Chapter 16
Laying Down the Law – Jack
O nce again, Kayla’s magic sleep juice, albeit one of the nastiest things I’ve ever put in my mouth, worked like a charm, and I slept like a baby last night.
And when I wake up, I find someone rummaging around my room.
At first, my instinct is to freak out, but when I sit up and rub my eyes, I see that it’s just Bryant.
“Captain?”
“Oh!” He looks like a little kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “You’re up.”
“What are you doing in here?”
“Um.” His eyes dart from one side of the room to the other. “I, uh, saw some crew members lingering around your door last night.”
“Really?” That’s very strange.
“Yes. I think I scared them off, but I wanted to come back this morning to make sure they didn’t mess with anything.”
Stretching, I look around. “Nothing looks amiss.” Not that I’d expect there to be, not many people have keys to access the inside. Bryant only does in case he has to wake me up due to an emergency of some kind.
He smiles and kind of bows. “However, it looks as though everything is in order, so I’ll just be on my way then. Meet up with you later in the galley?”
“Yeah, sure thing.” His actions seem odd indeed, but he’s been one of my trusty advisors for years now, so I just leave him without any more questions. Until he turns around, and I see a little folded up paper hanging out of his back pocket. “Hey Wes?”
He faces me again. “Yes, boss.”
“What’s that in your pocket?”
There’s a little one on the front of his mossy green pajama shirt. “What?”
“No, in the back…”
“Oh.” He feels back and seems to touch it. “Don’t worry about that. It’s just a little note from one of the staff members about um, where we’re going to dock in Morocco.”
“Oh. Okay.”
There’s definitely something off with him, but I’m too excited and distracted by my duty to prepare breakfast for everyone on the ship.
Based on our current destination, I want to get everyone in the spirit by making a traditional Moroccan breakfast of Jben cheese with honey, Baghrir pancakes, Harsha, and mint tea.
“It smells delicious in here,” Bryant comments after walking into the kitchen with Denver later that morning.
“Thanks. I thought I’d try something a little different today.”
“We just wanted to go over this itinerary with you,” Denver adds before handing me a piece of paper.
I scan it and see that it’s similar to what Bryant and I agreed to before his meeting with the staff.
“That’s fine.”
“Thank you,” Bryant says, dismissing Denver.
I’m drizzling the honey over my homemade cheese. “So, are you going to finally let yourself have a little fun?”
He coughs. “How do you mean?”
“In Morocco! Can you think of a better place to let loose?”
He clears his throat again. “Let loose, sir?”
“Yes! Come on, man.” I’ve wanted to have a fun night out with him since he and his wife called it quits.
He then pulls at the collar of his uniform. “I guess we could consider that.”
I clap my hands. “That’s what I like to hear.”
However, I soon remember my newest oath to ditch my playboy lifestyle. And what about Kayla? The mental gymnastics make me exhausted and feel like I hadn’t just had one of the best nights of sleep.
Sure, we’ve only shared one almost kiss, one actual one, and a thousand longing stares. However, I think it would crush me to see her dancing with some random stranger. But is that fair?
“Jack?” Bryant disrupts my spinning mind.
“Yeah?” My attention once again is on the food I’m preparing.
“You looked lost in the clouds again.”
It seems like that’s the effect she has on me.
“Uh, nope. All good. Just focused on making these new dishes.”
“Okay…”
After setting up everything in the dining area, I sit next to him at our typical table, but when I get the courage to glance over at the one where Kayla typically sits, there’s a group of deckhands there instead.
“What the heck?”
“What’s wrong?” He follows my lead and looks over at them. “Oh.” Apparently, that answered his own question. “I thought it would be good to mix things up a bit.”
My eyebrows smush together. “What do you mean?”
“I just thought it might be better to have arranged seating from now on.”
“Huh?” We’ve never done that, at least to my knowledge.
“Yeah, there’s been some tension among some of the crew members.”
“There has?” I wasn’t aware of any of that.
He nods. “Oh, yeah. You know how it can get when a set group of people are forced to share the same air for too long… there’s jealousy and other negative emotions that can be brought out on the sea.”
“Hm.” He’s obviously more in touch with the employees than I am, so I have no choice but to doubt him on any of that. “Have you seen it having any effect on the morale?”
“Yes, sir. By distributing the flow of bodies and conversation, things seem to have evened out. For now.”
“Alright. Well, good work.” I don’t want tension on board. For one thing, it reduces the atmosphere and the productivity of the workers.
“Thank you, sir.”
With that, I look around the rest of the room, but I don’t see Kayla anywhere.
As if able to read my mind, Bryant says, “I gave the stewards a special assignment this morning.”
I shuffle in my chair. “Oh, yeah? Why?… I mean, why would you think I’d care.”
He gives me a look. “It was just a guess.”
After taking a bite of delicious Harsha , I ask, “What are they doing? I’m just—just curious.”
“There was some slacking in the laundry area. So, I instructed for them to finish that up and make sure everyone’s extra uniforms and linens were perfectly folded by the end of the day.”
“Ah. I see.”
“Yes.” He takes a big swig of his coffee. “I noticed that I’ve been too relaxed with them. But no more.”
“Okay.” Again, the crew is more of his deal than mine, and that’s for good reason. I don’t want to be bothered with any of it—except for Kayla, of course.
Ugh. It’s like her name is haunting me. I can’t get it, or her pretty face, out of my head.
In fact, after breakfast, I lay out in the sun on the main deck for a little bit, and the lulling sounds and feeling of the waves soon puts me to sleep.
The very first thing my brain comes up with is her.
We’re in Morocco and watching women belly dancing.
“Can you believe how they’re able to move?” she leans over and asks me.
“No, it’s very impressive.”
She bites down on her lip, gets this fiery look in her eyes, and then licks my ear lobe.
Goosebumps cover my skin.
She stands and reaches out for my hand. “Come on.”
I take it and get up to my feet before following her into a dark back room of the restaurant.
“What—”
Her finger pushes against my lips. “Shhh.”
Then, she pushes me against a wall of products, and some of them fall around us.
After laughing for a second, she starts kissing and nibbling at my neck.
“Kayla,” I utter breathlessly before cupping her face in my hands and attacking her mouth with mine.
The loud squawk of a bird wakes me up, and when I look down, the excitement I experienced in the dream is more than apparent.
Thankfully, as I sit up, I realize that I’m alone and able to re-adjust myself before anyone can see it.