Jack & Jilted by Cathy Yardley Page B

it would be even worse to lose his ship completely.
    Two hours later, he had to admit he was starting to sink into despair. He had to find a chef and he was running out of time. He needed a miracle.
    “Jack?”
    He looked toward the voice calling out from the dock. And for a second his mind went completely blank. “Chloe?” he finally said, uncomprehending.
    “Yup,” she said shyly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a pair of canvas tennis shoes, looking bright and casual and nervous. “I bet you weren’t expecting to see me back this soon.”
    He wasn’t expecting to see her back ever, he thought. “It’s a surprise,” he finally commented.
    “A bad one?”
    He shook his head quickly. “No! No. Of course not.” And it wasn’t—he felt better in the flash of a second than he had in the past three days. “Come on up.”
    She walked up the gangplank much more nimbly than she had the first time she came on board the Rascal. Good grief, had that only been ten days ago? It seemed like a lifetime.
    “How are things going?” she said when she reached him. Her whiskey-colored eyes almost glowed in the setting sunlight.
    He almost hugged her, but considering how he’d said goodbye to her, physical contact probably wasn’t the brightest idea. “Things are going…” He thought about it, how he might put a good face on it. Then he sighed. “Things suck, actually. How ’bout you?”
    She laughed, a short, harsh sound. “I’m right there with you, pal.” Then her laughter cut off and she looked sorrowful. “I hear that Gerald wouldn’t pay you.”
    That son of a bitch, Jack thought—but if anybody would know about Gerald’s qualities firsthand, it’d be his ex-fiancée. “Yeah,” he said.
    “I went on the cruise, so I ought to be the one to pay you,” she said.
    For a second, Jack felt a ray of hope. Of course she’d be take-charge and pay for the cruise. He might have guessed that not only would Chloe be a cool passenger and an amazing woman, but his financial savior to boot!
    Then he remembered—she wasn’t working and she’d said she was too broke for massages. “I don’t want you going under just because you feel you owe me,” he said quickly.
    Did I just say that? he thought. He didn’t think he was a bad guy or anything, but practicalities and business generally came before emotions, women and especially emotional women.
    So how did Chloe keep bringing out this foolish, noble side of him?
    “I’ll admit it, I don’t have the money,” she said, and his spirit sank a little.
    “No problem,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll figure out something. After all, I twisted your arm to get you to come—it’s pretty much my fault.”
    “No, I intend to pay you,” she insisted. “But I wanted to discuss something with you first.”
    He shrugged. He wondered if she wanted to talk about their week together. It had been amazing—and confusing. And he was in no state, honestly, to deal with it right now. Not with all the rest of his life crashing down around his ears.
    “Gerald refused to pay for his half of the wedding, as well,” she said instead.
    Considering he’d steeled himself for an entirely different sort of conversation, her casual comment jolted him. “That bastard!”
    “Yeah, that’s pretty much what I said.” She smiled that wry smile of hers. “Not only that, but he’s sort of holding our house hostage. I’m going to need to wade through the whole mess with his family’s lawyers, and believe me, those guys are no joke.”
    “So I’ve heard,” Jack said, remembering Gerald’s high-pitched threat.
    “I had to raid my savings to pay for all the wedding stuff. Even wiped out my retirement,” she said. She wasn’t dramatic, she wasn’t even near tears. She just sounded strong and determined. “So I’m going to need to make mortgage payments to keep my credit clear and I’m going to have