Hearts Ahoy

by Stephanie Taylor

  “Mmmm,” Blaine said, nodding at her sympathetically and shooting her a look that said “I believe you, honey, but only until you’re gone and then I’m gonna tell all my friends what a gullible kook you are.”

  “I’m serious, Blaine,” Julia insisted, following him down the hallway and drinking her coffee. “Incidentally, what am I dressed for?”

  Blaine glanced back and gave her a long, deliberately patient look. “A hoedown at a pumpkin patch? A trip to the mall?” He smiled sweetly. “I’m not entirely sure.”

  “No, I mean why am I even out of bed and dressed? As in, where are you taking me?”

  Instead of answering, Blaine threw open the doors to The Orchid Ballroom with a flourish and guided her into the room before she could stop him.

  “Oh my god,” Julia said, her face falling. “No.”

  “Yes!” Blaine clapped his hands together excitedly. “Speed-dating at Sea!”

  “Oh my god,” Julia repeated, taking in the roomful of people wearing name tags and hopeful grins.

  “Here you are,” Blaine said, grabbing a mimosa from the tray of a passing server wearing a starched white shirt with black pants. “Start with this. After the first round, they’re serving brunch!”

  “Oh my—“ Julia was about to say it for the third time, but Blaine put a hand on her arm to shush her.

  “Julia Delmonico, it’s time to get back in the dating game.”

  Julia held onto the mimosa for dear life as Blaine pried the nearly-empty coffee cup from her and whisked it away. Until twenty-four hours ago, she’d been back in the dating game—so was this meant to be a continuation of that, or was Blaine trying to get her to find a rebound man for her rebound man? Not that three years of widowhood exactly made Martin her rebound, per se, but still…

  Rather than think about it too much, she downed the mimosa in one go, reached out to set it on a passing server’s tray, and grabbed another.

  17

  “Wasn’t that you I saw running around with that handsome guy? Dark hair, cute face?” The woman who’d attached herself to Julia at the Speed Dating event was a librarian from Michigan named Kay. She’d discovered that they both worked in high schools, were both widowed, and although they had nothing else in common, she’d declared them instant best friends and decided that they should go about seeking out a love match as a team.

  “Oh, maybe,” Julia answered vaguely. She held up a hand for a waiter as he passed by their seats by the pool. He nodded at her as he stopped by another table, and she let her hand fall listlessly into her lap. “I met a guy earlier on in the cruise, but I guess that didn’t go anywhere.”

  “Ohhhh,” Kay said with deep sympathy. “I’m so sorry, Julia. At our age…” She shook her head and pressed her lips tightly together, but didn’t finish the sentence.

  The worst part wasn’t the constant company, but more that Kay assumed so many things. For starters, she assumed that they were the same age, when it was clear to Julia that her new friend was at least twenty years her senior. So being lumped into the category of women who received sympathy for an age-related lack of luck in romance made her feel about a hundred times worse, even though Blaine had already driven that point home about a thousand times already.

  “Now, what kind of books do most of the kids in your school request from the library?” Kay asked, switching topics artlessly. “So many of ours are still asking for those doggoned vampire romances.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes up to the sky. “I can’t wait until we get away from all that paranormal stuff and just get back to—“

  “Kay,” Julia interrupted. “I am so so sorry, but I’m not feeling all that well.” She pushed back her chair and stood up just as the waiter she’d motioned to started moving in their direction. “Would you excuse me?”

  Kay’s face fell as she picked up her daily itinerary and flipped it open. “But Julia, we’ve got Boyfriend Bingo in an hour. Do you think you’ll feel better by then?”

  She knew that she most certainly would not, but rather than make Kay feel bad for her enthusiasm, Julia placed a hand against her stomach. “I’m not sure,” she said, dropping her voice and using a confiding tone. “I think Aunt Flo might be coming soon, and I need to lie down for just a bit.” She knew that using the term “Aunt Flo” was the right one, as Kay was certainly close to the age of Julia’s mother and would prefer that gentle euphemism to a more blatant one.

  “Oh!” Kay said, her cheeks flaming pink. “Honey, aren’t you done with that by now?” she whispered loudly. “I haven’t seen Aunt Flo since…well, I don’t know, but I’d guess we were all worried about Y2K the last time she dropped by for me!”

  Julia wasn’t sure whether Kay was unaware of her own age, or if she’d somehow taken a wrong turn with her own grooming and ended up looking like a sixty-five-year-old woman, but either way, it didn’t bear straightening out right there on the pool deck.

  “Must be some sort of fluke of nature,” Julia said, offering a shrug as she pushed her chair in. “I’ll catch up with you later, okay?”

  “Wait,” Kay called after her. “What room are you in? I’ll call you.”

  “I can’t remember right off the top of my head,” Julia said, cupping her mouth so she could be heard as she walked away toward the staircase near the hot tub. “I’ll look for you at bingo!”

  Before Kay could heave her plump body from the chair and follow, Julia was up the stairs and winding her way through people in bathing suits and shorts who were fanning themselves with magazines as they chatted with friends, or baking on their stomachs under the warm sun. She pulled her sunglasses from her bag and slid them on.

  “Hello, doll.” Julia passed a table full of shirtless, sun-spotted old men playing cards and they all turned to look her way. “If I were a single man…” One with a completely bald head and an oversized pair of dark black sunglasses gave a low whistle.

  Julia smiled at them.

  “She’s outta your league, Harvey,” said Arthur, who had magically appeared at Julia’s elbow. “But keep dreaming, you old dog.” The men howled with laughter, slapping the table and each other’s bare shoulders before returning to their game of cards.

  “I didn’t even see you up here,” Julia said, giving Arthur a genuine smile.

  “I haven’t really seen you anywhere since we had drinks a few days ago—what gives?”

  Julia stopped walking and her shoulders slumped.

  “That bad, huh?” Arthur put a hand on her arm and guided her over to two empty lounge chairs. “Sit, sit. Do you need me to get you a drink?”

  “Maybe a waiter will pass by. I could use a Diet Coke.” Julia sat back in the chair and swung her legs around so that she could turn her face up to the sun.

  “Your wish is my command, Mrs. Delmonico.” Arthur raised a hand at a young server with red braids and a cute figure. “Now tell me how I can help. Other than the diet soda.”

  “Arthur,” Julia said, sounding far more distressed than she’d intended, “he’s gone.”

  “Gone? As in you lost him to someone else? I don’t know how this works, honey, so catch me up. Is this a love competition you’re playing on this cruise?” The redhead stopped near the foot of their chairs and Arthur turned to her almost as an aside. “Diet Coke for the lady, and a Bloody Mary for me, if you please.” As the waitress wandered away, Arthur turned his attention back to Julia.

  “No, I didn’t lose him in a competition, although there are some very weird things that happen on this cruise,” Julia allowed. “I went to a speed-dating event against my will this morning, and later on there’s something called ‘boyfriend bingo’ that I don’t want any part of.”

  “Oy vey,” Arthur said, looking flummoxed.

  “Yeah, it’s very much geared toward a fun-loving crowd who wants to throw caution to the wind and meet someone in a zany way.”

  “And that’s not you?” Arthur reached up with both hands and took the drinks that the waitress had delivered; h
e handed Julia her Diet Coke and then signed the bill with one hand before leaning back in his own lounge chair, although not without some degree of difficulty.

  “Not at all,” Julia confided, sipping her Diet Coke through a straw and then sighing contentedly. “Thanks for this, by the way.”

  “No problem.”

  “Anyway, Martin actually got off the ship in Maui and had to fly home.”

  Arthur nearly spluttered as he drank his Bloody Mary. “He what? This man got off the boat and left you? Is he crazy? What a putz.”

  Julia could feel the tears of gratitude well up in her eyes as Arthur defended her honor. “Thanks, Arthur, but it was nothing like that. The mother of his son called and said that their granddaughter had suffered a seizure of some sort.”

  “Ohhhh,” Arthur said, shaking his head with sympathy. “That’s real stuff. A little one?”

  “Mmhmm. She’s four.”

  They both gazed out at the people walking by and at the beach ball being volleyed around the pool.

  “It’s a shame, to be sure.” Arthur pulled the stalk of celery from his Bloody Mary and took a crunchy bite from the end that had been in the drink. “But life is both short and long, my dear Julia. And once this ship docks, there’s still plenty of time to track him down if you want to. I guess the real question is, do you want to?”

  Julia closed her eyes behind her sunglasses and breathed in deeply. Did she want to? She listened as the sounds of music and laughter and conversation filled the air around her.

  When she opened her eyes, she looked over at Arthur, who was waiting patiently for her answer. “I want to,” she said. “I’m just concerned. I’m worried about why he didn’t tell me about his past before the game show. I’m not thrilled that he got up early in the morning and left without waking me up to tell me what was going on.” Julia realized as she spoke that she was potentially giving away the fact that she’d been in Martin’s room all night. It must have been written all over her face anyway, because Arthur held up a hand before she could say more.

  “I’m a modern man, Mrs. Delmonico—never fear. In addition to which, I’ve lived a long time and I understand how affairs of the heart work. We’re both adults here.” He winked at her and took another bite of celery, chewing as he thought. “As to the list of concerns you have, no one can work those out but you. After all, you have to decide what you can and can’t live with, and no one can do that for you.”

  Julia nodded. “I get not telling someone right away that you’ve been to prison when you’re still in danger of them bolting without sticking around to find out why. But I’m less comfortable being the kind of woman who you can’t wake up when something goes wrong with a family member. I just…I don’t know.” She squinted and took another pull of her soda from the straw.

  “Hey, good news, Mrs. Delmonico,” Arthur said, reaching over to slap her knee playfully. “You don’t have to decide right now. And even better news: you don’t have to go play boyfriend bingo—you can come to a reading by a famous author with me and Daisy instead.”

  “A famous author?”

  Arthur shrugged. “Apparently. Though who am I to judge anyone’s fame. Daisy tells me that this lady writes all kinds of romance novels though, and that she’s going to be giving away copies of her latest book.”

  Julia tipped her head to one side, imagining herself at a book talk. “You know, that actually sounds interesting,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  There was no doubt in her mind that it would beat the hell out of Boyfriend Bingo, no matter how cheesy the novels were.

  Julia managed to pass the first day at sea pleasantly enough, and after an afternoon listening to the romance novelist read from a book called The Damsel and the Duke of Devon, she’d drifted back to her room to nap peacefully in her deck chair while the ocean and the sun lulled her into a peaceful stupor.

  It was the sound of her ringing phone that eventually woke her, and she sat up abruptly, nearly dropping her book over the side of the ship and into the water as she rushed through the open sliding door to grab it. Of course she’d been hoping it might be Martin, but she was able to push the disappointment aside when she saw that it was Christina.

  “Hi!” she said brightly, trying to mask the fact that she’d just been napping.

  “Mom, you look tired. And red. Were you sleeping in the sun?”

  Julia blew out a breath and gathered her long hair with one hand, twisting it and throwing it over her shoulder. “You caught me, kid. I was definitely sitting on the deck and snoozing.”

  “How are things?” Christina was looking at the table next to her as she spoke, distracted as she shuffled books and papers. “Are you having a good time?”

  “Well,” Julia said, wondering how much to tell her daughter. She could easily divulge the whole Martin mess and let Christina offer her advice or a shoulder to cry on, but instead she smiled widely. “Great. Honestly. I’m having a lovely time.” And that wasn’t a lie—she’d had a fun afternoon with Arthur, and she’d enjoyed the rustic spa at the Temple of Peace. “How about you? How is Carli with an ‘i’?”

  This caught Christina’s attention and she stopped shuffling notebooks to look back at her mom. “We aren’t getting married or anything,” she laughed. “But things are good. We went out and I think we’re going out again this week. We talk a lot. I dunno.”

  “Very concise and detailed words from my favorite college student,” Julia teased.

  Christina shrugged and bit on the end of her pen as she looked at the camera. “We’ll see where it goes. Maybe you’ll meet her. Who knows.” Christina squinted as she examined her mother. “Are you okay, Mom? I mean really okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay, kid.” Julia tried to sound as casual as possible. “Things are just fine.”

  “Listen,” Christina said, taking the pen out of her mouth and looking serious. “I really don’t think you should feel guilty about anything.”

  “Oh, honey.”

  “No, I mean it, Mom. It’s okay for you to meet someone. And be happy.”

  The tenderness in her daughter’s voice brought tears to Julia’s eyes. Certainly in her quiet moments aboard the ship she’d toyed with guilt—even just a tiny bit—and wondered what Will might have done if he’d been in her shoes. Would he have fallen in love more quickly? Married again right away if she’d been the one to die? Most likely he would have. Statistically speaking, men lived longer if they were married, and so many of them thrived under the care of a woman, like it or not. As newlyweds, that thought might have disturbed her—imagining her young husband in the arms of another woman. But now, it made her smile. She would have wanted that for him, and she hoped that he might have felt the same about her.

  “I don’t feel too guilty, babe. So don’t worry about me. I know deep down that your dad wouldn’t have wanted me to be alone forever.”

  For just a moment, Christina looked like she might cry too. But just as quickly as the look crossed her face, it melted away. “Yeah, I don’t think he would have. So go have fun with your boy toy, okay?”

  “My boy toy? Christina,” Julia said, shaking her head, “I swear you’re too much for me sometimes. Grown men are not boy toys.”

  “Well, if you get bored of your ‘grown man,’ maybe you can find a boy toy on the cruise to have fun with!”

  “Go do your homework,” Julia scoffed, waving her daughter away. “And kid?”

  “What’s up, Mom?”

  Julia paused to make sure that Christina met her eye. “I love you. And I’m proud of you.”

  Christina returned the gaze, giving her mom a look that was full of meaning. “Right back atcha, Ma.”

  18

  Arthur and his cronies had a heavy game of pinochle going on the top deck the next day. Julia sat next to him in a big floppy hat and sunglasses, watching with a smile as the men ribbed one another and made jokes.

  “Don’t think you can just bring some young piece of eye candy here to distr
act us, Goldman,” a man with more hair in his ears than on his head said gruffly. He eyed Julia with suspicion just as a gust of wind blew past and forced her to clamp a hand down on her hat.

  “She’s not just eye candy,” Arthur said, sounding half defensive and half amused.

  “And she’s not that young,” Julia added before silently cursing herself. If some old guy wanted to flatter her ego by calling her “young” and “eye candy,” then who was she to stop him?

  Arthur nudged her with an elbow. “Mrs. Delmonico is my dear friend,” he said to the man. “And you’ll get along with me a whole lot better if you treat her like the lady she is.”

  The man gave a silent huff, but then nodded an apology. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he said. “You have my deepest condolences about your friendship with this old coot.”

  Arthur hooted and arranged his hand of cards. “Anyway,” he said, turning to face Julia and holding his cards close to his chest. “I don’t see why you can’t be the first one to make a phone call. After all, his granddaughter might be in serious condition—or worse.”

  Julia’s free hand flew to her mouth; the other still held her hat firmly to her head. “Oh my god, Arthur, you’re right.”

  He shrugged like it was no big deal. “I’m right a lot. It happens when you’re old. Only most people don’t listen to you anymore, so you’re just right in your own head.”

  “Well, your are definitely right to me. How could I have been so dumb?” Behind her sunglasses, she closed her eyes as she realized that Martin’s granddaughter might have taken a turn for the worse and all she’d done in the meantime was pout about how he’d disappeared and not called her yet.