Chapter Six Lucky
Chapter Six
Lucky
When my alarm beeped the next morning, I quickly shut it off. Hunter was lightly snoring above me and it made me smile.
Not so perfect after all.
Nope, couldn’t let my thoughts go there. I had just been feeling vulnerable yesterday. I would get over it. I would get used to his flawless face and we would be fine.
I kept running last night’s conversation through my head. It had seemed like Hunter cared whether or not I was willing to break rules. I decided it was due to my overwrought imagination and to stop interpreting our interactions through my touch-deprived filter. I’d just been out of the dating scene for so long that I was no longer fluent in subtext and could easily misunderstand.
The best thing for me to do would be to throw myself into mindless cleaning and burn off my inappropriate feelings with hours of physical labor.
But then I stood up and saw him. He was curled on his side in a ball with his blanket tucked in around him. His hair was messy and his expression soft. It was one of the most endearing things I’d ever seen and the sight of him knocked the wind out of my sails.
I found myself reaching out to push back some hair that had fallen over his eyes. I immediately retracted my hand, told my percolating hormones to stop their unbridled ogling, and whirled around, grabbing my clean uniform from the closet.
As I got ready for the day, I kept telling myself that this was because so much had changed so quickly. I was now chief stew, we had a new charter season starting, new owners of the boat—everything was different.
There was upheaval and uncertainty. It made sense that I would be reaching out to hold on to something just to anchor myself. Someone who had been nice and helpful.
That’s all it was—nothing more.
I went into the laundry room and started multiple loads, throwing in Hunter’s handkerchief, and then headed over to the galley, where Andre was already prepping for the day. Captain Carl had gone over the guests’ preference sheets with us and I was pleased to see that Andre would be catering to their pescatarian wishes.
We were welcoming Robert and Donna Carmine in honor of Donna’s seventy-fifth birthday. Robert was a movie studio executive and they had attended the film festival in Cannes. They would be celebrating her birthday here on the yacht with four friends. They had requested a pink and gold theme for the party and I’d already put in a call to the provisioner for decorations and costumes for the stews.
I reminded Andre about the cake and he made a growling sound. Most yacht chefs despised baking. I would’ve offered to make it for him but he would have taken that as an insult to his culinary skills. I scooted off to the stew pantry because it was in dire need of cleaning and reorganizing before the guests arrived.
Thomas found me while I was cleaning the coffee maker. “Have you seen Hunter?”
Frowning, I put my cloth down. “He was still in bed when I got up.”
“He’s not in his cabin. I forgot to give him a radio yesterday. If you see him, tell him to come find me so that we can get that sorted and discuss the schedule.”
“I will.”
Thomas will find him, I told myself. I didn’t have to get involved. The bosun was more than capable of tracking Hunter down.
But I didn’t listen.
I found Hunter in the gym, where he was doing pull-ups on a high bar. The way his muscles flexed and contracted in his arms stole my breath.
And unfortunately for me, he noticed me before I had a chance to stop staring.
“Hey, Lucky! Are you here to work out?” He hopped down and walked toward me. He had on a tank top and I realized that I could have built my entire life on those perfect, broad shoulders of his and I swallowed hard. The closer he got to me, the drier my mouth became.
All I could think about was the way he’d said “I aim to please” last night and how my overwhelming lust had urged me to climb up into his bunk and drape myself over him.
I hoped that he’d never say those words in front of Georgia, because she would try to prove the veracity of his statement.
Much as I wanted to do right now.
Then I realized how long I had gone without responding and it made me finally able to speak. “Not allowed!”
“What’s not allowed?” Why did that sound like an invitation?
I had to clear my throat to keep talking. I made sure to keep my eyes trained on his so that his muscles would stop distracting me.
But his face was every bit as distracting.
I shifted from one leg to the other, tapping the fingers of my right hand against my leg. “We can’t work out in the gym during a charter. It’s off-limits for us. Only the guests can use it.”
Did I sound nonchalant? Probably not, because I was feeling overly chalant at the moment.
He threw a towel around his neck. “Technically the charter hasn’t started yet.”
That he was the kind of man who would be looking for technicalities to avoid following rules was not good. I was afraid I’d be too willing to jump on board. “It will start in a few hours. Thomas is looking for you. He has your radio and wants to discuss your schedule. And your uniform should be here soon.”
“Aye, aye,” he said with a salute that was somehow adorable. “I’ll have to figure something else out then when we have a charter. I have ADHD and exercising to burn off excess energy is helpful.”
I had to press my lips into a thin line because my body wanted me to offer alternative ways to burn off excess energy, perhaps together. Instead I said, “One of my younger sisters has ADHD.”
“Then you get it,” he said with his dazzling smile and I felt weak-kneed. “I’m just focusing on getting myself shipshape.”
I couldn’t help but let out a small groan. “Please tell me I don’t have a bunkmate who is a fan of nautical puns.”
“Well, I could tell you that but then I’d be lying.” He smiled at me again and there was this moment between us, this pulse that seemed to envelop me.
I wondered if he felt it, too.
Then I noticed a bead of sweat running down his right temple. It should have been a turnoff but it was not. Without thinking I reached out and took the edge of the towel still on his neck and patted the spot dry.
“You’re sweaty.” I whispered the words and then immediately let the towel drop. I wanted nothing more than to touch his skin, to taste the saltiness of it. To have him press his slightly damp body against mine.
He seemed to move closer, like he was leaning toward me. His gaze slipped down to my lips and he flexed his hands at his sides. Like he was going to reach for me. Then he seemingly changed his mind as he cleared his throat and said, “Right. I’ll go shower and then find Thomas.”
He left and I was so caught up in images of him standing under a stream of water that I didn’t register what he’d said. That wasn’t really how things worked here—he should have gone and found Thomas first and then worried about showering. Chain of command and all that.
But at the moment that was not my primary concern.
I told myself for what seemed like the millionth time that nothing could happen between me and Hunter.
This was going to be the longest season ever if I couldn’t remember that.
There were approximately five bajillion things to do before the charter guests arrived, and I caught Emilie on her phone in one of the guest cabins and not doing the tasks I had assigned to her.
“We need to work together as a team,” I told her. Because now I was going to have to come behind her and fix all of this. Georgia was upstairs working on the guest communal areas and couldn’t help me.
“Oh, I agree,” she said with fake enthusiasm. “Just tell me what I need to do and I’ll get it done.”
That was a lie but I figured it was probably safer for my current career if I didn’t say as much. I didn’t need her tattling to the captain that I was being mean to her. “Please go make sure the crystal bowls are filled with candy and nuts in the main salon. Then head to the laundry room and after you get some more loads going, do a quick clean of the crew mess.”
Her expression dropped and she didn’t try to hide her annoyance. “Everybody uses the crew mess. We should all have to help clean it.”
My internal temperature began to rise. Everyone did clean up after themselves but it was specifically the duty of the interior crew to do the deeper cleaning.
And things were different before, when Emilie had just been an extra set of hands. It didn’t really matter if she didn’t pull her own weight because the rest of us could manage fine without her.
But now we were in a position where she had to complete the daily tasks I’d assigned to her or it was going to seriously affect me and Georgia.
“That’s what I need you to do,” I said, trying to mimic what Marika would have said if she’d still been here. She probably would have been a lot harsher but I hated hurting people’s feelings. I tried to avoid it as much as possible.
“Fine,” she said, not bothering to pull her false enthusiasm back up again. She walked off, still typing on her phone. I had to hope she would do what I asked because I would be the one Captain Carl would come down on if things weren’t done properly.
The next couple of hours flew by quickly—we loaded on provisions and Georgia helped me get everything I’d ordered put away. I left Hunter’s various uniforms on his bunk and radioed him that they had arrived.
Instead of responding over the walkie-talkie, he texted me.
Thanks for bringing that to my yacht-tention.
The smile that broke out on my face was immediate and unexpected. Kai happened to be walking by and he raised both of his eyebrows at me.
“Hunter?” he correctly guessed but I just shook my head at him. He let out a laugh and went abovedeck.
Getting the text was nice because another message came in immediately after that from my sister Lily.
Chauncy needs surgery and the vet says it’s going to be like five hundred bucks. Can I borrow that from you? I promise to pay it back!
Lily usually promised to pay me back. She never had but at least she made the effort, unlike Rose, who just asked for the money.
My fingers hesitated above the keys on my cell, and for a brief second I considered telling her that I was not going to send her money.
But I was all my sisters had. I missed the way our relationship had been before our mother had died. We had just been a family then and now I felt like I was little more than an ATM to them. I sent her the money via an app and slipped my phone into my pocket. I went to check on Emilie, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, she was taking selfies and sending them to people and only one dryer was running.
“Did you finish up Captain Carl’s formal shirt?” I asked. The captain had specifically asked me about it right after I’d finished putting away the provisions. He was expecting it for the guest arrival.
“It’s in the dryer,” she said, not even looking up from her phone.
Which would mean it still needed to be pressed. “You need to get more laundry going. These machines should be constantly running all day.”
But when I opened the dryer door, I saw that everything was covered in streaks of blue.
Including the captain’s shirt. I held it up and Emilie finally stopped typing long enough to look at me. “What?”
Could she not see the stains? “Did you check the pockets before you put everything in the washing machine?”
I had told her approximately thirty times to do just that. It was one of the first rules when it came to doing laundry. There must have been a pen in somebody’s pocket. Probably the captain’s.
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time to go through every single pocket. I’d never get any laundry done.”
Given the empty machines, she wasn’t getting any laundry done now, either. Swallowing back my anger, I reached into the dryer and began pulling out linen napkins. All ruined.
The one positive was that the captain had another dress shirt and we had extra table linens. I could order replacements. I’d go up to his cabin and get his dirty one and launder it myself. Maybe he wouldn’t even notice and he’d never have to know what his niece had done.
But despite my name, luck never quite seemed to be on my side.
The captain came into the laundry room. “Is that my shirt?”