by Holly Kerr
I came up laughing, with Will’s hands around my waist. “Maybe get back into the tube,” Will suggested with a chuckle. “I don’t want to lose you in the water.” He lowered the donut over my head and I rested my arms on the side.
Then he kissed me again. And again. And again, as we drifted in the cool, dark water. Will kissed me until they told us our time was up and we were pulled out of the cenote. And then he kissed me in the taxi all the way back to Cozumel, which made me miss all the scenery.
Not that I was complaining.
Once we were back in the city, I showed Will just how perfect I was when we stopped at Will’s favourite restaurant for lunch. Not only did I dare him to eat one of the jalapenos in my spicy margarita, but I also popped one in my mouth as well.
“You like spicy foods.” He grinned, even as he grabbed for his glass of water.
“I like all food,” I confessed. “I’m part Hispanic and part Korean, so I grew up with every kind of heat. My father used to hide the bottles of hot sauce in the kitchen because my mother hated the stuff. But since she practically never went into the kitchen, it was okay.”
“She doesn’t cook?”
“Unless it’s for a big holiday. She usually helps out for Thanksgiving, but cooking is my dad’s thing. And Carmelia.” Just saying her name brought on a wave of homesickness. Carmelia had been with our family since my little brother had been born when I was five.
All of a sudden I couldn’t believe how much I missed her cooking. I missed her smile. And her hugs…
“Who’s Carmelia?”
“Our housekeeper.” My voice thickened with emotion. “But she’s really more than that. My parents worked so much when I was growing up that Carmelia practically raised me and my brothers.”
“What do your parents do that made them so busy?”
This was getting into true confessions. But since I wanted Will to know who I was—”My mother is a congresswoman, my dad is president of an oil company.”
It was hard not to be impressed with parents like mine and Will didn’t even try to hide it. Talking about them made me miss my family even more. If I hadn’t spoken to my mother yesterday, I didn’t think I could have borne it.
But knowing that I’d be home in a few days made it easier. Home, with my parents and my brothers.
Will smiled at me through a mouthful of burrito.
After lunch, we walked through town, stopping at little shops so I could buy my fill of souvenirs. We ended up at a nearby beach, waiting for the last minute to board the ship. The day passed me by in a happy haze of Will, his smile, his laughter, his dizzying kisses.
I didn’t remember the last time I’d been so happy. I pushed aside any thoughts of the cruise ending, of not sharing another day like this with Will and focused on the here and the now. Excuse followed excuse as the sun sank into the sky. I knew I couldn’t wait much longer. He needed to know the truth.
And I needed to stop wincing every time Will called me another woman’s name because he was going to catch me before long.
“So tell me about having a congresswoman for a mother,” Will said as we waded barefoot in the water, holding hands. “My mom was head of the PTA, so I can see the similarities.”
“It was her job. She went to work, sometimes came home really late. Sometimes she had to stay in Washington. One of the strangest things was my teacher asking her if my class could visit the State Department. We did, and there was Mom, in her suit, being all congresswoman-y. It was kind of surreal. And now, she’s on Twitter, so I get all these tweets from her that thousands of people like—or not like. She has trolls, which is difficult.” I couldn’t look at Will. “I haven’t seen her in almost four years.”
Will looked confused. “Why not? From the way you talk about your family, I’d say you were close.”
I took a deep breath. “I left home. Ran away from home, actually.”
He smiled. “You’re how old, Petra? I don’t think you can call it running away from home.”
“My name isn’t Petra.”
It was more of a mic stand crashing through the floor than a simple drop and Will dropped my hand like it was made of ice. “What is your name then?”
“Siggy. Well, Seraphina Park-Smith, but everyone calls me Siggy.”
“Why are you calling yourself Petra?” He sounded confused but I heard the touch of anger.
I took another breath, this one so deep it made me dizzy. “Here’s where things get complicated.”
“How complicated?”
“Kind of a lot, so please listen because I don’t know if I can finish if I don’t get it done in one fell swoop. I’m married.”
“Married.” Even with his carefully composed expression, I saw the anger in his eyes.
“I only found out he’s in jail, and the divorce papers are waiting for me to sign, so I won’t be married for long. He’s a bad man.” I held up a hand as Will opened his mouth. “I really like how you ask questions, but hold on a minute. Charles married me to get his hands on my trust fund, and my parents’ money. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of money in my family. Charles used me, stole almost a million dollars and threatened to destroy my mother’s career if we didn’t give him more.
“I couldn’t let that happen, so I ran away. If he couldn’t find me, he couldn’t hurt my parents.”
“And that’s why you haven’t seen them?” Will asked carefully.
I nodded. “But yesterday, I broke into their condo in Grand Cayman and—”
“Wait a minute, you broke in?”
“For the past year, I’d been running cons, with a bit of small-time B & E on the side,” I confessed. “Small stuff. I never hurt anyone. But yes, I’m pretty good at breaking into places.”
“You’re a criminal?”
“No. Maybe. I guess you could call me that.” There was no reply from Will, so I rushed forward. “Not a bad one. And not a very good one. I messed up my first job and owe Eduardo money… I’m not excusing what I’ve done, but when I left home, I got caught up with some people. I was angry at Charles, and I wanted to use people like he used me. It wasn’t a good thing to do, it wasn’t smart, but that’s why. And it’s kind of the short version of why Petra isn’t my real name,” I finished, realizing that my explanation wasn’t a very good one.
“Who’s the real Petra?”
My heart cracked at the cold steel of his voice.
“That’s where it gets a little more complicated. She, uh, gave me the tickets for the cruise. She thought I was an Uber driver and I was taking her to the boat when she got a call from the guy she was in love with, and then she gave me the tickets and her suitcase because the guy proposed,” I said in a rush.
Will shook his head. “You can’t get on board without a passport, and the passport has to match the name on the ticket. I checked your passport!”
“That was Petra’s.”
“You used someone’s passport to board. That’s illegal,” he said flatly.
My heart sank. “I know that. But I needed to get away from Miami and Petra—Petra really wanted me to go.”
Will stood up. I wanted to reach for his hand, but the stiffness of his body told me not to. “We should get back to the boat.”
“Will…”
“What am I supposed to call you?”
“Siggy,” I said in a low voice.
“I kissed you, and I didn’t even know your real name.” He shook his head. “I could get fired for this, you know. You’re some spoiled little rich girl playing at being bad and you don’t care at all about what happens to me.”
“No, Will, that’s not it I do care—”
Will turned his back and started to walk away.
“Will, wait! Please—”
He stopped and spoke without turning around. “How am I supposed to believe you when you’ve been lying to me the entire time? I think you can get back to the boat yourself.”
And then he kept walking.
Chapt
er Nineteen
I waited a suitable time, sitting at the beach and trying to keep the tears from flooding my eyes before heading back to the boat. I didn’t want to trail behind Will, waiting impatiently for any crumb he might deign to throw back at me.
I shouldn’t have worried because he was long gone when I boarded. There was no sign of his wavy dark hair or the smile that I’d looked forward to seeing more than anything else on the ship.
I lied to Will and it hurt so much that I’d upset him so badly. And what he said about me, about me being a spoiled rich girl just playing and not caring? Was that the truth?
Before heading to my cabin to spend what was going to be a very long and painful evening, I stopped for supplies, a strawberry daiquiri and a huge ice cream cone. The daiquiri was already gone when I bumped into Miles.
“Siggy, hey! Missed you in Cozumel today.”
“I had plans with a friend.” I was glad I still wore my sunglasses so Miles wouldn’t see my reddened eyes.
“Good plans?” He raised an eyebrow. “Good friend? Xander told me you met someone.”
I shrugged, taking a miserable lick from my cone. It was beginning to melt in the heat, already dripping down my hand.
“You okay?” For a minute Miles sounded exactly like my brother Simon and I was tempted to dump my troubles on his sympathetic shoulder.
“I’m fine.”
“Uh uh.” Miles turned me in place and marched me to the elevator. “I know what it means when a woman says she’s fine. Let’s go, back to your cabin. You’re going to need to clean yourself up if you don’t eat that quickly.”
“Ice cream sounded like a good idea,” I said, licking at the melting chocolate.
After Miles insisted on a tour of the cabin, we settled on the balcony. I finished my ice cream and washed the chocolate off my hands before pulling out two bottles of beer from the fridge.
“I can’t believe Petra got this place all to herself! Greer was so annoyed because they were supposed to share a room, and then Petra booked a single. Greer is rooming with Amy and Alicia because there wasn’t another single left open and she’s not happy about it.”
“Being here with you all makes me feel like I kind of know Petra.”
“Well, she’s kind of exactly like Greer,” Miles admitted. “Sometimes I can’t believe they’re friends. They’re always vying for attention.”
“How is Greer?” I asked, wanting to inquire if Miles had been able to work any magic on her before she visited the captain. But suddenly it didn’t matter if I was to be thrown off, as long as Will didn’t get into trouble for allowing me on.
“I’m not here to talk about Greer,” Miles said in a firm voice. “What’s going on with you and that long face? It’s not Siggylike.”
“You haven’t seen me in years. How would you know what Siggy is like?”
Miles leaned back in his chair with an affectionate smile on his handsome face. “Do you remember the party your parents had for Christmas one year? I think you were seventeen. Simon had just turned twenty-one—”
“And the two of you got me drunk,” I finished with a rueful laugh.
“I seem to recall you getting yourself drunk.”
“How can you recall what happened when you had more to drink than I did?”
“I’d been drinking legally for six months by then and that was the first time you’d had a drink.”
“Oh, it was, was it?”
Miles looked wounded. “It wasn’t? I always liked thinking I was your first time.”
His words hung between us. “I had such a crush on you back then.” I sighed, remembering eighteen-year-old me and how a smile from Miles could make my day.
“I know,” Miles surprised me by saying.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How could you know?”
“Your brother told me?”
“Simon?” I cried. “That jerk! How did he—?”
“It was Sam,” Miles admitted. “I think he might have read your diary.”
“That little…I’ll—” I didn’t finish my threat as Miles laughed.
“They must miss you.”
“I talked to my mother yesterday,” I said quietly. “I’m going home after we get to Miami.”
“I’m really glad, Siggy.” Sincerity rang in Miles’ voice. “I don’t understand why you left, but I’m sure you had your reasons.”
I squinted into the brightness of the sky. “It really doesn’t seem like that good of a reason now.”
We watched the waves; Miles finished his beer and got another one. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” he asked as he sat back down.
“It’s nothing…Actually, that’s not true. It’s big deal to someone.” I took a deep breath, thinking about the hurt on Will’s face. “I lied about who I was.”
“Who is this someone? Does it matter what he thinks of you?”
I nodded. “It matters a lot. After Saturday, I’ll never see him again and I have to leave knowing that he hates me.”
“No one can hate you, Siggy.”
“Will has every reason to. For the whole cruise, he’s been thinking I was Petra because I used her passport to get on board.”
Miles burst out laughing. “That’s why he’s mad? Sorry,” he said, fixing his face into a more solemn expression. “That’s why he’s mad at you. Why didn’t you tell him your real name? There aren’t many people who would want to be Petra, at least not the people who know her.”
“Because I was afraid I’d get kicked off the boat. Last time I heard, pretending to be someone else was frowned on. Illegal, even.”
“You’ve got a point there.”
“And since I haven’t exactly been an outstanding citizen lately, I didn’t want any attention.”
“What have you been into?”
I waved the beer bottle at him. “That’s a story for another time, one with a lot more beer.”
“I’ll hold you to that. Have you told your friend—”
“Will,” I supplied.
“Your friend, Will, why you lied?”
“He really didn’t give me a chance.”
“Did you ask for a chance or did you run and hide?”
“I’m not sure.” I thought back. I hadn’t run, but I certainly hadn’t pressed the issue, either. I’d just let Will walk away from me.
“Maybe you can find him and talk to him. That’s what I’d do.”
“What if he doesn’t want to talk to me? What if he thinks I’m a horrible person?”
“Then you have to convince him otherwise. You’ve got a day left to do it.”
“A day,” I said, my brain whirling with what I could do, how I could make Will forgive me. “Thanks, Miles.”
“You’re very welcome.”
We sat quietly, both lost in our thoughts for long minutes.
“So what’s going on with you and Greer?” I asked finally.
“Absolutely nothing.”
“That’s too bad. Gillian said she really likes you.”
“Greer is…oblivious.” Miles sighed. “She just sees what she wants to see. She knows full well I have no interest in her, yet she continues to chase after me.”
“Have you told her you’re not interested?” I asked tactfully, thinking Miles’ continual presence would make it difficult for a smitten woman to take a hint.
He looked at me like I had two heads. “I’m in love with Xander, Siggy.”
The legs of my deck chair came crashing down. “You’re what?”
“You didn’t know?”
I thought back on what I knew of Xander and Miles, what I’d seen of their interactions. Friendly, but not overly romantic. But wait—
“You were always sitting together at dinner, and on the bus. Guy friends don’t usually do that when there’s a girl to sit with.”
“I thought Greer might get the hint,” Miles said miserably.
“And all this time she’s been hating on me because she thinks I’m trying
to steal you” I threw up my hands. “And here you are, in love with her brother! Now she can hate Xander. Although, really, who can hate Xander?”
“I certainly don’t.”
“So he feels the same way?”
Miles smiled sheepishly. “So he says.”
I turned to Miles with a huge grin. “I’m so happy for you. This is great news.”
“I’m glad you think it’s great,” he grumbled. “Because when I get home and tell my mother that you were on the cruise with me, the first thing she’s going to do is try and set us up. I haven’t told them about Xander yet—about any of this.”
“Ah.”
Miles finished his beer. “My problems are going to take a lot more beer than this to fix. Your mess, on the other hand, we can fix.”
I stared at my bare toes resting on the balcony railing.
“Find him, Siggy, and tell him how you feel. You’ll always regret it if you don’t.”
I missed half of the dinner by scouring the ship for Will. I stopped at ducking into the staff quarters because passengers weren’t allowed, but ran through every deck looking for him, asking every staff member I came across, but no one had seen him.
Eventually, I headed to Mount Olympus dining room, convinced Will was still in Cozumel.
Miles was seated beside Xander, both with big smiles on their faces. Both of them rested a hand on the table, barely touching. I looked around with dismay to find there was no empty seat waiting for me.
“We didn’t think you were coming, Siggy,” Alicia apologized. Sayid jumped up from the chair beside her. “Sayid wanted to be here when I told everyone.”
The waiter brought me an extra chair and I squeezed in beside Miles. Greer looked away without her usual. Maybe Miles had begun cleaning up his own mess after all.
I glanced around, trying to get a sense of the mood. Amy was sniffing and dabbing at her eyes with her napkin, but Gillian looking like she couldn’t contain her glee. “What’s going on?”
“We’re getting married!” Alicia exclaimed.
“That’s amazing!” I pushed my chair back to congratulate her with a hug when her next word stopped me in my tracks.