He Divorced Me at His Ship's Christening, So I Held the Ship novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: The Engine Room
I did not sleep after the Coronado.
At five in the morning I sat in the Santa Rita's engine room.
My knees were drawn up on the warm iron housing of the generator.
The green dress was still on me, and my shoes were somewhere in the wheelhouse.
The engine room smelled of diesel and old paint and hot metal.
It was the only place on the boat my father had ever let me hide as a girl.
Ruel had driven me to the yard in silence.
He had walked me down the dock without touching me, for the first time in two weeks.
Over dessert, Wendell had talked about shipping lanes, and Noelle had looked at her plate.
Ruel had said nine words at that table, and I had counted every one.
Now he came down the ladder in his shirtsleeves with his jacket over his arm, and he stopped on the bottom rung.
"You should be asleep," he said.
"So should you."
"I tried." He laid the jacket on a toolbox. "Captain, I need to say something, and I need you to let me finish."
"Finish."
"I haven't spoken to Noelle in three years."
I said nothing.
"She wrote me once, the night of your pier. Two lines about the news."
He kept his hands open at his sides.
"I deleted it and never answered."
"Did you know she was the fiancée?" I asked.
"No. I swear it on this boat."
"I believe you," I said, and I did.
That was not the trouble.
"She looked at you across that table, Ruel, and I felt it through your hand."
"What you felt was three years of nothing finding out it was still nothing," he said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of He Divorced Me at His Ship's Christening, So I Held the Ship are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 12 · All chapters · Chapter 14 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend