Page 36 of Falling Overboard

“We need to be ready to go before the guests wake up.”

“Why don’t they sleep in? Aren’t they on vacation?”

An excellent question. “Even if they sleep in, we still have to get up early just in case.”

He took a couple of bites of his blueberry muffin and then placed it and his coffee on the built-in shelf behind him. He turned onto his back, putting his hands behind his head. His blanket caught and was pulled down as he moved, the top resting on his hips.

I had to tear my eyes away from his chest. That had felt deliberate. Like he’d done it on purpose just to torment me.

He said, “Despite the ungodly hour, this day is starting out pretty well. A movie date last night, her bringing me breakfast in bed this morning.”

“That wasn’t a date,” I quickly countered, ignoring the way my heart seemed to be skipping beats.

“We watched a movie together and then wound up back at my place. I’d consider that a successful date.”

I knew he was teasing me but I couldn’t return his banter. It felt like if I went along with his joke, he might think I was pathetic enough to hope that it had been a real date.

After a beat, like he had been waiting for my response, he turned on his side and reached for a medicine bottle and his water container.He took a couple of pills out and swallowed them, chasing it down with water.

“Adderall,” he offered. “For my ADHD.”

“Did you disclose your medications to the captain?” Maritime law required that he do so. It was absolutely none of my business, and he would have been well within his rights to say as much to me.

He didn’t.

“Yes, I told the captain.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want you to be fired.”

Now he hit me with the full, blinding glare of his perfect smile. “Is that your way of saying that you would miss me if I was gone?”

I hadn’t known him for very long but I realized that I absolutely would miss him if he was let go. He had somehow found a way to sneak into my heart and steal a tiny piece of it for himself. He had made himself matter to me.

I liked him.

But it would be ridiculous to say as much.

“You should get up,” was what I settled on.

He grinned again, with that look of his, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking even if I didn’t speak the words. “I will.”

Nodding, I grabbed my breakfast and coffee and turned to go.

When I opened the door, he said, “Can we watch another movie together tonight?”

I would love that more than anything in the whole world.

“Sure.” Feeling the need to protect my too-easily-swayed heart, I added, “But it’s not a date.”

“Whatever you say, Lucky.”

I was looking forward to establishing a new routine with Hunter, going back to our cabin at the end of the night to watch a musical together.

Thomas inadvertently put an end to that.

As the greenest deckhand, Hunter was assigned to the late-night anchor watch. I could have given myself that same shift but Emilie still needed supervision around guests and for someone to make sure that she was actually working.

Georgia did not supervise Emilie when the two of them worked together. So it had to be me.

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