He hadn’t left again, but we were talking about me going with him on a yacht job with him in the coming winter. One of his employer slash friends had asked him, so he’d kind of promised if I could go with. Just for a few weeks, though.
Bucky ambled over and flopped onto my lap, then wiggled onto his back to look as cute as possible.
The tension left my body in a rush, which was Bucky’s intention anyway.
The door opened behind us, and Jack padded closer. He sat behind me and scooted closer with his legs on both sides of me.
I leaned back to his chest, pulling Bucky with me as much as I could.
“I’m sorry,” Jack murmured. “I’m just…”
“Protective. I know. But I’m an adult, Jack. I get to make my own decisions now. You know that cabin is important to me, right? Because it was my mom’s.”
He kissed my neck and sighed, then pressed his forehead against my shoulder.
“I know. You wouldn’t jeopardize the cabin or Samira.”
“I forgive you,” I promised.
“Thank you.”
* * * *
Jack
It was my day off, and Elise had taken her bodyguard and PA to go on an excursion for the day and night.
That meant the crew of three, including the captain, had a day off as well. I’d made sure everyone was suitably fed, and now all I had left to do was to grab the cooler I’d prepared for Rey and I, and go to the sun deck where he was already lounging.
I felt nervous, which I hadn’t expected. But then again, I’d never felt like this before, either.
Soon after life fell into the usual grooves in the spring, I’d talked to Rey about my past experiences and how they’d affected my early relationship with him. He’d gone to therapy too, and both of us were so much lighter now, that sometimes I wondered how I hadn’t really seen or felt the weight we’d been carrying before.
I left my chef’s jacket on the hook in the small utility closet, grabbed the cooler from the galley, and headed upstairs.
The view was stunning. We were in the Tobago Cays in the Caribbean, and while there were other yachts visible, we were at the tail end of hurricane season, which meant there were fewer people around still.
The weather was lovely, and staying under the canopy on the sun deck would be perfect. If I could just stop being so damn nervous.
“Hey, baby,” I said when I rounded the corner to see Rey half-asleep on the sun bed, the book he’d been reading was resting on his chest.
He opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey.”
We’d been here for two weeks now, and his tan was gorgeous. As much as I loved him pale and in his natural habitat, he fit in here, too.
I put the cooler next to the mini bar and sat on the edge of the sun bed.
“Why do you look nervous?” Rey asked, squinting at me. “Is something wrong?”
Damn it. “No, nothing’s wrong.” Then I amended my words. “Well, it could be, but I don’t think so. I mean—”
Alarmed, the last thing I wanted him to be, he sat up and looked at me with wide eyes. “Jack, what is it?”
“Aw, shit.” I was doing this all wrong.
I looked past him to the sparkling blue green water and the sand and the little islands, and I slid off the sun bed.
Then I winced, because I’m old, but took a knee anyway.
