Page 15 of Love on Deck

“You’re not actually my boyf—”

“Today I am.”

Amelia and Kevin returned, and I pasted a smile on my face. Jack elbowed me softly in the side. “Tone it down, Sunshine, or you’ll give yourself away.”

He had a point. I took a sip of juice to give myself a chance to reset.

“So,” Amelia said, settling into her seat with a little shimmy. “I want to hear everything.”

I spit my juice back into the cup. Jack started patting me on the back. “Silly Lauren. Always swallowing her gum.”

I put the cup down and shot him a warning look. “Wrong pipe.”

“Mmhmm.”

Kevin laughed. “It’s so weird to see y’all flirting.”

If that qualified as flirting in Kevin’s opinion, then I felt bad for my sister. Amelia tucked some of her light brown hair behind her ear and leaned into Kevin’s side as his arm came around her shoulders. She waited expectantly.

“We ran into each other,” I blurted.

Jack laughed, snaking his arm over my shoulders to mirror Kevin and Amelia. “Literally.”

Amelia’s eyes popped. “Like a car accident?”

“No, just a bump in the shoulder.” Jack squeezed mine as he said it, and I tried to fight the warmth bleeding through my skin from his touch.

I was getting all sorts of feelings this morning, and they needed to stop. I knew they weren’t coming from any chemistry specific to Jack. They were a result of the man-famine that had spanned the last six months of my life.

I was so desperate to be touched that even someone who thoroughly repulsed me was sending a flock of sparrows through my abdomen. I mean, I didn’t typically despise people as a general rule, but you couldn’t listen to a five-minute voicemail identifying all the reasons you’re uptight and un-dateable without harboring some resentment.

His thumb ran over the top of my shoulder, sending obnoxious goosebumps down my arm. “Lauren wasn’t easy to win over, but I managed in the end.”

Definitely not foreshadowing our actual situation.

Amelia laughed. “I believe that. She was so angry with you after that date.”

“Can you blame me?” I said, a grin splitting my face.

“Not really,” Amelia agreed. “I’m so glad you’ve worked things out. You are a literal enemies-to-lovers story in real life. This is romance.”

I had never been so happy to have a waitress interrupt a conversation. She put Kevin and Amelia’s breakfasts in front of them and left again.

Kevin shoveled a bite into his mouth and leveled his gaze at Jack. “How did work take your last-minute absence?”

“Well enough.” He shrugged.

Last minute. That was right. Jack wasn’t supposed to make it on the cruise, which I’d been happy about, of course, but it had disappointed Amelia. For Kevin’s sake, I was assuming. I didn’t know if she had a particular fondness for Jack or not. I also didn’t know what had kept him from joining us originally, only that it had something to do with work.

“The board isn’t planning to demote you now?” Amelia asked, taking me by surprise. I didn’t know she was familiar enough with Jack to know what he was working on.

“They can’t.” He cut a bite of pancakes with his fork. “I’ve planned most of the event. Job security.”

“If you’ve already planned it—”

“They can’t execute it without me.” He ate the bite of pancakes and cut another. “Trust me, my job and that stupid conference will both be waiting for me when I return.”

Amelia pulled out her phone and started scrolling, satisfied.

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