Nobody But You(5)

Rolling out of bed, he showered, dressed, and headed out, once again on the hunt for food he didn’t have to make himself. Halfway to his truck, he glanced through the clumps of trees lining his property to the lake.

The Lucas was moored at his dock again.

Changing directions, he headed down there and eyed the boat. No sign of Red, but he heard something from belowdecks. A…moan?

Walk away, soldier.

But hell. He couldn’t do it. “Hello?” he called out. “Red?”

The ensuing silence was so thick that he could tell she’d stopped breathing. “I’m boarding,” he said, and when she didn’t respond, he went for it, hoping she wasn’t aiming a gun his way. As he did, she struggled on deck.

She wore a short, flowery skirt that flirted with her thighs and a white tank top, a forest-green sweater in one hand and a pair of high-heeled sandals dangling from the other.

With one look, she perfectly conveyed her annoyance as she sagged to the captain’s chair and dropped her head to her knees. “Why you?” she moaned. “I mean, seriously, what the hell is up with my karma? It’s like the bitch went on vacay. On another planet.”

“Nice to see you again too,” he said dryly. “You wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” she said to her knees, more than a little hint of the South in her tone. “I always talk to my knees while a stranger asks me twenty questions. Nope, I’m great. My glass is totally half full.”

This made him smile. Call him sick, but he loved snark in a woman. “Are you okay?”

“Fan-fricking-tastic. Only way today could get better is if I were scheduled for an appendectomy. Without drugs. In a third-world country.”

Snark and a bad ’tude, like she wouldn’t hesitate to kick someone’s ass if she needed to. Didn’t get hotter than that. He crouched next to her so that he was level with her face, not that he could see it since it was still pressed to her legs. “You’re not supposed to—”

“—moor here,” she said, very carefully not moving a single inch. “Yes, you ever-so-helpfully mentioned that yesterday.”

“I was going to say you’re not supposed to look down when you’re seasick. It makes it worse.”

“Oh.” She hesitated and then turned her head to look at him. “And you’re not supposed to be nice when I’m not. But thanks—oh crap. Oh shit,” she whispered miserably as the boat rocked.

Jacob instinctively reached out and rubbed a hand over her back. “Have you tried Dramamine?”

“Yes. It doesn’t work. I’m getting a patch today.”

“That’ll help,” he said.

She nodded and sat up. “I’m sorry I’m here. I just need to stay docked for the day, okay? I know the cabin’s for sale and no one lives there, so I don’t see a problem with that.”

Other than she was getting off not having to pay the fees, which he suspected she couldn’t afford. “Just so you know, the cabin’s no longer empty,” he said, fully intending to also say that she could keep her boat on his dock as long as she needed.

But she made a sound that might have been a snort of laughter or a sob. A little terrified it was the latter, he rose to his full height just as she gasped, and then moaned, and…and threw up.

An inch from his shoes.

Welcome home, he thought, reaching for her, supporting her with one arm while with the other he tried to gather her hair. Problem was, she had a lot of it, and more than a few of the silky strands stuck stubbornly to the stubble on his jaw as she tried to weakly shove clear of him.

“So much for improving on your first impression of me,” she gasped. “Looks like you were lucky enough to draw the short straw on my crazy. Again.”

“Shh.” Her skin was waxy and green, so he held on to her, afraid she’d slide overboard and drown. “Give yourself a minute,” he said.

She sighed miserably and didn’t look at him. “How many Dramamine do you think it’d take to just kill me?” she asked.

Jacob couldn’t make a return quip, not on that. Not since just about every time he closed his eyes these days all he could see was Brett’s coffin being lowered into the ground.

“I’m so sorry.” She sighed and straightened, still looking wobbly. “But hey, it must be your lucky day. I missed your shoes. Don’t worry. I’ll clean this up and be gone in no time.”

If only he believed that. “Wait here,” he said. He left the boat and strode to the cabin to get her some water and also to find a hose to help her clean up.

But when he got outside again, she and her boat were gone.

Which left nothing to distract him from what he had to do today, and at the thought, the unwelcome nerves returned with a vengeance, tap-dancing in his belly again.



She’d thrown up on the hot guy. Good Lord, Sophie thought weakly as she quickly cleaned up and then maneuvered the boat as far from the little cabin as she could get.

Easier said than done.

They’d had a violent summer storm over the past few days, which had made her seasickness so much worse. Especially since she’d had to move around, aka sneak around, to find places to moor.

The waves were larger than she’d ever navigated before. Feeling naked without a seat belt, she wrapped her ankle around the seat base so she wouldn’t go flying out.