With Jeb’s dead reckoning and the happy discovery that the wind was still at their backs, he predicted that if everything went smoothly, even with factoring in the delay, they could still make Key West by Saturday morning. It still gave them plenty of time to get through customs before Jackie’s 4:00 p.m. wedding. For her part, Haley tried not to think about how good it had felt to tell Jeb her secret. He’d been so kind, so understanding, so comforting, and he’d made her feel— Well, she wasn’t going to analyze that. The day had passed companionably. Jeb recovered so quickly it was almost as if he’d never been stricken with a fever, and Haley took him up on his offer to teach her more sailing tips, tricks and techniques. He guided her in taking the helm and she learned how to make the boat go faster through steering. Jeb’s lesson there was “steer straight to steer fast.” She learned about weather helm, which was a sailboat’s tendency to turn toward the wind, and about all the forces pushing and pulling on it.
