Page 42 of The Billionaire's Teacher

12

SUNSHINE

Ibit my lip as I manned the controls.

The water was rough. It had been getting rougher through the night. Rough enough that the autopilot couldn’t hold the course, so I’d been here, mostly awake, the whole time. I was either going to have to give Wes a crash course on driving so I could grab a nap or we were going to need to find a place to dock and hunker down.

I rubbed my burning eyes and tried to ignore the churning in my gut.

“Morning.” Wes grinned as he came up the stairs from the cabins below. Then he took a second look and frowned. “Are you all right?”

“No. I’ve been up all night.”

His eyebrows lifted. “What’s wrong?”

“The models have basically all shifted now. It’s heading this way and we’re not going to be able to outrun it on our way south like I’d hoped.” I held the wheel as the boat hit a wave.

Wes steadied himself. “Can we pull over? Or heave to or whatever it’s called?”

I smiled in spite of myself as he struggled to find the right sailing jargon. “I need to figure that out. The short answer is that I took us east to give us a better route to Grenada, so now, if we wanted to get to one of the islands in between, we’d have to head toward the storm. I’m not sure how well that will work, if I’m honest.”

“Can we just head east? Forget Grenada and work on avoiding the storm?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. There’s no guarantee we’d avoid the storm if it’s really coming this way. Plus, the farther east we go, the less likely we are to find a place to land and hunker down.”

He frowned. “What can I do?”

“Can we start with coffee? Then I guess I’ll give you a crash course on keeping us heading the way we’re trying to go so I can sleep a little and figure out our best next step.” I hesitated to tell him the worst of the news. I needed to. Definitely. But I couldn’t quite get the words out.

“I can do that.” Wes looked nervous.

I imagined it wasn’t the coffee making that was throwing him. “You’ll do fine. You just have to keep us on the plotted course. Promise.”

“Okay.” He moved to the kitchen area and set about making coffee. “What do the people at the charter company suggest?”

I winced. “That’s the bad news.”

He whipped his head my direction. “What do you mean?”

“The storm is already interfering with our communications. Contact is spotty and only going to get worse.” This was why I didn’t always rely on technology—it was only as good as the infrastructure supporting it. I had charts in my cabin and would absolutely be consulting them when I worked out what we were going to do next. But I sure would love to get Zee on the line and see what she suggested.

Wes didn’t respond. He turned back to the kitchen and opened the fridge. “Can I make you a sandwich?”

“Sure.” I wasn’t positive I’d be able to keep it down, but if it helped him feel useful, I’d go with it. If it came back up? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d been sick on board. Probably wouldn’t be the last.

I checked my cell phone. Still no signal. Awesome.

“Here.” Wes came up beside me with a steaming mug that he offered handle first and a plate holding a sandwich that would make every cartoon sandwich jealous.

“That’s a big meal.” I took the mug and gestured for him to set the plate down next to the controls.

He shrugged. “Figured it was better to try to use things up before they go bad.”

I frowned. “Why would they go bad?”

“I’m not stupid, Sunshine. Chances are high that we’re going to end up shipwrecked. That means no power. In turn, that means no refrigeration. At this point, I’m hoping we manage that shipwreck near some kind of land instead of just bobbing along at the mercy of the ocean in a hurricane.” He turned and strode back to the kitchen area.

I sipped my coffee. “I don’t think it’s that dire.”

---