had assured me we’d all have a fabulous time, and I should just stick it out for a few days. If I still didn’t like the situation when we reached Juneau, I could bail. Any other place we stopped likely wouldn’t have a direct flight to Seattle anyway.

At this point, I’d be willing to fly from Alaska to Indonesia to Uganda to Seattle if it got me home. It couldn’t be any worse than this.

When we’d stopped for the first time, I’d been pleased to discover I had cell phone reception from the upper deck and didn’t actually have to get off the ship in order to call Lucy. Something told me that if I had to go ashore to get a signal, I’d start running and wouldn’t stop until I reached my apartment. When my so-called best friend answered the phone, all I could say was, “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

Being a smartass, she’d replied, “Rickie Ricardo, is that you?”

I’d rolled my eyes and demanded she tell me why it hadn’t crossed her mind to mention that this was a singles cruise. At first, she’d tried to feign innocence, like she’d had no idea. The client hadn’t mentioned it at all. But then she folded and said she thought it would be good for me. If I met someone interesting, maybe I wouldn’t be so lonely.

Read lonely as pathetic. My best friend thought I was some sort of pitiful couch dweller who needed to be tricked in order to get her ass in a healthy relationship with a member of the opposite sex. It was humiliating. I’d wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her.

But Lucy had apologized profusely and explained that she was only trying to help. I’d decided not to spend any more time plotting her demise and I accepted that she’d honestly had my best interests at heart.

That didn’t make me any more excited about trying to make a connection with one of the guys on this cruise. After all, they were most likely here of their own accord and hadn’t been tricked into making the trip. So I was assuming that they were either pathetic or douchey. Either one didn’t work for me.

At this point, I was just trying to survive and get back home. While the scenery was beautiful and I did like the fact that I didn’t have to cook or clean up after myself, everything else was annoying. There was a reason I chose to work from home. For the most part, I didn’t like dealing with other people. I didn’t like the feeling of having to be “on” all the time, pretending to be happy or pretending to be interested in others. It wasn’t that I was unkind or didn’t care—in fact, in a lot of ways, it was the exact opposite. I tended to get far too worked up about other people’s problems and situations. All of that quickly became mentally exhausting for me, which then became physically exhausting. At the end of the day, I did best when I was alone.

Yet, here I was on a cruise ship where the sole purpose was to mingle with others, make connections, and build a relationship. Yeah, this was right up my alley. I rolled my eyes at my own sarcastic thoughts.

The ship docked, and a flurry of people disembarked. I didn’t even know where the hell we were. It didn’t matter—I wasn’t interested in seeing small-town Alaska. I just wanted to go home.

But I did want to call Lucy. The urge to give my pal a call, not to chew her out this time but just to hear a friendly voice, was stronger than my urge to crawl back into bed and hide. I had managed to get dressed and put some makeup on earlier just because I was bored, so at least I looked presentable. Making sure I had my wallet in case I decided to stop for a snack at one of the shops that didn’t take the meal plan, I grabbed my room key and headed to the upper decks, my phone in hand.

My eyes were focused on my phone, searching for a bar, so when I arrived on the main deck, I didn’t see Carol before I heard her chipper voice. “Hey there, stranger!” she called.

I glanced over each shoulder, hoping she was talking to someone else, but of course, it was only me left on the entire ship, or so it seemed. “Oh, hi.”

“I’m so glad to see you’re finally going ashore.” She wrinkled her nose and began to whisper, drawing closer to me, like it was a secret. “You know, some of us have noticed that you aren’t participating in any of the activities.”

“Oh, well, I’ve been… not feeling well.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. I didn’t feel well, but it had nothing to do with a physical ailment.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, but Sitka is a lovely little town. Maybe some fresh air will do you good, huh?”

“Sitka?” I repeated, glancing out at what I could see of the village from here. “I’ve never even heard of Sitka.”

---