Iris McLaughlin tapped something on the huge desk calendar in front of her. “And don’t forget to get over to Henry’s,” she said, glancing up at Amelia. “He’s twice a week in this heat.”
“Twice a week,” Amelia deadpanned, because Iris had told her all of this before. Maybe she was a little nervous about leaving the success of her business in someone else’s hands.
She’d built We’ll Weed That from the ground up, literally. The company had started with her weeding a few people’s yards in her time after school back in her teens. She’d incorporated once she’d graduated, and she moved on to complete lawn care. Mowing, weeding, fertilizing, trimming.
A few years later, she’d hired two landscape architects, and her business in Getaway Bay had taken off. She hadn’t changed the name, and now We’ll Weed That had a full-scale nursery, as well as unique yard designs to go with their landscaping upkeep.
“Where are Sam and Betty?” she asked, deciding she didn’t need to go through the list with Amelia. She looked down the hall as if her general manager and her lead construction guru would appear simply because she wanted them to.
“Probably kissing just outside the back door,” Amelia said, her eyes sparkling now.
Iris giggled, though it probably was true. She didn’t want to go on this cruise with the happiest couple on earth, but they’d earned the prize. Never mind that she hadn’t been out with anyone in eight months and that her sister had just gotten engaged to a billionaire.
Wouldn’t that be nice? she thought dryly, though she didn’t want to get stuck on Bald Mountain Bluffs for a couple of days the way Eden had. But she would take the handsome boyfriend with loads of money.
Her daydreams continued, only interrupted when Betty came down the hall with her duffle bag over her shoulder. “Are you coming? We’ve been outside waiting for you for twenty minutes.”
Had it been that long? Iris tended to run late to almost all of her appointments, no matter how early she left. “Coming,” she said, tapping the end of her pen on the countertop before ducking into her office to grab her bag.
The three of them drove across Getaway Bay to the dock where the fourteen-day cruise disembarked. They’d go around all the Hawaiian islands, and out toward a group of islands that could only be seen at certain times of the year. Apparently, the beginning of March was a great time to see whales, dolphins, and the sometimes submerged islands, and every email she’d gotten about her cruise had indicated it would be packed full of people.
Iris rode in the back of the company vehicle, her nerves twittering just a little bit. When they arrived at the office, Betty threw her a scathing look and said, “We need to hurry, or they’ll give our tickets away.”
“They will?”
“You have to check in by ten,” Betty said, practically running toward the door. “It’s after that already.”
Chaos reigned inside the tiny trailer that housed the cruise’s office. Iris could barely get inside, and it was clear people wanted to be in here rather than outside because of the misters running and creating a warm, tropical atmosphere.
Betty pressed her way to the counter, and Iris followed her. “Betty Terrace,” she said. “Sam Potter. Iris McLaughlin.”
The woman there scanned the sheet in front of her, though Iris could clearly see everyone else had checked in. “You barely made it,” she said as a bell rang. The crowd started shuffling toward a side door. “That’s the bell for the orientation.” The woman stamped a piece of paper and started rattling off instructions.
Iris barely listened, because the pull to go with the other bodies called to her. She waited beside Betty, though, until she said, “Great, thanks,” grabbed the papers, and hurried after everyone else.
“I’m sorry,” Iris said, taking her sheaf of papers from Betty. “I didn’t realize what time it was.” How much time had she lost romanticizing things in her head? Too much. She always did.
Betty smiled at her, though her eyes were still a bit hooked, and slid onto the second to last seat in the back row. Sam sat beside her, and Iris glanced around for another seat. People truly filled the room, and a blip of anxiety flowed through her when she realized this really was a fully-booked cruise. The room probably held fifty people—and the only seat remained was up front, next to a man who was so wide he practically filled both seats.
Iris went that way, because the man at the front of the room was watching her, clearly waiting for her to sit before he began. She’d never been as grateful for her petite frame as she was when she slid in beside the tattooed military man.
His hair reminded her of dark roast coffee, and his tan skin testified that he spent plenty of time out in the Hawaiian sun. He flicked his black-as-coal eyes in her direction, and she tried a smile on her face.
Surprisingly, his lips twitched upward in return, and Iris focused on what the man up front was saying. “This is a great time for whale-watching,” he said. “And there’s a pod of humpbacks that have been seen every day for the past couple of weeks.” He glanced around with a huge smile on his face. “We should see those later today. We’ll dock tonight at Maui, but we won’t be getting off. We leave port in the middle of the night to sail around the island to Lanai. We will disembark in Maui on the way back.”
Blah blah blah. Iris had seen the map of the cruise. She knew where she was going and when the boat would stop and where she could get off. She relaxed now that she was here, the cares and worries of her landscaping business somewhere in her past.
“Our last stop is north of the Hawaiian island chain, at a group of islands that are rumored to convert even the most unlucky in love.”
Iris perked up then. This line of mystery islands intrigued her, and she couldn’t wait until day nine, when their ship would arrive at them.
“Several people got marooned there in the seventies,” the man continued. “And five couples ended up getting married by the pilot who happened to be a priest.”
“That’s so romantic,” Iris sighed, wishing they could get off and explore the island.
The guy next to her that was practically sitting in her lap scoffed, and Iris’s eyes flew to him. “You don’t think it’s romantic?” she whispered.
His dark eyes sparkled like dangerous stars. “No,” he muttered. “It’s not even true.”
“How do you know?”
“I served in the military,” he said, as if his precise haircut, folded arms, and hint of his dog tag necklace didn’t already tell her all of that. And what did him serving in the military have to do with the islands? Maybe he was Coast Guard, but he looked more like a Marine to her, especially with those tattoos.
The man up front went on to talk about things that were left behind when the couples got rescued, and how the islands were submerged in the fall and early winter when the rains came.
“So buddy up,” he said. “You don’t have to share rooms, but we want to make sure everyone has someone else on the cruise accountable for them.”
Iris felt like she’d been transported back to fifth grade, when teams were being picked for kickball. Not particularly athletic, she never got chosen until the very end. Eden, her older sister, was the athletic one. The one teaching everyone about outdoor survival, the one who knew exactly how to hike, where to look for food, all of it.
She glanced around, noticing that people had already paired up around her.
Everyone but the tattooed meathead who didn’t have a romantic bone in his body.
“I guess it’s me and you,” he said. He didn’t look happy about the pairing at all.
“I guess,” she said, still looking around. If Ivy were here, she’d know exactly how to charm this guy. But her twin had literally gotten all the flirting and talking genes, and Iris just stood there like she’d lost her ability to speak.
“Now that we’re ready,” the man said into the microphone. “Check in with your buddy, and let’s get on the ship.”
It seemed like all forty-eight other people under the tent moved as a single unit, and Iris accepted the fact that she’d have to report to this Marine from time to time over the next fourteen days.
“I’m Iris McLaughlin,” she said as they joined the line to check in and board.
“Justin Brunner,” he said, and even his name sounded angry.
Iris sighed, trying to make it a quiet one. She didn’t succeed as Justin looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You’re not looking forward to the cruise?”
“No, I am.” Betty and Sam had disappeared, and the vacation she’d been dreaming of vanished right before her eyes. “You?”
“No,” he said. “This isn’t really my scene.”
“Why are you here then?” And alone too. Of course, she was alone as well. Sort of.
“Work,” he said, stepping forward.
“Is that all I get? Work?” Iris wasn’t sure where the sass had come from. He certainly wasn’t the type of man to appreciate sarcasm, and the glare he gave her solidified that.
“I’m developing an app for this cruise line,” he said coolly, handing the woman his ticket and adding, “Iris McLaughlin and I are partners.”
“Welcome to Cruise Hawaii,” the woman said with the fakest smile on the planet. Justin smiled back, but it also radiated more of a chill than anything else.
Iris handed her ticket to the woman, got the same spiel, and headed for the boat, once again the last one to make it up the walkway to the boat.
Her nerves attacked, and her feet froze before she got on the ship. Go on, she told herself, especially when Justin turned back, an inquisitive look on his face.
The boat horn sounded, and she was going to get left behind if she didn’t get on the ship right now.
“Come on,” Justin said, sudden compassion in his eyes. He reached for her, and she put her hand in his as a woman on the dock yelled at her to go.
Her skin tingled as Justin all but hauled her onto the boat, the gangplank got removed, and the vessel lurched away from the dock. Her legs trembled, and she lurched, falling right into Justin, who certainly had the arms to catch her.
