Braving the Waves (Cruisin’ With Curves)

9. Marley

CHAPTER NINE

MARLEY

I’m exhausted the next morning as I wait with my suitcase to be let off the ship. I feel hungover, like I just went on a bender. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I couldn’t stop thinking about Isaac’s face when I told him I couldn’t go with him. I can’t believe he really thought I would. I mean, we’ve known each other for four days. How could I possibly…?

We begin to file out the door onto the ramp that leads down to the dock, and I feel like my feet are dragging me along.

It took everything I had to get myself onto this ship. I didn’t sleep for weeks beforehand, and at least half of the trip was a bit of a nightmare. And now, leaving it feels like leaving my home.

But I know it isn’t the ship.

It’s Isaac.

I don’t want to leave him behind.

I follow the people in front of me as we all make our way like zombies down the ramp, our suitcase wheels all going bump bump bump over the silver dividers. And then we’re moving through a building, scanning passports and signing forms, and the whole time, my stomach is in knots. I feel like an animal being led to slaughter.

As I move out the double doors of the port building and into the sun, my suitcase hits a crack in the sidewalk. The bag I have sitting on top tilts to the side, falling off the suitcase and onto the sidewalk, and everything that was in the side pocket flies out: receipts and a bottle of lotion, and a few used hairbands. And with a crack , my mother’s wooden box.

I stare at it, lying half open on the hot concrete, the remnants of her ashes still lining the inside. She bought that box when we went to Mexico when I was a kid. She found it in a souvenir ship and snatched it up, saying it reminded her of one her own mother, my grandmother who I didn’t get to meet before she died, had had.

I reach for the box now, my fingers shaking. I wish she was here. I wish she could have been on this ship with me. I wish I had had the courage to do this with her when she was still alive.

I hold the box in my hands and straighten, leaving everything else scattered on the ground. I shut the box, latch it, and look up.

And like some kind of miracle, there he is. Isaac. Standing on the edge of the curb, waiting for a shuttle. He's not in his uniform anymore, and I guess he wouldn't be. He doesn't work on the ship anymore. He's in jeans and a white button up, and he looks so good. So extremely handsome.

I look down at the box in my hands. I can hear my mother's voice in the back of my mind.

Swim, Marley!

I shove the box back into my bag and run.

“Isaac!”

His head whips in my direction, dark eyes going wide. I see his mouth say my name, too far away still to hear it. But it only takes me a second to get to him, dodging people and luggage, until I’m close enough to throw myself into his arms.

He catches me, wrapping his arms around me, even as I almost knock him over.

“Marley,” he says in my ear, more a sigh than anything else. “What are you–”

I pull away from him and then bring my mouth down on his before he can say anything. This is where I want to be. Not back in the place where my life was going nowhere. Here, where something new is beginning.

Isaac buries his hands in my hair, deepening the kiss.

And then someone bumps into Isaac, ripping our mouths apart. “Get a room,” they mutter before rushing off to grab the last seat on the nearest shuttle.

Isaac settles my feet on the ground. “What are you doing?” he asks me.

“I want to go with you.”

A crease appears between his brows. “Are you sure? Because–”

“I’m sure,” I interrupt. “I want to be brave with you. I want to take a chance on something. I want to take a chance on us.” I smile big. “They have to need pet sitters in Monaco, right?”

His mouth spreads into a grin. “Yes,” he says. “Let’s do this.”