Page 16 of Adrift

“Shayla and I are making great progress. I’m moving on to the dining room next, and Shayla is taking on the junior suites.”

“It’s really looking good.” He holds his coffee mug to his lips.

“Thanks.” I want to run my fingers through the ends of my long ponytail. It’s a stress thing I’ve almost cured myself of, but my last chief stew told me it’s the biggest tell for when I’m uncomfortable and feeling insecure. I never want the captain to know I’m not in control of my department. That I can’t handle all two of my staff. But he needs to understand that Brianna isn’t here to work. At least, I don’t think she is.

Anders’ head is still under the main control panel. He and Calvin have moved their radio communication to another channel.

“What’s up? That’s the face of a department head who wants to have a chat if I’ve ever seen one.”

Anders wiggles his legs. “Calvin, try now. Anything?”

“Nothing,” Calvin says over the radio.

“Right, try the next breaker.”

The captain is staring at Anders’ feet.

“It’s okay. I’ll come back later.” I cross my arms over my chest to keep from pulling on my ponytail.

“I was just about to take Penny O-U-T. If you can spare ten minutes, why don’t you join me and we can talk and W-A-L-K.”

His dog is at his side in the next second.

“That sounds great. Can she spell?” I laugh.

“No, she thinks anything I spell has something to do with her. Which is fine until I’m spelling out call signs on the radio.”

I laugh again. Dang, I need to reel it back in because it’s not that funny.

He clips Penny into her harness. “I’ll meet you on the dock. I have to get my shoes.”

“Let’s go, Penny,” I say. She trots ahead of me, her ears flopping to the side. “What a good girl you are.” She sits andwaits while I pull my outdoor shoes out of the crew bin by the gangplank.

We’re waiting for Sam when he appears out of the side door. I can’t help but lose my train of thought regarding what I was going to talk to him about. The man is amazing. Most captains have slumped postures. They’re tired and broken, but not Sam. The way his crew polo shirt pulls over his shoulders, I’d love to see him in one of the swim shirts the deck crew wears. But why would he ever have to wear that?

“There’s the girls.” He pats Penny on the head when he joins us on the dock, and I’ve never been so jealous of a dog before.

“So, I need to?—”

“Let’s walk first. We’ll put some distance between us and theRock Candy, and you can really speak your mind.”

“Okay.” The wind is blowing at our faces, and the sun is dipping down into the afternoon sky. And if I didn’t have a list of three thousand things to do, I’d be enjoying it. “I’ve never been to Asia before, have you?” I glance up at the captain. He has the most stunning profile: square jaw, perfectly sloped nose, like an Adonis statue cut from marble. Geez, I need to get a hold of this crush before he picks up on it.

A slow smile spreads over his face, and he nods. His eyes catch mine, and he snaps his head away. He focuses on Penny leading us down the long private dock. A crew of a mega yacht namedPaybackis serving guests on their back deck. A woman with long raven hair flowing in the breeze raises her champagne flute to us—to the captain, really.

He doesn’t even glance at the bombshell. “A few times.”

“Right.”

We reach the end of the dock, and the captain holds the gate for me. “Ladies first.”

“Thanks.” It’s weird how that expression normally makes me want to run screaming in the other direction, away fromwhatever misogynist said it, but I don’t get those vibes from Sam—the captain—at all.

All right, Haley, get yourself together and stop thinking of him as anything but your boss.Your extremely hot, sexy boss.I smile at him and wait as he locks the gate. During the day, there’s a guard in the little box at the end of the dock that separates the big boats from the little ones.

We pass the day cruisers and some fishing boats on the way to land. Penny jumps on the captain the second her paws touch the ground.

“Wait a second, little girl.” He snaps off her vest, and she trots a few feet away and, well, does what dogs do.

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