Life, Liberty, and Pursuit

by Susan Kaye Quinn

  “Your Basic Training is in Chicago?”

  “Eight weeks at the Great Lakes Naval Station, and then I go to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. I’m training to be a linguist.” Again, he watched her carefully. He didn’t usually get this far in explaining his plans, but she didn’t seem horrified or appalled, and there was some part of him that wanted to share this with her.

  A linguist?” she asked, eyebrows raised. “What will you do? Translate terrorist phone calls?”

  He smiled at her obvious interest. “That and whatever else they need me to do. I have to spend two years at the Institute first. Then I’ll be deployed wherever they need me. I could be translating for a diplomat or negotiating with a foreign power. I’m hoping to get to do intelligence work, though.”

  She was completely absorbed in what he was saying, and he drew closer to her, away from the periodic gusts of sea breeze whipping around the tied-down curtain.

  “It must be nice to know that what you’re doing is important—makes a difference,” she said, studying his face and sounding a little wistful. He was completely taken by her. Somehow she had figured out in an instant what some members of his family still didn’t understand. Once again, he had an overwhelming urge to kiss her. He tried to distract himself by staring at her hands, instead of her face.

  “What will you study at Princeton?” he asked, just glancing at her face.

  She looked away. “I don’t really know yet. Is that strange?”

  “No. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted, too.”

  They were silent, and he realized that her beautiful green dress was slowly getting soaked in the rain. Eliza, soaking wet, was not going to help with his determination to not take advantage of her gratitude.

  “Are you feeling better?” He examined her face again. She had regained some color, although she was still pale in the dim walkway lights.

  “Yes. I think it was just being inside that warm room, and …”

  “And?”

  “And I really haven’t had any solid food since last night.”

  He shook his head. “Let’s get you inside where it’s dry, and I’ll see if we can scare something up for you to eat.”

  He took her hand, warm and delicate in his, and led her back through a different door than they came out. He knew there was twenty-four hour food service two decks down in the mezzanine level, and the stairs should be nearby. Having memorized the maps early on was coming in handy.

  * * *

  She slowly tore bits of her bagel and ate them, one at a time, trying to prolong the process. They had quickly found the bagel shop a couple of flights down in a nearly deserted lounge. David watched her eat, concern on his face, and looked ridiculously good in his dark suit and white shirt spotted with sea spray. Her pathetic attempt at flirtation had failed. When she kissed him, for a moment she thought maybe … but then he had whipped his hand away, as though he didn’t want to give her any wrong ideas.

  She was, of course, being silly. He was so far out of her league it wasn’t even sensible to think he might want her. Still, he was here, caring for her. Maybe he felt she was a hopeless stray that needed looking after. He at least seemed to enjoy her company, and just sitting and listening to that slight, rhythmic accent of his was enough to keep her happy. She still couldn’t place it—maybe something Eastern European?

  “What are you thinking?” His blue eyes burned with curiosity.

  “Wondering if this bagel is going to stay down,” she lied.

  “You look good.” Then, smiling and looking slightly embarrassed, “At least you’re not green anymore.” Her heart did a little flip. She looked at her bagel again, trying not to stare. It was simply not fair that he was so good to look at.

  “I really don’t think I can eat this whole thing. If I promise to eat breakfast, can we let this rest in peace?” She motioned to the scattering of bagel bits on her napkin.

  He gave her a half-grin that she couldn’t help returning.

  “I should probably get you back to your cabin, or your family will wonder where you are.” In making their way down from the deck, he had called his father to say they weren’t coming back to dinner. She deposited her bagel shreds in the trash as they left the lounge.

  “Um.” She stopped at the edge of the lounge and realized she had no idea how to get to her cabin.

  “It’s this way.” He pointed to a stairwell down the hall that she had not even seen.

  “You certainly seem to know your way around the ship,” she said. “I tend to get lost as soon as I leave my cabin.”

  He grinned. “I memorized the maps.”

  She raised her eyebrows at him, but didn’t say anything. He was smart as well as gorgeous. She was beginning to wonder if he was tailor-made to be impossibly attractive to her. She was sure it couldn’t be easy to get into the linguist program in the Navy, and she could see why they wanted him; there was something fascinating about the way he thought. In the Navy, he would be a part of something important, something with a purpose—defending their country, catching the bad guys. Her agonizing over a major seemed an inconsequential thing by comparison.

  She imagined him in a Navy uniform. Sweet Mother. She tried to push that image aside before it could make her blush. They walked up the stairs, towards the fifth deck and her cabin. She realized how very different they were; he was a future sailor while she was an aimless girl who actually fell into pools.

  It depressed her, and she must have sighed because he asked, “You okay?” He had that look of gentle concern again.

  She smiled as best she could. “Yeah. Just tired.”

  “Well, you should rest up.” They had reached her cabin. She wondered how he knew which one it was, and then realized that he was stopping at Johnny and Mia’s cabin. “Tomorrow we make port at Nassau,” he said. “Are you and your family going to disembark?”

  “I’m sure Mia and Johnny have made some kind of plans; I just don’t know what they are.” She wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow, adventuring with Mia and Johnny on the island. “Um, my cabin is over here.” She stepped past him to cabin 537.

  “Oh,” he said. “I thought you said five-three-five before.”

  “Lucky for me, Mia and Johnny got me a separate cabin.” As she spoke, he seemed to eye her door a little nervously. “They just got married, so this is really their honeymoon.”

  “I thought he seemed a little young to be your dad,” he said, realization dawning on his face.

  “Well, Mom loves him, so I guess that’s what counts.” She shrugged, a bit embarrassed to be talking about her wacky family life. “I wouldn’t be coming at all, but Mom wanted to give me a birthday-and-graduation present all wrapped into one.”

  He blazed a breathtaking smile. “So, how old is the birthday girl?”

  “Eighteen,” she said, wondering why this would be at all interesting to him. “Oh!” she burst out. “I forgot! I have something for you.”

  She punched the code to her room, giving silent thanks for electronic locks because she was horrible at keeping track of keys, and dashed into her room. She left David standing in the hallway with a bewildered look on his face, so she hurried through her small cabin, ran into the bathroom, and snagged his jacket off the shower stall. It was already dry, although it was wrinkled and worse for the wear. She scurried back out to him.

  “I thought you might want this back.” She handed the jacket to him, a little out of breath. He looked surprised and then realized it was his. “Sorry, it’s a little crumpled, but it had a tough night.” She smiled up at him.

  He seemed to hesitate, looking into her eyes with an expression she couldn’t quite understand. He dropped his gaze, studying the jacket for a moment. She looked down at it as well, hoping there was nothing seriously wrong with it.

>   Then he looked at her through his long, dark lashes and smiled. “Thanks. I’m sure I’ll need it tomorrow.”

  That look made her heart flutter again, and she had a crazy urge to reach up and kiss him. She needed to leave before she embarrassed herself again.

  “Um. Well, good night, then.” She started backing towards her cabin. He didn’t make any motion to leave, just stared at her with a serious look on his face.

  “Good night.”

  She backed into her room, smiling nervously once more and closing the door. She sighed, undone by her near encounter with him—again. How could he turn her to Jell-O with one look? It was humiliating. If she ever saw him again, she vowed to not act like a love-sick puppy simply because he flashed those blue eyes at her. She turned and looked through the peephole, hoping for one last look, but he was already gone.

  Chapter 5

  Landfall

  David was in the pool again. It was bottomless and cold, and she sat at the far edge, silver moonlight making her pale skin radiant. She wore a green cocktail dress that was out of place at the pool’s edge. She was laughing and dipping her bare toes in the water, splashing the water up into the air and turning it into silver raindrops as they splashed back down to the pool. He swam toward her, head up, not wanting to look away. He kept swimming and swimming but never seemed to get any closer. He looked away for a moment, to see if he was close to the edge and could possibly get out and walk to her. When he looked back, she was gone.

  He startled awake, cringing against the bright sunshine streaming in the porthole. It was morning already; it seemed he had been asleep for only a moment. As he sat up, the events of the night before flooded back, and the guilt weighed him back down. When she had thanked him on the deck, he had so nearly kissed her. And then later, when he realized she was eighteen and had her own cabin … it was as if all his defenses were falling like dominoes. He glanced at his jacket, now draped across the back of a chair. Getting it back was the reminder he needed that he shouldn’t take advantage of her gratitude, no matter how appealing she was in that dress. Still, it was a good thing she retreated to her cabin when she did. As he started looking around for his watch, Tomasz burst into their cabin.

  “Hey, you’re finally up!” he said. He was dressed in gym clothes, sweaty from a workout.

  “Hey,” David said, still a little groggy. “You went without me?” He wondered how he got so lucky.

  “Well, you were having some kind of dream, little bro.” Tomasz smirked. “Didn’t sound like I should interrupt.”

  David frowned, embarrassed that his nighttime Eliza musings weren’t as private as he thought. “I thought you didn’t want me to go soft,” he said, trying to change the subject.

  “Well, maybe you can make up for it later. Right now, we’ve got to get going. The girls are going to be waiting for us.” Tomasz peeled off his damp workout gear and started the shower.

  “Girls?” David frowned again. What had Tomasz gotten him into this time?

  Tomasz produced a wicked grin, as if he had been waiting for David to ask. “Mom and Dad are going on some expedition with Eliza’s parents, and Tea wanted a sightseeing and shopping partner, so we’re taking the girls into port with us.”

  What? David sat straighter and shot a look to Tomasz.

  “I thought that might catch your interest,” Tomasz said. “Don’t get your hopes up, though. They won’t be with us the whole time.” Tomasz called out the last words as he climbed into the shower.

  The whole time? How was he going to manage to spend the day with Eliza without—what? Grabbing her around the waist and kissing her? He had barely made it through the brief time with her last night. He would act as though they were friends, which shouldn’t be hard because they weren’t anything more than friends. He wasn’t actually sure if they were even friends. He rubbed his temples with his fingers. He would have to pretend he wasn’t hopelessly attracted to her. Right.

  He slipped on some crumpled shorts and a wrinkled navy blue polo shirt that had been stuffed in one of the drawers, dragging his fingers through his hair before deciding that it was useless. He barely had time to get dressed before there was a banging on their cabin door. He reluctantly opened it to find Tea beaming, with a nervous looking Eliza standing behind her. Tea slid past him into their room, which he realized looked like a suitcase had exploded in it.

  “Are you ready yet?” Tea sang as she hopped onto the bed. He ignored her and gazed at Eliza, who had stayed in the hallway and looked as uncomfortable as he felt. She was dressed in khaki shorts that showed off her long legs, with sandals on her delicate feet and a white sleeveless shirt that bared her pale shoulders. Her dark hair was tied up off her face, revealing her long, slender neck.

  He swallowed, hard, and tried to sound normal. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning.” She looked apologetic with that beautiful blush rising up in her cheeks. “I hope you don’t mind me joining you. My mom kind of insisted—I think she’s afraid I’ll fall off Prince George Wharf and drown if I don’t have someone to keep an eye on me.”

  He smiled wider, suddenly feeling more at ease. “I’m glad you’re coming.” He added quickly, “Tea is really annoying when she doesn’t have a shopping partner.”

  She seemed to relax a little. “Apparently I can’t leave Mia and Johnny alone too long before they start hatching plans.”

  He tore his eyes away from her and turned on Tea. “And I suppose you had nothing to do with this?”

  Tea shrugged. “I needed someone to help me ravage the stores of Bay Street, and Eliza is much more fun than you are, David.”

  He flashed a smile at Eliza. “Well, I’m sure you’re right about that.”

  “So, let’s go!” said Tomasz, finally coming out of the bathroom and joining them. He looked much more presentable than David, in his pressed white polo and shorts. “Good morning, Eliza,” Tomasz said warmly. With his back to Eliza, David glared a warning at Tomasz.

  Tea jumped up with a small squeak of delight, threw him a mischievous look, put an arm around Eliza, and dragged her out of their cabin. Eliza looked back at him as if to say what have I gotten myself into? He chuckled as they followed the girls.

  The balmy, tropical air hit them as they disembarked, walking down the long, steep gangplank that connected the Miss Liberty to the pier. The ship released its passengers quickly, and crowds gathered on the pier as people made plans for the day.

  Nassau was the modern capital city of the Bahamas, but the downtown area was pure tourist trap. Even from the crowded pier they could see the large casino buildings dotting the coast and white sand beaches stretching away into the distance. Several cruise ships were docked at the numerous piers fronting the downtown Bay Street area. Gentle foothills, lined with Georgian style buildings left over from Nassau’s colonial past, rose up behind the picturesque shopping district.

  Tea and Eliza were in the lead, still hooked arm in arm, Eliza’s long, dark hair swinging with their determined steps. Tea looked back over her shoulder and grinned at David, catching him watching them. He scowled at her and her evil plans, whatever they were. When they had worked their way through the blockade of aimless tourists and neared the end of the pier, they pulled to the side, out of the main current of the crowd. Tea was a woman on a mission, and she quickly outlined their plans as they gathered around the map she had unfolded.

  He scanned the map as she spoke, trying to memorize the major points of interest and their general location. Their pier emptied out onto Prince George Wharf, which in turn ended in the downtown area. Bay Street ran one block south of the Wharf and lateral to the beaches, comprising the majority of the downtown area. Several streets ran parallel to Bay Street, moving further up into the foothills with the older, colonial section of town.

  “First, Eliza and I are going to hit the shops along
Bay Street,” Tea said as David surveyed the map. “You boys will just have to find something else to do, unless you want to come hold our shopping bags?”

  Tomasz gave her a disgusted look, to which Tea smirked. “This afternoon, we’ll hit the Straw Market. But we’ll meet back up for lunch here.” She pointed to a major intersection. “Can you manage not to get lost?” she asked. David narrowed his eyes at her. “All right then, see you at twelve o’clock, boys. Stay out of trouble!” Then she grabbed Eliza’s hand, and they quickly disappeared in the streaming river of tourists flowing into downtown. He stared after them a little too long, so Tomasz smacked him on the shoulder.

  “Stop drooling, pretty boy.” Tomasz laughed, and David narrowed his eyes, silently daring Tomasz to taunt him further. “Let’s go,” Tomasz said, shaking his head. They were quickly swept along to the Wharf. Seagulls darted in and out of the tangle of tourist legs, snatching leftovers from the many snack shops lining each edge of the wooden-planked pier.

  “Where are we going?” David looked hopefully up at the foothills that could still be seen above the crowd of heads around them. He wouldn’t mind strolling around some classic Georgian architecture.

  “I have an idea. I’ll know it when I see it,” Tomasz said. David looked at him skeptically but said nothing.

  “So, how was last night?” Tomasz asked with a lopsided grin.

  “What do you mean?” David frowned.

  “Well, you and Eliza were gone quite a while. Did you have fun?”

  David was suddenly steaming as he realized the assumption around the table about their absence was a lot more damning than what really happened. “I told you, it’s not like that. We’re …” He stalled out in his anger, realizing that he wasn’t sure if they were friends. “I mean, she’s just …”

  Tomasz laughed at him, making him even angrier. He gave up trying to explain and glared at Tomasz instead.

  “David, seriously man, what is your problem? She’s beautiful; she obviously likes you—” Tomasz stopped when David shot a look at him.