Page 27 of Sail Away
“You too, man.” Jag slapped Reid on the shoulder. “Tell my sister you still love her, and then listen to what she has to say. That’s all she wants. To be heard.”
“Yes, oh, wise man.”
“And don’t ever say that again.” Jag waved his hand over his head. “Have a fun trip. We’ll see you for dinner at my place when you get back.”
“I don’t think so,” Reid responded.
“You’re going to sweep my sister off her feet.” The doors closed behind Jag.
“I’m probably going to get myself thrown off the ship by my own business partner, but that will be about the only excitement,” he mumbled as he headed to the elevators and poked at the button.
It was going to be a long couple of days.
6
Darcie sipped her coffee in the crew mess while Milia, the chief stew, and her second, Anastasia, finished putting away the provisions. Chef Haley prepared trays of appetizers for when the guests arrived. The hour before a charter was always the most stressful for the interior crew, but the deck staff wouldn’t get too busy until the vessel pulled away.
Reid as a guest on her yacht. That was a surreal concept. He’d come to visit her many times while she worked a charter season in the two years they’d dated. Depending on the captain of the vessel, they either had to get a hotel room, or they could stay in the guest cabins on the yacht.
She found it ironic that it was Jim who always said no to Reid staying on the vessel.
“I heard you know these boys pretty well,” Milia said with a bright smile.
Darcie had to have known that everyone on the boat would find out that she and Reid used to have a thing. The question was what they knew, and how fast the insanity spread. “What were you told and by whom?” She took the preference sheets of all the guests and scanned them. They had already gone over them with the captain, and Haley had a good handle on what Reid, Preston, and the rest of the team wanted in the food department. Preston could be a douchebag when it came to food. He constantly complained, and nothing was ever good enough, not even when he cooked it himself.
But what disturbed her was the missing bungee jump off Deception Pass on the activities list. In its place, they had them leaving the yacht at twenty-two hundred hours and going scuba diving. Why did they need to leave with someone else?
Because they decided to leave her and Jim out of the equation?
However, that really didn’t exonerate them or the boat owners from liability if something happened.
Her brother was going to have her head if she didn’t tell him, but she wouldn’t lose her job over that one.
“Don’t get mad,” Milia said, “but Kim told me this morning that Jim said you used to date the primary’s business partner.”
Darcie inhaled sharply, checking her temper. She wasn’t really angry with Milia or Kim. Not really. Not anymore. Hell, she couldn’t even stay pissed at Jim. The only person she was angry with was herself, and it was high time she stopped kicking herself over her bad choices and started learning from them and moving forward.
“That would be a true statement.”
“I heard it was for like two years,” Milia said.
“I thought Kim and Jim were getting engaged last night? Didn’t they have better things to do than gossip about me?” She flicked her wrist, tossing out the last couple of swigs of her coffee in the sink. So much for turning over a new leaf and checking her sarcasm at the door.
“We’re all just curious what the feel of the boat is going to be for the next three days.” Haley, the chef, had always been the quietest person on the vessel. She didn’t say much of anything, but when she did open her mouth, she was usually the voice of reason. “We’ve been walking on eggshells ever since Kim left, and to be frank, we’re all kind of tired of it.”
“No offense to anyone, but you should have all come at me with that upfront, instead of tiptoeing around the subject. Because it just makes me defensive and pissed off.” She adjusted her ponytail. “Things could get awkward. And because of my history with both primaries, I could end up losing my cool if they get in my face.”
Just as she said that, two of her deckhands came waltzing into the galley.
“Is someone giving you shit?” Kirk asked. “Because if they are, I’ll kick their ass.”
“Me, too.” Bradley snagged a mug and made himself some coffee. “But what are we talking about?”
“Your boson’s love life.” Anastasia picked at a head of lettuce. She always liked helping in the kitchen, and she was a pretty good cook, often making the crew meals when Haley had a big dinner for the guests to deal with. But she could be a bit of a shit-stirrer, enjoying the conflict as long as she wasn’t part of it. “And the fact that one of our guests isthe ex-boyfriend.”
“Shit,” Kirk mumbled. “The guy you were dating when we first worked together in Greece? The one you’d broken up with by the time we met again in Florida?”
“That’s the one,” she said. “His business partner, Preston, can be a bit of a dick, and he’ll constantly try to get a rise out of me.”
