Page 94 of Love Overboard
“What do you think, Ember?”
I stiffened, ice sliding through me at the unexpected spotlight — at the sudden shift in the air. Her tone was light, borderline casual. But something in it didn’t sit right. It was just a little too breezy. A little too… staged.
And then there was the eyebrow — the slightest lift, just enough to feel like a dare.
Everyone’s eyes were on me now. And I had no idea what to say. Because while the reason could have been anything, I couldn’t help but wonder if Finn was abstaining because of me.
Was it because he didn’t want to hurt me, didn’t want me to overhear it or walk in on anything?
Was it guilt? Courtesy? Some deeply buried instinct not to hurt me?
Or was it something else… something that pulsed between us every time our eyes locked. Something unfinished. Something neither of us could name out loud, but both still felt in our bones.
That it wasn’t over between us.
I lurched up in my chair as the thought passed over me. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself think it at all.
Don’t be stupid, Ember. He’s just trying to be professional.
It’s not about you.
You are the past.
“Oh, I mean, I don’t know,” I said, trying to smile. “I’m sure it’s just what he’s been saying, that he doesn’t want to be rude. Besides, all these cameras around,” I said, waving to the camera people who were almost too easy to forget about now that we were this far into the season. “He probably feels weird about that. But you know him better than I do.”
I didn’t mean for those words to sound so spicy when I said them, but Bernard bit back a smile as he took a drink, and Gisella pursed her lips.
“Yes. You’re right. I do. And I’m sure it’s fine. There will be plenty of time for him to rail my brains out once the show is done.”
Acid burned my throat as I reached for my cocktail, trying again to smile.
“What about you, Em?” Leah asked. “You going to have any fun before this season is over?”
“I’m the chief stew,” I reminded her. “My job is to stay professional.”
“Eli will be crushed to hear that,” Bernard said. “Poor thing is like a lost puppy when it comes to you, just following you around like a mutt begging for scraps.”
“Oh, my God, stop, he is not,” I said on a laugh.
“You’re blind if you don’t see it,” Leah said. “He’s been into you since the first charter. And I don’t see why you can’t have some fun, if you want to. I bet he’d be a great lay.”
I flushed so hard Bernard ran his hand over the condensation from his cocktail and rubbed it on my cheeks.
“Oh! If not him, maybe Palmer?” Leah suggested next. “He’s hotter than a Montgomery summer.”
“Palmer isn’t interested in any boatmances,” Gisella snapped, still irritated by the whole conversation, it seemed. “He’s a bosun.”
“Exactly. Gisella is right. We’re both here to do our jobs and get paid — that’s it.”
But Bernard was eyeing Gisella curiously. “And just how doyouknow what Palmer wants?”
She waved him off. “Doesn’t take a genius to read the neon signs.”
“Uh-huh.” Bernard narrowed his gaze, but then snapped his smile back to me. “What about Cap? He’s newly single. Very daddy-like. Could spoil you rotten, too. You don’t mind an age gap, do you?”
“And on that note,” I said, standing up and stretching my back. “I’m going to take a stroll by the water.”
“Should we send Eli to join?” Gisella teased.
