Page 45 of Falling Overboard

“I saw ...” I let my words trail off.

“You saw him in all his naked glory? You haven’t shared any of this with me yet and you call yourself my friend? Spill, now. I want every sordid detail.”

This wasn’t any of her business, especially when I knew she was interested in him. I wasn’t going to fuel her imagination. “There aren’t any sordid details because I’ve only seen him without his shirt on a couple of times. It’s no big deal.”

Even though it had been the biggest of deals.

She gave me a disbelieving look, and rightfully so. “You like him.”

“Of course I like him. He is a nice person and a good bunkmate.” Was I being casual enough?

Apparently not. She shook her head. “You’re a terrible liar. Are you at least kissing him?”

“No. Captain Carl was very clear about that.”

“Well, you already know what I think about his rule.” She opened her clutch and pulled out her lip gloss, reapplying it in the dingy mirror. “I’m not kissing him and neither is Emilie.”

That filled me with a relief that I hoped wasn’t evident on my face. It must not have been, because she kept talking.

“If none of us are kissing him, that means Hunter isn’t kissing anybody and that seems like a crime that should be punishable by the Hague.”

“I think he’ll survive a few months of not making out with his coworkers,” I shot back, more sarcastic than I intended.

She finished up and put the lip gloss back into her bag. She pulled out her phone and began scrolling through it. “Somebody should be getting some action. The closest I’ve come to it so far was François asking me earlier if I wanted to be the mother of his second child.”

“Gross,” I said with a frown. “What did you say back?”

“I said given that I hadn’t had a full-frontal lobotomy, the answer was no.” She paused whatever she was doing and said, “This one has potential,” before swiping right.

“Are you on a dating app right now?” I asked, looking over her shoulder.

“Yes. And they should come with a drop-down menu so that you can indicate how desperate you are.” She looked up at me. “I’m assuming desperation is part of your problem. I know you are a Goody Two-shoes who loves rules more than she loves anything else, but you’ve been without Vitamin D for so long that you’re going to implode if you don’t at least make out with somebody soon.”

It took me a second to figure out what she’d meant by “Vitamin D,” but given that it was Georgia, it didn’t take long.

And she might have had a point. “I think it has been too long since I kissed someone.” There was a reason for that. One Georgia didn’t know about.

“Yes, you bloody dag,” she said affectionately.

I’d heard her call people dags before and knew it meant that she was questioning my intelligence.

“And you like Hunter,” she added, expecting me to confirm it.

I couldn’t help but do just that. Although there had to be a rational explanation for why I liked him. “Maybe it’s like that Florence Nightingale effect. He helped me during a medical crisis, so now I’m attracted to him.” I’d told her all about my first encounter with Hunter.

I could have sworn I heard her repeatbloody dagunder her breath, but she said, “Go on and tell yourself whatever lies you need to in order to sleep through the night. Which also seems like a shame, by the way. That you share a room with that scorching spunk and you spend your time sleeping. I would—”

I cut her off. “I know what you would do.”

Talking to Georgia about this situation had made me feel worse, not better. I had openly admitted to another person that I found Hunter attractive. Which made me feel like my defenses were weakening.

Erasing my boundary lines.

He was making me want to forget all about my past and take a chance on someone new. As if this relationship would somehow be theonly one that didn’t end in despair and heartbreak. I hadn’t told Georgia about the losses I’d suffered because I didn’t think she’d understand. She might want me to get over it and use Hunter to do so.

I changed the subject. “Speaking of people not seeing what’s right in front of them, if you’re not going to date him, you should put poor Pieter out of his misery.”

“You want me to shoot him?”

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