AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My most recent passion is discovering passions,” I joked. “And loving myself first.”
“Ah!” he smiled, kissing my neck.
“And what are yours?” I asked.
He looked around the kitchen, then back at me, and grinned.
“Everything in this room.”
Chapter 19
As fortune would play out, Lissa wound up staying on the cruise. Montego Bay was a day of reconciliation for more than just me and Matteo, it seemed. She and the captain spent much of the boat ride home cozied up at the helm together. Even still, Jessie refused to let her out of her forfeiture. She didn’t seem to mind.
Matteo and I caught a glimpse of Lissa and the captain holding hands and kissing at the bough of the boat as we made our way to the kitchen together.
“I love happy endings,” I said, smiling at them.
Matteo grinned at me, grabbing my hand with a tight squeeze. “I do, too,” he said.
He opened the kitchen door, and we walked in together.
“Are you sure you’re allowed to do this?” I asked.
“The captain is in love!” he smiled. “He has no rules anymore. Anyone can do anything on this ship as long as it invokes feelings of happiness, and it makes me happy to have you in my kitchen helping me prepare breakfast!”
I laughed as I tied on my apron. “So what are we making, Chef Matteo?” I asked.
“This morning it is saltfish buljol with English muffins and tangerine!” he said, pulling out a cutting board to begin preparing the buljol. “You may help prepare the tangerine, or you may sit and look pretty for the chef!”
I carried the crate of tangerines to the table beside him and washed my hands in the sink.
“I can try to do both,” I said, shooting him a playful wink.
“You don’t have to try,” he said.
About that time, I looked up, noticing Smithy and Jessie sneaking around the corner, exiting the cabin corridor together. Matteo saw it, too.
“What do you think that’s about?” I asked, giggling.
“I think Smithy finally took the hint,” he said. “God be with him.”
I giggled. In the days since Montego Bay, Matteo had become more relaxed around me, allowing his humor to come through. Our physical attraction for one another seemed to be evolving into something deeper, far quicker than either of us had ever imagined it could.
It was a common theme with the girls on the trip, though. Lissa and the captain’s fast closeness could be excused by the fact they had already known each other. Rufus and Niki, Owen and Sarah, and Me and Matteo were a different story. We were new couples, new to each other, and already falling deeply for each other.
“It must be something in the water,” Sarah had mused one night at the dinner table after we’d all been gushing about our men.
“Yea,” Niki had teased, gesturing wildly at the ocean surrounding the yacht. “Us.”
Jessie and Smithy, on the other hand, were more slow moving. Something happened between them in Montego Bay, although I wasn’t really sure what it could have been on account of the fact she and I were now barely speaking. But there was a fondness brewing between them that was clear to see—and it was less flamboyant than her past flings. She seemed almost protective of it, but in a good way.
Later in the morning, once breakfast was prepared, the five of us sat at our usual table together for what would be our last breakfast on the trip. Traditionally, this had been the meal where we would pick the winner, but Lissa had already forfeited. So we seemed to be fortunate enough to skip that dreadful conversation this time around.
As we waited for our plates, we sat awkwardly together. Each of us was unsure what to say.
Lissa looked up to the Wheelhouse and smiled.
“What are you so happy about?” Jessie smirked.
