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“Really?” she asks. She leans forward and scans the water.
“At least half a dozen. I bet if you keep watching, you’ll see them again.”
We slip into an easy silence, something that makes me think, in different circumstances, I could be good friends with Riley. She’s the right level of chill for me, and I always appreciate someone who’s confident enough to be comfortable with silence.
“You must hate having your romantic vacation being crashed by a bunch of strangers,” she says, turning to lean her back on the railing as she studies me.
I scoff before I can stop myself, and Riley’s eyebrows shoot up.
“Sorry,” I quickly say. “That reaction was based much more on you calling this a vacation than about you guys coming aboard.”
“Right. True,” Riley says. “I guess FBI agents do put a damper on the wholevacationvibe.”
“Hopefully it’ll all blow over soon,” I say, a response that I hope is vague enough for her not to dig for more details.
“I think Jasmine and Ana might lose their minds,” Riley says. “Or try to commandeer the ship and head back to shore. I don’t think they’ve spent a day without their phones since … well, maybe ever. Add in the fact that Ben’s taken, and there’s not much on board to keep them entertained.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem to have all that much in common with them.”
She laughs and shakes her head. “I do and I don’t. Our families know each other, and we run in the same circles. They’d both be loyal to me—so far as it didn’t come down to me versus them. But they are definitely not my closest friends. We hang out once or twice a year, maybe. That’s about as much as I can take.”
“Did you ever find out what was wrong with your boat?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Something about blown gaskets and a flooded engine? I have no idea. Philip said he’s got someone coming out to tow it back to Charleston for us.”
“Charleston? Is that where you were headed?”
“That’s home, so yeah. I’ve got all summer before my program starts back in the fall, so I could stay out here for months, but Ana has a modeling event coming up and has to be in Brazil next week.”
Next week. I really,reallyhope that doesn’t mean they’ll all be on this boat with us until then. Other than Riley—she could stay.
But also … will I still be on the boat next week? When will it be safe to go home? I think of my sisters, running the inn on opening week. Though I hadn’t planned to come for it, I really am sad to miss it.
Or maybe this whole trip is making me homesick. Or just … peoplesick? I really do want to make more effort to visit my sisters. That’s why I moved to Atlanta, after all, and I’ve barely seen them more than when I was in DC. Which is sad.
As for seeing Ben more … I’m not ready to think about anything even in the near future with him. Not if I can’t even think about him in the present.
“So, you and Ben,” Riley says with impeccable timing. She stretches out on the chair next to mine. “Y’all are cute together. And that’s saying something big because I could never have pictured Benedict King in a real relationship. The way he looks at you!” She clucks her tongue.
I swallow my protests. I’m not about to talk to Riley about the inner workings of my relationship—can I evencallit a relationship?—with Ben, especially when I have no idea what to think about it myself.
“Yeah, he’s pretty great,” I say instead. Because he is.
I’m at least willing to admit that. That whatever screw-up, womanizing billionaire bad boy I thought he was before, he’s clearly more than that. Or … something else entirely.
“Hey, are you interested in watching a movie?” I ask.
It’s either that or stand out here and talk about my fake-ishrelationship, and since I’m declaring myself the queen of avoidance today, I might as well keep it up.
Riley lifts her eyebrows. “A movie? Like, amoviemovie?”
I assumed Riley had been on the yacht before, given all three of the women’s familiarity with Ben, but maybe they only stayed up on deck for pool parties. I grin.
“Have you not seen the state-of-the-art theater room? With reclining, heated leather seats?”
“I do love a good heated seat,” Riley says with a smile.
“Then let’s get going and raid Benjy’s incredibly extensive old-school DVD collection and watch something ridiculous and distracting.” I stand up and start toward the narrow stairs that will take us inside.
