Smooth Sailing

by Lori Wilde

  She savored the time, pressed it to her chest like a favorite photograph. In the future, if anyone asked her about the defining moments of her life, she’d have to say this sailboat trip, culminating in a manatee rescue, was one of the most life-affirming things she’d ever experienced.

  There weren’t too many more things in life that could move someone—falling in love, marriage, having a baby. Most people got to do those things, but how many people got to save another living thing? She was so very lucky.

  “‘Velvet Sea,’ huh?” Jeb asked.

  Haley startled. She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts and keeping the manatee quiet that she hadn’t heard him swim up. “Phish,” she said. “I thought it was appropriate.”

  “It’s one of my favorite ocean songs,” he said.

  “Mine, too. Not that I have a compilation of seafaring songs or anything.”

  “I do.” He grinned wide. The man was always smiling. “Maybe I’ll let you hear my playlist sometime.”

  When would that be? After tomorrow, she’d never see him again. A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach.

  “In the meantime,” she said, “we have a manatee to save.”

  Jeb pulled wire cutters from the pocket of his swim trunks. “I’m on the job.

  He was. And Haley’s cheeks heated. She was terrified he could read the desire in her eyes, so she quickly glanced away.

  “Keep up the singing. She’s much more relaxed than when we got here. You have a nice singing voice.”

  Haley stroked the manatee’s head, hummed Weezer’s “Island in the Sun” while Jeb dived down. He clipped wires and then came back up for air. He would take deep gulps of air and submerge again to clip some more.

  She worried about him. While he was in good shape, that had been quite a swim and it seemed the frequent dipping and cutting was taking a toll. Each time he came up, his face was flushed and his lungs were heaving.

  Finally, after a good fifteen minutes, Jeb had cut through enough wire so that the manatee could swing her fin like a paddle.

  When he came up for air seconds later, blood was oozing from a cut on his forearm.

  Haley gasped softly. “You hurt yourself!”

  “Wire got me.”

  “I’ll patch you up when we get back to the boat.”

  “You spent the whole trip playing nursemaid to me.”

  “Not the entire trip.”

  “Okay.” He chuckled. “For part of it you played nursemaid to a manatee.”

  “Hey, what can I say? Birds gotta fly. Fish gotta swim—”

  “Haley has to play nurse.”

  Jeb went below one last time, cut the final wire.

  Giddy with freedom, the manatee lunged forward. Haley rocketed back, water filling her nose and her ears, burning her eyes. She came up sputtering, but feeling utterly reborn.

  Jeb came along beside her. Together, they watched the manatee swim for open water.

  “We did it,” she said, pushing wet hair from her eyes. “We saved her.”

  Jeb touched her shoulder. “Feels good. I’m glad you guilted me into saving her.”

  “See why I like my job? I get to feel like that almost every day of the week.”

  “The feeling is hard-won.” Wryly, he held up his bleeding arm.

  “But worth all the battle scars.”

  “Yeah.” His gazed zeroed in on hers. “It is. That’s something I don’t think I really realized until now.”

  “Seriously?”

  “You’ve taught me the value of hard work and sacrifice, Haley.”

  She arched a skeptical eyebrow. “Are you making fun of me?”

  “Not at all.” His smile was sweet. “C’mon. Let’s go ashore.”

  They floated toward the rocks, both too exhausted to swim. When the water grew shallow enough, they walked, slogging slowly to shore. Haley’s knees were boiled noodles. Her head was stuffy and her skin felt too tight, while at the same time feeling too loose.

  The afternoon sun beat down. She squinted her eyes at the Second Chance, anchored some distance away, wished for sunglasses and aspirin. She certainly didn’t feel up to a twenty-minute swim right now.

  Apparently, neither did Jeb. He collapsed, drooping onto his back on a big smooth rock. He lay there, an arm stretched across his flat, taut abs, the muscles in his legs shaking slightly. “That was a hellacious workout.”

  Haley dropped onto the rock beside him, brought her knees to her chest, rested her chin on her knees.

  Jeb’s eyes were closed.

  She couldn’t help staring at him. The man was amazing. Her imagination shifted into hyperdrive. What would it be like to have him inside of her? She yanked her gaze away, looked to where the manatee had disappeared. What was going on with her? Why couldn’t she control her wild thoughts?

  Nurse mode. Nurse mode always helped.

  “Let me see that cut,” she said.

  He stuck out an arm.

  It was a long, straight surface cut. No stitches needed, thankfully. She couldn’t do anything for him here anyway. When they got back to the boat, she’d wash it out with antiseptic.

  “Give it to me straight, Doc. How bad is it?”

  “You’ll live.”

  He opened his eyes, used the palm of his hand to shield his face from the sun. “You ready to swim back?”

  “Even if I was, you’re not. Your legs are still not steady enough.”

  “I can handle it.” He bounced to his feet, but immediately wobbled. “Wow. Oops.”

  “You’re probably dehydrated. Tell me that you drank some water while you were on board the boat.”

  He looked chagrined. “I didn’t think about it. I was trying to get back here ASAP.”

  Haley sighed. “Between the sun and the exertion, your body is running on empty.”

  “I wasn’t the only one out there.”

  A few feet away stood a cluster of palm trees loaded with ripe coconuts. “Coconut water would do the trick. How good are you at cracking open a coconut?” she asked.

  “Pretty masterful.”

  “Coconut cracking in your bag of seduction tricks?”

  “You never know when you’ll be stranded on a desert island and need a piña colada.”

  Haley laughed. “I’ll get the coconuts. You save your strength for the cracking.”

  She got up, dusted off her wet bottom and gingerly stepped over the rocks to the sand. At the base of the trees, she found two felled coconuts. She scooped them up and turned to find Jeb behind her.

  “Since we’re already here and we do need a good rest, why not check out the lighthouse?” She nodded in the direction of the old structure.

  “I’m game if you are.” He winked.

  And damn if this wasn’t turning out to be one of the nicest days she’d had in a very long time.

  11

  Dew point—The temperature at which the air becomes saturated with water vapor

  AFTER JEB OPENED the coconuts with some expert smashing of hulls against the rocks, they drank the coconut water and ate the fruit. Once their energy returned, they decided to climb to the top of the lighthouse.

  Haley’s pert fanny swished up the circular stone steps ahead of him. Man alive, she had the finest backside this side of the gulf stream.

  Whitcomb, you’ve got to stop torturing yourself. This is the one that gets away so that the one you’re after doesn’t. You’ve spent your entire life flitting from woman to woman. It’s time to take a stand and commit. Jackie is the one for you.

  So why was the sight of Haley in that pink bikini driving him insane?

  She was sexy and he was human. It didn’t mean he had to act on it. That was what he’d been telling himself this entire trip. At the top of the stairs lay a wooden landing, and beyond it, the arched opening where lanterns were once hung to warn sailors away from the shallows. History washed over him as he thought about the lives this lighthouse must have saved.

  Haley moved to the
arched opening, peered out at the landscape below. Jeb came up behind her, his pulse suddenly hammering hard when he caught a scent of her. Even amid the smell of salt and sea and coconut, he could smell her strawberry fragrance. Summer. She smelled like summer. He would never eat strawberries again without thinking about her.

  His chest tightened strangely and he wondered what Jackie would have to say about that. Well, he and Jackie needed time to get reacquainted. Obviously, a year apart had changed things, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t be put right again.

  Yes, and speaking of Jackie, he might have blown everything by agreeing to save that manatee. It was already Friday afternoon and the Second Chance was still fifty miles off the coast of Key West. He had the Gulf Stream to navigate, so there was a good chance that he wouldn’t make it in time to stop the wedding.

  And if that happened? Then what?

  Don’t panic. You’ll make it. Just get the heck out of here now.

  He placed a hand on Haley’s shoulder to tell her that they needed to go. She turned around, looked deeply into his eyes and smiled a smile so special he felt something in his chest unravel.

  Jeb heard mermaids singing, ocean waves crashing, seabirds calling, every bit of it in his head and his heart. From the very moment he’d first laid eyes on Haley, he’d wanted her and fought it. Hard.

  But here, now, looking at her, he lost his last shred of control. Jeb leaned in and claimed that pink strawberry mouth for his own.

  She let out a soft moan, parted her lips and sank against his chest. Hell, there was only so much a man could take. He cupped her chin in his palm and held her face still while he fully explored that glorious mouth of hers.

  She trembled against him. Aroused or scared or both?

  He was turned on and scared, too.

  They explored each other softly and slowly. When he reluctantly broke the kiss and pulled back, her blue-green eyes had gone murky and she gazed at him with an expression of such desire and confusion he could smell her indecision. Her body tensed in his arms. The blue vein at the hollow of her throat beat rapidly. She wanted to bolt.

  And he couldn’t blame her. He’d come on too strong. He should not have kissed her.

  Even so, he could not resist kissing her again.

  The sweet sound of pleasure ripped from her lips cut straight through him, and the next thing he knew she was pulling his head down in a kiss so blistering that if he were to walk buck naked in Antarctica he could not be cooled.

  After a long, hard, soul-reaching kiss, she dragged herself away, her chest heaving, her eyes wide and her lips wet with his moisture.

  They blinked at each other.

  “Again!” she exclaimed.

  Laughing, Jeb kissed her a third time. He gently bit her bottom lip and then rolled his tongue over her upper lip. He caressed the small of her back, pressing her tight against him. He kissed her chin, her throat, and he must have found an erogenous zone, since she gasped and clung to him.

  “Haley, you taste like heaven.”

  She laughed nervously, shook her head. Her honey-blond hair tumbled provocatively about her shoulders. He ran two fingers over her cheeks, peered into her eyes, thought of a hundred things he wanted to say. I want you. I need you. But I can’t offer you forever.

  He heard the rumble of thunder, felt the wind blow cool air on their heated skin. He cast a troubled eye to the sky, saw gray clouds gather and bunch.

  A storm was coming.

  And whether they were ready or not, they were caught in it.

  *

  IT WAS FOUR-THIRTY by the time they got back to the boat and the wind was whipping at thirty knots in an easterly direction. Hoping to outrun the impending storm—or at the very least get as close to Key West as he could before the storm hit—Jeb decided to pull in sails and use the engine. He’d run as long as he could, even after dark until the rains came. After that, they’d drop anchor and wait it out. He prayed it would be a swift, quick storm.

  Haley helped him secure everything. He was amazed at how much she’d picked up so quickly. He hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d called her a natural sailor.

  The clouds thickened at sunset, obscuring the sky, and the air smelled heavily of rain. He kept his eyes on the sky and continued pushing the Second Chance, eager to get to Jackie before his feelings for Haley became too much for him to ignore. He was terrified he was falling back into old patterns, becoming easily distracted once he’d made a decision and chosen a course. This was Jeb’s personal dead reckoning. His line in the sand. If he turned tail at this point, he feared it meant he would never be able to see anything through to completion.

  “Our journey is almost over,” Haley said.

  “It’s been a big adventure. Thank you for taking it with me.”

  “Jackie’s a lucky woman.”

  He stood at the helm with Haley beside him, coiling up a rope, her eyes downcast. “Haley,” he said, “I wish I’d met you at a different time in my life.”

  “I know.”

  “Jackie is…” He couldn’t finish it. He could tell her how fabulous Jackie was, but she didn’t want to hear that. Plus, Haley was just as fabulous in her own way.

  This was the crux of his problem. Up until now, he’d been the kind of guy to love the one he was with. He’d fallen into old habits and he was looking at Haley as greener grass. It was his modus operandi, and the only way to break the cycle was not to give in to his desires, but he wanted her in the worst way. Wanted her so badly his bones ached. How was it fate had been so damned fickle as to land Haley here on his boat when he’d been trying to prove a point?

  Maybe that was just it. Maybe fate had put her here to test his resolve.

  Or maybe, just maybe, fate was trying to tell him that Haley was the one for him and not Jackie.

  It was a traitorous thought. One he didn’t want to look at too closely. Everything will work out. Don’t worry. Be happy. Once he saw Jackie and she saw him, all would be resolved.

  It sounded good. He’d been dishing up such garbage to himself since he was a kid. But would it really be all right? What if he hurt Haley in the process? It slayed him to think that he might do so.

  “I’m going down into the galley,” she said, “to make dinner before the storm hits. I’m thinking something simple. Grilled-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup?”

  “Sounds good.” Food was the last thing on his mind. He was thinking about storms and fate and choices made and desires that could lead you astray and lost loves and, and…

  This wasn’t like him. He didn’t second-guess himself. He made choices, lived with them, moved on.

  So stop thinking.

  Determinedly, he turned his attention to the sky. The wind was whipping wildly now, the boat rising up on the swells, then roughly slamming back down. The clouds turned an ominous black. He hung with it until the first big splats of rain. Haley appeared at the top of the stairs, motioning him inside. “Come in!” she hollered at him.

  She was right. This storm was more powerful than the last one. There would be no sleeping on the bridge for him tonight. Like it or not, he had to go belowdecks and ride out the storm, and he prayed he could weather it without falling into Haley’s arms.

  *

  THIS WAS HER LAST CHANCE to have a night with Jeb.

  He wanted it. She could see it in his eyes, but he was so terribly conflicted. But could she in good conscience seduce him? She wasn’t the kind of person who stole another woman’s man. Still, she couldn’t help dreaming about making love to him.

  Stop it. Just stop it.

  They ate their meal and did the dishes together, feeling the heat of the storm grow stronger. The sailboat rocked and pitched. They had nothing to do to divert them.

  No TV. No computer access. And she wasn’t about to play board games with him again. The only thing to do was go to bed and sleep through it.

  “You take your bed tonight,” she said. “I’ve hogged it for too long.”

&
nbsp; “You’re fine where you are.”

  “I’ll sleep on the bench seating here.”

  “Can’t. That’s where I’ll be sleeping.”

  “Jeb.” She shook her head.

  “Haley.”

  What she wanted to do was suggest they share a bed, but of course, she would not do that. “Do you want to shower first?” she asked, “or should I?”

  They still hadn’t washed the grime of the day off them after rescuing a manatee and climbing a lighthouse and eating coconuts and swimming to the island and back.

  “I’ll go first,” he said. “That way I’ll be out of your hair.”

  While he showered, Haley puttered around the galley kitchen, straightening things that didn’t need to be straightened. Her heart felt heavy in her chest and her lungs didn’t seem to want to fully inflate. She purposefully drew in several slow, deep, cleansing breaths, and by the time Jeb entered the galley toweling his hair dry and smelling of soap, she had herself under control. Somewhat.

  Until he smiled at her.

  “I left you plenty of hot water.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  He wore pajama bottoms and nothing else. It should be against the law for him to come strutting in here looking so damned available.

  Haley pressed two fingers against her lips, remembering what his lips had felt like against hers.

  She got up to slip past him, anxious to get to the bathroom for her turn at the shower, but as she went by, the boat lurched, tossing her against him just as the lights went out.

  “You okay?” Jeb asked.

  “Fine,” Haley whispered. She should step away. She was going to step away, but the boat lurched.

  The wind howled, picking up speed.

  Haley shivered.

  “Are you cold?”

  No. She was anything but cold.

  He stepped forward and rubbed his palms up and down her arms.

  She gave in, just gave in and that was all there was to it. She sank against him, as pliable as candle wax.

  He pressed his cheek against the top of her head. She could hear the loud, erratic thumping of his heart. Unnerved. He was as unnerved as she was.