Page 20 of Love on Deck

Why was he being so nice anyway? I had the experience and the voicemail to prove how much he wasn’t into me. Maybe a normal person would have deleted it long ago, but now I was glad I couldn’t ever bring myself to hit that trash icon. I might need to be reminded of why Jack was bad news.

“If you’re worried how my presence will affect your game with the men on board, I’m sure we can work around it,” he said.

I cringed. “Gross. Are you serious? I’m not here for hookups. I’m here for my sister’s wedding.”

“I think those things go together for a lot of people.”

“I’m not one of them.” I tipped my head back to hold his sparkling, green eyes. He was too close, trying to read me too much. Then it hit me that maybe he was the one worried about his “on-board game” with the ladies. “But if you are concerned about your ability—”

“I’m not.” He didn’t move. I could actually feel his breath on my nose, but it wasn’t in my nature to back down, so I stood my ground. Jack’s voice was low. “If I wanted that, I wouldn’t have asked you to shield me from Sydney.”

Good point. “So you’re really here to focus on the wedding?”

“I’d be offended by your obvious distrust, but I brought it up first.”

“History has given me enough reason to doubt you, so don’t be too hard on yourself. My opinion of you was pretty cemented before today.”

His jaw flexed. “You can’t spend the whole cruise bringing up our date. Amelia will catch on that we aren’t the happy couple we’re pretending to be.”

“Amelia’s not here.”

“Can I help you?” the middle-aged woman behind the counter asked, her smile wide and strained. I felt for her on a molecular level.

Jack slipped his arm around my back and guided me up to the counter. He was so smooth. At some point I was going to need to stop being surprised every time he touched me. But it wasn’t just the actual, physical touching that threw me off—it was also the way it made me feel.

I was a strong, brave, independent woman, and I should not be so comforted by a man throwing his arm around me. It went against everything I believed in and everything I had stood for the last few years. I hadn’t practically raised my sister, then lost my grandma—who had actually raised us—and found a way to survive, only to melt at the touch of Jack’s hand to the small of my back.

Except this was me, a total puddle on the carpet in front of the help desk.

“Ma’am?” she asked. She was about as old as my mother would’ve been, her highlights grown out a few inches too many and an overbright smile revealing straight, white teeth.

What was that? Focus, Lauren.

“We booked our rooms separately,” Jack said, painting a smile over his handsome face. “We were hoping you could move me from the room I’m in to share with this lovely lady?”

She paused, staring at Jack as if struck by something he said. That was the moment where she decided whether to help us or send us away, and thanks to Jack’s smooth smile, she had clearly made her decision in his favor. “Let me see what I can do.”

“Thank you, Cheryl. You don’t know what this would mean to us.”

“Laying it on a little thick there?” I muttered, elbowing him slightly, but he only slid his hand further on my waist and pulled me tighter against him.

She asked for our cards and information, her nails clacking away at the keyboard. “Unfortunately, because you weren’t booked under the same card, I can’t move you from one room to the other.”

Phew. Sweet relief.

“But,” she said, stretching out the word and lowering her voice a little, “if you’re willing to pay for an upgrade, I can move both of you to a balcony room.”

“You have an opening?” I said, more surprised than accepting of this potential change.

“We sail at capacity, so none of the rooms are open.”

Huh?

“How does that work?” Jack asked. “It’s my first cruise, so I don’t know how any of this works.”

“It’s better if I don’t explain,” she said, sending him a wink before working away at the keyboard again. “But if these guests change their mind and join us, you’ll be back in your original rooms.”

She was a finagler. I understood. I was one of those too. There were always loopholes for jumping when you really wanted to help a customer.

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