Page 35 of Captain's Orders
"I have." Her eyes went wide. "At the beach."
"Right," Jordan said. "I'd very much like to hear about that on the bridge. Shall we go up?"
"Yes!" Bea tugged her hand and the other children drifted toward her in an expectant tide.
They all headed up and Zoe saw them coming from her seat at the helm. Her eyes widened so distinctly that Jordan saw them widen from twenty feet away.
"Crew," Jordan said to the children. "Welcome to the bridge. This is Zoe, she's my second in command. That means she's kind of like a captain too."
"Whoa," Jack said.
"And this is where I steer the boat from. The wheel is here. The chartplotter is there—that's the screen that tells us where we're going. The thing in front of you is the throttle. Do not touch that, please."
Bea reached for the throttle.
"Bea."
She stopped, her index finger an inch from it. Jordan might have underestimated the risk of having kids here.
"Don't touch the throttle. If you do, we'll go very fast and your grandmother might fall over the railing on the deck below."
Bea considered this with great seriousness and withdrew her finger. Jack was staring at the chartplotter and Emma was asking Jordan if she liked edible flowers. Jordan told her she didn't. Noah was pretending to be cool but had gone still beside the radar and Olivia was taking a selfie in front of the wheel.
"We've got about an hour before we start the approach," Jordan said. "After that, Zoe and I have to do serious stuff so we can get you home safely. Who wants to take the wheel first?"
23
DANI
The Sunset Café was in its usual end-of-the-day rhythm—string lights warming up against the dusk, the bar busy enough to be lively but not loud, the harbor turning slightly amber past the railing. Their table was on the far side of the patio, tucked under a string of bulbs, and Dani was sitting opposite Lindsay with two margaritas between them and twenty-five minutes before Zoe and Rei would show up.
Dani was, frankly, exhausted. After the Whitfields disembarked at noon—long handshakes from Gerald, a tearful hug from Bea, an envelope from Patricia that turned out to contain a handwritten card and a tip generous enough to make the crew very happy—she'd spent the entire afternoon doing the post-charter reset with her freelancers. Stripping beds, scrubbing bathrooms, wiping down every surface in every cabin, as well as restocking and inventorying the beverages. By the time she got off the boat she was running on fumes and adrenaline.
She was wearing jeans and a white linen shirt and her hair was down because she wasn't on duty. With her later plans in mind, she half-wished she'd changed into something more seductive, but if she had, the crew would ask her if she was goingon a date and she didn't want to lie to them any more than she had to.
"Right," Lindsay said, leaning forward on both elbows. "Talk to me. Is she as restrained in bed as in real life? Or did she wear the uniform and spank you into submission?"
Dani let out a laugh and slapped her friend on the arm, nearly knocked over her margarita. The couple at the next table glanced over but Lindsay ignored them, grinning at her with delight.
"You can't just open with that," Dani said.
"I can and I did."
"Not until you've given me your secret in return." Dani took a sip of her margarita. "And only if your secret is as big as mine. Which I doubt."
Lindsay looked at her over the rim of her glass. She was in dark jeans and a fitted black t-shirt and she'd been smiling at Dani since they sat down.
"Fine. Fair. But before we get to me, let me confirm something first." She leaned across the table and tugged the side of Dani's collar down. "Yup. Still there." She sat back with a smug grin.
Dani had planned to play this cool but she lasted about three seconds. "That, my friend, is the work of a professional." Then she chuckled and pointed a finger at Lindsay. “Now shoot.”
"Okay.” Lindsay glanced around the patio first, as if double-checking who was within earshot. “So I've been seeing someone recently and it's long-distance and complicated."
"Lindsay! That's wonderful!"
"Yeah. It's been really nice. I couldn't really tell you about it sooner but we've discussed it and agreed that it's safe as long as we only tell people we truly trust."
"Thank you for trusting me,” Dani said. This wasn't how Lindsay normally talked about her dating life. It was usuallyjust a one-line update at the galley counter, delivered while she scrambled eggs. “So who is it? Someone I know?"
