Page 85 of The Sailor in Polynesia
Lila nodded sagely. “But also, you arebeautiful.”
Claire and I both laughed. Shewasbeautiful, with dark cropped hair, porcelain skin, and a nose piercing.
“You’re beautiful too, Lila. And unfortunately for me, you’re taken.”
“And I’m straight.”
“That’s never stopped me before.” Claire winked at me.
“She’s taken too,” Lila said. “We’re going to be... sister-wives?”
I put my face in my hands. “Lila, no.”
“What are we going to be?”
“Sisters-in-law. But not really.” Jonas and I were not engaged and we were not even talking about it. As far as I knew, he wasn’t even thinking about marriage because he hadn’t brought it up since Lila and Eivind’s engagement.
“Why not really?” She frowned. “You love him. Youkisshim. You want tomarryhim.” Her lips tipped up and she danced a little bit on her barstool. “I bet you’d even have his babies. Your babies would be so cute.”
“Let’s try a sailing season together first. We have a boat for a baby.”
Lila snorted.
“Where are your menfolk?” Claire asked, eyeing Lila tipping around on her stool.
“Out throwing axes, probably.”
A broad man, tanned and handsome, passed behind Claire. I saw his hand grasp Claire’s waist, her eyes flicking to the side to watch him walk away. He swung open a door to a storage room and stepped inside, flashing a heated glance at Claire.
“Who wasthat?” Lila breathed.
“My boss.”
“He’s beautiful too. What do they put in the water here?”
Claire laughed, then leaned in to whisper, “He’s kind of a jerk.” She peeked back at the closed door and dropped her voice even lower. “A hot jerk.”
Lila gave her sage wisdom. “Hot jerks can be good for some things.”
“Who is a hot jerk?” Eivind asked from behind her.
“Eivind!” Lila squealed, and threw her hands up.
Thankfully, Eivind caught her before she fell off the barstool. “Hello, lil Lila. How are you feeling?”
“We’re getting married this weekend.” She leaned into his arms and he tweaked her nose.
Jonas came up behind me. He brushed my hair out of the way and kissed my cheek. I almost never wore my hair down to avoid shedding all over the boat, but this time it was down and Jonas couldn’t stop staring at it.
“How was ax throwing?”
“Tiring,” Jonas said. He glanced at Eivind and Lila cuddling on the barstool. “It is nice to be away from the boat for a little bit.”
Eikwas hauled out on dry land for a month so we could prepare for the next season. Together, Jonas and I picked out a few projects to do—some were necessary, some were not—and worked on them, together. And we filmed.
I published four new videos to my channel, project-based videos that did really well. The courses sold, and we were adding two new modules. The support of my followers had been tremendous, and they welcomed Jonas with open arms. He still worked part-time for the journal, but together we were making enough money to keep going.
“It is nice,” I agreed. He tugged at my hair and pressed his lips to mine. We parted as Lila’s college friends came in and brought the party inside.
