“Sounds fancy.”
“It can be fun. Demanding, but fun.” I drum my fingers on the steering wheel. Before everything went down, I liked working for Jessica’s family. Learning their preferences, tailoring my recipes to them. “He was making good money, and I was between jobs, so I took up his offer to join him down here. He recommended me for a yacht job, working for a rich guy in finance who liked going on long trips with his family.”
Poppy angles in my direction, turning the radio down. “So, what happened?”
“The client had a daughter around my age. Jessica Danes.” I can picture her perfectly: the spray tan, the blonde hair, the expensive wardrobe. A smile that stopped me in my tracks. I couldn’t resist it, the moment she turned it on me. “She was getting over a breakup, or so she said.”
“Oh, god.”
“We started flirting. Going out together when the boat docked somewhere. Dating, eventually. It was”—I grimace—“well, it wasthe first time I’d been serious with a woman. Or thought I was, at least.”
I swallow as I remember it. I believed every word she told me. Every lie she murmured about wanting to be with me. She played me perfectly, every step of the way.
“And she was your boss’s daughter,” Poppy says slowly.
I wince. I know how it sounds. “It turns out, she was just trying to get back at her ex. She was using our relationship to make him jealous.”
Poppy’s mouth falls open. “No.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, Jack.” Her hand brushes my arm softly. “How did you find out?”
I clear my throat. At least I’m looking at the road. That’s easier than meeting Poppy’s eyes, right now. “He finally had enough and came to visit her. I served dinner—her dad always wanted me to go over the specifics table side—and so I came up with the dishes, and...”
“I hate her.”
“You don’t even know her.”
“I don’t need to. She’s awful. Terrible.”
“I had to stand there and explain the dish in front of them like nothing was wrong. Like she hadn’t just swept me aside like a piece of trash.”
I’d spent the day working on a complicated seafood stew. I was worried it was too spicy and couldn’t stop thinking about what Jessica and I would do when she let me into her cabin after dinner. Stupid shit. And then it all came crashing down the second I saw her sitting at the table in someone else’s embrace.
“She didn’t deserve you,” Poppy says, a surprisingly fierce note in her voice.
“It was years ago. You don’t have to make me feel better.”
“I know what it’s like to realize someone never took you seriously at all,” she says softly.
“Ryan?”
She nods. “And just about everyone else.”
“I quit. Got out of there as soon as I could. Her dad was pissed.He, uh, he told Owen that he didn’t hire me to fuck his daughter. Embarrassed the hell out of Owen.”
“And now we’re here?”
“Yeah.” I massage the ever-present knot in my chest. It doesn’t feel as tight as it usually does, somehow. “Now we’re here.”
Chapter 34
Pineapple
Jack
“No way,” I argue as I lead the way down the sidewalk to a waterfront restaurant, a ramshackle little place with a raw bar to die for. Even if Owen tells us to get lost, we’ll have a good lunch. “Chef’s jackets aren’t pink.”
