Chapter 6
JULIA
B utterflies flitted inside Julia’s stomach as she rose, hoping her knees held her.
“Juju?” Luke asked, the surprise on his features obvious.
Julia offered him a slight smile, unable to avoid the moment she’d fretted over since her arrival in Harbor Cove. “Hey, Luke.”
The world faded around her as she studied him, so very much the same as when she’d walked away from him less than two years prior.
He hadn’t recovered from his shock yet as he murmured, “I didn’t realize you were home.”
She started to answer when he suddenly pulled his eyes from her as though he’d just realized others were present. “Uh, sorry, umm, why don’t you folks head aboard? I just need a minute with my…I just need a minute.” Luke poked a finger toward Julia.
Julia slid her eyes closed for a moment as she prepared to inform him she was with them.
This wasn’t at all the way she wanted to speak to Luke.
Actually, she hadn’t wanted to speak to him at all.
If she could have avoided him for the duration of the trip, it would have been preferable to the mix of emotions churning through her right now.
Before she could speak Sierra did. “With your dog? Who by the way, nearly viciously attacked my step-mommy.”
Julia’s features pinched at her words as she opened her eyes and stared at the complete disbelief on Luke’s features.
“What?” he asked.
“My stepmother. Your dog nearly killed her.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know who you mean.”
“I’m really starting to wonder about the fun you guaranteed me.” Sierra grabbed Julia’s hand and held it forward toward him. “My stepmom. Mrs. Grant Harrington. Duh.”
Julia’s features melted with upset as Sierra broke the news in the worst way possible.
Luke studied her, upset and shock clouding his dark eyes. “You got married?”
She flicked her gaze to the sun-bleached boards of the dock beneath her feet before she raised her eyes to his. “Yes.”
The news crushed him, just as she expected it would.
It crushed her, too. She bit back the tears that threatened.
She hadn’t wanted him to find out this way.
It felt so disingenuous. She wanted to explain, at least for old times’ sake.
Or maybe because of the unresolved feelings that had kept her from stepping foot in the town for years.
“Wow,” he said as he stared down at the clipboard in his hand.
She wanted to say something, but instead, she let the awkward moment pass, desperately trying to manage her own feelings before the moment turned into something she preferred it didn’t.
“Well, uh, I guess we should get underway. Uh…”
She pressed her lips together as he struggled to make sense of the situation.
“Climb on aboard, and I’ll be right with you, I just need to make a quick call.”
“Finally,” Sierra said, seemingly oblivious to the tense exchange.
Julia blew out a sigh of relief as she hoped everyone else had overlooked it, too. One glance at Grant as she stepped forward suggested that wasn’t the case. Prickly heat washed over her as she realized he hadn’t missed the tension.
The dog trotted along next to her, following her as she hopped onto the gently swaying boat.
The spacious open deck with its panoramic views invited passengers to immerse themselves in the beauty of Harbor Cove.
She’d been on this boat before, and she actively shoved those memories away as she slid into a bench seat on the side.
Grant began to sit next to her when Duchess growled and snapped at him. “Whoa.”
“Duchess, no!” Julia said. “Bad girl!”
He tried again with the same reaction from the dog before he slid his eyes toward her. “Maybe if you switch with Sierra.”
“Fine,” Sierra said as she hopped from her seat next to Kyle. “I’d rather not sit next to my goofy brother anyway.”
The new seating arrangement seemed to appease the malamute who settled down to lie at Julia’s feet.
“Well, that was intense,” Kyle said as he flicked his gaze over the sparkling waters.
“Yeah, really,” Sierra answered. “He was kind of weird, huh?”
Kyle screwed up his face. “Are you serious?”
“No? Didn’t you just say that?”
“You can’t possibly be this dense.”
Sierra jabbed a manicured nail at him. “Take that back, I’m not dense. Just because I’m not a doctor like you…”
“But you totally missed out on why we just lived through the most intense conversation in the history of Harbor Cove.”
“Maybe we should just drop it,” Grant said, the low growl in his voice sounding more agitated than normal.
Julia bobbed her head. “Yes, let’s do that. That’s an excellent idea.”
“Drop what? Why?” Sierra asked.
“Oh my goodness, Sierra,” Kyle said with a shake of his head. “It’s pretty obvious they had a thing.”
Sierra’s eyes went wide as her red lips formed an O. “Julia! Are you serious? How could you?”
“What?” Julia asked as she screwed up her face.
“How could you do that to Daddy?”
“Sierra, I didn’t even know him then.”
“So you did have a thing with Captain Luke.” Sierra’s eyes went wide as she clenched a fist and leaned closer. “Was it a big thing or a small thing?”
Julia flicked a hand in the air. “Let’s drop it.”
“Yeah, after you tell us about it,” Sierra said. “Was it like a few dates then you ghosted him or was this like…life-changing?”
“We dated for a while on and off.”
“More on that off or more off than on?”
Julia’s shoulders slumped as Sierra pried deeper into the relationship she wasn’t ready to confront. She rubbed at the back of her neck as she slid her eyes closed. “More on than off.”
Sierra’s eyes went wide. “Seriously? Exactly how on?”
She twisted to eye the man as he hopped aboard. A flood of memories washed over Julia. Each laugh they shared, every whispered promise under the starlit Harbor Cove sky, it all came rising back, tugging at her heartstrings with a bittersweet ache.
“We were engaged,” she admitted, her voice just above a whisper, lost in the echoes of a past that suddenly felt painfully close.
Sierra leapt from her seat, her fingers twisting into fists. “You were engaged to Captain Luke?!”
Luke’s eyebrows raised at her shouted question. “Well, I guess now that you’ve told them, I don’t need to pretend I don’t know you that well. That’ll save us a bit of awkwardness.”
Julia narrowed her eyes at her former fiancé. He seemed to have recovered from his shock fairly well. She ground her teeth together as she wondered if the call he’d placed was to Alicia.
He glanced at her, his eyes no longer clouded with shock but instead filled with the warmth reminiscent of their shared past and something else that resembled a steely determination.
She shifted in her seat wondering if she should abandon ship. Instead, she dug her phone from her purse as Luke started his pre-trip preparations.
“Julia! You’re not supposed to be on your phone,” Sierra said.
“Just sending a text. I promised no writing, not no texting.” Julia’s fingers flew across the keyboard, typing a message to her sister. Did you tell Luke about my marriage?
She drummed her fingers against the phone’s side as she waited for a response.
“No writing? Wow, Julia, I can’t believe you agreed to that.” Luke shot her a grin as he gently guided the boat away from the dock into deeper waters.
She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she waited for her sister’s text. Soon, they’d likely not have any signal, and she’d have to wait and wonder until they got back to the dock.
Her eyes went skyward as she watched her last bar disappear and her signal die.
Luke steered the boat toward more open waters. “Not going to get a text out here, but you should know that.”
She slid her phone into the pocket of her purse without any new information, though with this changed demeanor, she couldn’t imagine he didn’t know. He’d made a call. Who would he call?
Maybe he was seeing someone. Maybe he called a new girlfriend. Julia narrowed her eyes at him. Wouldn’t Alicia have told her he moved on? Maybe not. Maybe she thought telling her would mean Julia wouldn’t come home.
“So, you folks are from the big city, huh?” Luke asked.
The comment brought a slight smile to her face as she recalled the lighter-hearted moment earlier this morning when she’d informed Grant they wouldn’t be liked for that exact reason. She shot him a glance and raised her eyebrows.
He shook his head, looking less than amused. She slouched a little in her seat.
“New Orleans,” Sierra said with a lift of her chin.
“I bet you had no idea this many trees existed,” Luke said with a chuckle.
As his familiar laugh echoed across the deck, a pang of nostalgia hit Julia. Memories of their shared secrets, their dreams under the Harbor Cove stars danced in her mind. Yet, as she flicked her gaze to Grant, those memories felt like distant echoes of another life.
His sense of humor hadn’t improved, Julia thought with a half-smile. Of course, everyone in Harbor Cove would have said the same thing.
“Have you always been a captain, Captain Luke?” Kyle asked.
Julia resisted the urge to leap from the boat and swim for shore. Grant didn’t seem to be happy, but he’d brood quietly. Sierra and Kyle would go in for the kill in their best attempt to bring to light anything they felt was necessary.
“Yes, for most of my life,” he answered, his dark curls blowing in the salty air. “I love the sea.”
He took a swig of water from a bottle before he twisted to face them. “But I bet you didn’t know I was not the only captain of the Crystal Echo.”
Julia gave a slight shake of her head, desperately trying to signal him not to say anything. He arched an eyebrow at her, an amused expression on his features as he crossed his arms.
“Who captained it before you?” Sierra asked. “And why would we care?”
“It wasn’t before me. But I was not this ship’s only captain. And you may care because her other captain is sitting right next to you.”
“Julia?” Sierra asked.
He poked a finger in the air. “Yes, Julia was a very good captain. Everyone loved Julia.”