Page 9 of The Cruise Back to You

“That’s too bad,” I say, not believing a word of it.

“You should take Colter instead,” Jules continues, the picture of innocence. “No sense in wasting the booking.”

I look at Colter. He glances at me before we look at Jules, who is doing a terrible job of hiding his smile behind his coffee cup.

I can smell the setup a mile away.

But we did agree to be friends. And snorkeling does sound fun.

“Sure,” I say. “Colter, want to join me?”

“Love to,” Colter replies smoothly.

We finish breakfast and head back to our respective cabins to change. When we meet again at the gangway to step off the ship, Colter catches my eye and grins.

“That was a setup,” he says.

“One hundred percent.”

“Jules isn’t even a little bit subtle.”

“He really isn’t.” I laugh, and it feels good. Easy. “You know what we should do?”

“What?”

“Play it up. Give them a taste of their own medicine.”

Colter’s grin widens. “I like the way you think. What did you have in mind?”

“Well,” I say as we walk down the gangway toward the dock, “the question is, do we make them believe we got back together or that we hate each other?”

Colter pretends to consider this seriously. “Both have merit.”

“Hate each other means lots of dramatic arguments. Could be fun.”

“But getting back together means we’d have to sell being in love.” Colter glances at me sideways. “Think you can handle that?”

“Please,” I say, keeping my voice light. “I’m an excellent actor.”

“Guess we’ll find out.”

We share a conspiratorial smile as we step onto solid ground, the sun warm on our faces and the ocean sparkling behind us.

This might actually be fun.

Six

Colter

I can’t believe I just suggested pretending to be in love with Robin.

As we walk toward the snorkeling tour meeting point, I replay the conversation in my head. Think you can handle that? What was I thinking? Do I even have to pretend?

I know the answer before I finish asking myself the question.

No. I don’t have to pretend at all. Because now that I’m around Robin again, I know I never stopped loving him.

Maybe this is the perfect excuse to find out if he still loves me too.