Page 16 of Sailor's Delight

Jenn entered without a word, still buttoning her romper. When she looked pointedly at the safe in the closet, Trey fought to keep the worry from his face.

“What was that?” Jenn asked quietly, when she’d finished with her buttons. Trey couldn’t help but notice that she’d done up all but the last two this time, instead of three.

“Not a fan? I thought it might be fun to leave with a little anticipation.” Trey tried to smooth over the blunder, but even he knew the excuse was a few bricks short of a full load in covering the rupture he’d just caused in their relationship.

Jenn stared, then began what Trey referred to as her “attack” pacing. She always paced like this when she had more pent up frustration in her head than she could get out in a single moment.

Throughout the merger, she’d spent hours like this on the phone in her office. Nearly every time he’d found reasons to go by her office during those three months, this was her state. It did not bode well for the looming conversation.

“Anticipation?”

Uh-oh. She was using her “Chief Operations Officer” voice, and not the “we just exceeded our fiscal goals, bonuses are coming” one, either. More like the “we just came up $10,000 short in our Petty Cash funds, firings are coming” one. He’dobserved her use both over the years. This was unmistakably the latter.

“No, anticipation is the promise of good things yet to come. This felt more like the breach of a contract already in action.” To her credit, Trey watched Jenn stop pacing, put her hand on her chest, and take a number of deep, steadying breaths with her eyes closed.She’s so sexy when she’s regulating.

Her eyes snapped open, and he instantly regretted the smile that had come to his lips.

“I’m trying really hard to understand why you would do what you just did,” she continued. She was still using her COO voice, but he knew far better than to say so at the moment. “Please, help me understand.”

She turned to look at him, and he could almost see the executive shield slip away fractionally. “Did I say something? Do something?” She was searching his face now, and his stomach clenched in regret. She was really having a hard time with his leaving. “Is anything wrong?”

She opened her mouth to speak again, but clearly decided against it, choosing instead to sit and give him space. She’d come a long way since he’d first seen her in action. The Jenn of yesteryear would have come into the room verbally swinging, and wouldn’t have stopped until there was a literal or metaphorical knockout, whichever happened first.

“I—,” he started and stopped, not sure what he was even about to say. She stared at him, biting her lip and visibly putting in so much effort to simply listening. She’d clenched her hands into fists, nails into her palms, the skin of her hands turned white with pressure.

“It’s just—,”

Her mouth fell open slightly, as if she could force the words out of his mouth by opening her own.

Trey reached for her hands. She needed to feel that nothing was wrong. He took her hands, cold, bloodless, and pitted from where her nails had pressed into the palms. He brushed the backs with his thumbs.

“I’m fine. We’re fine.”

Jenn relaxed visibly, but only marginally. She could sense that there was still a “but” coming. Her fingers tightened around his.

“It’s just been a really long time, and I want the first time to be really special.”

Jenn stared at him. “Trey, we are on a ship in the middle of the ocean, on our way to Mexico, with no responsibilities and no work to do for the first time in God knows how long. It doesn’t get much more exceptional than this, dude. Not at our stage of life.”

He smiled and chuckled slightly. She always did have an ear for understatement.

He took a deep breath. There wouldn’t be a better time than this to share the news with her.

“I…,” He blew the breath out, giving her hands a gentle squeeze to steady them from shaking.

“Trey, you’re scaring me,” Jenn said.

“I got a vasectomy!”

It wasn’t quite a shout, but it definitely wasn’t the cool, collected revelation that he’d hoped for. He watched Jenn’s eyes blink, then widen as she registered what he’d said.

“Oh!” she whispered. “Okay—,” Jenn was nodding, relief rearranging the features on her face. Then her eyebrows furrowed again. “Hang on, so you decided to have this done right before your best chance to have uninterrupted, noisy, uninhibited sex?” She laughed. “Weird timing.”

“No, I had it done back in, like January. Right after the New Year.”

Jenn’s face went cloudy again. Trey reeled her hands back in, afraid that she’d go dark.

“Oh. Clear back in January?”