Toronto Collection Volume 2 (Toronto Series #6-9)

by Heather Wardell

  He tipped his head back and forth then nodded before leaning across the table and whispering, "The buy-in was five hundred bucks."

  My knife tumbled to the floor as my fingers loosened in shock. "Five hundred?" I whispered back. "That's what you're spending each day?"

  He retrieved my knife then said, "No, no, that's almost two days' worth. I knew this tournament was coming though so I saved up."

  If this was supposed to make me feel better, it failed miserably. Five hundred bucks didn't even cover two days of gambling, so he must be spending around three hundred dollars a day in the casino. Forty-two hundred over the fourteen days of the cruise. Though he'd been saving for a year it still seemed insane to me. But he wanted to play, and making him forfeit five hundred dollars didn't seem like a good plan. I couldn't see what else I could do but say, trying not to sigh, "Go have fun."

  His face brightened. "You sure?"

  I nodded. "I'll find myself something to do."

  He squeezed my hand. "You're the best. You really don't mind?"

  I did mind. I minded more than I could tell him. But I minded that he wanted to do it, that he was so willing to leave me again, that he couldn't recognize how much it bothered me. His actually doing it wouldn't make me feel much worse. "Good luck."

  He stood, then bent over me and gave me a quick kiss, so fast I barely felt it. "You're great, Mel. See you at dinner."

  He and the guy headed out, and I watched them go and wondered what had happened to lunch. Or to his promises to be with me today.

  *****

  I went back to the stateroom and lost myself in a book, reading hard and fast. I didn't want to think, and living for a while in someone else's world seemed like the best way to make that happen.

  Eventually, though, it was well past lunch time and I couldn't deny my growling stomach any more. I didn't want to visit the dining room in case I ran into Nicholas, so I ordered room service and went back to reading until it arrived. I read right through my lunch too, barely tasting the food, but when I was done eating I didn't want to read any more.

  I wanted to write.

  It was Tuesday, and I'd wanted to have my book done by Friday before the wedding. What better time than now?

  I put in a solid three hours but I got precisely nowhere. My computer's recycle bin filled with the digital equivalent of crumpled sheets of paper as I saved in hope then deleted in dejection version after version of the ending, but I wasn't able to find the right way out for Larry and Lizzie.

  When my fingers were too sore and my brain too numb to try any more, I deleted the final attempt, which was no less crappy than the others, and a wave of claustrophobia swept over me. I'd been in this little room too long. No wonder I couldn't create anything worth reading.

  I touched up my makeup, since I'd smudged my eyeliner by rubbing my eyes when they got tired, and headed out with nervousness tingling through me. A quick check at the excursions desk let me know that Wendy and Mark wouldn't be back on board for another two hours, but of course that didn't tell me anything about whether I'd run into Nicholas.

  To make sure I didn't, I stuck to areas he didn't frequent, sitting for a while to read by the loud pool until I couldn't stand the volume any more then escaping to the self-service coffee area and choosing a table where I could drink my coffee and look out at the ocean.

  I'd just gotten settled, just started to feel my ears recovering from the volume of the shrieking kids at the pool, when I heard, "Mel, right?"

  I looked up to see one of the girls I'd met on my first spa visit. Trying to bring her name to mind, I said, "That's right."

  She pulled out a chair and slumped into it. "Courtney. You probably don't remember."

  "I remember you, but I wasn't sure on your name."

  "It's Courtney."

  So I'd heard. "Nice to see you again. Enjoying the cruise?"

  "I was." She slumped further, and I wondered if she'd end up sliding right out of her chair and onto the floor. "Until today."

  I didn't exactly feel like taking on someone else's problems, but at least they were a distraction from my own so I said, "Why, what happened today?"

  As if I'd opened the floodgates, she burst into tears and words simultaneously. It wasn't always easy to understand her, especially with her British accent, but I got the gist. Her wedding was tomorrow morning, and she and her sister Caitlin were supposed to have a girls' night tonight since her fiancé Jesse was partying with his two best friends but Caitlin had somehow picked up a terrible cold in the warm Caribbean and wasn't able to get out of bed never mind party. So Courtney was going to be all alone for her bachelorette night.

  Her sobs intensified when she'd finally got the last part out, and I said, "Hang on, I'll grab you some napkins. Do you want a coffee?"

  "Tea," she managed through her tears. "Thanks."

  I hurried to the counter, feeling relieved to escape her emotions for a moment, and brought back a steaming cup of tea with the bag still in it and a handful of napkins and sugar and creamer packets. "I didn't know how you take it," I said, setting everything in front of her.

  She'd mercifully stopped crying in my absence, and she wiped her eyes and blew her nose with a napkin before saying, "Thanks. You're so sweet."

  I took my seat again. "No problem."

  She got her tea ready, taking out the bag long before I would have and adding a lot of creamer and three packets of sugar, then took a long sip. "Perfect." She looked into the cup and forced a smile. "My friend at home says I like my tea like I like my men."

  I blinked. "Which is?"

  "Weak and sweet," she said, then her eyes filled with tears again. "I wish she were here. You're great and everything but I miss my friends."

  "Of course you do. I'm lucky to have one of mine here, but I'd have loved to have more at my wedding. Did you want that too?"

  She nodded. "It's too much money, though, especially with the flight from London. So it's just Jesse and me here, with my sister and his two friends. And our parents, of course. But he's always wanted to take a cruise and so he wanted to have our wedding here, and..." She trailed off and sipped her tea.

  When she didn't finish the sentence, I said, "Well, it's nice that you were able to make that happen for him."

  "Yeah." She didn't sound like she thought it was remotely nice, and I didn't know what to say, so we sat in silence for a good few minutes.

  When my coffee was gone, I began trying to figure out how to say, "Well, see you later," without being rude.

  She drained her cup, and said, "Look, Mel, would you do me a favor?"

  "If I can," I said, feeling bad for her.

  "Two, I guess. Would you come to the wedding tomorrow morning, and even more would you hang out with me tonight? I was hoping to go to the night club, do a little dancing, a little drinking... but with Caitlin sick I'd have to go by myself and that just feels too weird. It'd be fine with you, though. Would you? Please?"

  She'd been weepy enough sober. Would she completely lose control while celebrating her last night as a single girl with a near-complete stranger? But I thought of how awful I'd feel if I were her and said, "Absolutely to both," trying to make myself sound hugely enthusiastic. "We'll have a wild night."

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Unless 'awkward' is a synonym for 'wild', we didn't have a wild time for the first few hours. Courtney tried to relax and have fun, but she kept getting upset about not having her sister at her 'hen night' and sinking into tears that grew increasingly intense as the time wore on. The night club being mostly empty didn't help either, since that only made it clearer that our bachelorette party was a bust.

  Eventually I said, "Look, do you remember my friend Wendy? She was at the spa too. Why don't I email her and see if she'll come along?"

  I knew she would, because we'd talked at dinner about Courtney's party and Wendy had said she hadn't spent much time at the night club and would be happy to do so if we wanted her.

  Courtney
sniffed. "I know, this sucks." I protested, but she said, "Please, email Wendy." She managed a smile. "For all our sakes."

  Once Wendy arrived about ten minutes later the night club had begun to fill and the rising energy level was taking Courtney and me with it. Courtney had bought us both another drink and was in far better spirits since finishing half of hers, and those spirits skyrocketed further when Wendy began fawning over the silvery details on Courtney's French-manicured fingertips and raving about her admittedly very pretty ruby engagement ring.

  Courtney returned the favor, complimenting Wendy's ring and also her necklace and earrings, and I watched, feeling liberated by Wendy's arrival and far more relaxed thanks to my fourth cocktail of the evening, as the two of them bonded over their mutual love of jewelry.

  "Sorry," Courtney said after quite a while, turning to me. "Sorry to ignore you."

  I laughed. "It's your night, no need to apologize. You guys carry on with your bad selves. I'll just sit here and drink."

  Wendy clinked her glass against mine. "That's my girl. How far behind am I?"

  I thought it was three, and Courtney insisted four, and we had a laughing battle, taking flailing swings at each other in classic 'cat fight' style and eventually meowing for good measure, until Wendy decreed that it was three and a half and that no matter the actual number she needed to get more drinks for us all.

  "Let me."

  We turned, startled, to see a group of guys behind us with Austin at the front. He winked at me and said again, "Let me. Three blushing brides? You shouldn't have to buy your own drinks."

  Courtney giggled and gave him a wobbly curtsey. "Thank you, kind sir."

  He smiled at her, then said to Wendy, "Let's see your curtsey."

  She rolled her eyes, her face twisting as she tried to hold back a grin. "In your dreams, kind sir. But I'll take a drink anyhow."

  "I admire a woman who goes after what she wants." He slid his arm around Wendy's shoulder and gave her a squeeze, then released her and turned to me. "What about you?"

  "I want a drink."

  He laughed. "Another blunt Canadian. Aren't we supposed to be all meek and apologetic?"

  "Anyone who thinks that," Wendy said, "never met you."

  Austin's group of guys laughed and mocked him, and he said, "Just for that, I might not get you a drink."

  "I will," another guy volunteered, swaying a bit on his feet as his eyes devoured my tall pretty friend.

  Austin punched him in the shoulder. "Hey, man, I know her fiancé. Cool guy. Paws off. And Wendy, I'll let you get away with that. This once. Because it's a special occasion."

  She gave him the curtsey this time, and he laughed and bowed in return as I watched the thought of "Why does he say Wendy is off limits but he was more than willing to have his paws on me though I'm engaged to his brother?" flash through my mind then vanish in the alcoholic haze.

  Then he walked off to the bar and a different guy asked, "What's so special about today?"

  Wendy pointed at Courtney. "She's getting married tomorrow morning."

  They all congratulated her, and she blushed and giggled, but when the guy who'd asked said, "Hey, then you should come dance with me. Your last dance as a single girl," she actually stepped back as if afraid he'd grab her and said, "No, no way."

  "Sorry," he said, clearly offended, and we stood in an awkward silence.

  Courtney drained the last half of her drink in one big swallow. "No, I'm sorry." She shook her head, and though I was far from sober myself I saw her eyes struggle to focus again after being jostled around. "I'm sorry. I just... I can't. It's wrong. Everything's wrong."

  Wendy frowned. "What do you mean?"

  Austin returned and handed us each our new drinks, and Courtney put a serious dent in hers before she said, "Other guys. Can't be with anyone else."

  Austin looked around, clearly confused, but nobody was any help because we didn't understand either.

  "I just asked her to dance," the guy said, "but she didn't want to."

  "Not fair," Courtney mumbled, raising her drink to her mouth again but spilling half of its contents down her front before Austin could catch hold of the glass and get it under control. Ignoring the alcohol soaking into her black top, she looked up at him and said dreamily, "You're pretty."

  Several of the guys snickered, and Austin said, "Thank you. So are you," as he discreetly passed the glass to Wendy who put it out of Courtney's reach.

  "No, you are," she insisted as if he'd denied it. "So's Jesse. He's so nice." Her eyes filled with tears, which she let slide down her cheeks. "Nice enough to marry me."

  Austin said, "That's pretty nice, I guess," and she fell forward into his arms saying, "He's so nice," again and again. He held her upright, which she seemed to need, and over the top of her head mouthed at me, "What the hell?"

  I shrugged, since I had no idea, and he said, "Courtney, come on. You're okay. You're with friends. Talk to us."

  My drunken heart melting at his sweetness, I watched as she peeled herself off him and said, "I wanted to marry him a year after we got together. Took me four years to convince him. I did everything I could find on the Internet, begged and pleaded and got angry and cried and gave him ulti-- ulti--"

  "Ultimatums?" Austin said when she wasn't able to form the word.

  "Yeah, those. And now it's tomorrow and..." She hiccupped. "And I'll never know if he'd have... have..." Her tears rose again but her last words were still clear. "Have married me on his own."

  The guys shuffled their feet and I noticed a few of them breaking away and leaving us alone. I didn't blame them. I would have too if I'd had any idea of how to escape.

  Austin, though, gave her shoulder a squeeze and said, "You both flew here from England, I assume?"

  She nodded, and he said, "He wouldn't have done that if he didn't want to."

  I cringed, remembering vaguely what she'd said in the coffee area earlier and knowing this would probably not turn out the way Austin hoped, and sure enough she said, "But he only came here because he wanted to see the Caribbean. Our wedding is an after-thought!"

  The guy who'd asked her to dance said firmly, "No way."

  She blinked at him. "You don't think so?"

  Austin shook his head and the guy said, "Nope. You're too pretty-- I mean, you seem like a really nice girl. I'm not coming on to you, so don't panic, but you do. And I bet he's happy to marry you. I'd be happy to marry a girl like you."

  "Ditto," Austin said. "You'll be making him the happiest man in the Caribbean tomorrow." He wrapped his arm around her again. "You're making me the most jealous one right now."

  She giggled, her misery gone again. I suspected she'd spent a lot of time since her engagement pushing away her fears that it would never have happened without her pressure, and she seemed pretty good at doing so. Those fears would always come back, though, and I wondered what kind of marriage she'd have if she couldn't accept that her fiancé truly wanted to spend his life with her.

  Austin turned her face so he could look into her teary eyes. "Okay? Feeling better?"

  She nodded and hugged him hard and Wendy said, "I think she is. And I further think..." She began prying Courtney's arms loose. "Courtney and Melissa and I should go powder our noses."

  I agreed that Courtney needed a few minutes to calm down, but I wasn't going anywhere. I had stuff to say to Austin. "I'll keep the boys in line," I told Wendy as she succeeded in getting Courtney off Austin. "You guys go ahead."

  "Okay, back soon. Come on, Courtney, let's go fix our lipstick."

  "I have to pee!"

  We all laughed and Wendy said, "That's fine too."

  They left and Austin said, "Good God, Mel, why does anyone get married? Look at the mess it's made of that girl."

  "She's not a mess," I said indignantly. "She's just afraid she's forced him into it. Who wouldn't be?"

  "Did you force Owen into it?"

  "Of course not." I glared at him then remembered what I'd want
ed to say to him. "Don't be a jerk, okay? I want to thank you for being so nice to her." I told him and the remaining few guys briefly about her sick sister. "I think her wedding's just not how she hoped it would be."

  The 'want to dance?' guy said, "No problem. I hope she's okay tomorrow. So you're marrying Owen?"

  I nodded, then had to stop as the movement dizzied me. "On Friday."

  One of the drunker guys said to Austin, "I forget, is that your boring brother or the weird one?"

  Austin laughed, not seeming embarrassed. "She's going to be Mrs. Boring."

  "Nicholas is not boring!"

  Austin raised his eyebrows and slipped his arm around my shoulders. "Say that again, Mel?"

  Something in his significant tone and surprised expression seeped through my drunkenness. I replayed my own words in my head and a shudder of recognition went through me. "Owen's not boring," I said, trying to sound confused. "Why, what did you think I said?"

  His eyes searched my face, then they softened and he gave me a small smile. "Nothing, Mel. Nothing at all."

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  "So how did her wedding go?"

  I looked around to make sure nobody related was in earshot then sighed. "It was really pretty, actually."

  Austin raised his eyebrows. "Then what's with the sigh?"

  "Do you have to be so observant all the time?"

  He laughed. "That's why you love me."

  "Why I hate you, you mean," I said, feeling uncomfortable with Nicholas hearing Austin say I loved him even though he was clearly joking.

  "All right, folks, time to get on the tender," the ship employee said, cutting off any response Austin might have made. We piled onto the little boat, me and Nicholas and Wendy and Mark and Austin and Linda and her Raul and my mom, with a bunch of other passengers, and Austin mercifully let the topic die.

  I couldn't help thinking about it, though, as we chugged from the cruise ship to the pier for our excursion. Poor Courtney had been nearly as pale as her white dress, and her expression had been more 'woman about to face a root canal' than 'woman about to get married'. I'd glanced at her fiancé Jesse and had seen him giving her a warm smile as she followed her clearly still sick sister down the aisle but Courtney hadn't smiled back.