Page 10 of Discovering Daisy

“Well, Captain Reagan has some space set up for me here on the ship. I brought everything I had when I left Tennessee—that’s where I’m from—but I’ll be able to produce more even while we’re out to sea.”

She stopped talking. Something felt strange about telling this man so much about herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. It was just that, well…she didn’t know him.

And there was something inside her—that little voice that had warned her back at the bar yesterday when she’d had the flat tire—that told her not to get too close to this guy.

Surely that’s just your imagination. You’re still shaken after what those three jerks did back in Georgia. I’m sure this guy is fine. Besides, every passenger on the Little Star is vetted.

That didn’t mean they were all good people, she reminded herself. True, they had to pass a background check. But if a person was bad, passing that might only mean they hadn’t been caught yet.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“Did you say your bear’s name is Hedy?”

“Yes.”

“What made you pick that one? It’s certainly unique.”

She thought of telling him but stopped short. For some reason, it seemed too intimate. Even though it was just the name of her stuffie.

“I just liked it,” she said.

She felt bad for lying. But as Wyatt had mentioned, sometimes a little girl needs to tell a lie.

She smiled. The guy probably thought she was smiling at him.

Nope.

It was thinking of that sweet, hot, sexy cowboy that had her grinning!

She wondered how he was and where in Florida he’d gone. Of course, she wasn’t in Florida now. But maybe they could seeeach other when the week ended and she returned to shore for a couple of days before setting sail on the next cruise.

The man surveyed the items for sale and said, “You’re very talented.”

Daisy’s nerves eased a little bit. She was starting to feel more comfortable in his presence. Perhaps she was being too judgmental. She didn’t know anything about this guy. He was probably fine.

“Thank you,” she said. “I started bringing my ideas to life just for me. Then I branched out and started an Etsy shop. That grew to this. Captain Reagan somehow saw my creations and asked me to be a part of the Little Star. So here I am.”

“Well, I think Captain Reagan is a smart man,” the guy said. He flashed her what Daisy thought of as a million-dollar smile.

That was probably an accurate description, too. The guy looked like he had a million or more banked away. He had manicured hands. Manicured toes—she could see them thanks to the sandals he wore—and an easygoing air about him that was born out of a worry-free life.

Or that’s how Daisy summed him up in her mind.

She told herself she might be judging him again. For all she knew, he was as broke as her, he just hid it well.

“Thank you for letting me look,” he said before heading toward the door. He stopped and half-turned, casting a glance back at her. “Perhaps we’ll see each other again. Maybe we could even grab some dinner.”

He didn’t officially ask, but he was fishing.

Daisy smiled. “Maybe so.”

He nodded and then strolled out.

She wasn’t sure if she was glad he was gone or sad that they didn’t have an official date on the books. That’s because she didn’t know how she felt about the man. True, those warnings had sounded within her, but they were faint. Not screaming ather like back in the bar parking lot. But they’d still been there. Yet so was that notion that she was too quick to judge.

She was confused but decided it didn’t matter right now. He was just a guy who’d dropped in and chatted with her for a few minutes.

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