I looked down at Sam as she threaded her arm around my waist.
“Fine,” I said. “How are you? Enjoying the water?”
“When you said a ‘small July Fourth celebration,’ I didn’t think you meant a massive yacht in the middle of the ocean.”
“What? It’s a small gathering. There are twenty people on this boat, tops, and over half of them are security.”
“Security I cleared wi
th additional screenings, mind you.”
“Which means you can take the night off. Relax. Get that gun off the outside of your thigh and enjoy a drink or two.”
“How did you—?”
“It’s your favorite place to pack heat whenever you don’t have it strapped to your jeans. This dress looks phenomenal on you, by the way.”
I watched her cheeks flush as I pulled her into my body. My yacht was steadily parting the waters of the ocean as the drinks flowed and the food was prepared. It really perturbed me that she wasn’t taking the night off. It was the Fourth of July, and I wanted her to enjoy all I had planned. The time alone. The breeze off the water. The fireworks to come. The drinks that were flowing. This last week had been hard on both of us. Late nights in the office meant late nights for her, and the stress of work was coming through in the way I talked to her. I was snippy. Tight-lipped. Distant. And I knew it.
I wanted to plan this night to show her she was still important to me, despite the stress we were under.
“I just want you to unwind,” I said.
“And I am. I know it’s been a rough week, but I can’t let my guard down. Hawaii was a different story. Here, we aren’t so isolated. We’re closer to the threat,” she said.
“There isn’t gonna be a shootout on the water, Sam.”
“I’ve seen boats go up in flames while riding on the choppiest of sea waters. Anything’s possible around me,” she said.
“Then, let’s go back to the topic of Hawaii, to those memories and moments.”
“It was a nice trip,” she said.
“Would you go back with me sometime? After all this stuff is done?”
“We can see about it,” she said. “Oh, I never did apologize to you for overreacting over Valerie.”
“Why would you need to apologize?” I asked.
“The argument we had on the deck. How I closed off and pushed you away.”
“I’m not sure what memory you’re dwelling on, but from what I remember, that moment was the springboard into what we have now. You saw that happening, it revealed to you a truth you tried to bury, and we spent the entire week ... dwelling on that truth.”
“Dwelling, huh?”
“If anything, I owe Valerie a ‘thank you.’”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” she said. “But for what it’s worth, I am sorry for the way I acted afterward.
“Sam, if that’s the biggest fight we ever have, then we’re doing better than most couples out there.”
“We’re not a couple,” she said.
“You know what I mean.”
She looked up at me, her dark brown eyes connecting with mine. She was a gorgeous woman. Even with her bodyguard persona on and her head on a swivel. I grinned down at her, pulling a smile across her cheeks as she shook her head. I loved how I could do that. Change her facial expressions in an instant without ever having to say anything.
“I’m not worried about it,” I said. “The important thing is you understood in the end, and it brought us to this point. I’d have that argumentative discussion any day if I knew it would bring us to a better point.”