Page 2 of Love on Deck
“Jack Fletcher?” I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping beyond reason that Amelia knew two Jacks.
“Yes, Lauren,” she said flatly. “The same Jack Fletcher whom I can’t uninvite because he’s my fiancé’s best friend and for some reason you still hate—”
“Hey!” I said in defense, bending over my bed to pull piles of clothes toward me and layer them smoothly in my suitcase.
She sighed softly, and my immediate bite-back died on my tongue. The hatred between Jack and me was mutual. The blind date Amelia and her fiancé had set us up on was awful for both of us. We had barely made it through the entire meal before Jack pretended to get sick and ditched me to make out with the waitress.
“I’ll admit, that blind date wasn’t his best move,” she said, conceding. But I didn’t want her to concede, and I didn’t want to be the reason she was stressed right before her wedding.
Time to pull up my big girl pants and be a mature adult. Though, to be fair, saying it wasn’t Jack’s best move was an understatement. No, I think his best move was when he’d accidentally called me later that night, complaining about our awful date to his roommate in a five-minute voicemail. Or maybe it was after that, when he couldn’t seem to be around me for five seconds at Kevin’s birthday party without telling me how uptight I was.
Big girl pants.
“That date was two years ago. I’m really fine with Jack being there.”
Amelia was silent. Was she suspicious of my motives? She knew I had every reason to hate Jack Fletcher—including the voicemail still saved to my phone that expounded on the greater reasons about why he couldn’t stand me—but this was her wedding. I wasn’t going to be the one to ruin it.
Besides, she couldn’t help it if her fiancé had terrible taste in friends.
“It’s really in the past. I don’t have any problem with him being on the cruise,” I said, mining the words from my chest one chink at a time. I arranged my shoes in the suitcase to give my hands something to do. For the next week, I could put aside my well-founded hatred for Jack and make this the best wedding cruise Amelia could possibly hope for. She was my priority here, and I wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.
“This sounds too good to be true, but I’m going to choose to believe you, because I’ve been so stressed about y’all being together on this cruise.”
“Well, you have nothing to worry about. Seriously, Ames. Nothing.”
“You can’t know what a relief that is.” She blew out a breath, and I could practically feel her shoulders lower away from her ears. “We have a few activities in mind for the first half of the week, but after the wedding, your time will be your own.”
That meant four days. Four days of faking that I was fine being around my nemesis before I could sneak away and find a quiet chair away from the sun to read and listen to the waves lap against the boat. Did waves lap against a giant cruise ship? I guess I was about to find out. My shoulders relaxed a little. Maybe this trip would be good for me, after all.
“I need to get going,” I said. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Yeah! Bachelorette night, baby!”
I laughed. Amelia had specifically requested no bachelorette party, so I had come up with a pre-cruise spa night in our hotel with her sole bridesmaid, Cara. It was the perfect way to relax and refresh right before getting on the boat. And hopefully to detox my bad energy so I would be able to handle Jack and his negativity. No matter what happened, I wasn’t about to let anyone ruin my baby sister’s big day.
* * *
Everyone at the office was surprised to see me when I showed up a half hour later. Jerry, especially, looked up from his desk with suspicion. “I thought you were off for the next two weeks.”
“Eight days,” I corrected. “And I plan to check in daily, so don’t worry. It won’t feel like I’m gone at all.”
He gave me a grimacing smile. “Great.”
“Is Hal in his office?”
Jerry nodded. “Not in a great mood though, fair warning.”
When was Hal ever in a good mood? He’d only been our interim manager for the last few months, but it was long enough to understand the type of boss he was. I knocked at his office door and pushed it open when he called me in.
He looked up from his computer. “Didn’t expect to see you today.”
“Just wanted to check in before I left, sir.” I hovered behind the chair opposite his desk. “Preparations for Fantasy Con can still come my way, and I’ll make sure to respond to every necessary email within twenty-four hours.”
He looked at me shrewdly. “I thought you were going to a wedding.”
“I am.” Did my willingness to be reachable make me seem cold and heartless? I thought my diligence would be impressive. “But there will be a lot of downtime, and I know how important this event is for the hotel.”
“Not anymore.”