The Trouble With Paradise Read online

  That she’d wanted it.

  “Dorie.” He didn’t say anything else, just her name, because it occurred to him he really had absolutely no idea what to say.

  Turned out, it didn’t matter, because she turned and walked away. She moved toward the stairs, her hair wild, her orange life vest not matching her pink tank top, her purse hitting her side with each step, her slight limp doing something to make his stomach hurt like hell.

  Truth be told, it wasn’t his stomach, but his heart.

  ELEVEN

  Dorie sat with the others in the wind-ravaged salon, pretending that half the windows weren’t blown out along with all the loose furniture, and that they were all fine.

  Dark had fallen hours ago, which didn’t lessen the sense of helplessness. But with the loss of sight, her other senses kicked in.

  And so did the memories.

  She tried like crazy not to think about that big old smackeroo she’d given Christian, but holy crap, it’d been a helluva kiss.

  The mother of all kisses.

  She looked over at Andy, who sat there big and strong, worried, looking a little worse for wear because of it, and felt a stabbing sense of guilt even though she hadn’t once been able to have a decent conversation with him without her tongue swelling. The fact was, he’d expressed an interest in her and she’d led him to believe she shared that interest.

  She’d wanted to share an interest, but she hadn’t been able to keep her mind—or her lips—off Christian.

  The wind whipped through, bringing the rain with it, but they were all already as wet as they could get.

  Just outside the door sat the life raft; Christian was going to prepare it as soon as he found Bobby.

  The implications of that made her feel sick, so she went back to thinking about the kiss. The wow kiss. She covered her burning cheeks and glanced at Andy again.

  A little rumpled, a little unnerved, he turned to her and smiled, concern in his eyes along with his affection for her.

  She’d definitely lost her mind.

  But she had to set aside the thought because she had a more pressing one—drowning. She was having some trouble getting past the mind-numbing certainty that each breath could very well be her last. She really wanted to close her eyes and pretend she wasn’t here. Wanted to go to sleep until the nightmare ended. Wanted to bury her head in the sand and be a coward.

  After all, that’s what she did, she let life go by.

  She was damn good at it.

  How else to explain being nearly thirty and having nothing to show for it but a box of sketch pads? Why had she put off her hopes and dreams in order to play it safe?

  “Think the water’s cold?” Cadence asked in a small voice.

  Dorie forced a smile. “Nah. The South Pacific waters are notoriously warm.”

  At that, they all turned their heads and looked out the window at the churning ocean. Though the rain and wind had begun to let up, everything was still black; the water, the sky, the spray in the air . . .

  Despite her reassuring words to Cadence, Dorie shivered, because it all looked cold as hell. “I think it’s getting better out there.”

  Cadence gulped. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  Andy slid his arm around her. “Keep your eye on the horizon, remember?”

  “Hard to do when the horizon keeps bouncing up and down like a Mexican jumping bean.”

  “I wonder exactly where we are?” Brandy frowned out at the darkness.

  Dorie opened her purse and pulled out a map of the South Pacific.

  “You carry a map in your purse.” Brandy shook her head. “You really needed this vacation, didn’t you?”

  “You have no idea.” She spread open the map, and they all stared at the multiple groups of islands off the coast of Australia, which were really hundreds of individual islands.

  “So . . . we’re near here?” Brandy put her finger on Fiji.

  “Not necessarily.” Andy shook his head. “I heard the captain say we’re way off course.”

  Again they all took in the myriad of islands.

  “We could be anywhere,” Cadence said quietly.

  True. Dorie’s finger ran over the clusters: Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia . . . “Maybe we’re close to Tahiti.” She tried to sound cheerful. “I always wanted to see Tahiti. We’ll probably land somewhere really cool and laugh this whole thing off.”

  “Yeah, like Bora Bora.” Cadence’s voice sounded weak and uncertain. “I heard Bora Bora is exciting.”

  The boat creaked and let out a loud, seemingly human groan as the ocean rock and rolled beneath them.

  “It’s going to fall apart,” Brandy whispered.

  “Oh, no. No falling apart. I’m not ready to die.” Andy drawled this in a normal tone, as if by doing so he could make everything right again. “I have lots of baseball left in me, and next year, a contract renewal.”

  “Money isn’t going to matter to you if you’re dead,” Cadence pointed out.

  “Money always matters.” This from Brandy, of course.

  “It’s not the money,” Andy told them. “It’s the security of knowing I can play for at least five more years.”

  Dorie understood. She’d always appreciated security. A regular paycheck. But now, out here, floating in what seemed like a mortally wounded sailing yacht, Shop-Mart and any dubious security it offered her seemed very, very far away.

  But not her dreams. She touched her lips, the ones that had kissed Christian. Yep, her dreams were right here with her, unfortunately going down with the ship.

  From just outside, she could hear Denny yelling, shouting directions to Ethan. She pictured them out there, in the wild elements, fighting the losing battle against the equipment they had left, trying to keep them safe. “We need to help them.”

  “I tried,” Andy said. “They want us to stay here, it’s safer.”

  Dorie had a feeling “safer” was all relative at this point. “Then let’s help Christian look for Bobby.”

  “He’s fine,” Andy said. “He’s probably sleeping.”

  “But what if he’s not?” Dorie stood up, gripping the table for balance.

  “Honey, Christian told us to stay here,” Brandy reminded her. “It’s too dangerous to do anything else. The boat could pitch and you could fall and hit your head.”

  “I’m not going to hit my head.” She fought her way to the door, then turned back to find them all staring at her. Yeah, she was surprised, too. She rarely took charge. Okay, she never took charge. There’d always been others to do that. But she was done letting others take over. “No, stay,” she said when Andy began to rise. That’s what fear did to a person, made them bossy, apparently. “I’ll just go downstairs and make sure Christian doesn’t need any help. Maybe Bobby hurt himself or something.”

  Andy shook his head. He still looked green, and more than a little shaky, but he stood. “Not alone, you’re not.”

  Telling him he would only be a hindrance wasn’t the way to make him stay. “You have to be here for Cadence and Brandy.”

  “It’s dark—”

  “I have a flashlight. Besides, Christian’s down there, I’ll be fine.”

  And with that, she turned and made her way to the stairs. Taking charge felt good, she decided. It overrode her fear.

  Almost.

  She hopped down from the stairs and—

  Landed in water. It splashed over her ankles, halfway up her calves, and damn it, it was colder than she’d imagined it could be.

  But not even that mattered in the face of the bigger picture—they were taking on water, and lots of it. Too much. “Bobby?” she yelled. “Bobby!”

  Nothing except the whistle of the wind and the creaking and groaning of the boat. Well that, and her own panicked breathing, not to mention the thundering of her heart in her ears. She fought her way down the hallway, fought being the key word. The water made movement difficult, as did all the debris floating in it. Halfway, she thoug