Page 3 of Sail Away
“That sounds good, and if it’s a good tip, all the better. I can use the money. Any idea who the primary guests are? It wasn’t on the books when we left a week ago.” Kirk ran a hand through his thick, wavy hair. She’d worked with Kirk on two other vessels. One out of Florida, and the other out of Greece. Both times, she was a deckhand and not a boson. Kirk hadn’t liked working under her at first since he had more experience and had applied for the job of boson, but he’d come around quickly and had become her second. She would hire him in a heartbeat.
If she were to continue in the yachting business.
Something she was seriously considering leaving behind altogether in a couple of years. She’d actually contemplated quitting when Jim humiliated her a few charters ago, when he decided it was okay to sleep with someone else, but then she would have had to explain her rash exodus to her parents, something she couldn’t do—but only because her family would have a weird sense of pride if she failed.
She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Not to mention that no matter what happened, she wanted her captain’s license, and she wouldn’t stop until she had the chance to be at the helm.
She swallowed. While Craig knew nothing of the new charter guests, she knew a little too much. “Two business partners with four of their employees. They are celebrating some big milestone with their company.” Reid’s company developed safety products for extreme sporting enthusiasts as well as similar products for companies that took people on excursions such as white water rafting.
It was rare that anyone was injured, much less died during these excursions—but it happened. Which was why Reid was so passionate in his endeavor to make products that protected people.
Darcie had to wonder if Reid knew that she was a crewmember on the vessel he’d just chartered. If he did, she was shocked he had signed on the dotted line. The last time they’d seen each other had gone about as well as the last time she’d seen Captain Jim naked.
Pretty fucking horribly.
“Actually, you might have heard of their company,” Darcie said. She couldn’t remember if the television show that Reid and his partner had been on asking for investors had aired yet or not. She’d only seen the previews and had no intention of watching it. But if it had, Bradley, one of her deckhands and fellow sports enthusiast wannabe, would have seen it. He loved that show, and it was about all he’d talked about on the charter. That and what it was like to come eyeball to eyeball with a great white shark. “The Extremist Squad.”
“Yeah. I know those dudes. They just got signed on to do some movie thing with some new technology they are developing. They are trying to get it approved for firefighter use. It has a bunch of tests it has to go through, but damn, that would be cool. And they are going to be on our boat, tomorrow?” Bradley snapped to attention as Captain Jim, along with the interior crew, made their way to the aft salon. The guests would only be a few paces away.
“Looks that way.” Darcie rolled her eyes. “Why do you salute him?” she whispered. “It’s so not necessary.”
Bradley shrugged.
This last charter had been an easy one. Nothing bad had happened. No drama. Well, at least not with the guests. She couldn’t say the same for her and the chief stew and the captain. Milia always had to take Jim’s side on everything, and it made Darcie nuts. Of course, Milia had been Kim’s best friend on the boat, so when Jim decided to sleep with the second stew while still in a relationship with the boson, things got really ugly, and it made sense that Milia would stick with her bestie.
However, it didn’t help that Milia knew about Jim’s extracurricular activities long before the rest of the world knew and decided to keep that piece of information to herself. Darcie also refused to acknowledge that she and Jim did their best to keep their relationship a secret. The only person who had any idea was Kim.
Oh, the irony.
She plastered a big smile on her face and shook hands with the guests as they went through the crew line like they would at a wedding reception. Right now, she hated her job and contemplated walking off the yacht when the guests did.
When she first started on this crazy career path, it had been exciting and wild. She traveled the globe, worked on various vessels, learned from some amazing captains, bosons, and other deck crew. She’d begun her career at sixteen, and her family thought she was nuts. Her father actually used the wordcertifiable. Her parents tried to bribe her into staying in college with a car and an apartment, all paid for in full.
But stability wasn’t what Darcie craved. Adventure and not knowing what would happen next is what she’d yearned for back in the day. Of course, having a boyfriend who liked to jump out of perfectly good airplanes just for shits and giggles didn’t help tame the beast inside Darcie, and Reid Carson helped fuel her passions in ways she’d never dreamed. He’d filled her sails and her heart with a warmth she hadn’t known she’d been missing.
And then he took it away, leaving her to drift in the middle of the open water all alone.
In the beginning of their relationship, he’d encouraged her to do whatever it took to captain her own ship one day. He’d told her there was nothing she couldn’t do, and she’d believed him.
She still did.
Only, she’d lost faith in his ability to be a decent human being.
She let out a long breath. She was a week away from taking her captain’s test.
Only asshole Jim could put an end to that if he wanted to—another reason she’d kiss his ass these last few charters. If Jim didn’t give her a glowing report, it wouldn’t matter how great she did on the test; no one would hire her to captain their vessel.
At least not one that would bring on the kind of guests that would command a salary she could live off of, and one that would finally get her family to shut the fuck up about what a real job was all about.
The primary guest handed Captain Jim a thick envelope before turning and heading down the long pier with his friends.
“Let’s meet in fifteen for our tip meeting, and then I will be off the boat until nine tomorrow morning.” Jim smacked the wad of cash with his hand and double-timed it toward his cabin, waving over his right shoulder.
Don’t look. Don’t do it.
Darcie glanced toward the dock, and there stood Kim in a cute little strapless floral sundress and polarized clear shades. She smiled and gave a little waggle of her fingers as if they were old friends.
