Chapter Eleven
SANDY SPIT WAS a small island that sat just off the northern coast of Jost Van Dyke, with a wide sandy beach around its perimeter and lush tropical foliage filling its middle.
It was a quintessential Caribbean islet—the kind of island pirates in the movies were stranded on after a mutiny, with nothing but a bottle of rum and a flintlock pistol loaded with a single shot to put the poor bastard out of his misery once the alcohol had run out and reality set in—and because of that, it was a popular stopping point for many charters operating in the islands.
The sound of music playing greeted Grey when she returned to the Veritas from ferrying the Muellers over to the spit, and she smiled as she tied the dinghy’s bow line off to a cleat beside the starboard dive platform.
It had been a while since she had last heard Inside Out, but she had no problem picking up the chorus as she skipped up the stairs to the back deck.
Her step faltered, however, when she spotted Lauren sitting at the starboard table, her long legs stretched in front of her and crossed at the ankle while the fingers of her left hand played with a loose curl beside her temple, but she recovered quickly under Lauren’s unsure gaze and smiled as she tipped her head toward the salon. “Nice choice.”
Lauren smiled somewhat nervously, still unsure as to whether or not she had overstepped her bounds earlier that morning.
It had felt natural to try and soothe Grey like that, but the time between then and now had given her plenty of opportunity to replay that brief moment over and over again until she was convinced that she had royally fucked up.
“Thanks. I know it’s not the classical stuff you like, but… ”
Grey waved her off. “It’s fine.” She ran a hand through her hair, and shivered when her thumb brushed over the spot at her temple where Lauren had kissed her earlier.
“You, ah…reading?” she asked, forcing her attention away from the way Lauren was chewing her lower lip nervously and onto the iPad on her lap.
“Yeah. Figured I’d take advantage of the peace and quiet before I need to go start getting things ready for lunch.” Lauren turned off the tablet and set it down onto her legs. “How about you?”
Grey shrugged and glanced back at the spit, noting that a couple more boats had arrived in the few minutes she had been talking to Lauren, and that a handful of people had taken to the shallow waters by the beach.
“I was probably going to just watch the water. I actually had to jump in after a kid last season because he wasn’t a strong enough swimmer to fight the current that wraps around the eastern edge of the island. ”
Lauren nodded, relieved that Grey was not going to bring up what had happened earlier. “Ah. So you actually earned that lifeguard tee you wore yesterday.”
“I did,” Grey said as she slipped into the banquette at the table opposite Lauren.
“In college?”
“High school.” Grey grinned. “I grew up swimming competitively so the lifeguard thing was a natural fit. And, as an added bonus, I got paid to ogle all the girls in bikinis. Win-win.”
“Sounds like it,” Lauren chuckled. “You’re lucky. I waited tables at the local country club through high school. Not a bikini in sight, there. But, well, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to see the old women who came into the club’s dining room in bikinis. Were you any good?”
Grey smirked. “At ogling girls?”
“At swimming.” Lauren rolled her eyes. “We’re all good at ogling girls, Wells.”
“I was all right.” Grey shrugged modestly. “Made zones pretty much every year, but once I got to San Diego, I realized I would rather spend my free time sailing rather than swimming laps, so I gave up racing.”
“Do you still swim, like, just for fun?”
Grey nodded and let her attention drift back toward the water. “I usually hit the water in the morning before everybody wakes up. I just haven’t these last few days because… Well, you know.”
“Yeah,” Lauren murmured, casting an apologetic look in Grey’s direction. “I’m sorry about that.”
Grey waved off the apology. “It’s not your fault. It was just a lot for me to wrap my head around.”
“I’ll bet,” Lauren agreed.
“Yeah.” Grey ran her hands through her hair and sighed. “You look so much like Emily that it just kind of threw me for a loop. Ya know?”
Lauren nodded understandingly. “How did you guys meet?”
“Kelly Kipling set us up.” Grey smiled at the memory.
“She threw herself a birthday party at the Schooner, one of her family’s hotels on Saint Thomas, and I was on my way to the bar to get a drink when I saw Emily.
I remember thinking to myself how beautiful she was, and then when Kip introduced us. ..that was it for me. I was hooked.”
“Love at first sight,” Lauren said, smiling wistfully at Grey’s story.
Grey nodded. “Pretty much. Anyways, after about a year of seeing each other whenever I was on the island, she quit her job as an advertising rep for Kip and became my first mate.”
“How long were you two together?”
“Three years, four months, and thirteen days.” Grey’s gaze grew unfocused as she stared out over the water, and she cleared her throat softly. “Can we, uh, talk about something else?”
“Of course.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about her, it’s just that it’s…”
“It’s fine, Grey,” Lauren assured her gently. “I get it. This whole situation is pretty strange.”
“You could say that again.”
Lauren nodded. “So…what’s your favorite movie?”
Grey arched a brow at Lauren, clearly passing judgment on her choice in conversational topics. “Wind.”
Lauren chuckled. “I should have known that you’d pick a movie about sailing.”
“Have you ever even seen it?”
“Um, yeah, Jennifer Grey is in it.”
Grey smiled. “Okay, how about you? What’s your favorite movie? No Reservations?”
“Ha, no.” Lauren shook her head. “I mean, I’m always up for some Catherine Zeta-Jones, but no.
That movie was awful. Um…I’d have to go with The Cutting Edge.
” She saw the smirk that tweaked Grey’s lips before the brunette covered it with her hand and looked away, and she pointed a warning finger at her. “Don’t laugh!”
“I’m not,” Grey chuckled. “I just…really? The Cutting Edge?”
“Shut up.” Lauren waved a hand at Grey. “You like Wind.”
“Yeah.” Grey nodded. “As an avid sailor who grew up in Newport freaking Rhode Island, my favorite movie centers around the most prestigious sailing regatta in the world.”
“Yeah, well, I grew up in Minnesota. We do some skating up there,” Lauren grumbled. “And Moira Kelly was hot in that movie.”
“So you have a thing for bitchy spoiled brats?”
Lauren laughed. “No. And I’m not going to get into a discussion about a character from a movie that you obviously hate.”
“Aww, you’re no fun,” Grey teased. “And I don’t hate the movie, I just don’t think it’s favorite movie material. But, fine. What’s your favorite television show?”
“Of all time? The West Wing,” Lauren said automatically, giving Grey a look that dared her to argue. “But Warehouse 13 is also right up there for me. You?”
“Favorite show of all time has to be Buffy. But I binge watched the first two seasons Once Upon a Time during the off season this year and actually really liked it,” Grey admitted with a small smile. “The first season, anyways. The second one just kind of annoyed me.”
Lauren nodded. “I gave up on the show in the second season because I hated what they were doing to Regina’s character. To me, that’s one of those shows that are better in fic than in real life.”
“You read fanfiction?” Grey asked, looking over at Lauren in surprise.
“It’s fun to read stories about characters I love from television or whatever where they actually do something about the subtext.” Lauren shrugged. “Besides, since you knew exactly what I meant when I said ‘fic’…you obviously do too.”
Grey nodded and held her hands up in surrender. “I do. And, let’s be honest, most shows are better in fic than they are in real life.”
“Absolutely,” Lauren looked down at her iPad that she had more than a hundred such stories downloaded onto, and then back up at Grey. “I think I’m going to go make something to snack on. You want anything?”
Grey looked out over the water and nodded. “Sure. I’ll come help.”
“I can bring it out to you if you want,” Lauren said as she got to her feet.
“Are you trying to get away from me?”
“You caught me,” Lauren drawled, rolling her eyes. “Seriously though, if you think you should play lifeguard, I can bring you something to snack on.”
Grey waved a hand at the water between them and the island. “The water is actually pretty calm and it looks like everyone over there is content to stay in the shallows, so there’s no reason for me to stay out here.”
“You just want to keep making fun of me for liking The Cutting Edge,” Lauren said, grinning over her shoulder at Grey as she made her way into the salon.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Toe Pick.” Grey winked at Lauren as she slid onto a barstool. “So, we’ve covered movies and television shows… I’m guessing you’re a Twins fan.”
Lauren shook her head as she set a couple apples and a chunk of gouda onto a cutting board so that she was facing Grey. “I actually grew up rooting for the Cubs because my dad played in their farm system for a while.”
“Seriously? That’s awesome.”
“Yeah. He was a pitcher, but he blew out his shoulder and that was the end of it.” Lauren pulled a paring knife from the drawer in front of her. “Since you’re a New England girl, I’m guessing you’re a Red Sox fan.”
“Absolutely.” Grey nodded. “So were you a softball player?”
Lauren smiled and shook her head as she began slicing one of the apples into wedges. “My dad would have liked that, but no. I was a decently-awful basketball player though.”
Grey chuckled. “I bet you weren’t that bad. I mean, the fact that you’re tall had to’ve helped.”