Page 128 of Ten Years and Then…
The only person on the deck of the ship who hadn’t shouted out their allegiance to her was Greg. He hadn’t enjoyed this at all—and it had been his choice. She’d tried to encourage him to challenge Blackbeard, but he wouldn’t do it. He’d stayed quiet, at the back of their group, the whole time.
“I’ll need the hat back, my Queen,” Blackbeard said to her as the tour group headed belowdecks to leave the ship. “They’ll give you a replica outside.” He grinned at her. “These costumes are more expensive than you’d think.”
She didn’t want the poor guy to get in trouble—losing part of his costume might earn him a walk off the plank. So she handed the hat back to him, and jogged off to catch up with Greg.
He was already back on the dock. “Here, they gave me this for you.” He handed her the replica hat she’d been promised, and she put it on.
“I think I’ll wear it the rest of the day. You think the Captain would let me on the bridge, since I’m Queen and everything now?”
Greg gave her a half-hearted chuckle. “Probably not,” he said.
Why was he so—whatever he was right now? Did he already somehow know what she was going to tell him before they got back to Baltimore? She wanted to give him a few more good days before that, but that didn’t seem likely. “Greg, what’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
He shook his head as they headed into town. They hadn’t discussed what they’d do after the pirate adventure; they’d just started walking without any particular direction in mind. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t expect—that’s not what I thought it was going to be. I wasn’t prepared for audience participation.”
That was fair, she supposed. But she hadn’t been prepared for it either, and now she was a pirate Queen with a hat and everything. Daniel might have held back, too—for the first five minutes, but he would have let her drag him into things, and by the end he would have had as much fun as she had. They’d have been King and Queen of the Caribbean.
No. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t do this. It wasn’t fair to Greg. He didn’t deserve criticism just because he enjoyed different things, or because he didn’t roll with surprises as quickly as she did.
And he also didn’t deserve her hamming it up and becoming the center of attention when he was obviously uncomfortable. What kind of rotten person did that to someone they were supposed to care about?
“I understand,” she told him, putting an arm around him. “I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I guess I should have read the brochure more closely. Now we know for next time.”
Not that there would be a next time. Lightning should have come out of the clear blue sky and struck her down for that comment. But it didn’t, and she took a deep breath and went on. “You want to head back to the ship? We’ve still got that third fancy meal to use.” They were on the cobblestoned streets of the oldest part of Nassau now, on the main shopping street. “You know what? Let’s go in there first,” she pointed to a leather goods shop across the street. “I’ll buy you whatever you want.”
He didn’t say yes, but he let her steer him into the shop, and fifteen minutes later they emerged with a new wallet for him.
She’d given Daniel the most beautiful necklace, something she had taken weeks to design, and that she helped make with her own hands. Greg got a leather—hopefully it was real leather—wallet he could probably have bought at J.C. Penney’s for half the price.
Maybe he wouldn’t be heartbroken at all when she told him. Maybe he’d be lucky to be rid of her.
Chapter 40
The last three days of the cruise—Aboard Empress of the Seas
Daniel, November 12
Daniel was alone in the cabin. He hadn’t listened to Leanne when they got back to the ship yesterday, and he was paying for it now.
They’d gone up to the pool deck and spent the afternoon alternately sunbathing and splashing around in the main swimming pool when they returned from Nassau.
“You can get sunburned even when you’re in the water,” she’d warned him. He knew she was right, but he’d never liked how goopy sunscreen felt, so he went without, figuring an hour wouldn’t be enough to cause any real harm.
They’d stayed up there for four hours, and he’d been miserable at dinner—red and sore and itchy. It was worse now that he was starting to peel.
Leanne had gone up to the shops on deck five and bought lotion for him, and three bottles of water. And she hadn’t once said I told you so.
She offered to stay with him all day, but he put his foot down. “You made me go swimming with the dolphins when you couldn’t. I’m not letting you stay inside when you could go to the beach today. It’s the last port visit, please go and enjoy yourself.”
She finally gave in, and right now she was—he wasn’t sure exactly what she’d be doing on Royal Caribbean’s private island. There was parasailing, snorkeling, jet-skis you could rent or just hanging out on the beach.
Maybe the snorkeling. That’s what they’d planned to do two days ago, it made sense she’d try to do it again.
He hoped so, and that she’d get to see—he had no idea. Whatever colorful fish and undersea sights there were, he hoped she was having an amazing time enjoying them all.
She deserved it. And he absolutely deserved everything he was feeling now.
Nora, the same time
