Page 109 of Falling Overboard

“You also need to watch out for Emilie,” she cautioned.

“Emilie? Why?”

“She went downstairs and doubled Hunter’s point value. Now that she knows he’s rich, I think all bets are off. Him being a Cartwright was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”

“Great. One more thing for me to panic about.”

“I thought you said that Hunter helps you to not worry so much.”

“He does,” I agreed. “But he’s not like a cure or something. When he’s around he helps to clear out the noise better than when I’m on my own. He’s normally very calming, but today he is the cause of all my anxiety.”

“Well, I think you should lock him down ASAP so you don’t lose him to Emilie’s schemes. The girl doesn’t take no for an answer and, I’m assuming, has the restraining orders to prove it.”

I wanted to say that if he was weak enough to fall for Emilie, I didn’t want him anyway, but couldn’t. I might resort to actual hairpulling and eye gouging if either one of them got too close to him. “I don’t know how we move past this,” I confessed. “This feels like a really big secret to keep from someone that you ...”

That what? We weren’t in a relationship. We weren’t dating. We weren’t even kissing. I mean, not on the mouth.

What did that make this? A situationship? A boatmance?

“That you’re in love with,” she finished for me, shaking her head. “You’re one of the people that make the universe mad. You beg it to give you a cake and it sends you eggs and oil and sugar and flour and puts you in a galley. But you’re running out of the room, upset that you didn’t get that cake you wanted. Everything you need is right in front of you, but you have to make some effort here. You asked to be happy and that was given to you.”

There was a lot of scary wisdom in what she was saying, which felt a bit odd coming from Georgia. “So in this scenario Hunter is cake?”

Also an apt description because he was delicious enough.

She ignored my joke. “You’d be a bloody dag if you let him get away.”

“Georgia!” I protested. “You’re supposed to be telling me to not take his crap and that I can do better.”

“Maybe. But I think he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you. I can see that he’s made you happier. More relaxed. Like a better version of you. And that’s the truth. If you want something sugarcoated, Andre’s got some doughnuts,” she said. “I’m going to go down and check on Emilie and make sure she hasn’t got Hunter tied up somewhere.”

Returning to the deck, I handed out the drinks to everyone. When I got to Hank, he thanked me and said, “I don’t normally drink this early. I guess that makes me a bit of an aqua-holic!”

His quip shot an arrow straight at my heart. It was so like something Hunter would have said. Hank took a drink and pronounced, “This is excellent. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” There was a weird sense of déjà vu speaking to him. His voice was remarkably similar to Hunter’s.

“So, Lucky, do you know what they call an optometrist who buys a boat?” he asked.

“I don’t.”

“A see captain. ‘See’ with anEon the end.” He grinned at me but his youngest daughter let out a loud groan.

“Dad! Leave her alone and stop telling her stupid jokes!”

“I like them,” I said to no one in particular, realizing that it was true. I loved every time Hunter would say something ridiculous to me. “Is there anything else I can bring you?”

Everyone said no and I took the chance to run down to the galley and hide out. There was something disconcerting about being around Hunter’s family. They all seemed very nice but I was super aware of the fact that I had some weird romantic-y type thing going on with their son.

And even more aware that they were the ones who had instituted the no-fraternizing rule.

Andre was preparing some trays with sophisticated snacks. I asked if I could help and he brushed me off. I waited for him to finish, trying not to fixate on Hunter.

“Did you hear that the itinerary has changed?” Kai asked me as he came into the galley to grab some food.

“I hadn’t.”

“Apparently we’re going to spend the entire trip off the coast of Italy with a two-day stop in Naples.”

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