Page 65 of Love on Deck

“You feel better?”

“Yeah.” She chewed on her lip, scrunching her nose. “I didn’t want to be a consolation prize.”

I took her hand and pulled her toward the smell of pizza. “Don’t let Sydney get in your head. You’re no consolation, Lauren. You’re the grand prize.”

Maybe I was the winner, after all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

JACK

When did you know something was too good to be true? Because I was only a week into this fake-then-real relationship, and I was pretty sure Lauren was the one for me. It felt too perfect. Like win the jackpot on your first spin kind of perfect. Could I just be that lucky?

I was an idiot for letting that waitress kiss me during our first date two years ago instead of going after Lauren. Now that I’d convinced Lauren to give me a real shot, I wasn’t going to screw it up.

The rest of the cruise had gone by in a happy blur. Something in Lauren had been unlocked, like she wasn’t fighting her thoughts so hard and was free to enjoy herself. We still stayed out of the sun while her burn healed, but Sydney had found a new group to hang out with while we’d been gone at the wedding—the guy in the gold chain came with a slew of friends, apparently—so we didn’t have to put up with her anymore.

Kevin, Lucas, and I had participated in the Sexiest Man contest by the pool, which Lucas won, fairly. None of us spent as much time in the gym as he did. We’d invited Annie and Levi to join us for lunch and spent a few hours in the arcade battling them in Pac-Man and Skee-Ball. Lauren showed me how it was humanly possible to eat multiple ice cream cones a day and not get sick. She read her mystery books by the pool in the shade and I napped. I showed her how to haggle with street vendors while shopping on the islands. Okay, fine. She didn’t need much instruction there, but it was fun to walk the market with hands intentionally entwined and Sydney nowhere in sight.

Then, my favorite part: each night I tucked her in—despite her laughter or protests—and went to sleep on my side of the bed, pillow wall intact. Because I was a gentleman now and trying to prove it to her.

Basically, we were meant to be.

Getting off the boat at the end of the week was bittersweet. Regardless of how well everything had gone before, real life was never like vacation, and there was some settling and calibration we were going to have to do together once reality snuck back in. I wasn’t naïve. I was prepared. But I wasn’t looking forward to it.

Maybe if I moved my flight, I’d get a few more hours of Lauren in vacation mode. The Lauren with her hair down and nose not stuck to her phone screen.

“What time do you take off again?” I asked when we got in the shuttle to drive to the airport. Cara, Lucas, Sydney, Amelia, and Kevin were already in the van, along with a young couple and their baby.

“2:05,” she said, without needing to consult her phone.

I pulled mine out while buckling my seat belt. I navigated to my flight and found hers. “What’s your seat?”

She looked over my shoulder, her breath tickling my ear. “You aren’t changing your flight.”

“Yes I am.”

“You guys are, like, annoyingly cute,” Cara said from the row behind us.

Lauren blushed.

I felt victorious.

Sydney scoffed from the backseat, but we both ignored her.

Lauren pulled up the airplane seat map. “There aren’t open seats near me.”

“I’ll just grab the closest one.” I leaned over to see her phone and found a seat a few rows back. It was easy to move onto her flight. What had gotten into me? I really was obsessed. “Done.”

Lauren rolled her eyes, but she looked happy about it. Or, at least, I hoped she was.

“I won’t take it personally that you just moved off our flight,” Kevin said from the back row, “when it would have been just as easy for Lauren to move onto it.”

I shrugged. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning when we move those boxes, right?”

“And you won’t see her?”

Would I see Lauren so soon? Instead of answering, I put my arm around her and pulled her closer.

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