“Mr. Ripley’s boat. Fine craft.” He gave them a smile and a salute. “Have a good voyage.” He ducked back into the office.
Willa giggled. “He’s interesting.”
“For sure,” Frankie replied softly.
They followed Kai’s directions, and soon saw Mitch and Lucas standing on a large blue and white boat.
“That can’t be it,” Frankie said. “It’s a yacht.”
She wasn’t far off. The boat was a lot bigger than Harper had imagined. It was beautiful. She read the name on the back, not quite understanding it. She’d ask about that later. “That has got to have a bathroom.”
As they got closer, the men saw them. Lucas jumped back to the dock and came to help with the tote bags. “Hello, ladies. This is going to be fun, don’t you think?”
Frankie nodded enthusiastically. “I can’t wait.”
Mitch got off the boat, too, helping Willa, Archie, and Harper aboard. She smiled at him. “Hey.”
“Hey. Glad you could make it.”
“You doing all right?” She knew this would be a trying day for him.
“Yeah, I am. Thanks.”
“I have to admit, I don’t get the name.Oar Knot? Is that some boating slang?”
Mitch grinned. “No, that was Jeanie’s joke. You know, like Ripley’s Believe It Or Not? That was her nautical pun.”
“Ah, now I get it.” She felt a little silly for asking, but Mitch didn’t make her feel that way at all, thankfully. “Cute. Although the boat isn’t cute. The boat is beautiful and big. Very impressive.”
“Thanks. You want the tour?”
Archie and Scout were doing their best to run around, but despite the boat’s size, it still wasn’t big enough for that. “Hey,” Harper said. “Archie.Easy.” She shook her head and looked at Mitch. “Sorry. I’d love the tour. How big is it?”
“Forty-two feet.”
Her brows went up. “Technically, that makes this a yacht. Anything over thirty feet can be classified that way.”
He laughed. “How do you know that?”
She shrugged. “I once helped a client decide which yacht to buy. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve helped people with.”
“You should write a book.”
“Now, you sound like my sister. She said the same thing, and that I should make it fiction to get around the NDAs.” She shook her head. “Not going to happen. Would you want me to write about you, even under the guise of fiction?”
“No. And I really appreciate that. Come on, I’ll show you the cabin.”
She followed him through a sliding acrylic door, frosted with a tiny dot pattern that provided privacy.
The spaciousness of the cabin on the other side surprised her. “This really is a yacht. You could live on here.”
Not only could she stand straight up, but there was a large, U-shaped dining booth, a small kitchen, and, tucked under the deck they’d just been standing on, a small, open bedroom area. She pointed to a door between the bedroom and kitchen. “Is that a bathroom?”
He nodded. “It’s got a shower and everything. Have a look.”
She opened the door. It was bigger than she’d expected. Not spacious, by any means, but not claustrophobia-inducing, either. “Frankie will be happy about that.”
Mitch chuckled. “It was a big selling point for Jeanie, too.”
