Don't Tempt Me (41 page)

"You're going to home school Taylor?" Chance asked, handing out wine glasses. "Aboard the
Pirate's Pleasure
? Whatever you do, don't tell AJ. He'd give his eye teeth to trade the classroom for life onboard a sailing ship."

"He's not the only one." Scott chuckled. "Derrick and Raff will pester us endlessly when they hear about this."

"Lauren too, for that matter," Chance added as he sat beside Rory.

"Oh God." Scott pressed a hand to his brow. "Can you imagine all of them living aboard a ship?"

"Maybe we should send them off with Jackie and Adrian, like boarding school on the high seas," Chance joked.

"Wait a second." Rory cut through the laughter. "You're not thinking about moving to St. Thomas, are you? Adrian, what about the show?"

"We've decided to stick with the current format, but focus just on the Virgin Islands."

"So, you won't even be sailing home to Galveston at all? You'd actually move to St. Thomas?"

"Well, not permanently," Adrian said. "Just during the excavation of the ship."

"How long will that take?" Allison asked, looking unhappy.

"Not sure. About three years, maybe."

"Three
years
?" Rory set down her glass. "No ..."

"Rory." Adrian shook his head at her. "It's not forever."

"Actually," Jackie cut in. "Nothing's set. It's all still up in the air. And speaking of the kids, I really should check on them." She started for the stairs.

"Jackie?" Concern brought Adrian to his feet. "Do you want me to go with you?"

"No, I'm good." She waved for him to sit back down. "Stay. Visit with your sisters."

He watched her vanish up the stairs, torn between following her and comforting his sisters.

"Adrian?" Rory stood as well. "Are you serious about this?"

"Aurora." Chance tugged at his wife's shirt, trying to get her to sit back down. "Adrian and Jackie have to do what's right for them. This is a chance of a lifetime for Jackie."

"I know." Rory's slumped. "It's just ...
three years
."

~ ~ ~

Her heart pounding, Jackie hurried up the stairs with one goal in mind, to get to the ship so she could think. The minute she reached the lobby, though, her body went from slightly chilled to freezing cold. Her lungs seized up with a panic that surpassed reason. She'd known Rory would be upset, and thought she'd braced herself for that. So where had the ball of doubt ballooning inside her come from?

Pressing a hand to her chest, she tried to slow her short, shallow breaths. Beneath her palm, the pearl pendent felt like ice.

Marguerite
.

The day they'd found the pearl necklace, they'd been sure Marguerite and Captain Jack had found their peace and moved on. But every once in a while, the ghosts seemed to return. Mostly when someone in the family needed help or guidance.

Glancing around,  she listened intently. The central hall looked as peaceful and welcoming as it always did, with a cheerful blend of antiques and homey accessories. No ghostly specters hung in the air. But her skin tingled with awareness.

"What are you trying to tell me?" she whispered.

No answer came.

She didn't need words, though, to know Marguerite wasn't any happier about the news than Rory or Allison.  And why would any of them be happy to learn she was taking Adrian and Taylor away from Pearl Island for such a long stretch? The whole idea had been completely selfish on her part.

She'd tell everyone she'd changed her mind.

As soon as she got her rioting emotions under control.

To do that, she needed to get to the ship.

She tried to take a step toward the front door, but her feet refused to move that direction. So, she turned toward the grand stairs. Sunlight streaming through the stained glass seemed to dance about, beckoning her upward.

Giving in, she hurried up, panic nipping at her heels. She found the hall on the second floor as empty and went to the door to Marguerite's old suite, the room where she'd stayed the first time she'd come to the inn as a guest.  Trying the knob, she found it locked. Of course it was locked. The inn was full and she couldn't just walk into any room she wanted. She turned in a circle and her gaze went to the door onto the balcony. Sunlight and sea air washed over her the instant she stepped outside, but neither warmed her. Shivering, she moved to the rail, and stared past the cove to the far horizon ---out toward the open water. Where all her dream waited.

The thought of giving them up filled her with a sense of loss and longing so keen, her vision blurred with tears. It was the right thing to do, though. For Adrian and Taylor. For the family.

"Jackie?" Adrian called from behind her. "What on earth ... ?"

"Oh, Adrian, I'm so sorry." She covered her face with her hands. "Forget I ever suggested we move to St. Thomas."

"What?" An incredulous laugh escaped before he came to her and pulled her into his arms. "What's this all about?"

"What was I thinking?" She burrowed into his chest, into the warm and comfort of his arms. "I can't believe how selfish I was being. I can't take you away from your sisters. They love you. And you love them."

"Yes, on both counts. But ---"

"And Taylor!" She sniffed. "He should go to school with his cousins, not have his mother drag him off to the Caribbean just so she can help recover a shipwreck."

"Oh, yeah, that's totally selfish on your part," he said dead pan. "Let's hope Taylor doesn't call Child Protective Services to report the abuse."

"I'm being serious." She raised her head to glare at him through her tears.

"Actually, you're being crazy. And, to be honest, all of this" ---he moved his hand in a circle to indicate both her and her outburst ---"doesn't even sound like you. I'm not sure it
is
you."

"What?"

"Right up until we stepped inside the inn, we were both excited about our plans."

"Until I saw you with your sisters and stopped thinking about myself long enough to realize how this would effect everyone. Even Marguerite is unhappy."

"Exactly." He nodded.

"Then you feel it too?"

"No. But I know you, and all this isn't you talking." He loosened his arms so they looped about her hips. "Remember when I told you that sometimes I could feel things here at the inn? Emotions I knew weren't my own? I think that may be what's happening to you. All this panic, this suddenly not wanting to leave Pearl Island, is Marguerite."

"It's not! It's seeing you with your sisters. It's wondering if I'm doing what's right for my son. It's ---"

He pressed a finger to her lips. "Wondering what was best for her daughter had to be one of the obstacles that kept Marguerite from following her heart. She wanted desperately to sail away with Jack Kingsley, but taking her daughter away from everything familiar to live aboard a ship or in some wild port town in the Caribbean seemed selfish."

"I thought it was fear of being hurt that held her back."

"Do any of us ever have one clear-cut reason for the choices we make? I bet Marguerite had many complicated reasons for her choices. That, however, was her life. This is ours. So, I want you to do me a favor?" He turned her toward the cove, then wrapped his arms around her from behind. "I want you to look down there and tell me what you see."

"I see my ship." The knot inside her chest loosened at the sight of the
Pirate's Pleasure
moored at the dock. The carved rail that lined the decks gleamed with a fresh coat of red and yellow paint. The masts rose majestically toward the bright blue sky with the sails neatly furled, but she could picture those billowing with wind. How many times had Adrian smiled down at her from the rigging as he helped the crew? "I see
our
ship."

"And ... ?" Adrian looked as well, and saw Taylor racing with his cousins around the quarterdeck. Lauren rode on Ti's back as he galloped about and Nicole clapped her hands. Their excited shrieks and laughter drifted up on the breeze.

"The children."

"Does Taylor look happy?"

"Oh yes." Her body relaxed against him. "Scott and Chance are right. Their boys are going to be so jealous when they hear Taylor gets to go sailing rather than attend regular school. Still, your sisters ---"

"Will be okay. Rory will pout the most, but she and Alli have really full and happy lives." He turned Jackie to face him. "The next few years will fly by for all of us."

"You're right." On a sigh, the tension drained from her face. "I just, you know, had a moment."

"Yeah, you did." Laughing, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She warped her arms around him and rested her cheek against his chest. "I love this place, and your family so much. I think I'm going to miss them as much as they'll miss you."

"Us. They'll miss you too. But, it's not forever. It's just for a while." He cupped her face so he could smile into her eyes. "Do you realize how lucky we are? We have the chance to live our lives exactly how we want
. Even if running a windjammer is a lot of hard work, I wouldn't trade the past ten years for anything
."

"True." A sparkle of happiness returned to her eyes. "Sometimes, I think the hard work is half the fun."

"That isn't the only thing that's fun when it's hard." He wiggled his brows suggestively.

"Adrian!" She pulled away.

He pulled her right back and stopped her protest by covering her mouth with his. A purr of pleasure sounded in her throat as  she leaned into him, returning the kiss. He ran a hand down her back to fit her body to his. When she wiggled even closer, his pulse skipped toward arousal.

Remembering his family waiting downstairs, he broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. "I think we need to save this for later."

"You're right." She sighed. "Dang it."

He chuckled at her disappointment. "You know what else I think?"

"What?" She smiled up at him.

"I think we're doing exactly what Jack and Marguerite should have done. If they hadn't let all their fears hold them back, they could have sailed off to the Caribbean to live out their lives."

"You're right." She raised a hand to the pearl pendent, and gasped in delight when it warmed in her palm.

"What?"

"I think Marguerite agrees."

"Really?" His eyes widened. "Let me see."

She opened her hand so he could take the pendent. Their gazes met.

"You know what this means?" He smiled.

"What?"

"We owe it to them to go for it."

"You mean sail off to the Caribbean and live happily ever after? I don't know." She feigned a frown. "That a pretty big sacrifice to make for the family ghosts."

"Well, for them. For Carl, who is counting on you. For my sisters who'll insist we go when they realize it's what we want. And, for us."

"When you put it that way, how can we not?"

"Exactly." He lowered his mouth to hers for another kiss, this one filled with more tenderness than heat. She returned it measure for measure. He pulled away long enough to smile into her eyes. "Let's go live happily ever after."

She wrapped her hand around his, so the both held the pendant. "For Marguerite and Captain Jack."

Get a glimpse at where it began with Aurora and Chance

in the following

Chapter One Excerpt

from

Falling For You
,
book one in the Pearl Island trilogy

or skip to an excerpt from

Lead Me On
, book two in the Pearl Island trilogy

~~~

Learn more about Julie Ortolon and her heartwarming, contemporary romance

novels at
JulieOrtolon.com