Page 90 of Falling Overboard

Lucky

“Hunter told you we were dating?” I shrieked. “We’re not!”

Everything was taking on a surreal sheen. I knew what the truth was, but her assuredness was making me question myself.

Now Georgia looked alarmed. “Don’t get upset. I believe you! You guys are not dating.”

I knew why she was concerned. I usually kept my freak-outs private.

You don’t keep them from Hunter.

That was a problem for another time. Right now I had to worry about the fact that she had either misunderstood him or was drunker than either one of us realized and had made it up.

“Hunter told you, used the actual words, that he and I are together?”

She nodded.

Did the rest of the crew know about this?

More importantly, did the captain know?

“I distinctly remember that he said you two were ... ‘involved.’ That was the word he used.” She nodded, pleased with herself.

“Why would he do that?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know why he would tell all of us but not you.”

If he thought we were dating, I probably should have been the first person he told.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” she added.

It did not. Although it did explain why Emilie was being so openly hostile toward me. She must have thought I was trying to get the highest-point guy on the sCrew List for myself.

Then another thought occurred to me. “What if Emilie tells her uncle?”

“I don’t think she will. It would draw too much attention to what she and I are doing. We’re all better off if he doesn’t know that anyone is hooking up.”

But she couldn’t be certain. Why would Hunter potentially put both of our jobs in jeopardy? “I don’t understand why he did this.”

“Maybe he wanted me and Emilie to back off,” she said. That was a reasonable explanation. Neither one of them had been very shy in their attempts to land him.

While I was considering this, she said, “Have you seen those rom-coms where couples pretend to date? They call it ... fake-dating. That could be what’s happening.”

“I don’t know if it can be fake-dating if only one person is aware of it.” I was going to have to get to the bottom of this.

“You know what happens whenever people fake-date in the movies, don’t you? They always fall in love.” She had a dreamy look on her face.

Nobody was going to fall in love. That I might have already fallen was beside the point. I had to protect my heart and I knew what a danger Hunter would be to it. “Everyone knows?” I didn’t know why I was asking a question she’d already answered.

It was like I just needed to hear it all more than once so that I knew it was real.

“Oh yes. Whenever the two of you sneak off to your cabin instead of hanging out with us, everyone assumes that you two are ... what is a nice way of putting this ... expressing yourselves through the physical act of love.”

“I . . . we . . . that’s not . . . I . . .”

“It’s called a complete sentence, Lucky. You should try it.”

Oh, I had a complete sentence, all right. “I’m going to make him set everyone straight.”

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