“Forget the boat. Let’s get married tomorrow and I’ll buy us a house.”
His joke made her laugh. She stood up, covered a yawn, then bent and kissed him on the forehead. “We’ll do the boat. I like that.”
Jack was looking at her hard. “My offer was real.”
“Yes, I know it was. But just to be clear, if you repeat it tomorrow I’ll jump over the side and ride an alligator to shore.”
Jack gave a half smile. “Old man Dakon scores but I don’t.”
Ka
te was walking toward her bedroom. “If he had asked me I might have said yes.” When a throw pillow hit her in the back, she laughed and kept walking.
Fourteen
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, they left a note for Sara. Her bedroom door was still closed, but then neither Jack nor Kate wanted to see them just yet. They moved about Kate’s rooms quietly.
“What clothes should I take?” she whispered.
“None” came his answer, making her smile. She put on her 1940s-style outfit of Bermuda shorts and a halter top. An inch of midriff showed.
Jack ran his finger along the bare skin. “Hope you have sunblock for that.”
She patted her big canvas tote bag. “Three tubes. And a swimsuit, towels, a couple of books and—”
“Won’t need the books.” He held the door open for her and they went out the door toward the garage. Sara’s MINI was there and Jack’s truck.
“We should take the car. Think Dakon can handle a three-quarter-ton pickup?”
“I think he could drive a tank right over it.”
Jack tossed fishing gear in the back. They had breakfast at First Watch by Sawgrass Mall, went to the nearby Fresh Market, then Jack drove them to A1A. He kept his boat docked on the ocean side of southern Florida. He told her that last night he’d called ahead so the boat would be ready: cleaned and gassed.
His boat was long and sleek, mostly white but with a dark blue stripe along the side. There was a tall mast with a navy sail wrapped around it. A raised area had stairs that led down into a cooking/sleeping cabin.
It was a beauty!
“Impressed?”
“Very,” she said.
“It was my first big purchase. I wanted to prove to myself that I could own something and pay it off. I wanted to be in debt.”
She smiled at him in understanding. It was her guess that after his stepfather died, buying the boat was something he needed to do all on his own.
A tall blond young man came out to greet them. “I had to call in a team this morning to clean it up,” he said. “Sorry but you’re going to get a big bill, but it’s clean now and fueled.”
Jack was frowning when the young man left.
“What’s wrong?”
“I haven’t been here in weeks. I think somebody else has been using my boat.”
“Isn’t that what security is supposed to prevent?”
“Alarms are put in houses but they still get robbed. Let me go in first.”
She watched him disappear through the door into the hold, then waited until he stepped back out and motioned for her to get onboard.