by Jen Talty
Sail With Me
Jen Talty
Contents
Sail With Me
Reviews
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
The With Me in Seattle Universe
Also By Jen Talty
About Jen Talty
SAIL WITH ME
A With Me in Seattle Universe Novel
The Bowie Family Series
Darcie’s Story
Book 2
USA Today Bestselling Author
JEN TALTY
SAIL WITH ME
A With Me in Seattle Universe Novel
The Bowie Family Series, Book 2
Jen Talty
Copyright © 2020 by Jen Talty
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect are appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Cover Design: Kari March Designs
Published by: Lady Boss Press, Inc.
Reviews
Praise for Jen Talty
"Deadly Secrets is the best of romance and suspense in one hot read!" NYT Bestselling Author Jennifer Probst
"A charming setting and a steamy couple heat up the pages in a suspenseful story I couldn't put down!" NY Times and USA today Bestselling Author Donna Grant
"Jen Talty's books will grab your attention and pull you into a world of relatable characters, strong personalities, humor, and believable storylines. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll rush to get the next book she releases!" Natalie Ann USA Today Bestselling Author
"I positively loved In Two Weeks, and highly recommend it. The writing is wonderful, the story is fantastic, and the characters will keep you coming back for more. I can't wait to get my hands on future installments of the NYS Troopers series." Long and Short Reviews
"In Two Weeks hooks the reader from page one. This is a fast paced story where the development of the romance grabs you emotionally and the suspense keeps you sitting on the edge of your chair. Great characters, great writing, and a believable plot that can be a warning to all of us." Desiree Holt, USA Today Bestseller
"Dark Water delivers an engaging portrait of wounded hearts as the memorable characters take you on a healing journey of love. A mysterious death brings danger and intrigue into the drama, while sultry passions brew into a believable plot that melts the reader's heart. Jen Talty pens an entertaining romance that grips the heart as the colorful and dangerous story unfolds into a chilling ending." Night Owl Reviews
"This is not the typical love story, nor is it the typical mystery. The characters are well rounded and interesting." You Gotta Read Reviews
"Murder in Paradise Bay is a fast-paced romantic thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. You won't want to miss this one..." USA Today bestselling author Janice Maynard
For the crew on Below Deck, thanks for the entertainment.
Chapter 1
Darcie Bowie curled her mic over her ear and tucked the white dress shirt of her uniform into her black slacks. She did a quick check of her hair and makeup in the tiny mirror that hung on the back side of her cabin door. She had to protect her hair from getting tangled up in the lines as they approached the dock, and she needed to make sure she still looked like a lady in hopes of getting the big tip.
A fine line she walked in her industry—one that she resented.
She squeezed the mic. “All deck crew, all deck crew. Prepare yacht for docking maneuvers. Man your stations.” She secured her cabin—which should be called a closet and barely even that it was so tiny—and hightailed it to the aft deck of the vessel. The end of a charter was never bittersweet.
It was always just fucking sweet.
Only, thanks to one very rich asshole she’d prefer never to lay eyes on again wanting a last-minute vacation, she only had one night off. That didn’t make her happy. Not one bit.
“Darcie, can I make swing to port?” Captain Jim’s voice crackled over the loudspeaker. Jim had been the reason she’d agreed to work on this yacht for the summer season.
Two big mistakes wrapped up in one massive dick. She should have known better.
She shivered.
Darcie held her fist in the air as she watched a group of young sailors in sunfishes learning the finer points of being out in the Sound. The first job she’d ever had was teaching sailing when she was sixteen, and it had been the best. To this day, she helped out in the marina, giving lessons and whatever else was needed during her downtime and whenever she came home to visit.
Of course, if she had a dollar for every time she’d been offered a job to manage the marina, she’d be able to retire.
“Ready to clear in five, four, three, two…ready to swing to port, Captain.” This particular marina was pretty easy to navigate, especially considering they had secured the end of the pier for docking. Her crew could do it with their eyes closed.
For the most part, her team this season had been top-notch. They were a little immature, and she’d had to break them of a few bad habits, one of which her captain constantly perpetuated, but with only two charters left in the season, and the fact their relationship had ended, she had it under control.
She thought.
“Thanks, sweetheart,” Captain Jim said.
Or not.
She rolled her eyes.
She hadn’t liked being called that when she was his friend with benefits—in no way was she ever his girlfriend, not in the true sense of the word—so what made him think she’d like it now that they’d called it quits?
Fucking jerk.
As soon as the stern cleared the point, she dropped her hand. “One hundred meters from the dock,” she said into the mic. “You are free to swing.”
“Swinging to port,” Jim said. “Prepare the bumpers.”
“You’re lined up perfect,” she said. “Sixty meters stern to dock.” She paced from port to starboard and back to port on the upper aft deck of the vessel. “You are clear five meters on each side.” She waited until they were at the twenty-meter mark before giving the signal to toss the lines and secure the vessel. “Fifteen meters, Captain Jim.”
“Taking docking engine to idle,” Captain Jim said.
“Ten meters.” She held her mic.
“Tapping reverse,” Jim said.
“And we’re tied off, Captain Jim.”
“Perfect. Thank you, everyone. Let’s get these guests off the boat. We’ve got one night to turn this bad girl around before our next charter. And just a reminder, I won’t be staying aboard this evening.”
Fuck. He had to remind the world that he would be getting laid. She should be happy he was no longer climbing on top of her. And she was, considering she’d planned on calling it quits at the end of the charter season anyway. But it still irked her how this entire fucking thing had played out.
“Deck crew, deck crew, this is Darcie. Meet me in the main salon for guest luggage disembarkment,” she said over the radio, mental
ly slapping Jim across the face. Though she should be beating herself up. She knew his reputation. She’d seen it firsthand. Even suffered through being the shoulder a few of his conquests had cried on when he broke their hearts. If she should be upset with anyone, it should be herself because she’d known sleeping with Jim would only lead to being betrayed.
Again.
Not that it mattered. She’d only been looking for a distraction, and it wasn’t as if she really cared for Jim.
She didn’t.
Not in that way, at least.
Unfortunately, she still carried a torch for Reid, one of the primary charter guests coming on board tomorrow, and a man she’d spent the last year desperately trying to forget.
Craig, one of the deck crew, was the first to appear with two suitcases in his hand as he headed off the side deck. “What Captain Jim just did was a dick move, for the record.” Craig set the bags on the cart and jogged back up the plank, passing his co-workers. “He shouldn’t be rubbing it in like that.” Of all the guys on her team, Craig had to be the most sensitive and empathetic. For the most part, it was a great quality, but Craig tended to take everyone’s side and couldn’t be trusted to have your back in general. He meant well, but he was going to take the side of whoever he was talking to in the moment.
Which meant he changed his mind all the time, and when confronted, raised palms to the heavens, saying that all he wanted to do was help.
“He’s excited to see his latest notch in his bedpost,” Darcie said. Of course, she could have had Jim fired, but that meant she would have been canned as well because she would have had to come forward for sleeping with her captain. Having his ability to lead the crew called into question because she’d gotten her feelings hurt was a pretty stupid thing to do.
Besides, she was better off without Slimy Jim and his shallow compliments filled with sweet nothings.
“Can’t blame the guy for wanting to spend time with the love of his life,” she said with a hint of sarcasm, disguised as dollop of support.
Craig handed her a couple more suitcases from the plank and gave her the evil stink eye, which looked more like a child trying to do a pirate impersonation, but it went horribly wrong. “Ever since he dumped you for Kim, you have made excuses for him. Why?”
“None of you even knew I was going out with him until the shit hit the fan, so why does it matter?”
“Because he’s a dick.”
“Well, we all have to work under him,” she said.
“You could have quit,” Craig said.
“Of course I could have, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. And oddly, I enjoy watching him squirm. And besides, since no one knows I had a thing with Jim, technically, I did nothing wrong.”
Craig raised a brow.
“Okay. The bottom line is Captain Jim is much easier to get along with when he’s happy, not when he’s got a stick up his ass. That’s why I’m defending him. So, let’s go say goodbye to these guests, start this flip, and smile our asses off during the tip meeting.”
“Are we allowed off boat tonight?” Bradley asked. “I’m asking for a friend. Not.”
Darcie laughed. “We’re rotating. But I’m asking that you don’t get drunk. This is a short turnaround, and our new guests are going to be a pain in the ass. However, I worked it out so that you can at least have a meal in town, and I didn’t want Haley to have to cook for you.” Darcie adjusted her stripes as she made her way toward the receiving and unloading area.
“Once you have the outside hosed down and dried, you can go to dinner, but you have to be back aboard by 8:00 p.m. The interior will be going ashore for a few hours after that. For the record, I won’t be staying on board tonight. I have family obligations, so Kirk will be in charge. Don’t give him a hard time and make sure everything is done right. I don’t want to get any flak from Captain Jim tomorrow. Got it?”
“Got it. But if I didn’t know better,” Craig said, “I’d think there was a threesome going on with you, the captain, and our former chief steward.”
“Bite your fucking tongue, Craig,” Darcie said. “If you must know, it’s my parents’ wedding anniversary, and we managed to get my brother home on leave. The whole family is here, and I had permission to leave the vessel before Captain Snake decided to stick his slithering, nasty body into that backstabbing bitch—”
“Why don’t you tell us how you really feel about our ex-crewmember?” Kirk, another one of her team members, said as he loaded up the suitcases. He was the oldest on the team and the hardest-working deckhand she’d ever had.
He was also one of the most laid-back people she’d ever met. Not much got to Kirk. He didn’t let the drama of the ship affect his work, and his mellow attitude was a breath of fresh air. She and Kirk saw eye to eye on many topics, and of all her crew, if she had to be stuck with anyone on a desert island, it would be Kirk.
“I wouldn’t want to shock those poor sweet innocent ears of yours,” she said, shooting him a sarcastic smile. Kirk had her back, and she trusted him. “I’m just glad she did the right thing and gave her resignation, because her life would have been hell if she stayed on this boat. I would have made sure of it.”
“Even our chief stew would have turned on her eventually, and we know she’s not your biggest fan,” Craig said.
“Why do you say that?” Darcie shouldn’t have asked the question, but she absolutely wanted to know, but only because Milia, the chief stew, was a stickler for the rules and sleeping with the captain was a big fat no-no, but Milia had been close to Kim. They spent a lot of time together and they rarely had any conflict.
“Because that’s Milia’s modus operanid, her MO. She always sides with the boson. Or the captain, because they are the highest rank on the ship. It would have been difficult for Milia, considering everything that went down, but in the end, she would have had to side with you because Kim quit. If she hadn’t, she would have gotten fired.”
“So would have Jim. And I just don’t think Milia would have turned on Kim, ever. She has always sided with Jim on any issue when it came to me. But it doesn’t matter anymore. Besides, there are only two charters left, so can we just forget all that shit.”
“I’m down with that. Do we know how long this next charter is? I’m just asking because my mum is going to be flying in from Sydney, and I want to let her know what the best dates would be so I can actually pick her up at the airport. And how much time off do we have before the last charter?” Craig asked.
“This charter is three days and two nights, starting tomorrow at noon. Unfortunately, it cuts your vacation from four days to three,” she said. “But Jim told me the owners of the vessel plan on making it worth our while.”
“That sounds good, and if it’s a good tip, all the better. I can use the money. Any idea who the primary guests are? It wasn’t on the books when we left a week ago.” Kirk ran a hand through his thick, wavy hair. She’d worked with Kirk on two other vessels. One out of Florida, and the other out of Greece. Both times, she was a deckhand and not a boson. Kirk hadn’t liked working under her at first since he had more experience, and had applied for the job of boson, but he’d come around quickly and had become her second. She would hire him in a heartbeat.
If she were to continue in the yachting business.
Something she was seriously considering leaving behind altogether in a couple of years. She’d actually contemplated quiting when Jim humiliated her a few charters ago, when he decided it was okay to sleep with someone else, but then she would have had to explain her rash exodus to her parents, something she couldn’t do—but only because her family would have a weird sense of pride if she failed.
She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.
Not to mention that no matter what happened, she wanted her captain’s license, and she wouldn’t stop until she had the chance to be at the helm.
She swallowed. While Craig knew nothing of the new charter guests, she knew a little too much. “Two business
partners with four of their employees. They are celebrating some big milestone with their company.” Reid’s company developed safety products for exteme sporting enthuasists as well as similar products for companies that took people on excursioins such as white water rafting.
It was rare that anyone was injured, much less died during these excursions—but it happened. Which was why Reid was so passionate in his endeavor to make products that protected people.
Darcie had to wonder if Reid knew that she was a crewmember on the vessel he’d just chartered. If he did, she was shocked he had signed on the dotted line. The last time they’d seen each other had gone about as well as the last time she’d seen Captain Jim naked.
Pretty fucking horribly.
“Actually, you might have heard of their company,” Darcie said. She couldn’t remember if the television show that Reid and his partner had been on asking for investors had aired yet or not. She’d only seen the previews and had no intention of watching it. But if it had, Bradley, one of her deckhands and fellow sports enthusiast wannabee, would have seen it. He loved that show, and it was about all he’d talked about on the charter. That and what it was like to come eyeball to eyeball with a great white shark. “The Extremist Squad.”
“Yeah. I know those dudes. They just got signed on to do some movie thing with some new technology they are developing. They are trying to get it approved for firefighter use. It has a bunch of tests it has to go through, but damn, that would be cool. And they are going to be on our boat, tomorrow?” Bradley snapped to attention as Captain Jim, along with the interior crew, made their way to the aft salon. The guests would only be a few paces away.
