Getting Lucky by Susan Andersen

which were full of cars. “Glynnis had to pick a guy who lives on a frigging island?”
    Lily looked up from the fingernail she was filing. “You’re such a cheery guy.” She arched an eyebrow at him. “I suppose now probably wouldn’t be a good time to point out we would’ve had plenty of time after all to stop at that Liz Claiborne outlet we passed.”
    He turned his head slowly and gave her his deadliest master sergeant stare, the one that made raw recruits tremble in their boots.
    It had about as much effect on Lily as every other attempt he’d made to put her in her place. “Guess not,” she said cheerfully, and dropped the file into her purse before opening the passenger door. “Well, look on thebright side. At least we can stretch our legs. I don’t know about you, but my tush passed numb and headed straight for rigor mortis about fifty miles back.”
    He couldn’t help it; he smiled ruefully. Then he, too, climbed out and did what she suggested. He took the opportunity to stretch his legs.
     
    Miguel pulled into lane five three cars behind the Jeep and slouched down in his seat when he saw Taylor and his woman headed his way. This was getting complicated. Who would have thought, when he’d followed the master sergeant from the Marine base yesterday, that this evening would find him more than a thousand miles away, in line for a vessel going only Dios knew where?
    Reading a board outside the booth a few moments ago while awaiting his turn to buy a ticket, he’d seen that in addition to four island destinations, there were two boats a day that went to Canada. For an instant, he had frozen, wondering which destination he was supposed to buy a ticket for, and realizing that if it was Canada he was in trouble. Then his natural confidence had returned. The Canadian boats appeared to leave early in the day, so this was not likely to be a problem, and to—how did the saying go?—borrow trouble was unacceptable.
    When his turn came at the booth, he’d considered simply pointing out Taylor’s Jeep and telling the ticket seller he was part of the master sergeant’s party and wanted to go where the other man was going. But what if the seller didn’t remember where that was? There were several cars between Miguel’s and Taylor’s, andthe last thing he needed was to be brought to the commander’s attention. In the end, he had simply bought a ticket for the last island in the chain.
    So here he sat, hemmed in on all sides by other cars. It was pointless to grab the woman at this juncture, since it was impossible to get off the dock even if he could separate her from the marine. Hence, his current slouch—he had no intention of relinquishing the element of surprise by allowing himself to be spotted.
    But it didn’t please him. Miguel Escavez did not slide down in seats to avoid confrontations; he met them head on! He didn’t appreciate feeling out of his element, but this quite frankly was far beyond what he had anticipated when he’d set out on his mission. If he had had just one more minute at that petrol station this afternoon, the woman would be in his possession now, and this furtiveness would be unnecessary. He had been so close…until the commander barked out an order and the gringa had jumped to do his bidding.
    Miguel had half expected the marine to get out of his vehicle and confront him then and there. But Taylor had driven off the minute the blonde woman had climbed into the Jeep, so clearly he hadn’t bothered to note who she was talking to.
    Proving my superiority over the U.S. Marines once again , he thought smugly. He would have noted who talked to his woman. But that led to thoughts of Emilita in another man’s arms, which led to the injustice of his treatment by Taylor, and before he knew it, he was grinding his teeth in fury. Determinedly, he shook it off, taking several deep, calming breaths. He needed to concentrate his energy on the positive.
    After all, he was about to accomplish