Page 40 of The Vacation Mix-Up
“Are you okay? You’re as white as a ghost.” Riley places his hand on my shoulder and gently squeezes, much like he did the night before. “We won’t get stranded, Riles. I promise.” He removes his hand and rotates his wrist. “Look, I’ll set an alarm on my watch.”
Drawing in a breath as I look up at the intimidating vessel, I try to pinpoint our cabin’s location while deliberating whether I should stay or go. I desperately want to see theTitanicexhibit, but I can’t bear the thought of the ship setting sail without me.
“It’ll be fine,” he adds. “Trust me. You can’t spend the entire cruise on the ship for fear of being left behind.”
“I’m not scared of being left behind. I’m scared of leav—” I shake my head. “Never mind. You’re right. It’ll be fine. We’ll be back in plenty of time. I’ll set some alarms too. Keep us on a schedule. I’m good at schedules.”
We continue walking toward the city center, and I gather we are, in fact, sightseeing together, which I’m not mad about. Like he said, if the two of us set alarms and stick together, we’re more likely to make it back on time.
“Schoolteacher?” he asks, pressing the button on the traffic light as we wait to cross the road.
I point to myself. “Me?”
He nods. “You said you’re good at schedules.”
“No. I’m not a teacher.”
“Delivery driver?”
I laugh. “I don’t even have a driver’s license. No. Guess again.” The last time I probed him to surmise something about me flickers in my mind, and I fear he’ll respond with something along the lines of funeral director or hospice nurse. “I’m a publisher,” I blurt before he has a chance to answer. “Well, publishing assistant. I hope to run my own small press one day. That’s why I liked what you said back on the ship… about your furniture telling stories. I live and breathe stories.”
“Publisher?” He purses his lips as if impressed. “Have you helped publish any books I might’ve read?”
“You read?”
“Again, Riles—” He side-eyes me. “—you sound shocked.”
We cross the road and head toward a gothic-revival church spire a short distance ahead.
“If I’m going to be completely honest, then yes, I am shocked,” I admit. “But I mean no offense.”
“None taken.”
“It’s just that, sadly, reading is a dying art in an overworked world. No one seems to have time to sit, relax, and read a book from cover to cover anymore. Trust me, if it weren’t my profession, I’d never have the time either.”
“So you’re a workaholic?”
“You could say that.”
“Is that why you’re on the cruise? To take a break?”
“Not exactly.” I divert my gaze to the sidewalk beneath my feet, not wanting to elaborate. “How about you? Why are you cruising?”
“Whynotcruise? You onlylive once, right?”
We turn the corner, St. Mary’s Basilica towering before us, and once again I stop walking, snagged by his words.
“You only live once, Smiley Riley,”Mom said as I sat beside her hospital bed, holding her hand. “So promise me you’ll live it to the fullest. See the world. Meet new people. Fall in love….”
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?”Riley prompts, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looks up.
I find my feet again and step forward, stopping beside him. “Y-Yeah. I love these old churches. I can’t wait to see Westminster Abbey and St. George’s Chapel when we dock in Southampton. Then there’s Notre Dame and Montmartre.”
“You’re doing a day trip to London?”
“Of course. Aren’t you?”
“Yeah. I just haven’t booked anything yet.”
