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Last Chance at Love

Page 17

by Gwynne Forster


  If he’d ever seen or heard the chief laugh before, he didn’t remember it, and the heavy rumble that came over the phone like the sound of someone gargling a sore throat momentarily stunned him.

  “You just made my day, sir,” he said when he recognized the sound as a laugh.

  “Hmm, and you’ve certainly made mine,” the chief replied, sobriety having returned. “Think you can get off first, stand at the pier, and point those three out to my men?”

  “Do my best. If I can, I’ll get pictures of Lena and Ned and email them to you tonight. It’ll be late, thought.”

  “Great. Expect a promotion when you return to work full-time.”

  “Thanks. I think.” He hung up with the rumble of the chief’s laughter teasing his ear. He had a difficult job ahead, and he had to figure out how to do it without ruining his relationship with Allison. But first, he wanted a swim and something to eat. He phoned Allison, uneasy about the reception he would get.

  “Hello,” he heard, surprised at the merriment in her voice, for he knew she suspected he was her caller.

  Relief flooded his whole being. “Hi, sweetheart. Did you get some rest? How about going for a snack?” When she told him she planned to work and have a snack in her room, her manner let him know that it wasn’t a brush-off. “Then I’ll see you at seven-thirty.”

  After three laps in the Olympic-size pool, he got out, threw on the white terry-cloth robe provided there for the swimmers, stuck his feet in a pair of sandals, and went to the snack bar. He put rock-shrimp salad, a roll, and a glass of lemonade on a tray, got a table on deck, and let the sun and soft sea breeze tranquilize him.

  He had expected to hate the tour, because he had low tolerance for small talk, and what else could one expect of a one-minute conversation with a stranger? The complications he had expected as a result of Allison’s presence on the tour had not materialized. Instead, he’d found a woman who suited him socially, psychologically, and physically. He liked an intelligent goal-oriented woman who stood up for her rights. And she was that, the kind of woman who kept a man on his toes and his engine revved.

  By the time he left the deck an hour and a half later, he had a plan for delivering Lena and her cohorts to the feds. Deciding not to risk a nap, he prowled around the Saint Marie, seeking evidence of stowaways, but found none. At seven-thirty he knocked on Allison’s door.

  Allison opened the door and stared at Jake, resplendent in a gray tuxedo, red cummerbund and handkerchief, and black patent shoes. She knew her face mirrored her pleasure in seeing him, and she didn’t try to hide the fact. How glad she was that she wore the red silk sheath she’d purchased especially for the gala evening, for his eyes shone with delight as he nodded his head, appreciating what his eyes beheld.

  “Beautiful.” He breathed the word. “How did I get to be so fortunate? Lovely,” he said, bending to kiss her cheek. “Everyone will think we planned to dress this way.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. You look wonderful.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I tried.”

  She couldn’t get used to the diffidence in him. “It’s not much of a stretch,” she said in what she meant as a mild reprimand. The man had to know that he could knock a woman’s socks off just by showing up.

  After the reception for first-and veranda-class passengers, they took their places at the table assigned to them. “This is my next to last chance to observe the people and how they behave,” he told her, “so I may seem a little inattentive. I’ve noticed two people who fit a character I’ve got in my head.”

  “I’ll forgive you, if you promise to make it up to me.”

  He did for her what a magnet does for nails as he smiled down at her, his wink reinforcing his magnetism. When her breath quickened, his nostrils flared and his eyes possessed her. She lowered her gaze, wondering where her passion for him would lead, but for the first time, thinking about the possibilities did not distress her. He reached for the hand she’d placed in her lap, gazed down at her, and grinned. “There’s not a woman in this room who can hold a candle to you.”

  She tried to smile, praying that he would still feel that way when he read her story of him in The Journal.

  However, although from his smile and the lights in his eyes he seemed the ardent lover, Jake’s mind was not focused on Allison, but on the two empty seats at their table. He had been careful to cover his every move, and he knew that no one on that ship could identify him as an agent. So where were Lena and Ned? They had boarded; he knew that much. He resisted checking the breakfast room, also referred to as the cafeteria; but not going there cost him a lot in anxiety.

  The waiters began to serve the first course, and he accepted that “Ned” might forego the meal so as not to show his face. But shortly after they began eating, Lena and Ned arrived, took their seats, and apologized for their tardiness.

  Jake’s heartbeat accelerated when “Ned” smiled, for the Ned who sat with them the night before did not have a left gold incisor and a vacant piece of a crown on the right side of his mouth. Satisfied that he had his man, Jake turned his attention to Allison.

  “Did you say you wanted us to go to Idlewild next weekend?”

  She nodded. “I thought you had forgotten it.”

  “Not a chance. Unless circumstances are beyond my control, I make good on my word. Did you say something special is going on up there next weekend?”

  “The annual barbecue feast, and my aunt is one of the prime movers, so she’ll have a fit if I don’t go. Left to her, the place would be crawling with people every day of the year.”

  The possibility occurred to him that a jazz band might have been engaged for the festivities. He had to be sure.

  “What kind of entertainment do they usually have?”

  “Gee, I don’t know. The barbecue starts Saturday around noon and continues through Sunday.”

  “I can go up with you Friday evening, but I need to get back home late Saturday. And don’t forget we’re scheduled to leave for San Antonio Monday afternoon.”

  She looked down at the table, folded and unfolded her hands. “I have to be circumspect around my aunt, so we—”

  He interrupted her. “Honey, what do you take me for? I’d never compromise you. Besides, I’ll stay at the inn.”

  “But my aunt would be mortified if you did that. She lives alone in a big house. It’s just that...that you can’t walk in your sleep.”

  “Huh?” He threw his head back and laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Lady, if I ever walked in my sleep, I didn’t hear about it. You be sure you don’t do that.”

  “I’ll give myself a good talking-to before I go to bed.”

  The dinner feast went on for nearly two hours, and then the entertainment began with the waiters in a conga line singing “Roll Out the Barrel.” Waiters passed a microphone around to patrons, asking them to sing a few bars of their favorite song. He nearly jumped out of his chair when Allison begin singing “Summertime,” her beautiful soprano lovelier than the voices of all the singers who sang before her.

  “You could have had a successful career as a singer,” he told her.

  “I wanted to be a singer, but my mother wouldn’t hear of it; she looks down on entertaining as a profession. Says it’s demeaning.”

  “What? Is she serious?”

  “Yes, she certainly is. When I told her you were a writer, her next question was, ‘Did he win the Noble Prize?’ We have nothing in common, and there are times when thinking about it makes me so sad.”

  “That’s a pity.”

  The meal over, the waiters announced the traditional midnight supper, when the cooks would display their artistic skills, presenting elegant and intricate aspic-encased meats, poultry, and wild game, as well as salads and prize-winning desserts. The waiters asked the guests at that table how they enjoyed the
food, and, after receiving a chorus of approval, passed the hat, which returned to them full of twenty-dollar bills.

  As Jake had hoped, wine, and plenty of it, had the passenger in a mellow mood. He took his cell phone from the inside breast pocket of his jacket, stood, and looked at Allison.

  “Smile. I want a picture of you as a reminder of one of the most wonderful three days of my life.” Her slight frown told him she questioned his saying that loud enough for everyone at their table to hear it. “Smile, sweetheart.” She did and he clicked the camera built into his phone.

  Quickly, he turned to the other guests, said, “Everybody smile,” and photographed Lena and her Ned just as a loud gasp escape the woman. Pretending not to have heard it, he grinned displaying a pleasure more genuine that any of them could have realized.

  “Thank you all. I’ll keep this little memento forever.”

  * * *

  “I’m not up to midnight supper,” he told Allison later as they strolled on deck. “After that dinner, I don’t see how I can begin another meal two hours from now, but if you want to, of course, I’ll go with you.”

  “It’s a beautiful night,” she said. “Let’s play it by ear.”

  How unlike her! he thought. She usually wants everything cut-and-dried, but she chooses to be uncertain at a time when I need to account for very minute. Well, it was the chief’s idea, and he had to deal with her presence as best he could.

  Making certain that he understood her, he stopped walking, took her hand, and asked, “Are you telling me you want us to...to be together tonight?”

  “No...I... What do you mean?”

  “I mean it’s the last night on the ship. Do you want to spend the night with me?”

  When she didn’t look at him, he had his answer. “I... Don’t you want to?” she asked him, and he had a feeling she was about to give him a display of temper.

  He put both arms around her and brought her close to him. “Shame on you. How could you doubt it? You like to know you are desired, that I want you. Well, I need the same assurance.”

  They went inside, and when the music to “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” came over the loudspeaker, Allison looked at him. “Come on, don’t you line dance?”

  He shook his head. “You go ahead and enjoy it. I’ll wait right here.”

  He liked to line dance occasionally, though he didn’t think it went well with ball gowns and tuxedos, but he wanted to send the chief the photo of Lena and “Ned.” After emailing it along with directions for the department’s man the following morning, he found a chair and watched the dancers.

  A sweet and terrible hunger stirred in him as he watched her move to the music, her lithe body supple and enticing in that red guided-missile that hugged her frame. If it pleased her to have his company, he would eat a midnight supper, though he didn’t want it, and he would dance all night, although he wasn’t in the mood.

  That foot-stomping country tune ended and the sound of “Diane,” one of his favorites, filled the air. He reached Allison just as a man who had been dancing beside her turned to ask for a dance.

  “Sorry, buddy,” he said, putting an arm around Allison’s waist, “she’s my date.”

  The man looked up at Jake as if to measure his chances, smiled, and said, “Some guys have all the luck.”

  He moved with her in three-quarter time and sang the first words of the romantic tune softly for her ears alone. “I’m in heaven when I see you smile” were the words he sang to her, and she closed her eyes and stepped closer to him.

  Life had never been easy for him, and he neither wanted nor expected it to be. He had always welcomed a challenge as an opportunity to succeed, even to excel, but for the first time he resented the hurdle facing him, hated the mountain of secrets and unexplainable actions on his part that could tear her from him for all time. She had her secrets, too, and he suspected that they loomed equally large in her life. For the first time, too, he admitted to himself that he didn’t know what he would do if he lost her.

  “Do you still want a late night supper,” he whispered, “or would some champagne, hors d’oeuvres, and petit fours in your room do just as well?”

  “That will be perfect so long as you’re there.”

  He squeezed her gently. “Let’s go.”

  He went first to his room, ordered the food and champagne to be sent to Allison’s stateroom, took off his jacket, and went out on the deck. She didn’t want an affair with him, she’d said, but hadn’t they already begun one? He turned from the railing and knocked on her door.

  She opened it, reached up, and kissed his cheek. He noticed at once that she had combed her hair down to her shoulders and knew she’d done it to please him.

  “Am I welcome without my jacket?”

  She grinned, bowed, and stepped aside. “It isn’t the jacket that makes the man; it’s the other way around.”

  “This has been a long, and very full day. Are you tired?”

  “A little, but I’m mostly sorry this is ending.”

  “Sorry we won’t be together like this, or sorry the ship is docking tomorrow morning?”

  Her left eyebrow shot up, and he wondered why a right-handed person didn’t raise the right eyebrow. “Jake, I remember you said you need assurance just as I do. Last night, I gave you that assurance.”

  She was right, of course, and he didn’t know why he kept pressing for more. “Yes, you did, but somehow it’s too good to believe,” he said and got up to answer the door. “Our food is here.

  “I suppose I can’t believe that, after thirty-five years, this is happening to me,” he told her as he set the food on the table, “that my life is shaping up as I hoped it would. There’s just one more thing, and it’s just as important.”

  “You mean recognition at your university?”

  He handed her a glass of champagne, sat beside her on the tufted, velvet-covered love seat, and nodded. “Yes, and it may be the one thing I miss out on.”

  “But you’re a household name. Isn’t that enough?”

  “I never wanted to be a household name. I still don’t, and I’m not sure I am; authors are rarely that popular unless they become famous first. What about you? What do you want? We’ve been together for weeks, and I still feel sometimes that I hardly know you.” She seemed to tense at those words, and his antenna shot up.

  “I’m what you see, Jake. If you can wait until this tour is over, I’ll feel free to...to open myself fully to you.”

  “Why then?”

  She shifted in her seat so that he could see her face. “Because these two roles I’m playing in your life are in conflict. I...I care so deeply for you, but if you lose your temper tomorrow and flatten a man with your fists, I have to report it in my story. You won’t do that, but the possibility is there, and until I’m out of this situation I can’t give the way I want to.”

  He put an arm around her and rested her head on his shoulder. “It won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best to reduce the strain on you. Let’s not let this good stuff go to waste,” he said, reaching for a tiny crab cake and, at the same moment, deciding to sleep in his own bed. “I’ve ordered breakfast for us here at seven. The ship docks at eight, and we have to be down in the luggage room by eight-fifteen. Our bags must be beside our doors by midnight.”

  “Eight-fifteen? I thought we disembarked at nine-thirty.”

  He’d been expecting that. “Some do, but not us. I wanted to spend the night with you, but if I do, we won’t get up in time. Will you be hurt if I leave you now?”

  Her smile, rueful and a little sad, tugged at his heart. “I’ll miss you, but if you stay here, my suitcases won’t be at that door come midnight. Thanks for ordering breakfast. Imagine dealing with that crowd and getting out of here by eight-fifteen.” She stood. “Kiss me and scoot.”

 
She was never more dear to him than at that moment. If she was disappointed, she didn’t emphasize it, and she didn’t pout or try to detain him. She went into his arms willingly, caressed his face with the back of her hand the way she seemed to enjoy doing, raised her hands to his nape, and parted her lips. He had an urge to plunge into her as heat flooded his body, but he brought himself under control and pressed the tip of his tongue between her lips. When she would have pulled him in, he stroked her back and kissed her softly, her eyes, cheeks, and neck, adoring her and cherishing her.

  He tasted the briny moisture, tipped up her face, and looked at her. “You’re crying. What’s the matter?”

  She shook her head, denying his words. “Am I? I’m...Jake, I’m so happy.”

  He took the handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the teardrops. “I am, too,” he said, “and if I don’t leave this minute, I may be here when the boat docks.”

  She reached up and pressed her lips to his. “Good night, my darling.”

  He stared down at her for a second. Get out of here, man. You’re not made of iron. “Good night, love. Sleep well.” He closed her door and, as if propelled by some inner force, managed to get into his stateroom. He stood beside the closed door for a long time as his mind traveled back again and again over the last hour.

  “There’s no denying it,” he said aloud as he prepared for bed. “I love her, and I’ve got to do what I can to preserve this relationship.”

  “I’m not going to second-guess him,” Allison said to herself as she locked and tagged her bags. “He hasn’t said it, but he loves me. No man could cherish a woman as he did me tonight if she wasn’t deep in his heart.”

  He didn’t tell her his reason for wanting to get off the boat as soon as it docked, but she couldn’t ask of him what she wasn’t prepared to give, so she didn’t pry. Another ten days; she didn’t see how she could endure them. At a quarter of twelve, she set her bags outside at her door and went to bed. Except for the few minutes Sydney had spent with them, she and Jake were never with people who knew them, and maybe that was one of their problems.

 

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