Page 39 of Sailor's Delight
The vintage feel of it, the fact that you could easily envision a 1920s flapper flailing it about on her wrist as she danced the Charleston, were the reasons he’d bought it for Jenn. She had an appreciation for all things vintage, but nurtured a special love for the fashions of the ‘20’s, ‘30’s, and ‘40’s. It didn’t matter if it were flapper gowns or post-war pencil skirts, she adored them all.
Trey’s gaze flitted back and forth between the letter and the bracelet, disbelief in his wide, frantic eyes.
How is this happening? WHY is this happening?He drew the bracelet up to his eyes, looking for something, anything he’d missed that would make it worth the demand on the letter in his other hand.Something that would make it worth Jenn.
***
Jenn was not enjoying herself. She regretted wholeheartedly her decision to accompany Casey and his work friend April on their exotic foray into the uncharted jungles of Mexico in pursuit of the rumor of a waterfall that was supposedly “breathtaking.”
The mud of the jungle trail stole the ballet flat (the closest thing to what she’d consider a sensible shoe she’d brought) from her foot yet again. So far, there was no waterfall, and she still had her breath, but her shoes might end up being another thing, altogether.
“Hey, not to be a stick in the mud—,” She nearly fell flat on her face, tripping over an actual stick in the mud. “—But are we close to this waterfall? I wasn’t really prepared for this much of a slog through the trees and everything.” She took a moment to look backward through the trees to the jungle floor on the valley below. She could see the village they’d hopped the taxi to, and far beyond that, glimmering at the edge of the horizon, what she assumed was the ocean.
“We’re almost there,” Casey called back from where he led their little expedition, the sweat soaking the neck of his yellow tank top in a perfect “v” around his neck in back. He reached up to grab a tree limb and used it to pull himself up a particularly steep and rocky portion of the trail. Jenn found herself mesmerized by the shiny ripple on his forearm made by his tendons and ligaments.
She shook her head, staring at her shoes, taking a deep breath in through her mouth and letting it out.I gotta get fucking laid. Damn you, Trey!
Thinking about Trey forced her to glance back at the ocean. She knew she couldn’t, but she imagined that she couldsee the ship, where Trey was doing god-knows-what with god-knows-who. She viciously kicked some stubborn mud from her flat.
“Almost there. Right. This better be worth it,” she muttered.
She’d intended the words to be just for herself, but, to her surprise, April turned around and grinned like a Cheshire Cat. “Oh, it will be, I guarantee!” She winked at Jenn in a way that left Jenn slightly confused and, truth be told, a little creeped out.
The hell does that mean?
Jenn stopped walking, her shoes squelching in the mud. “Hey, I think we should head back.” She looked down at her mud-spattered shorts and the sheer white button-up top, under which you could clearly see her bikini top. “I’m not really dressed for…” she gestured to the forest generally. “…Whatever this is.”
She saw April give Casey a stricken look, and that was it. She had no idea what was passing between those two, but the alarm bells were full-on ringing now. She turned and started back the way they’d come, making her slippery way down the trail.
“Wait! Jenn, don’t go. I just realized I left something in the taxi! You two go on ahead!” With that, April crashed through the brush to Jenn’s left, leaped back onto the trail, and disappeared at top speed through the trees down the mountain.
Jenn stared after her in stunned silence. Finally, after several moments of jungle silence, she turned to look at Casey, who had come back down the trail and was now standing within arm’s reach of Jenn, watching where April had disappeared.
“What… the hell… was that?” she asked.
“She isn’t especially subtle, April,” Casey offered quietly. “She thinks we’re on a date.”
Jenn snorted. “Why would she think that? She was literally here with us up until the moment she ran away screaming like a lunatic.”
“Probably because I told her this was a date.”
Jenn whirled on Casey. “Excuse me?”
Casey didn’t move, his expression impassive behind his sunglasses. “You weren’t going to come with me, otherwise. So, I told her you were nervous about coming on a date with me, assured her that I had nothing but noble intentions toward you, and paid her for her time in coming far enough with us that I could get you alone.”
A chill ran up Jenn’s spine, and a cold bead of sweat dropped from her back into the hem of her shorts. She backed away from Casey, her hands outstretched and a single warning finger held up between them. “You son of a bitch. You stay away from me!” Her eyes darted between Casey and the trail she was frantically trying to retreat down.
“Relax. It’s not like that. That’s not what I’m after.” Casey took a step toward her, putting a hand out to steady her.
“Really? A guy who went to great lengths to get a girl alone doesn’t want the one thing that all guys want?” Jenn huffed. “That’d be a first.”
“I’m not—,” Casey stopped, as if stunned. “I’m a good guy.”
Jenn couldn’t help it. She knew that, under the circumstances, it was probably the worst thing she could have done, but she laughed.
“Casey!” She spread her arms wide to take in the world immediately around them. “You lured a woman to a remote location under false pretenses by manipulating another woman into helping you do so.” She couldn’t help the anger that crept into her voice now. “You’re not a good guy!” She turned and cupped her hands around her mouth, shouting in the direction that April had disappeared. “HELP!!”
Casey leaped forward, seizing Jenn around the middle and clamping a hand over her mouth. She fought, kicking with her flats and throwing elbows into as many soft spots on Casey’s body as she could reach.