Beyond the Tide

by Noelle Marchand

  Scott glanced up in surprise, which only underscored how little he and Ian had spoken. That was a shame. Scott seemed like a nice guy. Kind of quiet, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Some people just needed a little drawing out. Scott offered a tentative smile. “The class went pretty well. Your group will take the class tomorrow, right?”

  “Yes. I’ve done some boating before, but I mostly relied on GPS.”

  Scott nodded. “Same here. Grew up practically on the water.”

  “Where about?”

  “The Great Lakes.”

  “I’ve always wanted to dive there.”

  Scott’s face lit up. “You would love it. There are so many shipwrecks—many of them undiscovered. Not to mention the underwater caves.”

  “It sounds amazing.”

  “It is. I’ve been fascinated with the lakes since I was a kid. That’s why I went into meteorology. Huge storms form over the open water. They are super destructive. Entire ships have disappeared under the water never to be seen again. It adds an element of danger to the lakes that is pretty addictive.”

  Ian grinned. “You like storms, huh? Have you ever been through a hurricane?”

  A hungry look entered Scott’s pale blue eyes. “No. I haven’t. Not yet. Have you?”

  “A few.”

  Scott glanced toward the porthole with a faraway look in his eye. “I enjoy meteorology, but sometimes I almost wish I’d decided to become a reporter instead. I’d love to be out in the thick of things, seeing it happen instead of staying safe in the studio.”

  “Yes, but what you do is important. It helps keep people safe. I can’t tell you how much I rely on weather reports when I’m preparing to dive.”

  “You’re right.” There was still an unsatisfied edge to Scott’s tone. He shook his head. “I’ve missed being around the water, though.”

  “Where are you living now?”

  “A small town in Nebraska. That’s how the news business is. You have to start out small, work your way into the larger markets. I may be able to move back home to Grand Rapids in another five or ten years.”

  “That’s a long road home.”

  Scott smiled sadly. “You’re telling me. I still visit my family quite a bit so that helps.”

  Was everyone on this ship close to their families? Ignoring the threatening whisper of melancholy, he changed the subject. “Hey, I’ve been wondering what you do every evening on the forecastle. Is it yoga?”

  Scott tensed. “Not officially. Mostly it’s stretching and balancing exercises that I make up as I go along. My sister is always talking about how yoga helps relieve stress. I figure I would try something similar. I know the other guys think it’s weird, but it helps me refocus after a long day.”

  Ian shrugged. “I don’t think it’s weird. I used to stretch a lot when I was on swim team. It’s good to stay limber. It prevents injuries when you’re doing physically demanding work like sailing or duels. More power to you if it helps you refocus and unwind.”

  “Thanks. The views are pretty incredible too.” Scott hesitated, then offered, “You’re welcome to join me.”

  Ian paused. “I wouldn’t want to intrude. It seems like the kind of thing that works best if you’re alone.”

  “If Noah’s occasional singing doesn’t bother me, I’m sure you won’t either. No pressure. Just know you’re welcome.”

  “Thanks. I might take you up on the offer.”

  And, he did. That very evening. Though it felt good to stretch his muscles, his attempts at keeping his balance on the swaying deck were laughable. Scott was facing away from him and was spared the tragedy of watching him. Unfortunately, the camera was taking it all in.

  Time to give up. Otherwise, Ian would totally ruin Scott’s concentration by laughing or falling face-first onto the deck. He took a few silent steps backward. Turning to stare out at the sea, he pulled in a deep breath. Scott didn’t mind looking a little foolish on deck if it meant obtaining a little peace of mind. Why should Ian be any less bold?

  Ian bowed his head. Beneath the creak of the ship and the subtle crash of waves, he whispered a prayer for wisdom, discernment, and peace. He turned to see that Scott was now sitting on the forecastle deck staring out at the ocean. As if feeling Ian’s gaze, the man glanced back at him. “You ok?”

  Ian nodded. “Just spent a moment in prayer. It helps me more than yoga.”

  Scot eyed him curiously. “Who do you pray to?”

  “God.”

  “Which one?”

  “There’s only One.”

  “Christian then? Or Jewish?”

  Ian smiled. “Christian.”

  “How do you do pray? I mean, my family went to church for Christmas and Easter when I was a kid, but I didn’t pay much attention.”

  Ian offered a shrug. “I talk like I’m speaking to a friend, tell Him what I’m worried about, pray for guidance and for others. Of course, it helps to believe He exists and—”

  Footsteps pounded up the ladder. Dash’s laugh preceded him. “Scott, you’re never going to believe what she… Oh, hey, Ian. I didn’t realize you were up here.”

  “Hey,” Ian responded too blandly to be totally friendly.

  It didn’t matter. Dash turned his attention back to Scott with a smirk. “I’ll tell you about it later. Just know you’d better get ready to pay up.”

  Scott let out a sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. “Yeah, right. No details. No proof. No money.”

  “Oh, I’ll give you plenty of details.” Dash shot Scott with finger guns.

  Ian narrowed his eyes. “Wait. What’s going on?”

  “Just a little side wager.” Scott stood. “I guess that’s all for today, Ian. Dash kind of ruined my Zen or whatever it’s called.”

  Dash snorted. “You’re welcome.”

  Ian pinned Dash with his gaze. “You said ‘she’.”

  “What?”

  “You said, ‘she’. Are you referring to Ava? Does this side wager have something to do with her?”

  Dash shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

  Ian lifted an impervious brow when Scott hesitated. “Scott, what is this about?”

  He shrugged. “Look, this is supposed to be between the guys who slept in the inn.”

  “What is?”

  Dash rolled his silver eyes. “It’s no big deal. We’ve got a bet going to see who’ll get farthest the fastest.”

  “The farthest…” Alarm filled him. “You mean with Ava?”

  “Of course. Who else?” Dash lowered his voice as if there wasn’t a camera two feet away. “I’ll cut you into the deal if you want. So far the guys in the running are me and Philip.”

  “And Logan,” Scott added.

  Dash sent him an impatient look. “Logan’s a real long shot. I don’t know why any sane person would put money on him.”

  Scott bristled. “Ava admits he called her aside for a personal talk after the duel.”

  “Whatever, dude. It isn’t like Logan is going to kiss and tell. He’s the captain. If they’ve got something going on, we’ll never know. What do you say, Ian? Are you in?”

  Anger flushed a hot trail across his face. “No. I am not in. This is really messed up. Y’all need leave her alone.”

  Scott frowned. “Why do you care? It’s just a bet, something to break up the monotony around here.”

  “Yeah. Don’t be a spoilsport. I know she seems kind of prudish, but that’s what makes it challenging. You never know.” Dash winked. “Maybe she’s ready to let loose.”

  His fists clenched. This needed to stop. How could he get them to stop?

  “Wait a minute. You like her,” Scott mused thoughtfully.

  Ian froze. He met Scott speculative gaze, ready to deny it, yet somehow unable to speak. A knowing look filtered across Scott’s face, followed by one of pure curiosity. “Does she like you too?”

  “She… I…” Mind whirling,
he glanced at Dash, then the cameras. “We have an understanding.”

  Dash lifted a brow. “An understanding?

  “Yes.” Their understanding was that they would watch out for each other in the competition, but the other guys didn’t need to know that. The rest of the world wouldn’t know either, though. Neil was going not going to be happy. Neither would Ava’s parents, but surely it would be preferable to watching what was currently playing out.

  Scott frowned. “Ian, I had no idea. I would never have encour—”

  “Wait. Really?” Skepticism twisted Dash’s model-worthy mug. “Because I’ve seen no sign of anything romantic between you two.”

  “We were trying to keep our relationship low key.” He tipped his head toward the camera as if that explained everything.

  Dash followed his gaze, then stiffened as if he’d forgotten the camera was there. He shrugged. “Sorry, man. We didn’t know. I’ll lay off and tell Philip to do the same.”

  “Thank you,” he said curtly, then strode down the ladder to the main deck. A cameraman rushed over to follow him, leaving a guitar-strumming Noah bereft and confused. Ian ignored the camera as he hurried below deck to knock on Ava’s door.

  “Who is it?” Her muffled voice called from inside.

  “Ian.”

  She took her sweet time answering, which gave the cameraman plenty of time to catch up with him. She opened the door. “What’s up?”

  “We need to talk.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Saying ‘we need to talk’ does not authorize you to shove your way into my room.” Ava’s mouth fell open as he closed the door and leaned back against it. “The door—”

  “Is the least of our worries right now.”

  She stared at him. For the first time, she saw the panic in his eyes. She backed clear to the other side of the room as if that would do anything to save her reputation if he didn’t open the door in a reasonable amount of time. Her only recourse was to hear him out and send him on his way. “What happened?”

  His hands raked through his dark blonde hair, highlighted here and there by the sun. His angular jaw flexed with some internal frustration. Blue eyes watched her with a mixture of desperation, panic, and trepidation. A tight shake of his head was his only response at first. Finally, he said, “I’ll tell you as soon as you push the trunk over this way. There was a camera following me. I need to step away from the door so we can speak quietly, but I don’t want them to come in.”

  It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to bar the door, but she couldn’t find the courage to do so. Her heart knew Ian posed no threat. Her head refused to get with the program. Should she need to scream for help, the barred door would be insurmountable. The trunk, while an obstruction, was not.

  The edge of the trunk bit into her palms as she pushed it toward him. She returned to her spot as soon as he grabbed it. With that in place, he began to pace. “It just sort of happened. One second Dash was telling me about their wager, and the next…”

  “What wager?”

  “They were betting on who could get the farthest the fastest with you.”

  “Farthest? Fast? What?” She shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

  Anger filled his voice. “They were competing to see who could get the most physical with you the soonest.”

  “Oh.” The word came out in a rush of air. The last few days of her life made so much more sense now. She let out an embarrassed laugh. “I guess you won then.”

  “They’re treating you like—” He stopped to stare at her in confusion. “Wait. What? I won?”

  Her fingers found her neck and slid into the base of her messy bun. “Well, yeah.”

  He blinked. Tilting his head, he stepped closer to search her face. “What do you mean? I wasn’t competing.”

  She took a step backward and would have run into the wall if her hair bun hadn’t bounced off of it. She rebounded even closer. Or, he’d stepped closer. Maybe a little of both. “I’m glad to hear that.”

  “How could I have won? If I made you uncomfortable—”

  “No. Of course, not. I was talking about our night on the beach. OK, that sounded more scandalous than it was. All I mean is, I’ve been the most physical with you out of all the guys.” Heat swept across her cheeks. “Wow. That sounded even worse. Ok. I’m going to stop talking now.”

  The murky blue of twilight was shrinking the room through incremental shadows, making it harder to see anything but Ian. She could tell he was wondering about her now, trying to figure out why she’d been the most physical with him. Honestly, it was none of his business. If he thought she’d admit to having a schoolgirl crush on him, he’d be sorely mistaken. It was time to wrap this up.

  She slid sideways to turn on a battery-operated candle, then rounded on him so that she stood in the middle of the room. Thankfully, the distance helped her think more clearly even with his intense gaze leveled on her. She smiled as a professional edge entered her voice. “Is that all you wanted to tell me?”

  He frowned. “‘Is that all?’ Aren’t you upset?”

  She shrugged. “It’s annoying, but I kind of figured something might be up. Philip and Dash have been super attentive the past few days, despite my attempts to brush them off. Now that I know the facts, I can tell them to buzz off. Hopefully, they will. If not, I have a couple of friends who can emphasize my point.”

  Not that Ian and Brian had been much help recently. They’d seemed perfectly content to hang out with other people while Philip and Dash succeeded in monopolizing her time. Noah had been the only one who seemed to sense her unease. If not for him, she’d have been left feeling completely abandoned by the guys she’d been closest to during her stay in pretend St. Augustine.

  She eyed Ian with a frown. “You will back me up, right?”

  “Yep,” he said, though there was an odd tightness in his voice and his smile. “I’d be happy to.”

  “Great! Thanks for letting me know.”

  “Uh huh.”

  She turned to open the door only to see the trunk they’d shoved in front of the door. He’d kind of overreacted to all of this, hadn’t he? The way he’d rushed into her room, the panic in his eyes, and the anger in his voice had made her think something much worse had happened. Hadn’t he said a camera had been following him?

  She froze. Whirling to face him, she stared him down. “Ian Sinclair, what did you do?”

  His eyes widened. He took a step back. “What do you mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean.” She stalked toward him. “Why did you come here tonight? What aren’t you telling me?”

  Rather than continue to back away, his hands found her arms and brought her to a halt. She was close enough to hear his hard swallow. “To be honest, I was wondering how you’d feel about being my girlfriend.”

  “What?” Her heart took off racing even as she eyed him skeptically. “No, you weren’t.”

  “I was.” One of his hands left her arm to rub a comforting circle on her back. “I’m also hoping you’ll say yes because I sort of already told everyone you were.”

  She stepped out of his embrace. “You did not.”

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “The guys were being rude and disrespectful toward you. I’m not saying you couldn’t have handled the situation, but I know how they think. To them, your refusals would have only added to the challenge. They planned to do all of this on camera. I wasn’t about to stand by and watch it play out.”

  “I would never have—”

  “I know.” His voice was as gentle as a caress. “I told them you wouldn’t.”

  Her arms hugged her waist. “They didn’t care?”

  “I’m afraid not. In short, I could see this whole situation getting way out of hand, so I nipped it in the bud by letting them think you were already taken. They backed down immediately.”

  “At least, that’s somethi
ng.” Her faint smile died quickly. There was no need to explain why this was a disaster. They both knew it. He looked downright miserable.

  “I’m sorry, Ava. I never meant for this to happen. I wish I’d been able to think of another way to go about fixing the situation, but in the heat of the moment it was the best I could do.”

  “I understand why you did it, and I appreciate you sticking up for me, but I won’t lie about our relationship. Lies become scandals, and a scandal is out of the question.”

  He hesitated. “Do you want me to go out there and tell everyone the truth?”

  She covered her heart as it jumped in her chest. “Good gracious, no. That would only cause more intrigue. I’d still be in the same situation I was in earlier with even less protection because the other guys wouldn’t take a word you said seriously from then on. There’s only one way out of this that I can see.”

  “Which is?”

  “We’ve got to make the lie a reality. I need you to be my boyfriend for real. At least until this show is over.”

  He tilted his head to give her a confused look. “Ava, I already asked you to be my girlfriend.”

  “Yes, but you didn’t mean it.”

  “So you want me to ask you to be my legitimate, honest-to-goodness girlfriend for real—”

  “On the show,” she said with a nod.

  “On the show.” He parroted. “But, not in real life.”

  “This is real life.”

  He shook his head slightly. “I’m confused.”

  “We’ll be boyfriend and girlfriend for real as long as we’re on the show. Got it?”

  “Ok,” he said slowly. “There’s a time limit then.”

  “Well, I can hardly expect you to be my real boyfriend forever.”

  He smiled. “Right.”

  “Right.” She eyed him. “Are you still confused?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then ask me.”

  He took her hand and went down on one knee. “Ava Emerson—”

  She lightly popped him on the shoulder. “Be serious.”