Page 81 of Ship Happens
“We definitely weren’t fucking it,” Maverick mutters.
I explain what happened last night with Amber and Ice Pick.
“Damn, I hate that for Ice.” Eve grabs a napkin and cleans the jam and toast crumbs from her fingers. “Are you guys coming to the event this morning? That’s the reason I stopped by, despite also raiding your pantry.”
“What’s the event?” I ask, excitement thrumming inside me. I only have a few days left to explore this new murderous side of myself, and I want to make the most of it.
Maverick’s hand lands on my shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Didn’t you say you wanted to stay in the room today?”
Eve scoffs and rises to stand. “You can dick her down later, lover boy. Jim set up a beach relay race, and you aren’t fucking up our all-girls team this time. Cat and Kindra already planned our outfits, and I approved them.” She looks me in the eye. “You ready to kick their asses, honey?”
“Born ready.” I smirk at Maverick, but he looks less than enthused. I turn back to Eve. “I’ll be there. Just tell me where and when.”
She glances at the clock above the bathroom doorway. “We have to be on deck in an hour, so the sooner you get to Kindra’s room, the better. Maverick needs to go to Cat’s room to meet with the?—”
“I’m not going.”
Eve and I turn to look at him, both of us shocked.
“What the fuck do you mean? Yes you are.” Eve folds her arms over her chest and pops out her hip. “Me, Kindra, Cat, and Frankie. Aven, Ezra, Bennett, and you. That’s the way this works, and you don’t have a choice in the matter.”
I place a hand on Eve’s shoulder. “Give me a second to talk to him. I’ll meet you in Kindra’s room shortly.”
With an exasperated sigh, Eve agrees and tells me Kindra’s room number. I walk her to the door, then return to Maverick. He sits on the edge of the bed as he twirls a bit of ripped napkin between his fingers. I take a seat beside him and place my hand on his knee.
“Hey, what’s bugging you?” I ask.
He shakes his head and keeps twirling the napkin.
“Talk to me. I can’t very well help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
With a sigh, he finally looks at me. “Youare what’s wrong, sweetheart. We’re changing you, and I don’t want you to return from this trip disliking who you’ve become. Killing people and having fun doing it... This isn’t who you are. This is whoweare.”
“Maybe this is who I’ve been all along.”
He looks away from me, the fight gone from his eyes. His mouth opens, then closes, and he shakes his head. “I’m not going to the relay race, Frankie, and I don’t think you should either. You’re making a mistake. Please...stay here with me. You can justify the other kills you’ve made here, but you can’t justify what you’ll be expected to do today.”
“I’ll learn to live with it.” Frustration bubbles over, and I stand and head for the door before I say something I’ll regret. I exit the cabin without so much as a look over my shoulder.
He’ll either show up or he won’t, but I’m gonna be there.
Sand squishes through my toes as I walk along the shore. The boat that dropped us off speeds away to pick up the next group of participants, its engine buzzing like billions of pissed-off mosquitos. Kindra bends at the waist and snags a shell from the oncoming tide.
“It’s got the perfect little hole,” she says as she holds it up to the sunshine, and she’s right. A circular area has been worn through the flat shell.
Eve laughs and looks at me. “I know someone else who has the perfect little hole.”
“Eve!” I swat her arm. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
She points down the beach, and I follow her gaze until my eyes land on a small group of men. Maverick stands among them.
“You convinced him to come when he didn’t want to,” Eve says. “I know him well enough to know that’s saying something. Maverick says what he means, and if he didn’t want to come, he wouldn’t have. Not without some serious convincing.”
“I didn’t use any of my holes this time,” I say. “I don’t think it’s that serious, though. Maybe he just had a bad case of FOMO.”
Kindra pulls off her necklace and runs the slender chain through the hole in the shell, turning it into a charm to accompany the silver hand-shaped charm already dangling from her neck. She grips the silver hand and gives it a shake. “These men show their affection in weird ways. Ezra proposed with a disembodied hand inside a pumpkin.”
“Bennett tried to make my life a living hell because he had a crush on me. Then he shoved a turkey leg in my ass.” Cat shrugs. “Maverick showed up because he’s got it bad, girl. Just accept it.”
