Page 109 of Ten Years and Then…
No, that was unfair. He’d spent two hours to make sure she didn’t waste money, her car would be safe for the duration of the cruise, and there’d be no trouble getting to the terminal tomorrow morning. And she hadn’t asked him; he’d done it of his own accord. She should be grateful.
It was the kind of thing Daniel would have done. Except with less bullet points and more self-deprecating jokes.
And that was unfair, too. She needed to stop thinking about Daniel. The last time she’d spoken to him was more than four years ago. She was with Greg now, and she wanted desperately to make this work. Greg deserved her full attention, her full heart. And she deserved someone who was ready to accept it.
“What do you think?” They were in their room, and she was ready to collapse. They’d split the driving, but she’d had the bad luck to be behind the wheel for the worst traffic, and it had frayed her nerves. “We can go down to the restaurant, or call room service and just collapse up here. This bed is awfully comfortable, it’ll be kind of decadent to sit in bed and eat a fancy dinner in our pajamas, won’t it?”
“Sure, Nora. That sounds good to me. Go ahead and order, you know what I like.” But he wasn’t joining her on the bed; he was sitting in the plush armchair—admittedly, it did look very comfortable, too—and making no move to put his pajamas on.
Maybe he was tired from the drive, just like her. He hadn’t slept all that well last night, either. Maybe a good dinner—hopefully the crabcakes lived up to their reputation—would lift his spirits.
Daniel, around nine o’clock
Leanne turned to him as they lay in bed. “Do you know the last time I had an actual vacation? A whole week off?”
Daniel shook his head. It hadn’t been since they’d started dating.
“Neither do I,” she said. “Maybe—the week after I took my last exam? That was—God, was it really three years ago?”
“That’s too long,” he agreed. Not that he could talk. He always made sure to use his vacation time, but he either just stayed home and spent a few days zoning out in front of the TV when he wasn’t catching up on household chores he’d neglected, or he went back to the Bronx and stayed with his parents.
“But, you know what, it’s sort of the same for me. I haven’t been on a proper vacation since—wow, Disney World, when I was fifteen.”
She stared at him. “I don’t believe you.”
“I mean a vacation where you go somewhere fun, and you stay in a hotel, and you have no responsibilities at all. Where you eat out every day, and somebody else cleans up after you, and there’s no laundry or taking out the garbage or anything. Not just taking time off of work, you know what I mean?”
She thought about that, and finally nodded along with him. “I see what you’re saying. If you put it that way, I think the last time I went on one was probably spring break, senior year of college. Me and my roommate went to South Padre Island.” Daniel gave her a blank look; he’d never heard of it. “In Texas. About three hours south of San Antonio. That’s where Gloria was from—my roommate, obviously. It was her idea, and I thought it would be—I don’t know. Boring? Stupid?”
“But it wasn’t?”
“No!” When she got excited, Leanne’s bright blue eyes got so wide; you couldn’t help but be drawn along with her into whatever she was talking about. “It was a blast. We were almost in Mexico. Margaritas on the beach, live music every night, and the boys …”
He leaned in and kissed her, and she kissed him back. When they broke apart, he grinned. “What about the boys?”
“Well, it wasn’t like that.” She laughed. “Not really.” She paused, just for an instant. “Okay, there was one night, and there was this guy from—Texas Tech, I think?—and we were sitting together on a blanket, and there was a big bonfire, and he had the prettiest eyes. Not like yours are pretty, but—you know, it was a romantic atmosphere, and I’d had a couple of margaritas ...” There was only one other person who’d ever said he had pretty eyes. But—he had to put her out of his mind. It wasn’t right to be thinking of her when he was lying in bed with his girlfriend, who he’d just kissed a few seconds ago.
“A couple?”
“Six, if you must know.” That sounded more accurate for spring break in almost-Mexico. “And we kissed for a while, until Gloria dragged me back to the hotel room. I yelled at her when we got there, but …”
Daniel knew what she was going to say. “You thanked her the next morning.”
“Something like that,” she agreed. “I wonder what she’s doing these days. I should try to look her up. She was good people.”
Daniel kissed her again. “You know what, Leanne? So are you.”
She really was. It was impossible not to see it. So why did he have to keep reminding himself of it?
Chapter 35
First Day of the Cruise—Aboard Empress of the Seas
Nora, November 6, ten o’clock in the morning
Nora was glad she’d bought Keith from the travel office lunch last week. She’d spent the whole hour interrogating him about every detail of cruising, and it was paying off now.
“Yes, Greg. Really. That’s it. That one little card is all you need on the ship.” They’d finally gotten to the front of the check-in line, and her boyfriend was having trouble believing that one magnetic card was not only their key to every door on the ship, but also the way they’d pay for everything aboard.
