“You hate that boat,” he said. “The cabin will be just sitting here. Stay in it. Make yourself at home.”
Yes. Absolutely. If he’d been staying in it with her…But she didn’t need his pity. And more than that, she was having a hard time with this conversation at all. Her ribs felt like they’d shrunk and were constricting her breathing. Her heart hurt, physically hurt. Shaking her head, she pushed his hand away.
“Sophie, don’t be stubborn on this. The cabin will be empty—”
“I know.” She didn’t need the reminder. “I’ll be fine, but thanks.”
He looked at her for a long beat, nodded, and walked around her to the door. She didn’t turn to watch him, couldn’t believe he was just walking away—
“Soph.”
She whirled around and found him there, right there in front of her. The man moved like a cat. He touched her face, his own carefully blank. Then he leaned in, brushed his mouth to hers, and was gone.
She boarded the boat in a fog. Not wanting to see Jacob drive away, she went directly belowdecks. She didn’t hear his truck start and figured he was waiting for Hud.
Didn’t mean she had to wait. She went straight to the tiny galley and attempted to light the sole burner. “Please,” she begged it.
And surprise, surprise, it went click, click, click and…turned on. One thing going her way…She pulled out her pan. She needed a double grilled cheese sandwich stat, with a tall chocolate milk on the side. Maybe laced.
Cursing the small quarters, she pulled out the bread and the rest of the ingredients, during which she remembered a question Jacob had asked her all those weeks ago now.
Why did she stay on the boat?
If he’d asked her even yesterday, she would have stopped and said she honest to God didn’t know. And yet here she was, constantly bitching about her circumstances. So why hadn’t she done anything about it?
If he’d asked her today, just now, she’d have known the answer. Just as he hadn’t thought he deserved his family, she hadn’t believed she deserved to be happy.
But she did. She deserved that very much, and she had held the power to change her circumstances all along.
Once the pan was heated and she had the sandwich sizzling, she pounded out Lucas’s number. When he picked up the call, she immediately said, “I’m selling the boat.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you before. You’re selling, but not to me.”
“I changed my mind on that.”
There was a pause. “Are you teasing me?” he finally asked.
“No. I want to find my happy, and my happy involves a hot shower and a full kitchen. And your happy is this boat.” She paused and rolled her eyes at herself. “And we both deserve our happy.”
Another pause. “Who are you, and what have you done with my bitch ex-wife?”
She sighed. “Fine, if you’re not interested—”
“Hey, whoa, I didn’t say that! I’m interested. I’m more than interested. Consider it sold for fair market value.”
“And you’ll pay me up front?”
“Hell, I’ll even add in your car, free of charge.”
“Wow,” she said, and flipped her sandwich, the scent of melting cheese making her mouth water. “Look at you, going soft in your old age.”
“Bite your tongue, woman. So…this have anything to do with you bumping uglies with Jacob Kincaid?”
She’d just taken an unfortunate sip of her chocolate milk and choked on it.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said. “You know that being with him is like going from the pan into the fire, right? Because if you think I can’t keep it in my pants—”
“You can’t!”
He let out a low laugh. “Okay, touché. But the last single male Kincaid, Sophie? Seriously? It’s like you want to be hurt. It’s like you want to be your dad, constantly down and depressed—”
She felt her spine snap straight. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said stiffly. “I’m nothing like my dad. And it’s not like he chooses to be sad, Lucas. It’s a chemical imbalance—”
“Sophie,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to start a fight and hurt your feelings. I’m just saying, I’m…worried about you.”
She blinked.
“I was an asshole,” he said. “There’s no doubt. Hell, I’m still an asshole. But why are you going after another asshole? Do you want to get hurt again? Is that it?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. “Jacob’s not like you,” she said. “When he’s with someone, he’s with someone.”
“Okay, so maybe he’s not going to cheat on you with another woman,” Lucas said. “But he’s not going to be able to make you happy. He’s not relationship material, and that’s what you want. That’s what you’re looking for.”
No way was she going to admit to him that she’d learned that already, the hard way. “I’ll be okay,” she said.
He was quiet a moment. “I’ll have the accountant come up with an offer for the boat and get it to you tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” she said, and then paused. “Wait a minute. Did we just have a relatively decent conversation in which neither of us skewered the other?”
“Yeah,” he said, sounding as surprised as she. “Do you think it means the apocalypse is coming?”