“Oh, that does look delicious.” The woman who had been talking at Angie without stopping for a breath waved at Dev. “I’m Renee. My cabin is in the same hall as Angie’s.”
“Yes,” Angie twisted to face him, “we shared an elevator on my way to meet you for breakfast.”
“I was telling her to hang on to you.”
Dev blinked. “Excuse me?”
The man looked like an overgrown three year old trying not to show how completely confused he was. Casually placing her hand over her mouth, Angie hoped the woman didn’t notice she was laughing.
“My husband and I have been married for almost ten years and if he brought me lunch on vacation, I’d probably faint from surprise. As a matter of fact,” those animated hands started up, “I’m on my way to get him lunch. Not that I mind, but still…” She blew out a wistful sigh and waved a lazy thumb at Dev. “So hard to find men who really share all the work. I’m telling you, any man like this fellow who does is worth his weight in gold.”
Dev cast a quick glance in Angie’s direction, but if he wanted some direction he was out of luck.
Angie shrugged at him, then smiled up at the lady. “Thank you.”
Letting her gaze roam appreciatively over Dev and the tray of food he held, her new friend blew out another sigh and eased back a step. “I’d better get moving before the ship runs out of food.”
Angie had been spent enough time on a ship for the thought Like that would ever happen to pop into her head.
Dev nodded at Renee. “Nice to have met you.” When the woman blended in with the cluster of passengers making their way through the deck area, he set the tray down beside Angie and sat across from her on the next chair. For a moment she thought he was going to say something, but instead he reached for his lunch.
Hot dog in hand, Angie took her first bite and a delighted moan slipped from her throat. “Oh wow. This is really good.” She wiped a dab of mustard away from the corner of her mouth. “What did you get?”
“Pretty much the same concoction only mine has a dribble of ketchup too.” He lifted the onion covered hot dog to his mouth and for a split section she thought she saw his eyes roll back in his head. “Oh, this is good!”
“Would I lie?” she teased, before taking another bite.
Hot dog halfway to his mouth for a second bite, he paused and softly chuckling, shook his head. “How would I know?”
“I’m telling you, I wouldn’t. Now you know!” She reached for a French fry and taking a bite, bobbed her head. “Yep. This is definitely going to become a staple on this trip.”
“Just what everyone comes on a cruise for. Fine hot dog dining.”
It was nice to have someone to laugh and joke over lunch with. It hadn’t really occurred to her just how lonesome being happily alone all the time could be. “You’re not mocking an American tradition, are you?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
She smiled back at him and practically inhaled another bite.
“So,” Dev wiped a stray dab of ketchup from his chin, “any new thoughts on our parents?”
“They’re stubborn.”
He chuckled again. “I don’t know about your mom, but that’s nothing new for me.”
Gripping the remainder of her hot dog, her hands lowered. “I didn’t see your father do one thing that I could hold out as a red flag for their future.”
“Ditto. Your mother seems like a very nice lady.”
“That’s because she is.”
“Okay. So we agree they’re nice people.” Dev dunked a fry in the ketchup on his, plate. “But that doesn’t mean they should be getting married.”
“Not after only two weeks. When I think back to high school, it was Mom who always cautioned me on being careful. On never being sure of a person’s true colors. Not to judge a book by its cover. Just because a guy was good looking or a star athlete didn’t mean he was good boyfriend material. My sophomore year I dated a nice kid. Mom thought he was nice too, liked that he always rang the doorbell when he picked me up, always called her and dad sir and ma’am, always had me home on time, then after a couple of months he got caught with some of his buddies stealing bottles of scotch from the corner liquor store. Mom lectured me forever on a person’s true colors. If I’d been the one to tell my mother I was marrying a man after knowing him only two weeks, she’d blow a gasket.”
“Exactly.” Dev waved the ketchup covered French fry. “My father would be the first to tell me that marriage is a lifetime commitment, and not something to be rushed into. He wouldn’t care how old anyone is, or how well the couple know what they want in a mate, he’d remind anyone within earshot that the foundations for a solid relationship take time to grow. Period.”
This whole thing created a constant churning in her stomach that had nothing to do with the greasy fried foods she’d just eaten. “We’ll come up with something.”
Angie’s hall-mate came walking back in their direction. Arms laden with a loaded tray, she paused as she approached Angie. “How was it?”
“Delicious,” she and Dev echoed.
“Good, because I got the same thing for us.” She grinned and kept walking. Stopping just past where Angie sat, the woman leaned her head back. “We should try to get together for something. Maybe an after dinner drink here on the deck.”
“Sure,” Angie answered, more out of being polite than out of interest.
“Wonderful.” The woman took a step and paused again, glancing around her before leaning in low. “You’re the nicest couple we’ve met so far.”
“Well, that’s sweet of you to say, but—”
“Really, I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.” She straightened to her full height. “I’d better get back before the fries get cold and soggy. We’ll talk more later.” With a slight bob of her head, the woman was off in search of her other half.
Shifting on her lounger, Angie looked up at Dev. “Guess there’s no point in mentioning we’re not a couple.”
“We may have to give up on that one.”
A crazy thought flipped a switch in her mind. “You know, that gives me an idea.”
Dev reached for a pickle and set it back on the plate. “What gives you an idea?”
“That we’re not really a couple.”
Pickle dangling between his fingers, he kept his gaze on her.
“Don’t say anything till I’m done.”
He took a quick bite and nodded.
“What if we get married too?”
Dev blinked hard. The heat and sun had to be the reason why the woman he barely knew had just suggested marriage. Either she was suffering from sun stroke or the heat had affected his hearing.
“Don’t look so stunned.”
“How should I look? We’ve known each other less than twenty-four hours.”
“That came out wrong.”
His first thought was that’s a relief, except oddly enough, it wasn’t. The original declaration wasn’t sitting poorly with him as it should.
“We both agree our parents would be appalled if we had decided to marry all of a sudden to a person we barely knew.”
He nodded. So far she made sense.
“So what if we gave them a taste of their own medicine? What if we wait another day or two, because we really don’t have too much more time than that, and announce we have decided they’re right? When you know you know, and we’re going to have a double wedding.”
He had to think about this for a minute. Normally he would’ve spouted something about her being completely out of her mind. At the moment though, he had to admit she might be onto something. “So in other words, if we can make them focus on why we have no business getting married, then hopefully that will make them see why they have no business getting married either. Am I following you?”
Grinning broadly, she practically bounced in her seat. “Yes! It’s perfect. You know that it’s human nature to want to do what people tell you that you cannot do, so we’d only be giving them reason to dig their heels in if we keep insisting they shouldn’t marry. Even if they begin to have reservations, they may do it just to prove to us that they know what they’re doing.”
As much as it surprised him that he’d followed her convoluted trend of thought, he had to admit she did indeed have a point. “So we make nice for another day or so and then make the big announcement?”
She nodded.
“They’ll never buy it.” He shook his head.
“Sure they will. Would you have thought a month ago that your father would marry a woman he knew less than two weeks?”
He shook his head again.
“I rest my case. I think we can do this. Are you in?”
“I’m in.” It was probably the best idea they’d come up with so far. Especially since reason wasn’t working. “We’ll have to do a little better planning than what we came on board with.”
“Agreed.” She put her hand over her eyes and glanced up at the sky, then reached into her purse and pulled out a small bottle of sunscreen. “Do you have anything in mind?”
“My first thought is we need to cram a few months of courtship into the next twenty-four hours.”
“That might be a little industrious.”
“Think of it as cramming for a final exam, because you’d better believe if we put this out there, that we’ve discovered enough about each other to realize this is it, that you’re the only one for me, they are going to drill us for all we’re worth.
Rubbing lotion onto her face and neck, she stopped mid-stroke. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Here.” He extended his hand in front of the sunscreen. “You missed a spot. Let me help.”
Slowly she rolled her arm forward and uncurled her hand exposing the 100 SPF lotion. “I burn easily.”
He should have realized that. Her skin was as close to porcelain as human flesh was possible. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin were the perfect recipe for sunburn. Rubbing the lotion between his hands to warm the liquid, carefully he rubbed the back of her shoulders, barely reaching under the edge of her sleeveless blouse. “I used to date a girl who was fair skinned like you. Her dad owned a boat so the family lived on the water all summer. There’d always be a streak of white against a strip of fire red skin where her fingers couldn’t quite reach. This part of her shoulders and the top of her feet were the worst offenders.”
Her gaze followed the slow movements of his fingers. “Not everyone is as careful as you.” A halfhearted chuckle rumbled in her throat. “My best friend growing up would always slap it on thick and fast. Inevitably there’d be a red streak down the middle where she’d missed. One summer my back looked like a zebra for weeks.”
Wiping his fingers dry along the back of her neck, he smiled and capped the bottle. “I bet you made a very pretty zebra.”
“Don’t look now, but my mother and your father are coming out of the solarium.”
It took a second to recognize her mother. She had donned a floppy pink hat that he had not seen before, and one that Angie could use. His father was right at her side, his hand at the small of her back, either gently guiding her through or protecting her from the flow of people, or both. Dev pushed to his feet, and extended his hand to Angie. “We might as well get this show started. Let’s go for a walk, it will give us time to think and then something to talk about.”
A bright smile took over her face. “Excellent idea.”
Wrapping his fingers around hers, they made their way to the path that looped around the deck and hoped this excellent idea didn’t turn out to be another massive mistake.
“Do you see them?” Julia Cannon stood at the edge of the pool holding her hat on her head and scanning the surrounding lounge chairs for her daughter. “Oh, look!”
Raymond followed the direction her free hand pointed to. “What am I looking at?”
“It’s them.” Arm straight out, pointer finger waving in the wind, she drew Ray’s attention to their children. “And they’re holding hands!”
“He probably doesn’t want to lose her in the crowd. I wouldn’t read too much into it if I were you.” Ray kissed his fiancée on the cheek. “They’re probably plotting to hogtie one of us, and Shanghai the other.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I think they’re starting to get used to the idea.”
Grinning at her, Ray brushed the back of his finger along the edge of her jaw. “That’s one of the many things I love about you. Always the optimist.”
“Not so much when we decided to wait for the last minute possible to tell our kids our plans so they wouldn’t try to stop us. It was a bit cowardly.”
“That was being practical. Another thing I love about you. Besides, seeing as how my workaholic son dropped everything to follow us, it’s a safe bet we were right. They just might have hogtied us until we came to our senses.”
Julia smiled widely and kissed him square on the lips. “I love how you make the ordinary world with all its flaws and foibles, and stubborn children, a fun place to live. Something tells me we’re in for one heckuva ride.”