Page 109 of Love Overboard
“Exactly. I mean, maybe we end up on the same charter together again. Or maybe we go do our own thing but meet up in the in-between.” She paused, kicking her feet where they hung off my bunk. “But then it’s like… a dead end. It’s not like he’s going to marry me and move to Alabama.”
My chest tightened at her words. They were so similar to the ones I’d thought when everything went down between Finn and me. Except where Leah was smart to see the end in sight already, I’d pretended we could make it. I convinced myself we could work together, travel the world together, and one day, makea life of our own together. I never pictured us settling down, but rather building our own dream — owning a little sailboat, maybe, and circumnavigating while we worked odd jobs here and there to make ends meet.
I’d been a fool.
And yet I still wanted to have hope for Leah and Cam.
“Maybe you reframe it,” I suggested. “Instead of thinking so far down the line, what if you focused on the now? Just on whatever comes next? Right now, that’s going to Scotland for a while after the show ends. Then we have the reunion. Then… you figure it out.” I finished my last curl and grabbed my hair spray, ready to force these girls to stay in place even battling the Mediterranean humidity. “Could you be okay with that?”
Leah nodded, contemplative. “Yeah. Yeah, I really think I can. I mean, I don’t need to be planning our wedding already. We’ve known each other like two months.” She laughed. “I just fell hard for the sucker, didn’t I?”
I chuckled as I sprayed my hair, then turned to face her with a knowing smile. “Trust me — I get it. Easy to do when you live in such—”
I caught myself before the wordsclose quarterscould leave my mouth, and Leah and I both groaned before she laughed and threw a rogue bralette at me.
“Is that what happened with you and Finn?”
Her question knocked the laugh from me, my next breath sharp and hot. I swallowed, touching up my makeup in the mirror before I slipped into the room to get dressed. Gisella had scurried off somewhere after the deck team was released for the night. I half-wondered if she was in Finn’s bunk and wholeheartedly decided I did not want to know. But it was just Leah and me in my cabin now, and I wanted to be honest with her.
But I couldn’t — not with the cameras watching.
“Something like that,” I murmured, offering her a sad smile before I disappeared under the bright blue dress I was pulling over my head. When I emerged again, Leah was watching me curiously.
“Do you still have feelings for him?”
I should have immediately answered no and laughed her off at the audacity, but the question made me freeze.
“You do, don’t you,” she said softly. “Oh, honey…”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, trying to regain my composure as I strapped my wedges on. “Some flames take a while to burn out, right? I just never expected to see him again.”
“And then he shows up here. With Gisella.”
My smile was tight. “Yep.”
“I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine.”
“For whatever it’s worth, I don’t think you’re one-sided in those feelings. I’ve seen the way Finn looks at you. Maybe you should talk to him… see what he’s thinking.”
My throat was dry as I tried to swallow. I managed to shake my head, keeping my focus on my shoes.
“He’s thinking about Gisella,” I said pointedly, lifting my eyes to hers. “As he should be.”
“Maybe,” she combatted with a shrug. “But like you said, big flames die hard — and who’s to say Gisella isn’t just some sort of rebound?”
“It’s been two years since we split,” I said, throat rough. “I think the rebound period has passed.”
“So, Eli isn’t a distraction for you?”
Shit.
“I’m just saying… there are relationships, and then there are love stories. I don’t know what it was like with you two, but… just being around you in the galley? I know there was chemistry back then because it’s still there now. And it’s not like Gisella is someangel. She made out with my boyfriend the second hers wasn’t around.”
I smirked at her. “So he’s your boyfriend now, huh?”
“Stop trying to change the subject.” She flushed, fighting back a smile before her eyes turned serious on me again. “I mean it, Ember. They’re not married. I’m not sure Gisella is even that serious about them at all. And maybe he feels the same. What if it’s not supposed to be over for you two yet? What if there’s more to your story than what’s already been written?”
