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Jaida dropped the sunglasses over her eyes and leaned back. She just wanted to shut out her problems and enjoy the ride.
    “Five miles behind us. Twenty more to go.” She groaned when Lance announced their progress. He was ruining her moment.
    “Are you going to do that all the way there? The ride over is the best part.” Jaida kicked her sandals off and drew her feet up onto the cushioned bench seat.
    He laughed. “Testy today, are we?”
    “Sorry,” she said. She supposed her tone had been a little rude.
    “I would have thought you were a woman of refined tastes. You strike me as the champagne and caviar type.”  
    “That would be Carina.” She looked up at him then. “But what does that have to do with my enjoying the ride?”
    “If you were the pampered type I would see this ,” he tapped the wheel, “solely as a means to transport you to your natural habitat.”
    Again, that would be Carina. “My natural habitat, being…?” Where was he going with this? Should she be offended?
    “Never mind. I was just thinking out loud.”
    Both of them turned and looked as Carina ascended the steps. What was this? Her skin glistened with a generous layer of tanning oil, and the two-piece bathing suit she wore left little to the imagination.
    Carina swept past and spread a bright orange beach towel out on the deck, then planted herself in the middle of it.
    Had they entered the twilight zone? Jaida couldn’t tear her eyes away. “What are you doing?”
    “Just getting a little sun,” Carina snipped. “You don’t need to make a federal case out of it.”
    It was all for show, it had to be, but who was the audience she was playing to? Auggie? She’d been discreet about her attraction to him, but Jaida saw it. Besides, why else would the avowed sun hater be sailing to Catalina?
    “Hey, Senorita Martin.” Jaida turned. Speak of the devil . Auggie tossed Lance a bottle of Pepsi then waved at her to follow him down the steps.
    What did he want? If he thought he was going to harp on her about last night he had another thing coming. She had the weekend off.
    Down below Auggie reached for the salon door then hesitated. He drew his hand back. Angling his head, he eyed her from over his shoulder.
    “What’s wrong? Is it locked?” In answer he slid the glass door over the tracks and ushered her inside. Guess not.
    The chilled air against her warm skin made her shiver. It was like a miniature apartment down here. She had never been on a catamaran this lavish.
    “I could live on something like this, travel around from port to port.”
    It had an open floor plan. Two love seats, the color of burgundy wine were centered in the room. A narrow oak table stocked with magazines and decks of cards still in their sleeves sat between the two sofas. Beyond the living area was the kitchen. It was small; a galley, but appeared as functional as her own.
    Two closed doors. One must be the bathroom, the other… There was movement, and her gaze darted to the right, to a corner where dusky shadows and the narrow space conspired to hide the vague form of a man.
    A splash of light from the window revealed a stony face. Kevin? What was he doing here? Is this why Auggie was behaving so strangely?
    How dare he do this to her? She spun around and speared him with a glare. He offered a half-hearted shrug, had the decency to look embarrassed, and then muttered some excuse before fleeing the scene. Coward. 
    Jaida stood facing the door he’d hastened out of, wanting desperately to follow. But they were in the middle of the ocean. Kevin would catch up to her sooner or later.
    When she turned around he had emerged from the shadows. He was watching her with that same shyness, that painfully awkward timidity.
    “Hey,” he said. His shoulders were slouched, and he had his hands stuffed in the pockets of his khaki shorts. He was a man of few words and most of them borrowed from movie scripts.
    She saw her duffle bag on the floor near the