Page 30 of Hooked on Love

“When I walked into that bathroom two weeks ago, I was already broken. Not just my boat, but me. And I told myself I was doing you a favor by holding back.” He pauses, grinning. “But then you ordered takeout for two.”

My gaze fogs at the edges, but I can’t look away.

“My ex told me I’d never be enough and I believed her. For years, I believed her. I carried it everywhere, onto every tour, into every room. And then you were there. On the worst night I’d had in a very long time, but you didn’t see that. You told me to stay.” His hand comes up, brushing my hair over my shoulder. “I’ve been navigating my life wrong for a long time, sweetheart. That boat is my livelihood. The water is my life. But you…” His voice cracks slightly. “You’re the one thing I want to find my way back to. Every time. For as long as you’ll let me.”

A tear tracks down my cheek, but he doesn’t swipe it away.

“I love you,” he says. “I know it’s fast, but I—”

“Jake,” I whisper, on a rooftop filled with people. “I love you, too.”

His grin is wide and his eyes glisten under the countless string lights as he drags me tight against him, leaning down to meet my lips.

The moment his lips meet mine, the first firework shoots off with an echoing boom.

The rooftop breaks out in cheers as the sound of the guitar stops playing.

But none of that matters as he draws me in tighter, tilting my head to open for him. The distant thud of another launch surrounds us, the whistle climbs, and then the sky above the marina explodes in red and gold. I pull back with a gasp, turning to look up. He keeps his arms around me from behind, his chin resting on the top of my head as we watch the bursts of light break across the water.

I’ve heard people say the resort’s display is the best in the country, but seeing it now, in this moment… Finding this town, these people—Jake. It’s more than I could have ever dreamed.

I never thought I could find my place again in this world alone. And I suppose my boat captain may have felt the same at one point in time.

“It’s beautiful,” I sigh.

“Yeah,” he says as I peer back and up at him. But he’s not looking at the sky, his eyes are on me.

I turn in his arms and kiss him again, while the sky explodes above us. And for the first time in a long time, I stop looking for solid ground.

I’ve already found it.

Hooked

Peyton

Three Months Later…

Three months ago I didn’t know how to drive a boat.

I still don’t, technically. Jake tried to teach me once, approximately two weeks after the Fourth of July, and the lesson ended with me overcorrecting into the wake of a passing vessel, a string of colorful words from the captain himself, and an agreement between us that I would remain a very enthusiastic passenger for the foreseeable future.

It’s an arrangement that works well for both of us.

The morning is cool and grey-blue, the tail end of summer breathing its first hints of fall across the water. I’m bundled in Jake’s flannel over my hoodie sitting at the stern with a fishing rod I have absolutely no idea what to do with while he moves around the boat.

This is our Sunday. Out on the water, nowhere to be, just the two of us and the ocean and whatever Jake decides he wants to teach me this week. Last week it was reading the tide charts. The week before, identifying birds by their flight pattern. I retain approximately none of it, and he loves every second of my cluelessness.

I scan the water hopefully. Grey swells, a few whitecaps further out, the occasional flash of something beneath the surface that turns out to be nothing.

No whales.

Yet.

“You’re holding it wrong, babe,” Jake says, appearing beside me, nodding at the rod.

I pout. “I’m holding it exactly how you showed me.”

“I showed you, yes, and it seems you’ve already developed your own technique.”