“It’s okay, I moved most of my stuff out of here when the boat was dry docked last year,” Daniel said, putting her bags on the bed. “Luckily, it wasn’t damaged in the earthquake last year, I had it out of the water for a complete overhaul. I thought you might be more comfortable with your own bathroom and this is the biggest room, living on a boat can be a bit confining.”
Amber was touched by his kindness. “Thank you. Now how about a tour of the rest of the boat?”
Bridget pushed the end button on her phone annoyed that Elaine hadn’t picked up her call, especially when their plan looked like it was falling apart. She’d give her five minutes then call again, they had to figure out what to do now that their children had decided to take matters into their own hands. This little cruise on Daniel’s boat didn’t mean that they couldn’t still go to the gala later that month, it just meant that they’d have to revise their story.
Much to her relief, her phone rang and the name Elaine popped up on the screen. She’d no more gotten the word hello out of her mouth before Elaine began talking. “I just got off the phone with Amber, she told me that she and Daniel are going out on his boat,” she said, clearly as unhappy as Bridget was.
“I know, I just talked to Daniel. I tried to tell him that we already had everything under control, but he hung up on me,” Bridget said, still stung by the fact that Daniel had hung up on her.
“Amber refused to listen to me too. In fact, she was down right rude to me. That’s not like her at all,” Elaine said. “What are we going to do? Should we go down there and stop them? They can’t exactly meet for the first time at the gala if they’ve already met,” Elaine’s voice was rising, she was counting on a public meeting between Amber and Daniel, knew that it was the best way to keep Bridget from backing out of their agreement.
It wasn’t that she was hiding the fact that Amber was not only adopted but African American, it had just never come up when they’d talked about their children. She didn’t think that it would make a difference to Bridget, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. It wasn’t like they were going to stay married forever, just long enough to quiet the gossips and to get Amber out of her studio and into the real world. Hopefully Bridget wouldn’t even care, but just in case, she wanted the first meeting to be in front of all their friends and she was determined that Amber would look beautiful and sophisticated that night.
“Relax, we’ll just change the story. Tell everyone they met by accident, fell for each other immediately, end of story,” Bridget said, with more enthusiasm that she felt. “It won’t be as romantic, but we can make it work as long as the kids cooperate.”
It suddenly occurred to Elaine that if Daniel met Amber and told his mother that she was African American the whole plan might implode, but clearly, he hadn’t yet so it might still work. All she had to do was keep Bridget away from them until the gala, “Don’t worry, I’ll see to it that Amber does, I still have some power over her,” She finally said.
The minute Amber was back in town, she was going to get her hands on her and not let her out of her sight until the gala. It would be unpleasant, but it was for Amber’s own good. Married to Daniel Taylor, she’d have an open invitation to anywhere she wanted to go in the world, to any social circle she wanted to join. Elaine was convinced that once her daughter got a taste of the good life, she’d never want to go back to her painting, would finally become the daughter she’d always dreamed Amber would be.
Chapter 4
Several hours later, Amber was standing by the rail watching the shoreline go by, completely lost in the beauty. Daniel was in the cockpit, hands on the wheel watching her, thinking that there was something fresh and alluring about the way she stood there transfixed by the coast of Canada. It was an unforgiving place, full of hidden reefs and rocks that could sink a ship if the captain wasn’t careful, but Daniel had been sailing this coast for years and knew where each and every danger lay.
He’d left the sails alone for this part of their journey, partly because it was a short sail to where he planned to drop anchor for lunch and partly because he wanted to try out the new engine he’d had installed in the boat. It was much too big for a ship this size, but he’d been unable to resist when the dealer had shown it to him. Unlike his racing ship, the Gratitude was his to do with as he pleased, so he’d bought the engine, anticipating how much fun it would be to get the ship rocketing through the open sea.
He’d yet to really open it up, wouldn’t be able to until they got to open water, but so far, he liked the feel of it, could already tell that when he did, the boat would move like it never had before. After nearly a year of only getting out on the ocean for a few short afternoons it felt good to know that if they chose to, they could just sail off into the sunset and not come back for a long time.
Of course, he had no idea if Amber felt the same way, she was clearly enjoying the sail today, but that was different from spending weeks and months on board. He’d grown accustomed to sharing small spaces with lots of people thanks to his racing, but there were still times on one of their long sails that he’d get tired of being crowded together with his crew. But this was big boat, and it was only the two of them, so there was more than enough room for both of them.
Watching Amber take in the scenery, he realized that his attraction to her might become more of a problem than feeling crowded. It was more than just the fact that she was physically attractive to him. She intrigued him, made him want to know more about her, made him want to understand what she was thinking. Admittedly, Amber was a bit of a mystery, so his curiosity was well founded, but he knew that his interest went deeper than just that. What he didn’t know was what he should do about it or if she felt it as well.
When Amber felt the boat come to a gentle stop, she looked around her and sighed. They’d stopped in the middle of a very beautiful cove, surrounded by the evergreen forest and the rocky shore. The water in the cove was still and such a deep shade of blue that she was itching to try and create it with her paints. But now wasn’t the time for painting, she and Daniel had some things to work out, the entire point of this little cruise was to do just that, so she closed that part of her mind and came back to the real world.
Watching Daniel set the anchor, she thought that if the real world included him, it might not be such a bad place. Then she pushed that thought aside, it wasn’t helpful to think that way, what they had was a business arrangement and nothing else. The most she could hope for was that when this was over they’d be good friends, hoping for anything more would only end in disappointment when the year was up and they went their separate ways. But that rational thinking didn’t stop her heart rate from increasing, or the tingle deep inside her belly when his blue eyes locked on hers and stayed there.
Feeling like she’d been struck by lightning, every nerve in her body suddenly alive, she searched for something to say, finally blurting out the first thing that came to her mind. “My mother will never find me out here.” Then she cringed, he was going to think that all she ever thought about was her mother.
“Now you know why I suggested this,” Daniel said, smiling at her to let her know he understood. “Are you hungry?”
Amber thought about that, then realized she was starving. “I guess I am kind of hungry.”
“Good, I got us lunch from my favorite deli. It’s only sandwiches and salads, but there’s plenty of it and we can talk while we eat. Compare mother horror stories,” Daniel said, heading for the galley where he’d put the food.
He spread the food out, each container full of something more delectable than the last. When he’d finished, Amber looked at the food covering the table and said, “This looks wonderful, thank you.”
They were silent while they filled their plates and ate, the sound of the water lapping against the boat and the occasional call of the birds on shore the only sounds they could hear. Amber wished that they were here for a different reason, that they’d met somewhere and were out here on a real d
ate, not testing the possibility that they’d spend the next year sailing around the world. It had taken him a few days to come up with the idea and Amber had been surprised by the suggestion, but the more he’d talked the more she’d become convinced that it might just be the perfect solution.
Even though they’d told their mothers that they were going to return to Seattle that evening, that wasn’t the plan. Instead they’d sail along the coast of Canada, then up into Anchorage where they’d be married with the help of Daniel’s cousin Seth Montgomery, who was going to fly in with his wife Lauren. From there they had no destination in mind, only knew that they’d get as far away from their mothers as they could. After the year was up and they’d fulfilled their part of the bargain, they’d sail back to Seattle, get a divorce and go their separate ways.
It had all sounded so easy to Amber when they’d talked about it the first time, but now she wasn’t so sure it was going to be that simple. Fighting her attraction to Daniel was becoming harder and harder, making her think that this might be a mistake, that she’d probably come out of this with a broken heart. But if she wanted to paint she really had no choice, she was going to have to marry Daniel and hope that the feelings she was having would go away.
When they’d both finished eating, Amber offered to clean up but Daniel insisted that it was his turn. “You can cook and clean up next time,” he said, packing the food back up and taking it down to the galley.
When he came back he had steaming cups of coffee for them both. “I don’t know about you, but I need a little caffeine after a meal like that.”
“Thank you, it smells wonderful,” Amber said then took a sip, sighing with pleasure when the strong bitter coffee flooded her mouth.
They sipped in silence for a few minutes, but then Daniel asked, “Do you want me to go first?”
Amber had been avoiding the conversation they were about to have, she hated talking about her parents, still ached for them even though they’d been gone since she was eight. “My parents died when I was eight,” she said, deciding to get it over with. “They were killed in a car accident one night when the roads were icy,” she continued, knowing that if she didn’t start there it would be impossible to explain why she and Elaine had their problems.
Daniel reached over and squeezed her hand, “I’m sorry Amber, that must have been very hard.”
“It was, but I had Elaine and Howard, they were like family to me. My parents worked for them, my father as their driver and mechanic, my mother as their cook. We lived on the property in a little cottage behind the big house, so I grew up with them. They didn’t have any children of their own so Elaine doted on me, treated me like one of the family,” Amber said, that feeling of loss that had never quite gone away in the pit of her stomach making it hard to go on, but she took a deep breath and finished. “I guess it just made sense for them to adopt me.”
“Didn’t you have any other family?” Daniel asked.
Amber shrugged her shoulders, “Honestly, I’m not sure. I grew up knowing that I had family somewhere but that they’d turned their backs on my parents when my mother got pregnant. It was a bit of a scandal in the small town they lived in, my father was white and mixed relationships weren’t all that accepted. All I know is that I was eight years old and my parents were suddenly gone. Elaine moved me into the big house and all of a sudden, I was their daughter, I missed my parents but being with them made it so much easier.”
“I can understand that, it was familiar to you,” Daniel said.
“Elaine was wonderful the whole time I was grieving, but eventually she began trying to change me. She had this idea in her head of what her daughter would be like, and I didn’t fit that picture, so it became her sole focus to turn me into her. Eventually, she got so frustrated that she sent me off to boarding school. That’s where I discovered painting,” Amber said, pausing to take a deep breath. This was the most she’d talked about herself in a long time.
“I went to boarding school too, all of us did. We hated it, but my parents said that it was what all the best people did so we did it too. That’s one of the things I hate most about society, the idea that because everyone is doing something we have to do it too, they’re just like a bunch a sheep,” Daniel told her.
Amber laughed, feeling some of her discomfort melting away. “I must sound ungrateful. I mean, they took me in and gave me a great life, but you have to understand that Elaine’s punishment for not being the daughter she wanted is to hold it over my head every time she wants me to do something. Guilt can be a pretty strong weapon and my mother knows how to use it to her advantage. If I don’t do what she wants she uses it and no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to stop myself from letting her get to me.”
Daniel smiled, which surprised Amber until he said, “You and I are more alike that I thought. In my case, I think it might be my own fault that my mother has so much of a hold on me. I’ve always been her favorite and used that to my advantage, but suddenly it’s not such a great thing, especially after my brother embarrassed her last year. You’ll probably get to meet him some time and I’ll let him tell you the story, but just let me say this, I’m paying for my brother’s happiness. My mother’s been guilting me into all kinds of crazy things over the last year, this latest one is just the worst.”
“So, I guess that means that we’re really going to do this?” Amber asked, just saying the words made her stomach do flip flops.
“Well, we have other choices, but I, for one, don’t want to go through all the fuss of a big wedding. The engagement parties alone would be bad, but can you imagine what they might have planned for the wedding? They might not realize it but all we agreed to was a year of marriage, not the circus they want, so I say we go for it,” Daniel said, then waited for Amber to answer.
She was looking out at the shore, clearly thinking about his words, and just watching her he felt a stirring of desire. It made him wonder if he was doing the right thing. If he was risking one of them getting hurt when they walked away from each other. But if the earthquake had taught him anything, it had taught him that you can’t live your life worrying about the future, the present was what counted. His mother had told him to marry Amber and he was going to do exactly that, if the desire he felt for her blossomed into something more, he’d deal with that when it happened, for now he could handle what he felt.
“Okay, let’s do it. I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska and if the scenery is anything like this, I’ll have plenty to keep me busy the entire way,” Amber said, flashing Daniel the biggest smile she’d ever given him, and hoping that when this was all over she wouldn't be too heart broken.
They pulled up the anchor and continued sailing up the coast, headed for a town big enough that they could find all the supplies they needed. Since Daniel had been sailing this route for years, he knew exactly where he was headed and by sunset they were anchored in a private harbor just down the coast from Prince Rupert, Canada. It wasn’t a very big marina, but there were hot showers, internet and phone service, as well as a little restaurant. There were quite a few boats around them, but Amber liked the idea of having neighbors, even if they were all strangers.
Amber had done her best to help Daniel secure the boat to the mooring, but had been of little assistance, since it seemed like he was speaking a different language. “I’m sorry Daniel, I know I’m not much help. I love being out on a sail boat, but someone else has always done all the sailing.”
Daniel smiled at her, a smile that held mischief and made her a little bit nervous. “Don’t worry, all I need is a few days and we’ll fix that little problem. I can sail this boat on my own, but as long as you’re here, I don’t see why you shouldn’t learn to sail. Wait till the first time you feel the wind take the sail, it’s like you’re suddenly flying,” Daniel said.
“I’m willing to learn, it’ll be fun,” Amber said, grinning at him.
“We’re also going to need some supplies, I wasn’t kidding when I said that the
re was nothing on the boat. I pretty much stripped the boat when I pulled it out of the water, we’re going to need just about everything, from food to linens. Are you up to a little shopping too?” Daniel asked.
Amber set the rope down and took a deep breath, learning to sail had been much harder than she’d expected. But she was finally beginning to understand the difference between the sails, and the name of all the equipment on the boat, which helped a lot when Daniel tried to explain something to her. She’d yet to learn anything about the equipment in the cockpit, but Daniel had promised to teach her that when they got underway again, and he’d even said that she could steer the boat at some point.
Besides learning to sail, she’d spent an entire afternoon unpacking her art supplies. Daniel had shaken his head when he saw everything she’d brought, but he’d helped her find space for it all, never complaining or suggesting that she didn’t need something. The hardest part of unpacking was resisting the urge to get out her sketch book or paints and putting the pictures she had crowding her mind onto paper, but she knew that there wasn’t time. The longer they stayed in port, the more likely it would be that one or both of their mothers would find them.
They’d made a pack that only one of them would call at a time, knowing perfectly well that whatever was discussed would be communicated to the other mother. Daniel bravely offered to make the first phone call, the one that was to inform their mothers that they wouldn’t be returning to Seattle any time soon. When Daniel made the call, she was so nervous all she could do was pace the deck, but she couldn’t help but hear his side of the conversation.
“Hello mother,” he said, the paused.
“No, we’re not back yet. We’re having such a good time we decided to go on to Alaska,” he said, not giving her any more information.
Amber knew that his mother wasn’t happy with that information because Daniel winced and held the phone away from his ear, then said, “I don’t know if we’ll be back for the gala. I never agreed to this plan of yours, we’re grown adults and we’ll handle this as we see fit.”
Be My Bride_BWWM Romance Page 4