AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart skipped a beat hearing him talk.
I thought more about myself. Who was I?
“I am Heather,” I said. “I don’t like fashion, but I’ve been told my whole life that it is what I’d be doing when I grew up. I wish my mother had had another child to give the line to so I could be free to figure out what I want to do. I don’t know what I want to do. I pride myself on being a good friend, but I am not a good friend to myself.”
“Eccellente!” Matteo exclaimed, sliding the biscuits into the oven, then returning to the prep table to begin chopping vegetables for omelets.
The fast, rhythmic tapping of his blade against the cutting board soothed me, and I smiled.
“So let’s figure out what it is that Heather would like to do,” he said. “Heather should have a plan for her life in place before she tells her mother to stuff the fashion line where there’s no sunshine!”
I erupted in laughter at the bluntness of his statement. “Is that a fact?” I asked. “Do you really think I’m the type of woman who would ever say such a thing to my mother? She’d hate me.”
“She would not,” Matteo said. “She will be disappointed, but disappointment is a part of life. You’ve been disappointed, no?”
I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I have.”
“Well, then,” he said, “why not others? It is okay for others to feel that, too, you know. You only get one life.”
I kept on watching the blade—a blur above the cutting board, cutting perfectly sized bits of pepper and onion. He moved so effortlessly in the kitchen. He was so sure of his hands and of his ability. What would those hands feel like on me?
It was the sexiest thing I’d ever witnessed.
Chapter 6
Later in the morning, I met the girls for breakfast.
“These omelets are amazing!” Niki said, shoving her mouth full. I couldn’t argue. They were fluffy and perfectly seasoned, with the peppers and onions inside caramelized to perfection. I thought about bragging that I’d been present when they were being prepared but decided not to. I wouldn’t put it past Jessie to make some kind of report about my presence in the kitchen to the captain and get Matteo in trouble.
“I’ve had better,” Jessie said, pulling a face.
For the rest of the meal, nobody really talked. The tension in our friend group had grown so thick we were all doing our best to avoid the unavoidable—that, of course, being extra drama with Jessie.
Besides, our heads weren’t really with each other. Each of us was distracted by the gentlemen we were meant to be wooing.
Jessie was working hard to gain the attention of Smithy, the scuba instructor on the cruise. He was a tall, musclebound, surfer-dude stereotype with just enough intellect to be moderately attractive, but not too much to completely be turned off by Jessie’s desperate behaviors.
Lissa was still nervously navigating things with the captain. Him being her father’s best friend posed some added complications to their relationship that she was trying to find a workaround for. At last check-in, she had yet to have slept with him or even gotten any time alone together.
Sarah, on the other hand, had been getting steamy with the yacht mechanic, Owen. She had bragged about the good time they’d had in the machine room to Niki, who had told Jessie in confidence, and Jessie had, of course, told me. I was happy for Sarah. Owen didn’t seem like any of her prior flings. She actually seemed to be really happy spending time with him.
Niki, too, was having a good time so far. She and the bartender—a Chilean guy named Rufus—were getting closer by the day. The sexual tension between the two of them was so thick it could be swatted away.
Niki, herself, had always shied away from the game because she was still a virgin. She wasn’t ready to share herself with anyone, until now. Rufus had laid his claim, and she didn’t seem at all remorseful about it.
And then there was me and Matteo. Jessie had asked about whether or not he and I had spent any time together. I knew the undertone of the question was meant to ask if I’d spent any time dirtying the sheets with him, but I played coy and answered simply that yes, he and I had been alone together. Any inferences she wished to make about that claim would be her own—I had told the truth.
The answer seemed to frustrate her immensely. As the others cleared away from the table, she kept her gaze on me—a signal to wait behind because she wanted to talk.
As much as I dreaded any talk she and I ever had, I was obedient.
Lissa was the last to leave, and once she was gone, Jessie’s gaze softened.
“I need your help,” she said. “I have been trying really hard to get Smithy to notice me. We’ve talked and flirted a little, but I don’t think he’s really seeing me as a potential partner, yet. You know what I mean?”
I nodded. I was not surprised. I’d been observing Smithy some, and he seemed like the kind of man who enjoyed flirting with everyone. I wasn’t so sure Jessie would have any luck tying him down.
“Anyway,” she continued. “I thought maybe if I took his diving class, I’d get a chance to really talk to him some more. You know?
