Sailing at Sunset - Cindi Madsen Page 0,68
Until Josh had replied, I’m improvising, and her heart had taken off, soaring all the way up to the sherbet-colored clouds in the sky.
As they stepped aboard the Fortune 703 Model, she glanced over her shoulder at Josh, imagining what would’ve happened if they’d had a few more minutes to themselves. Since they were about to be around her coworkers, though, she put on her best game face.
She shrugged out of Mark’s jacket, thanking him again, in spite of how not-cold she’d been on the wharf. With Josh so close, his lips a mere breath from hers, she’d been pleasantly toasty, and her blood was still firing hot with the idea of everything that could’ve been.
What might be.
After all, they still had two and a half more days during which a whole lot could happen.
The entire team cheered as the awkward trio entered the main cabin, and she told herself to focus on how close everyone had grown and how much they’d accomplished.
By the time her turn to act out a clue came around, she had to overact a bit, so that no one would catch on to the fact that she was this close to falling head over fabulous heels for the captain of their ship.
Chapter Nineteen
Most days, Danae could hardly wait to disembark and get to their destination. Cape Cod was one of the places she’d been most looking forward to, too. Yet after their idyllic morning sail, when they’d seen two whales, a big part of her yearned to return to the Atlantic.
“You okay?” Josh asked. He paused at the mouth of the wharf, gripped one of the posts, and gave it a good shake. “Not only do they have railing here, it’s sturdy.”
Danae smiled at him. “I appreciate your testing it for me. Although thanks to my special skills, I could still trip and fall through the gaps in the rope.” She cast one glance at the ocean and then continued down the wooden walkway. “It’s just…In all my time sailing, I’ve never seen whales. To see one of them come out of the water like that was amazing.”
“Do my ears deceive me, or are you saying that you’re happy about an unplanned surprise?”
She flattened her lips and gave Josh her best glare.
He held up his hands in supplication. “Don’t shoot the captain.”
“That’s not even a saying.”
“It should be. How else would people get where they’re going?”
“Um, hello. Experienced sailor right here.” Danae lifted her thumbs and pointed at herself.
“Oh, so I’m totally replaceable? Is that what you’re saying?”
She almost nodded and continued the teasing, but the thought of this trip—of being on the sailboat without him—scraped at her. “I’d never say that.”
His smile faded, a tender expression taking its place.
“Come on, slowpokes,” Vanessa called over her shoulder, adding a hurry-up gesture. “I’ve been waiting for this shopping excursion for six days! Trendster ranked the top ten boutiques in the nation, and one of them happens to be here. Perhaps none of you fully understands how cool that is, but I do.”
“After you,” Josh said, sweeping an arm in front of Danae, and she quickened her pace to catch up to Vanessa.
Mark gave her yet another strange look. There wasn’t the twinge of animosity anymore. Over the past few days, it had veered closer to curiosity. He’d also stuck fairly close since interrupting her and Josh last night, and she wasn’t sure what that meant.
Had he known he was interfering? Or had he put the almost-kiss together too late?
Worse, what if he was thinking it was unprofessional of her to go around kissing the ship’s captain?
A likely option, since she was having that same internal debate. Granted, good guys like Josh, who were age-appropriate, funny, and handsome, didn’t come around often. Still, what was she thinking, getting swept away like that?
Last night during their walk along the beach, she’d been experiencing far too many butterflies to think clearly. This morning, her anxieties had woken up before her body fully had. It wouldn’t cast her in a very good light if it got back to Mr. Barton that she’d been flirting instead of doing her job. What if Mark tried to use the information to prove he’d be a better chief marketing officer?
Surely he wouldn’t use that against her. They had their boundaries and their truce, and he’d never been vindictive. It wasn’t like spending an evening with Josh left her incapable of doing her job, either.
“I seriously adore you, Danae,” Vanessa said, interrupting her internal dilemma,