I rolled my eyes, and that was just enough of a glance in their direction for me to see Finn swallow.
“Trust me, it’ll be more fun on the boat with the guests gone. Beach picnics are hard work.”
“Sure, such a misfortune.” Gisella sighed. “I guess it will be nice to get a bit of a break. I feel like I’ve barely come up for air this charter, balancing both deck and interior.”
I couldn’t help it. I snorted a sarcastic laugh that felt as awkward as it sounded. Both their gazes slid to me, and I tried to cover it by pretending to cough, making my eyes water.
“Something in my throat,” I muttered through another fit. “I’m going to head over with this tender and start gettingeverything set up. Gisella, I’ll radio when we’re ready for the guests. I told Bernard to go down for his break as soon as we’re gone. Can you take care of cabins and make sure we have a welcome drink for the guests when we return?”
“So much for that break,” Gisella said to Finn, as if it was quiet enough that I wouldn’t hear when she pinned me with a fake smile. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ma’am.
As if I were ten years her senior.
I wanted to smack that smirk right off her gorgeous face, but in a feat of restraint I was surprised I had, I mirrored her smile and just said, “Thank you.”
Before heading to the beach, I popped down to Leah’s cabin, knocking softly and sitting on the edge of her bed in the dark room.
“How are you feeling?”
“Getting better,” she said, wincing as she maneuvered her way to sitting up. She took a sip of the electrolyte drink next to her. “Although I’m absolutely devastated to be missing this beach picnic.”
“I did promise you I’d let you get off the boat as soon as we had one, but…”
“Yeah. Throwing up on the guests probably wouldn’t make for a good tip.”
I smirked, squeezing her knee.
“Y’all okay?” she asked.
God, no, I wanted to reply, but I forced a smile, instead. “We’re just fine. You rest up and we’ll all be back to normal soon.”
“I feel awful, Em.”
“I know. But it’s okay. I promise.”
I patted her leg, ready to tell her to get some rest and I’d check in on her later, but she stopped me.
“Em?”
“Yeah?”
“What’s the story with you and Finn?”
My gut churned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you guys used to date, and now you’re here together again, but he’s with Gisella… and I don’t know, I just feel like there’s some animosity there. Was it a bad breakup? Were you together long?”
I blew out a breath. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the whole crew knew about me and Finn now, the way gossip travels on floating tin cans like this. I was fairly certain the producers had a hand in the wildfire spread of our past, too.
“It was only four months,” I said, though my body betrayed how casual I made those words sound.
“A lot can happen in four months. Especially on a boat.”
I nodded.
“Why did you end it?”