Free Her Moonlit Gamble by Emma Jay Page A

avoided her for the rest of her life. She didn't know who she'd be without him. She was afraid something like this might happen, but not so quickly, not so soon after they'd started.  
    "I'm going to wait here," she told Max. "Thanks anyway. But I have to try tonight."  
    "Here. Take some money in case you change your mind and want to get a cab out to the house." He wrote down his address for her, as well.
    She kissed Max's cheek and headed upstairs to camp out in the hall.
    Only Andrew didn't come back to the hotel. Two kinds of tension were at war inside her--worry over what she could do to fix this, and fear that she would never see him again.  
    Only one thing to do. She'd meet him at the charter that would take them out to the sharks.
    ***
    The cab ride to the North Shore took all the money Max had given her, allowing for a very small tip that embarrassed her and angered the driver, but she was single-minded. She had to find Andrew, and she hoped he was here, because she had no way of getting back across the island.  
    She approached the boat in the sundress she'd been wearing last night--no bathing suit, which made her look at odds with the other passengers.
    "Did Andrew Norris cancel?" she asked the crew member with the roster after she checked in.
    "No, ma'am. We have a no-cancellation policy for forty-eight hours in advance."
    Right. That didn't mean he would show up. "I'll just wait for him on the dock, if that's okay?" she asked.
    "Suit yourself. We're taking off in about fifteen minutes, though."
    Fifteen minutes. Her stomach fluttered. If he didn't show up here, did that mean something had happened to him? Or would he still want to go shark cage diving after the way she'd hurt him?
    Finally, a silver coupe pulled into the parking lot. Relief and fear warred within her. The moment of truth. Her heart skittered when he emerged, long and lean, resting a bag of gear on the roof of the car. So he had gone back to the hotel room after she'd left. She should have waited longer. No matter, he was here now. She started hesitantly down the dock. He tensed when he saw her. For an instant, she feared he'd get back in the car and drive off. Instead, he rolled his shoulders and approached.
    "Didn't expect to see you here." There was a distance in his eyes, something she'd never seen before, a flatness, and the ache in her chest expanded. She'd lost him already. It was too late. Nothing she said would make a difference. "You look like hell."
    "I spent the night outside our hotel room, waiting for you."
    His gaze flickered away, then his jaw tightened. "I decided not to go back there after all."
    Another fear twined with the first two. Had he picked up another woman and gone back to her room? She scanned him, as if she could tell by looking, but she just didn't know. The uncertainty made her a little light-headed.  
    "Are you going on the boat dressed like that?" He motioned to her sundress.
    "Don't have a choice, do I?"
    "You could not go."
    She lifted her chin. "I want to go."
    He stepped closer, glowering down at her. She'd never seen this side of Andrew, aloof and brusque. While she wasn't scared of him physically, she was terrified of what she'd done to him.  
    "Why?"
    "I want to be with you." Even as she said them, she knew the words were inadequate.
    He huffed a laugh and stepped back. "You want to be with me? Unsophisticated jerk that I am?"
    She willed herself not to flinch. Her own words had echoed in her head all night long, without him throwing them back in her face. "Andrew, please. I'm sorry. I'm an idiot."
    "No argument there." He started past her toward the boat, and she scrambled to keep up.  
    "I thought about it, all night long, what to say to you, and I really wish you'd give me a chance."
    He stopped and looked down at her, her Andrew, her sweet friend, her constant, the man who'd been beside her for years, green eyes hard now. "I heard enough, thanks."
    "Are you two coming or not?" the crew member