Chapter Thirty-Five Lucky
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lucky
Dad?
This was Hunter’s father?
Surprise slammed into me and rendered me temporarily immobile and speechless. What was happening?
The women were much more effusive in their affection and they all hugged Hunter tightly, telling him they loved him and had missed him. I stole a glance at Hank and I felt a little foolish that I hadn’t immediately made the connection as soon as he had stepped on board.
He was Hunter thirty years from now.
I was in complete and total shock. I might have shaken hands with his father but I couldn’t remember. Everything with his mother and sisters was a complete blur.
Then I heard Captain Carl say, “Lucky will take you on a tour of the boat and we’ll get your luggage all handled.”
I was in no state to do a tour. It was a good thing that I had done it before because I was basically relying on muscle memory as I moved through each room and explained its function.
This was Hunter’s family. His family . They were the new owners of the ship. This very expensive yacht.
Which meant he was wealthy. Obscenely wealthy.
It also meant his name wasn’t Hunter Smith.
Hunter Cartwright had been lying to all of us since the very first day he’d come onto the Mio Tesoro .
Did the captain know? He had to have known. Why else would he have told me to keep an eye on Hunter? Because he knew exactly who Hunter was.
The owners’ son.
His soft, uncalloused hands. The way he hadn’t known anything at all about yachting. Law school. He’d never talked about working or having another job besides this one. Being in a fraternity. There had been so many hints that he came from a completely different background from mine.
I thought back to that night with the Carmines, when Hunter had asked whether or not we had a dishwasher, and realized that he probably hadn’t meant an appliance—he had most likely grown up with an actual person who had washed his 24-karat-gold-plated dishes by hand.
We went back to the main salon, and with my brightest, fakest smile, I asked what I could get for them. Both girls requested sodas, their mother a dry martini, and their dad asked for a whiskey sour. I invited them to go onto the deck to watch us pull out of port.
They did so and I was grateful for the temporary reprieve. I went over to the bar and started grabbing bottles and glasses.
I had shared so much with Hunter about my life, where I had come from, my struggles.
And while he had been vulnerable with me, I realized now how careful he had been in what he had shared. I’d heard the captain call his mom Dr. Cartwright. What was she a doctor of? What did his dad do? Where did all this money come from?
What university had he gone to? Which law school? My guess was Ivy League on both.
How could he have kept this from me?
Georgia came over to the bar, most likely to help me, and immediately quiet shrieked, “Hunter is rich?”
“I can’t believe he didn’t tell me.” I was still shaken up over it.
“He didn’t tell you about the fake-dating thing, either,” she pointed out unhelpfully. It was true, though. He had kept things from me before.
“Why would he do this?” I asked.
“I don’t know, mate. He obviously had his reasons for it. I can’t imagine they were nefarious. Regardless, he’s still invited to my future wedding as the groom.” At my expression she hurried to add, “Kidding! It was a joke!”
We had a job to do, but all I wanted was to run and find him and make him explain what was going on.
When I didn’t say anything, she said, “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. Give the bloke a chance.”
I wasn’t angry. I was confused and surprised. Maybe the anger would come later. I just didn’t know what to make of all this.
Maybe I wasn’t surprised because men had always lied to me before.
“You also need to watch out for Emilie,” she cautioned.
“Emilie? Why?”
“She went downstairs and doubled Hunter’s point value. Now that she knows he’s rich, I think all bets are off. Him being a Cartwright was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
“Great. One more thing for me to panic about.”
“I thought you said that Hunter helps you to not worry so much.”
“He does,” I agreed. “But he’s not like a cure or something. When he’s around he helps to clear out the noise better than when I’m on my own. He’s normally very calming, but today he is the cause of all my anxiety.”
“Well, I think you should lock him down ASAP so you don’t lose him to Emilie’s schemes. The girl doesn’t take no for an answer and, I’m assuming, has the restraining orders to prove it.”
I wanted to say that if he was weak enough to fall for Emilie, I didn’t want him anyway, but couldn’t. I might resort to actual hairpulling and eye gouging if either one of them got too close to him. “I don’t know how we move past this,” I confessed. “This feels like a really big secret to keep from someone that you ...”
That what? We weren’t in a relationship. We weren’t dating. We weren’t even kissing. I mean, not on the mouth.
What did that make this? A situationship? A boatmance?
“That you’re in love with,” she finished for me, shaking her head. “You’re one of the people that make the universe mad. You beg it to give you a cake and it sends you eggs and oil and sugar and flour and puts you in a galley. But you’re running out of the room, upset that you didn’t get that cake you wanted. Everything you need is right in front of you, but you have to make some effort here. You asked to be happy and that was given to you.”
There was a lot of scary wisdom in what she was saying, which felt a bit odd coming from Georgia. “So in this scenario Hunter is cake?”
Also an apt description because he was delicious enough.
She ignored my joke. “You’d be a bloody dag if you let him get away.”
“Georgia!” I protested. “You’re supposed to be telling me to not take his crap and that I can do better.”
“Maybe. But I think he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you. I can see that he’s made you happier. More relaxed. Like a better version of you. And that’s the truth. If you want something sugarcoated, Andre’s got some doughnuts,” she said. “I’m going to go down and check on Emilie and make sure she hasn’t got Hunter tied up somewhere.”
Returning to the deck, I handed out the drinks to everyone. When I got to Hank, he thanked me and said, “I don’t normally drink this early. I guess that makes me a bit of an aqua-holic!”
His quip shot an arrow straight at my heart. It was so like something Hunter would have said. Hank took a drink and pronounced, “This is excellent. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” There was a weird sense of déjà vu speaking to him. His voice was remarkably similar to Hunter’s.
“So, Lucky, do you know what they call an optometrist who buys a boat?” he asked.
“I don’t.”
“A see captain. ‘See’ with an E on the end.” He grinned at me but his youngest daughter let out a loud groan.
“Dad! Leave her alone and stop telling her stupid jokes!”
“I like them,” I said to no one in particular, realizing that it was true. I loved every time Hunter would say something ridiculous to me. “Is there anything else I can bring you?”
Everyone said no and I took the chance to run down to the galley and hide out. There was something disconcerting about being around Hunter’s family. They all seemed very nice but I was super aware of the fact that I had some weird romantic-y type thing going on with their son.
And even more aware that they were the ones who had instituted the no-fraternizing rule.
Andre was preparing some trays with sophisticated snacks. I asked if I could help and he brushed me off. I waited for him to finish, trying not to fixate on Hunter.
“Did you hear that the itinerary has changed?” Kai asked me as he came into the galley to grab some food.
“I hadn’t.”
“Apparently we’re going to spend the entire trip off the coast of Italy with a two-day stop in Naples.”
Hunter had done this. I had told him how important it was to me to go to Italy, especially Naples, and he had arranged it.
While it was probably a little less impressive, given that his parents owned the boat, it was still thoughtful and I knew that he had done it for my sake.
“Here, all done,” Andre said. I started grabbing trays and balancing them on my arms. I could have called for help but I didn’t particularly want to see anyone else at the moment.
One foot in front of the other, I told myself. I could get through this. I would concentrate on doing my job and eventually I would have that conversation with Hunter.
I threw myself into service, waiting on the Cartwrights. The thing that struck me was not only the resemblance Hunter bore to both of his parents, but how ridiculously in love they seemed to be. They were probably closing in on three decades of marriage but they were acting like they were on their honeymoon. After I’d served all the trays, Susan said, “I’m sure you have so much you need to attend to. Don’t worry about us. We are totally fine.”
That had never happened before—I was at a bit of a loss. I’d never had guests tell me to go do something else and not run around fetching whatever struck their fancy. It was thoughtful on her part because there was a lot that needed to be done.
I went down to make sure their cabins were prepared by getting their bags unpacked. Emilie should have put away their clothes by herself, but she, once again, had not. She was on her phone.
“This is a serious problem,” I told her. I had cut my sisters off financially. I had discovered that I actually had a backbone. I could deal with Emilie, too. “You need to start contributing or I’m going to have to go and speak with your uncle about your behavior and how you don’t do what you’re told.”
She put her hands on her hips and glared at me. “He told me that you’re in charge of me, that my actions reflect on you. If you go to him, that won’t end well for you, either.”
I thought of that phrase Hunter had used—mutually assured destruction. She wanted to threaten my job? I would call her bluff. “Of the two of us, I’m the one he can least afford to lose.”
“Go tell him and let’s find out,” she challenged. “And when I speak to him, I’ll be sure to tell him that either you go or I go and I think we both know who he will choose.”
Emilie might have been surprised at the decision the captain might make. Not that I could a hundred percent guarantee it, but I was pretty sure he’d keep me. Captain Carl might have been abrasive and demanding, but he had to realize that I was good at my job. The old me probably would have panicked endlessly about this situation but I knew that I was needed on this ship. We had one less stew than we normally did and Emilie was like a barnacle clinging to the hull. Totally unnecessary and weighing the rest of us down. She could easily be let go and we wouldn’t miss a beat.
“Fine,” I said, my decision made. When I got the opportunity, I would speak to the captain and then we’d see where things ended up. “Start unpacking Mrs. Cartwright’s bags and take out any dresses that need to be steamed.”
I would stay in here and watch her and make sure she worked. Of course she moved as slowly as was humanly possible, but at least she was working.
When we were nearly finished, Georgia texted me.
Pieter gave Hunter a two-hour break. Maybe you should take yours now, too?
It was my job to schedule all the breaks for the stews. I was entitled to a two-hour break every day. And I would have taken it on a more regular basis if I weren’t having to constantly clean up behind Emilie.
Today I would be taking that time. I needed an explanation and I wasn’t sure I could wait another twelve hours before I got one.
“Take those dresses into the laundry room and steam them,” I said to her. Hopefully she would actually do it and not deliberately wreck any of the clothing in the process.
Although if she did, it would certainly give me some additional ammunition when I went to the captain.
The thought of speaking to him about how awful his niece was caused me more anxiety than the thought of the conversation I was about to have with Hunter.
Why was there such a difference? It was probably because I trusted Hunter. Maybe I shouldn’t have, given the lies, but I always felt safe with him. Like he was a good man who had my best interests at heart.
It was the opposite with Captain Carl.
I also believed that Hunter would be honest with me. That he must have had a good reason for covering up his background.
When I got to our cabin, he had apparently been about to get into the shower, as he had his shirt off. He was on his phone. When I opened the door, he glanced up and gave me a half smile.
“Lucky, I’m so glad you’re here. I really need to talk to you. To explain.”