Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Russell ducked below deck as the last of the guests retired to their cabins, the quiet hush of night settling over the Latitude like a soft blanket. The anchor was secure, the sails were tucked in, and Jules and Malik had everything else buttoned up tight.
He padded into his small crew cabin and shut the door behind him.
The room was simple: a narrow bed, a shelf lined with paperbacks and sailing charts, a worn backpack and a carry-on sized suitcase tucked into the corner.
He tossed his polo into the hamper and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his phone for a long moment before unlocking it.
One bar of service flickered in and out, a reminder that they weren’t close enough to civilization to have service. No messages. No missed calls. Just a few downloaded emails, and the saved screenshot he’d opened more than once in the past week.
The job description .
He tapped it open and stared at the familiar words again.
Lead Captain—Gulf Wind Charters.
Location: Tampa, Florida.
It was a reputable company. Well-run. Year-round contracts. A handful of sleek, mid-sized catamarans catering to wealthy couples and small groups. Competitive pay. Solid benefits. And most importantly, the job was based not far from where he used to live.
Could he really go back?
He rubbed a hand over his neck, staring past the phone screen to the wall, but what he saw was five years ago: standing in their small apartment, while Mia cried on the sofa and confessed that the baby she carried wasn’t his.
That she had fallen in love with someone else.
That she was sorry, but not sorry enough to go ahead with the wedding they’d been planning.
She’d married the other guy, eventually. Which, looking back, was the right thing to do, of course. Why would he want to raise another man’s child with a woman who didn’t even love him?
But it had hit him like a freight train at the time. He’d left everything behind within three weeks. The apartment. The job. The boat he’d almost bought. And he’d landed here, in paradise, where no one asked questions, and the horizon stretched endlessly in every direction.
This job had saved him. One week had turned into another, then another, and another. And he’d finally felt the distance between them. The distance he’d needed to heal .
But lately, it didn’t feel like the life he’d set out to make.
It felt like hiding. Floating. Avoiding. And he missed feeling a connection with someone special. He missed the spark. The warmth a woman could provide. The warmth he wanted to feel for someone.
And then tonight, he’d found her on deck. Tessa Reed, lit up under the moonlight, her dark hair spilling down her back, arms folded against the breeze, pale green eyes wide with wonder. She’d looked like someone trying very hard to be okay.
He recognized the effort.
And somehow, she’d made the quiet feel less empty.
It was comforting. And warm.
He exhaled and looked at the screen again.
No offer yet.
Maybe he wouldn’t get one? Maybe they’d already filled the role, and he’d never know, or at least not until they reached a bigger port again and the signal was strong enough to deliver a rejection.
Or maybe... it would be time. To stop running. To start again.
He closed his eyes and let the phone slip from his hand as the boat gently rocked him to sleep.
Tessa floated face down in the water the next day, kicking her fins in an awkward rhythm as she followed Jenna’s neon yellow snorkel a few feet ahead.
Sunlight filtered through the turquoise water, dancing over the reef below like something out of a documentary.
Bright flashes of blue and green darted between coral heads, and the ocean floor pulsed with life.
It was… stunning. She gazed to the bottom, which was probably ten feet down. Clear as day, white sands carpeted the floor like a postcard amid the colorful coral.
She lifted her head for a quick breath, treading water as she adjusted her mask, blinking at the view in disbelief. Okay, maybe she could get used to this.
All around, her friends floated and dipped with simple grace, like they’d been born in the water. Captain Russ had anchored the boat a safe distance back from the reef, and he watched on from the deck with a smile, arms crossed, while Malik puttered around in the dinghy, ready to assist.
Marin waved from a few feet away, giving her a thumbs-up before she and Kyle ducked beneath the surface again. Avery and Nate were at least ten yards away, their backs to the sky as they kicked with their fins.
Tessa grinned into her mask. See? This trip was going to be just fine. A Midwesterner, and she was conquering the ocean without a care in the world. Just like that. She didn’t need a plus-one for this. Hello, thirty.
She ducked down again, then kicked to follow an unusual fish with black-and-white stripes. But it was fast, and before she knew it, her leg slammed into something hard.
“Ouch!” she yelped, the sound garbled by the snorkel in her mouth, and she flailed backward. A sharp pain shot up her shin.
What in the world? She surfaced, pulled the mask from her face, and glanced down at her leg—already clouding the water with a swirl of red.
Oh no. No, no. This wasn’t good.
A flash of panic rose in her throat.
“Uh, guys?” she called, treading water awkwardly. “I think I… cut myself? Kind of a lot?”
Marin turned first. Then Jenna. Then Kyle bobbed his head and looked.
In seconds, Russ’s voice rang out from the deck of the catamaran. “Out of the water. Everyone. Now.”
Tessa blinked. “Wait, is it?—”
“Now.” He called out. “Malik, grab her.”
Malik turned and headed the dinghy toward Tessa.
Captain Russ was already standing over the boat’s ladder to help the others up. Oh, my goodness. What was going on?
They swam toward the ladder of the catamaran as Malik reached over the dinghy's edge to grab Tessa’s hand. He hauled her up and over with a strength that surprised her.
He dropped her next to the boat, where she stepped onto the top rung of the ladder. Russ was beside her in a blink with a towel, his hands on her calf before she could fully sit up.
“It’s not that bad,” she babbled. “Just a scratch. A tiny… ocean scratch.”
He inspected the jagged cut along the side of her shin. “You caught a coral head. Sharp one. You’re lucky it didn’t slice deeper.”
“I didn’t even see it!” She winced as he pressed a towel to the wound.
“That’s the problem with coral,” Jules said gently, crouched beside them with a medical kit. “It doesn’t move out of your way.”
Tessa tried to laugh, but it came out more like a wheeze as Russ stopped the blood from running down her leg.
Russ glanced up at her face, his eyes serious but soft. “You okay?”
“I’m fine, but I ruined everyone’s snorkeling,” she groaned. “I’m going to be known as ‘the bleeder.’” A little humor couldn’t hurt, right?
Russ grinned. “Could be worse. We’ve had people throw up in their snorkels.”
Tessa blinked. “Seriously?”
He shook his head. “Nope, just trying to make you feel better.”
A soft laugh escaped her. He was already doing that.
“And once a guy got stung by a jellyfish, and his girlfriend tried to help him by…” He paused.
“No,” Tessa said.
Russ just lifted his brows. “That one’s true.”
“Oh, my gosh.” She covered her face with both hands. “Okay. Maybe bleeding isn’t the worst thing I could do.”
“It’s definitely not.” He chuckled under his breath. “You’re doing fine.”
“No, I’m doing tourist-in-over-her-head,” she said, sighing. Why hadn’t she been more careful? Seriously. She felt like a moron.
Russ pressed a gauze pad to her leg and gave her a crooked smile. “There’s a learning curve. You’re just on the early side of it.”
“You can say that again.”
He shot her another smile that said she was beating herself up over nothing.
Jules handed him a bandage, and he wrapped it gently around her leg. “No swimming for the rest of today. You’re going to need to let these scrapes dry up.”
She sighed. “Are we seriously done snorkeling because of me?”
“We are, at least right here,” Russ said. “Sharks can smell blood from a quarter mile away.”
Her eyes went wide. So that’s why he’d called them in so fast? This just kept getting better. “Oh good. Just what I wanted to hear.”
He stood, offering her a hand. “The sharks around here are not aggressive or dangerous, for the most part. But now and then you get a species that means business. And blood in the water can set off their predator instinct, so we can’t take any chances.”
She tried to imagine friendly, unaggressive sharks, but couldn’t.
“Come on, we’ll find something else to do. That’s the beauty of a boat. We can go anywhere we want.” He smiled. “So don’t worry.”
She gave him a suspicious look but let him pull her to her feet. “You’re just saying that because I’m bleeding on your deck. ”
“Exactly.” He helped her sit again in a more comfortable spot, and Jules handed her a bottle of water. “Hydrate. You’re still a guest, and we don’t let our guests get eaten.”
“That’s comforting.” Tessa grinned, her shoulders drooping nonetheless.
As the others dried off, chatting with concern and teasing in equal measure, Tessa leaned back and let the ocean breeze cool her cheeks.
Okay. So, she’d made a splash—literally. And only the very first whole day on the boat.
Russ wiped his hands on a towel and stepped onto the upper deck just in time to hear Tessa laugh from the main deck below—loud, embarrassed, and entirely disarming.
“I am never living this down,” she declared, sinking deeper into the cushioned bench that wrapped around the port side deck. She had a pineapple drink in one hand and a fresh bandage on her leg.
“You shouldn’t have led with the phrase ‘ocean scratch,’” Marin teased from across the table.
“Or tried to chase a fish like it was a puppy,” Kyle added, raising his rum punch.
“Okay, to be fair,” Tessa said, lifting a hand, “it was a very interesting fish.”
“Interesting enough to bleed for?” Nate said, raising his beer.
“Yes!” Tessa demanded, grinning .
Russ chuckled and shook his head, watching from above. They all seemed like solid friends to Tessa who understood that accidents happen. He was glad.
After the incident, he’d motored away from the reef and headed for the other side of the island where the group had hopped back in the water—except for Tessa—and spent the afternoon lazing on the inner tubes and other floating rafts that the boat kept at the ready.
Tessa had seemed content to sunbathe on deck for the rest of the afternoon, slathering lotion onto her sun-kissed face and limbs.
He skipped down the stairs then stopped behind the bench where she sat now, resting one forearm casually on the rail near the others. “I’ll give her this much—it was the most dramatic snorkeling exit I’ve seen in at least a year.”
“See?” Tessa said. “The captain’s impressed. I’m basically unforgettable now.”
Russ leaned closer. “You’d be hard to forget, regardless.”
Tessa glanced up at him, eyes wide, cheeks flushed—from the sun or his words, he couldn’t tell. It was only a harmless compliment, though, right? He couldn’t be flirting with the guests.
He saw her friend Marin smiling at him as he gazed at Tessa.
Because something about Tessa was drawing him in.
He’d better be careful. There were strict rules about the crew—and especially the captain of a boat—fraternizing inappropriately with its guests.
Romantic relationships were strictly forbidden, and he wasn’t about to lose this job.
Even if he was actively looking for another.
Still, she was here alone, and they were all picking on her, even though it was all in fun. He was only defending her. She didn’t have anyone else to do it.
Russ ignored Marin’s gaze. “How’s the leg?” he asked Tessa, his voice gentler now.
“It’s okay.” She smiled, and their gazes met. “I’ll live.”
“No more chasing fish,” he said, lingering on her gaze.
“Definitely not.”
He shook his head and reached for the ice bucket, happy to see he’d made her smile.
Jules had laid out fresh fruit, chilled water, and a small bottle of rum with sliced limes as she and Malik prepared dinner for the group. It was the kind of casual moment that reminded Russ why he loved this work—not just the sailing, but the laid-back fun that happened in between.
The laughter. The people. The little flashes of connection that made you feel alive. He missed it in his own life.
He snapped open a can of seltzer water, poured it into a glass of ice, and leaned against the wall of the galley, listening to the banter, letting the breeze skim his face.
Tessa was right in the middle of it all, legs tucked under her, freckles dusted across her nose, laughing like she hadn’t looked heartbroken under the moonlight last night.
He was glad to see it. Why couldn’t he seem to ignore her?
Or treat her like all the other beautiful women on this cruise? There was something about her.
And her mistake today had been completely understandable.
The coral was sharp, and if you didn’t realize you were swimming over it where it nearly reached the surface, it was easy to slice open a hand or a foot or a leg.
The same sort of thing had actually happened on his charters several times before.
She glanced at him, her mouth turning up on one side for a long moment as their eyes met. Lingering there too long, he pulled his gaze away.
How did this woman keep capturing his attention?
He didn’t usually take too much of an interest in the chartered groups.
They came, and they went. Oftentimes, they drank too much and partied too hard and simply tested his patience.
Other times, they kept to themselves and didn’t bother chatting with him.
This group seemed somewhere in between the two extremes.
But he always learned the names of his passengers because that was his job, and that was usually as far as it went.
Of course, the guests on his boat were often paired up, like most of this group. Having one single and seemingly vulnerable woman on a charter was definitely outside the norm.
With a sigh, Russ sipped from his glass as the chatting and laughter continued.