Follow a Star by Christine Stovell

him innocently over her mug. ‘We’re grown-ups, aren’t we? Provided we respect each other’s need for privacy at crucial moments, we’ll be fine. Hey, at least you can pee over the side which is more than I can.’ She returned to her breakfast and tucked into a mouthful of sausage.
    ‘You mentioned sleeping tablets,’ he said, trying not to let his attention wander. ‘As skipper, I need to know if you’re on any other medication so I know what to do if anything goes wrong.’
    She laid her knife and fork down. ‘Thank you for your concern, Bill. But, I’m perfectly sane, if that’s what you’re asking. I might, when I’ve had a lot on my mind, occasionally take a short course of herbal sleeping pills just to break the pattern until I’m sleeping normally again, but I understand your concerns and I promise not to use them on this trip. And I didn’t reply to your uncle’s ad because I was daft, as you put it, but because I needed a complete change of scenery. Nothing wrong in that, I take it?’
    Bill shook his head, though he was longing to ask what scenery she was so keen to take a break from.
    ‘The only thing you need to know,’ she went on, picking up her cutlery, ‘is that I’m perfectly fit and well. Anything else is none of your damn business.’ She stabbed a fork into her bacon and he winced.
    ‘May, I wasn’t asking for a GP’s report,’ he tried to reassure her. How to explain without giving away exactly what he was feeling – like telling her that he was a strong man but regular viewings of her wet T-shirt might have him taking bites out of the timber hull? ‘Look, all I’m trying to say is that it’s easy enough to be pleasant and polite to each other when conditions are calm—’
    ‘—but you want to know if I’m a crazy banana who might turn psycho on you when the going gets tough,’ May scoffed. ‘Don’t worry. You don’t need to hide the flares and the harpoon gun.’
    Bill held up his hand. ‘All I’m saying is that when you’re dealing with the unpredictability of the open sea and everything the elements can throw at you, feelings can run very high. We should both be aware of that. It’s better to let those emotions out so we can deal with them as they arise rather than keeping them bottled up.’
    Her hair had fallen across her face as she concentrated on her breakfast. Since he couldn’t read her expression, he hoped this was a sign of assent.
    ‘At the same time,’ he began carefully, ‘being shaken around in a small boat together can create, erm, an unnatural sense of intimacy. When you’re sharing such an intense experience, it inevitably brings you close. But it would be a mistake to compare those heightened emotions for anything that would feel the same on dry land. Not, of course, that you’re unattractive – far from it – all I’m saying is that we should be able to share our thoughts without prejudice. What happens on the boat, stays on the boat.’ And hopefully that would cover an uncontrollable boner or two as well.
    He paused but only heard the sound of May chasing a forkful of baked beans round her plate.
    ‘Excellent,’ he rounded off. ‘I simply want to get this boat round to Cecil. I don’t need any complications and neither, I strongly suspect, do you.’
    ‘No problem,’ said May, her flushed face bare of make-up and devoid of guile. ‘Is it me or is it roasting in here?’ She stood up to throw off her fleece and Bill was relieved to see that she was wearing a thick enveloping T-shirt. And no bra, a deliciously slow-mo suggestion of wobble told him as she sat down again.
    ‘That’s better,’ she smiled at him. ‘So. Got something you need to get off your chest?’
    Bill swallowed and desperately tried not to think about what he would like to get off hers. That T-shirt, for a start. He dragged his gaze back to the table more grateful than he had been for anything in his life that it was there. If it started to collapse now