Page 25 of The Billionaire's Teacher

I parked the scooter and texted the owner that it was back in the agreed-on spot, then hurried down the dock to the boat. I didn’t even check to see that Wes was following. I needed to check the weather.

And a little space from him would also be a good idea. Anything to get my traitorous body under control.

Wes seemed to understand. Maybe he needed the same? No. That was ridiculous. I knew what I looked like. And okay, sure, I wasn’t breaking mirrors or sending small children running when I walked into a room, but I wasn’t being scouted to model for…anyone. Not even AARP, which was certainly the more likely demographic for me than any other magazine out there.

I snorted quietly as I hurried to my cabin and my laptop.

I bit my bottom lip. There were definitely two storms and they were watching a third area that looked troubling. It was early in the season to have so much activity. Did that mean the whole summer and fall would be one storm after another? So many of them fizzled out before they got to the islands. Or they took a turn and just rampaged in the ocean. I was fine with either.

I drummed my fingers on my leg before grabbing my phone and dialing Zee.

“Two calls in one day, I’m flattered.”

I rolled my eyes even though she couldn’t see it. “You called me, so the first one doesn’t count.”

Zee’s laugh was deep and rich. “Whatcha need, hon?”

“Advice.”

“Well, now, you know I love telling people what to do. You came to the right spot. But before I suggest action you’re never going to take, why don’t you get a little more specific?”

I sighed. Zee was at the forefront of people pushing me to date. She was more pragmatic about it though, not supposing I’d find a second happily ever after. She just thought I needed male companionship to release some of the stress she swore I carried around with me.

Reminding her that I was serious about my relationship with Jesus—which meant sex wasn’t on the table—didn’t do more than elicit a quiet hmmm.

“The weather? Remember how you got me all worked up about the storms?”

Zee scoffed. “I didn’t get anyone worked up. But if you’re feeling that way, I’m just going to point out—”

“Stop.” I couldn’t stop the exasperated chuckle. “The weather. Would you divert? We’d been planning to sail down the east side of everything to keep it simple. I should go ahead and reroute, right? Put some islands between us and the storms?”

“Hmm.” Keys clacked on Zee’s side of the call. “I probably would, yeah. And I’d go ahead and plan to skip Barbados and Tobago all together.”

I nodded. We weren’t scheduled to be that far south until closer to the end of our trip, but the new route would make getting over to them more of an issue. “All right. I probably will end up skipping one or two of the islands up here, too, since their major marinas are on the east side.”

“That seems wise. You didn’t need me.”

I heard the unasked question in Zee’s tone. Why had I called her? “I needed to double-check that I was thinking clearly.”

“Oh?” Zee drew out the word.

“Fine. Yes. He’s attractive.”

“And loaded.”

“Zee.”

“What? You think I don’t search up the single men who want a solo trek with my girl?”

I pressed my lips together. I’d specifically not done a web search on Wes. It wasn’t my business. “You didn’t need a web search to know that. You can just look at our invoice.”

“Mmhmm. What if I told you we could have tripled our fee and it wouldn’t have made him sneeze?”

I blinked.

“Your silence is talking for you.”

“Stop it. It’s not my business.”

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