We reached the chapel and paused before entering.
Why not? I thought.
“It would make me really happy, Russ.”
“Great!” He took my arm, and we entered the chapel. We found my mother and Alex’s parents and joined them to await Damian and celebrate the daily Mass.
“So, we’re going to the buffet this morning,” said Mrs. D’Ag as we exited the chapel. “How about the rest of you?”
“I’ll join you, Angela,” said my mother.
“Russ?”
“I think Keira and I will have breakfast together,” he answered.
“Good, good,” Mrs. D’Ag nodded without a question and turned to Damian as he came out. “And you, my favorite child?”
“Well, I know that Tonio and Ali must not be around if you are calling me that!” Damian grinned.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re implying.” She pinched his cheek.
“How could I miss breakfast with you, then, Ma, if I’m the favorite?” He winked at me, then asked, “Keir, I have an errand to run in Cozumel. Do you want to come on a walk with me afterward?”
“How do you know I have time to go ... never mind.” I was sure that the chain of communication was too complicated. “But where are the others?”
“Already gone on an excursion to see Mayan ruins,” he said.
I would have loved that, but it was an all-day excursion.
“What are the chances that Juliet’s new friend is on this one as well?” I laughed.
“Uh, pretty good, since he signed up for it last night when he found out that’s what they were doing.”
“Wow! He really must like Juliet if he wants to risk having us all around him this much!”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Russ said. “I think the best thing for him to do is get to know the people she’s close to. Every suitor wants the family’s approval. I know I would.” He winked at me.
Right. Our breakfast.
“Anyway, Damian, meet us in the park in about an hour?” I looked at Russ questioningly. Damian nodded.
“We’ll all meet there. The rest of us signed up for an excursion as well—not as exuberant as the others, but we don’t want to miss ours.”
We broke and left for our respective morning meals.
The Commons Cafe felt as charming as usual, and the table that Russ and I managed to snag was secluded and cozy.
“So, Keira, let’s talk,” said Russ.
“Weren’t we already?” Oh sure. About the plants, the weather, the bagels, the coffee—really deep conversation.
He laughed.
“I see so much of your mother in you.”
“It’s the green eyes, I guess.” I continued to try to skirt any deep conversation.
“No, Keira, I’ve watched you manage this project this week, and I see so much of Maeve in your organization skills. But you have her charm and elegance as well.”
“Catholic school,” I smiled.
“Well, remember I went to Catholic school, too. There’s only so much the nuns can do if they don’t have much to work with. No, you have incredible innate intelligence.”
“Hey, you’re going to make me blush. Remember, we learned humility, too.”
“Some of us needed more lessons than others,” he pointed to himself.
I laughed, picturing a young Russ attempting yet failing to rebel.
“But Keira,” he became serious once more. “One of the things I see in both of you is an incredible vulnerability that you take great pains to hide.”
“My mother? Vulnerable? She’s the strongest woman I know!”
He took a careful sip of his coffee, put his cup down, and leaned back in his chair.
“She exhibits a great deal of strength, that’s true.”
“Are you trying to tell me my mother is weak?” I didn’t like the turn this conversation was taking.
“Just the opposite, Keira. I’m saying that because she has a natural vulnerability, she has learned how to stand up for herself when she needs to but also to reach out for help when she needs to.”
I thought about that for a moment. I tried to see Maeve Graham through his eyes rather than my own. I was so used to seeing my mother as the stalwart society matron that I forgot that she was a ... person. With feelings and desires.
Russ sat with his hands crossed in his lap, calmly waiting for me to respond. I tried to see him as my mother saw him. Not as a “replacement” for my father, but as a partner in the next phase in her life’s journey. Sure, he was younger than her, but he had a calm intelligence about him that erased those years. In addition, I could see that with his encouragement, she wasn’t “going wild” with her new hairstyle, clothes, and newfound ability to try things like zip lines. She was just breaking out of her shell to exhibit what must always have been the real her.
It wasn’t as if he gave her confidence, exactly; more like he let her know that he was there to accept and encourage her choices.
“You know what’s odd, Russ,” I finally said.
He tilted his head wordlessly.
“I was so worried about the fact that you were younger and thinking that you were ‘corrupting’ my mother that it never occurred to me that you are actually a stabilizing influence.”
“You’re making me sound like a fuddy-duddy now, Keira! How did I go from being a boy toy to curmudgeon?”
“Boy toy?”
“Well, you were worried that your mother was going to be perceived as a cougar, weren’t you?”
My cheeks flushed.
“I apologize for that. It was just a knee-jerk reaction.”
He laughed.
“I figured as much. But please, you can’t have moved me all the way to the other end of the scale. I mean would a curmudgeon be seen in these shoes?”
He lifted his leg to display a foot that was shod in the latest style from Aldo.
“Well, I have to admit, I thought that if my mother would ever date someone again, he would be a little more Burberry and a little less Armani Exchange.”
“Armani? On my salary?”
“You need to become better friends with Cam. He knows a guy—”
“Keira, much as I’d like to continue this fashion discussion, I want to get back to the other reason I wanted to talk with you privately.”
Rats.
“We’re good now, Russ,” I tried. “If you can accept my apology, I promise I’ll be a less petulant grown-up daughter.”
He took both my hands in his.
“I appreciate that. I never saw you as petulant, just concerned for your mother. I would have been more concerned if you weren’t.”
I looked around, hoping that the others would arrive soon.
“You don’t need to be afraid. I’m not going to pull a fatherly lecture on you.”
“It’s not that. I’m just in the middle of this project, and my mother can surely tell you, I tend to get a little hyper in situations like that, and—”
“And this situation with Brennan McAllister isn’t helping, is it?”
I wanted to answer in so many ways, but I just took a deep breath and sighed, “Yes.”
“I thought so,” he nodded.
“Does the whole family know how foolish I was?” I asked.
“By the way he came searching for you after the dancing, they could tell something had happened. But no one knows the whole story.”
“Did Mother tell you the whole story?”
He nodded.
“She told me last night.”
“And?”
“Well, I know you feel badly, but I don’t think you’re foolish. You’re a beautiful woman. He’s a charming man. You’re not the first couple to be swept away by music and moonlight for a kiss or two.”
“Then Mother didn’t really tell you the whole story. I mean about us knowing each other in college?”
“She said that you realized he was a college classmate and that he apparently recognized you as well—”<
br />
“No, no, no,” I interrupted him, shaking my head from side to side. “That’s not all. I had the mistaken thought that he carried some sort of torch for me, but apparently he just used the fact that we knew each other as an opening gambit after all these years. I’m just lucky I didn’t fall for his line.”
My heart quickened at the recollection of him bending over that anonymous female last night, with the moonlight glinting on the feathers of that ridiculous headdress.
“Keira, sweetheart, that doesn’t make YOU foolish. That just makes you human.”
I sighed once more.
“But, as I said, you remind me of your mother. I know that you won’t let this vulnerable moment overcome you. You are capable and strong. And if you need to be reminded of that, I know you have a great support system in your mother and this delightful adopted family. And, well, I want you to know that you now have me as well.”
My eyes were glistening. I reached over to give him a hug.
“Russ, I am so sorry I underestimated you.”
“It’s no problem. We won’t speak of it anymore, all right, Kee?” His use of my father’s pet name for me should have upset me, but instead it gave me comfort.
I sat back on my chair and grabbed a napkin to dry my eyes.
“Oh, Russ, I really am happy for you and my mother. You have to believe me.”
“I do.” His tone became more brisk. “Now. What would you like me to do about this McAllister fellow? I know I’m not your father, but I’m happy to give him a stern talking to if you want.”
I blew my nose and laughed.
“Oh, I’ll be okay as long as I can keep my meetings with him professional and with others around.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. You travel with your own entourage after all,” he said. “Speaking of which ...”
Across the deck came my mother, Mr. and Mrs. D’Ag, and Damian.
“Russ.”
“Keira?”
“Thank you for this. Thank you for coming into our lives.”
“Thank you for allowing me in.”
“Well, I think we all need a walk after that breakfast,” said Mrs. D’Ag. “That buffet is huge!”
“Mama D.,” I laughed, “I never thought I’d hear you say there was too much food.”
“Oh, not too much food, sweetheart,” she patted my cheek, “just quite a bit.”
She changed subjects easily.
“So, did you two have a nice visit?”
“Very nice.” I smiled at Russ and took his hand.
“Good,” she nodded. “Then we start out for our excursion, no?”
We stood to leave, and I realized that I had only brought my room key with me. I needed to go back to get my bag and other supplies for a morning walk.
“We’ll wait for you to come back so we can all leave the ship together,” said my mother.
“That’s silly. I don’t want to make you late for your excursion. You guys go ahead and leave. And you,” I turned to Damian, “you don’t have to come all the way up to my stateroom. Stay here and be comfortable. I’ll be right back.”
“When will we see you, love?” asked my mother.
“I’ll catch you at the pool? Before dinner?” I hugged each of them, with a special hug for Russ, then moved off briskly toward my stateroom. I hadn’t gotten twenty feet from the secluded alcove when I spun around to go back to remind them that the evening was formal—and crashed into someone.
“Keira,” Brennan McAllister spun me around with his hands on my shoulders and searched my eyes. “I went up to the demo room to find you, and Juliet said you had gone into Cozumel.”
“I did. I am. I will.” I backed up. “Look, Damian is waiting for me to get my things. I need to go.”
“Wait. I need to talk to you.” I saw less Brennan and more Capone in his eyes.
“No time.” I hurried off, and could tell that he would have followed me if Mr. D’Ag hadn’t come up to him at that moment and pulled him by the sleeve of his jacket.
“Well, there’s the man himself! I was just telling Russ here that we could take a tour of these beautiful plants on this deck. Now when was that again?”
I glanced backward and caught his eye just before he pulled himself back into full Brennan McAllister mode.
“Absolutely!” he grinned. “As a matter of fact, I’ll be happy to arrange a private tour for you. It is my job to make everyone on this ship happy.”
Hmm. Maybe the female passengers more so.
Chapter Nineteen
I ducked into my stateroom and ran over to my balcony, went out, and leaned over the rail to see if Brennan was still there with my family. I saw Damian sitting alone, so I could only assume that the family had gone and that Brennan had left to perform his other duties. I grabbed my bag, dashed out, and quickly made for the elevator to descend and join Damian. I must have looked like a B-rated actress as I approached him, glancing over my shoulder looking for a follower.
“Psst,” Damian whispered broadly. “The coast is clear, Mugsy.”
“Har-har.”
He stood and draped his arm across my shoulder, pushing me toward the elevators.
“Come on, before the 1940s music starts playing and Humphrey Bogart appears in a trench coat offering you a cigarette.”
“Not funny, Damian. I would just prefer to get to our walk uninterrupted, that’s all.”
“Okay. Sure.”
We continued in companionable silence until we reached the queue to leave the ship.
“Keira!” called out Neil, who was stationed at the kiosk offering bottled water to passengers leaving for the day. “Or should I say Farrah?”
“Great outfit last night!” chimed in her crewmate Gino, who had been costumed as the construction worker in the Village People. “Bellisima!”
“Thank you! And thank you for letting me participate.”
“Oh, love, you’re one of us!” Neil clapped me on the shoulder.
We walked through the security lines. The machines scanned our keycards and registered each of us as we checked out of the ship, and we heard a distinctive “bong” as each person’s keycard was scanned. We would follow the same process in reverse when we returned to the ship.
When I reached the front of the line, Bryce grinned broadly from his position as keycard checker.
“Ah, Keira me darlin’, there you are. Out for a spin in Cozumel. And with the good father, I see,” he tipped his imaginary hat.
“Good to see you this morning, Bryce. We missed you at Mass,” said Damian.
“He got in a little late last night, Padre,” pointed out his roommate Winston.
Bryce colored.
“Well, good to know you were having fun,” Damian smiled.
“Something like that,” countered Winston.
“Enough, Winston!”
Damian laughed.
“We’ll see you later, fellows!”
“What’s up with that, Damian? I glanced at him sidewise as we walked down the gangway, along the dock.
“Well, he’s been to Mass every morning.”
“What! Bryce the Irish Rover?”
“Mm-hmm. Apparently he promised his ‘dear Mam’.” Damian approximated an Irish accent. “This has been quite an experience for me to meet so many crew members who are happy to have a priest on board.”
We walked on silently for a moment.
“You know,” I said, “I never thought about the fact that you are working on this trip. We just assume you’re vacationing like the rest of us. I’m sorry. Plus I was the one who invited you!”
“Keira, this is what I signed on to do years ago, remember? I don’t technically ‘vacation’ in my profession.”
“I bet you’ve been busy at times this week when we haven’t even realized it.”
“Sure, but I love serving people this way.”
I put my arm through his.
“You’re pretty cool, you know that?”
“We
ll, you’re pretty cool yourself. And I notice that you’ve developed somewhat of a fan club among the crew back there!”
“Oh, that’s just because I was made up to look like Farrah Fawcett.” I leaned on his shoulder as we walked along.
He pulled a small piece of paper out of his pocket, and I peeked at it.
“What’s that address?”
“The Church of San Miguel.”
“Why do you need to visit a church?”
“We have already run out of Communion wafers for daily Mass since so many people have been coming. I’m going to see”—he looked down at the slip—”Father Juan Pablo, who is restocking my supply.”
“Wow, Damian. How did you figure out where you could go for supplies? Do you have some sort of app on your smartphone?”
He laughed. “No, but I should invent that. No, Brennan arranged it.”
At the sound of his name, I jumped a little. “Oh.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I guess that would be something that the cruise director would do.”
Hmm. I guessed Brennan sure could pull the good boy act to the hilt.
I decided that I had talked about Brennan McAllister enough for one morning, so I switched topics.
“So, Damian, are you coming to Alex’s cooking demo tomorrow morning?”
“Of course. Do you think anyone in the family would miss it? Is heckling allowed?”
“As much as I’d like to see that, no please.” I smiled imagining Alex matching wits with her brothers in the audience. “Remember, my reputation is on the line here, too.”
“I wouldn’t worry so much, Keir. I’ve run into a lot of people who are taking the seminars, and I’ve heard so many good things about this whole event. I can’t imagine that you get anything but great reviews.”
“Mmm.” I could only be noncommittal.
“Seriously, Keira, you can’t be worried. This is a great success.”
“I hope so, Damian. I want my business to take off, and this would be a great reference.”
“Well, like Nonna used to say, ‘Que sera sera.’”
“I think that was Doris Day.”
“Are you sure she didn’t get that from Nonna?” He tilted his head quizzically.
Love on the Lido Deck Page 17