by Nancy Warren
Even though the three of them were having fun, Toni was a teensy bit frustrated. She’d boarded the ship with such high hopes of sharing her passion for Lady Bianca with other passengers, but the Norovirus outbreak was proving to be a worthy adversary. The two women Linda had booked for facials and beauty consultations cancelled. And good luck handing out a sample pack. Passengers were paranoid about touching anything handled by another person, even if it contained a mini starter pack of this season’s colors.
There was no point even offering makeovers. Nobody wanted a stranger in their cabin and, truth to tell, Toni wasn’t crazy about the idea of going to another person’s cabin anyway. The virus was spreading faster than juicy gossip.
Toni searched her mom’s and her daughter’s faces each morning for any sign of illness. Linda looked about the same, but Tiffany had never looked healthier. The girl was absolutely blooming. She had a feeling her daughter’s daily visits to the gym were a big reason for her glow.
“Are you sure the gym is a good idea?” Linda had said this morning. “There are so many people there and they touch and sweat on everything.”
“Grandma, think about it. Only healthy people go to the gym. And I sterilize the equipment both before I use it and after. I’m fine.”
She certainly looked fine.
Toni wasn’t a fool, even though her daughter obviously thought she was. If she and her gym crush were working out, she supposed it was harmless. However, maybe Zumba hadn’t worked off as many calories as she’d packed on at the breakfast buffet this morning. Maybe she needed a stint on the elliptical machine.
In the gym.
She changed direction, passing the mysterious A. Vlodovitch’s door one more time.
In order to get to the gym, she went up on deck and enjoyed a few minutes in the sunshine on her way. She passed the big pool and the spa pools. A steel band played and a number of the loungers were occupied by reading, dozing, suntanning passengers.
She noticed Caitlyn and her attendants, though she seemed to be one bridesmaid short. They all wore hospital masks and occupied a corner far from other passengers.
“Hi, y’all,” Toni called out, ever friendly.
Caitlyn motioned her nearer, then held up a hand when she got within about six feet. What on earth?
“Are you feeling all right?” Caitlyn asked, lifting her mask in order to speak.
“Fine. You?”
Caitlyn glared at the other three, who gazed at her over their masks like three frightened nurses. “Susanne’s sick. I told them to stay away from other passengers, but does anyone listen to me? It’s only the most important day of my entire life in two days. What if she’s not better?”
“I’m sure she’ll be better in time,” Toni said soothingly.
“She didn’t mean to get sick,” Lauren said, lifting her mask.
“Did I or did I not tell her she couldn’t go ashore?”
“She looked fine last night, at karaoke.” But Toni had to wonder whether listening to Matt and his drunk buddies destroy a hunk of “Burning Love” had made her ill. The rendition had certainly made Toni queasy.
“Well, now she’s in voluntary quarantine in her cabin.”
“Who’s sharing with her?”
“Nobody. Her fiance was supposed to come, but at the last minute he backed out.”
“Oh, poor thing,” Toni said. “So she’s stuck paying for a whole cabin by herself?”
The bride seemed very unconcerned. “Her boyfriend’s loaded. It’s no big deal. But you—I really, really need for you and your mom not to get sick.”
“And we will really, really try to stay healthy,” she promised.
After that conversation, she decided that a stint in the gym was exactly what she did need. And how she was going to get through the wedding day preparations without decking the bride was going to be an issue. At least Tiffany would be in the gym and she could tell her all about her latest run-in with the bride from hell. Tiffany could always make her laugh.
However, Tiffany wasn’t in the fitness center at all.
Toni dropped her subtle act and searched the fitness area thoroughly. Her daughter was not there.
Maybe it wasn’t a big deal, but her almost 17-year-old daughter was a bit of a late bloomer where boys were concerned. Toni didn’t want her finding herself in a situation she didn’t have the experience to handle. Toni decided to make a casual tour of the ship until she accidentally bumped into her.
There was a lot of ship. Toni started with the obvious places—the main decks, the pool areas, the lounge chairs stacked side by side like cots in a barracks. No Tiffany.
She moved on to the cafeteria, then the coffee shop, the library, and the Internet café, by this time feeling generally irritated. How hard could it be to find her own daughter on a cruise ship?
Naturally, her mother tiger instincts jumped to the fore and she began to imagine that Fitness Boy had somehow lured her daughter to his stateroom.
Not on my watch.
She finally ran Tiffany and Fitness Boy to ground in the Navigator nightclub, which was a happening place at night, but completely empty at this time of day except for Tiffany and the boy, who sat together in a booth. They hadn’t seen her yet and for a heart-stopping moment she watched as her daughter leaned in toward her companion, her face alight with laughter and the glow of a teenager experiencing her first love.
The young man reached up and tucked Tiffany’s hair behind one ear, mimicking the gesture her daughter so often made when she was feeling nervous or uncertain. He seemed very sure of himself for his age, which was clearly older than her own daughter’s sixteen years.
He was good-looking, smooth, tall, and charming. A very dangerous combination. Toni fell back in time and could imagine that happy young girl to be herself at sixteen and the practiced charmer to be Dwayne.
Tiffany would not appreciate what she was about to do, but motherhood, as she had discovered, was no popularity contest. If she could save her daughter from falling into the same trap that she herself had fallen into at the very same age, she would do it.
She plastered a big fake smile on her face and stepped forward. “Well hi, y’all,” she said. There was no point pretending this was an accidental meeting. They had so clearly chosen this spot in order to be alone.
The charmer turned without a hint of embarrassment or guilt—so like Dwayne—but Tiffany jerked as though she had been shot and blushed a deep, mortified, if-I-had-a-gun-I-would-kill-my-mother-this-second red. “Mom, what are you doing here?” Her voice was low and tense.
“Obviously, honey, I was looking for you.” She turned to the charmer and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Toni Diamond. Tiffany’s mother.”
The boy rose and extended his own hand, shaking hers. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m Wade Templeton.”
“Why don’t you join us for lunch, Wade? It would be real nice to get to know you.” She might phrase it as a question, but she used the same don’t mess with me tone that she used on the Lady Bianca supply team if they were late with an order.
He glanced at her, glanced at Tiffany, and said, “I’d like to, but—” There was an awkward pause and she waited, eyebrows raised, until he finished lamely, “I don’t think I can. Not today.”
“Well, I’m real sorry to hear that. Maybe another time?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
“I came to scoop you for lunch, Tiff. Your grandmother’s waiting.”
She could feel her daughter fuming with fury and she kept the determined smile on her face until Wade Templeton fumbled a goodbye and made a fast retreat.
“How could you?” Tiffany turned on her the second he was gone. She was so angry her hands were shaking.
“How could I? How could you tell me you’re going to the gym when in fact you’re sneaking off with some boy?”
“He’s not some boy, he’s nice and I like him.”
“If he’s so nice, why won’t he join your family for lunch?”<
br />
“Because he’s here with his own family, except that he actually likes them because they don’t go out of their way to humiliate him.” Tiffany got up and stomped toward the exit.
“Wait, what about lunch?”
“I’m not hungry.” As her daughter stormed out, Toni was left wondering, not for the first time, if she was ever going to get the hang of this mothering thing.
“Did I screw up, Mama?” she asked Linda after she’d run through the entire incident for her mother over lunch at a table for two.
“Honey, you’re doing the best you can. It’s all any of us can do. But Tiffany’s not like you. That girl’s got a head on her shoulders that neither you nor I had at her age. I know you’re scared she’ll make the same mistakes you and I did, but I don’t think she’s going to. Maybe you should trust her.”
Toni rubbed her temples. “It’s not her I don’t trust. It’s that boy. He’s too old for her, too practiced. Too damn smooth.”
Tiffany had not returned to the stateroom by the time they came back after lunch and Toni suspected it would be some time before they saw her.
On impulse, she pulled out her cell phone and called Luke. She’d pay a fortune in roaming charges from out here, but she didn’t care.
“Marciano,” he barked in her ear, as he did every time she phoned him.
“Honey, I need you to do me a favor. I need you to do a background check on someone.”
“What the hell have you got involved in this time?” He sounded a little irate and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. She did have a bad habit of getting into some sticky situations. However, this time she wasn’t in one and she was very determined that her daughter wouldn’t fall into one either.
“It’s not me. It’s Tiffany.”
“Tiffany?” Luke might not show it often, but he had a soft spot for Tiffany a mile wide. “What’s going on? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, but there is this boy she’s been hanging around with and I don’t like the look of him. He’s too smooth, too shiny, too old for her.” She thought back on their brief conversation. “And he refused to join us for lunch.”
“You want me to do a background check on someone because they refuse to have lunch with you? Honey, if I had to do a background check on every person who didn’t want to join you for a meal, I’d be working full time plus putting in some hefty overtime.”
“Please, Luke. She’s my baby. I’m worried about her.”
“What’s his name? Age? Address?”
“His name is Wade Templeton. Age approximately nineteen. No idea on the address.” She recalled his voice. “But he sounds like he’s from the East Coast. Boston, maybe, or New York, but with a private-school accent.”
“Not much to go on.” He sounded grumpy, which, with Luke, was usually a sign that he was going to do what she asked.
“Thank you, honey. When I get home I will thank you in person.”
“Are you trying to seduce a public servant, ma’am?”
“Every chance I get.”
He chuckled. “How’s life at sea?”
She wrinkled her nose. “It’s a little bit stressful. The ship’s got a bad outbreak of the Norovirus. About one quarter of the passengers are in quarantine in their staterooms and the rest are scared to talk to anybody or touch anything.”
“Must be hell for a cosmetics salesperson like yourself.”
“It is,” she said, pleased that he understood her dilemma so well.
“You girls all feeling okay?”
“Yeah, so far so good.”
“I’ll get back to you soon as I can on the background check, but I can’t do this every time some guy asks your daughter out for a date.”
“I know that.”
There was a pause, and he said, “Are you in a daycare or something?”
“No. I’m in my stateroom. Why?”
“I swear I can hear someone singing the ABC song.”
“Does she sound like Dolly Parton?”
“Strangely, yes.”
“That’s Mama. We’ve been getting lessons on how to wash our hands. It’s one of the things they do when there’s an outbreak. You should hear her rendition of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’”
He promised to find out what he could about young Wade Templeton and after a few more minutes of chat, they ended the call.
Linda emerged from the bathroom. “Do you have any more of the Lady Bianca aloe and vitamin E hand cream? My hands are getting dry from washing them all the time.”
Toni went to her case and dug out a fresh tube. “I guess having dry hands is better than getting sick.”
“Is Luke going to do it?” Linda asked, rubbing the cream into her hands.
“I think so.”
“If Tiffany finds out, she will have your hide.”
“I know. Let’s hope she never finds out.”
Linda was looking ridiculously happy and Toni realized she’d never even asked her mama how Bingo had turned out. “Speaking of my wayward relatives, how was your date this morning?”
“Oh, honey, it wasn’t a date.” But Linda had a fluttery, excited quality to her that suggested more was going on than putting the right numbers and letters together. “But he has asked me on one.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. He’s from Oklahoma, but he travels a lot on business. When he gets back to work he wants to take me out for dinner next time he’s in Dallas.”
“Nice going!” She high-fived her mama.
“There’s only one problem.”
“Don’t tell me—his divorce isn’t completely through yet? His marriage is over, but he can’t leave because of the kids? His wife doesn’t understand him the way you do?”
Linda laughed. They’d both heard every excuse in the book from married men. “No. He’s definitely single. But, Toni, he’s ten years younger than I am.”
“So?”
“So? He told me how old he is and I changed the subject right away. I can’t tell him I’m a whole decade older. And now I’m scared he’ll find out.” She lowered her voice even though they were alone. “I don’t want to be a cougar.”
“I don’t see that it matters. If he likes you and you like him, what’s the problem?”
Linda took Toni’s hand and led her to the mirror. “You see these lines? The ones running from my nose to the corners of my mouth? They make me look old. That’s what.”
“But Roy’s already seen you. He likes the way you look.”
But Linda was too busy putting her palms on her cheeks and pulling the skin upward, making the lines disappear. “See how much better that looks?”
“You aren’t seriously thinking of letting Dr. Madsen stick needles in your face, are you?”
“I thought he was a very good doctor. And the woman in the spa assured me he’s the best.”
Toni suspected the woman in the spa got a commission when she booked special treatments.
Linda suddenly got so insecure that she ran to the salon and booked herself a medi-spa appointment with Dr. Madsen for the very next day. “I’m just going to have a little filler injected in these awful deep lines running from my nose to my mouth. He says the result is immediate.”
Toni didn’t think those lines were awful, or deep. She also understood that beauty was personal and so she didn’t waste her breath arguing. She said, “If you’re sure it’s what you want to do.”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay, then.” Maybe she couldn’t talk her mother out of the procedure, but she could hint her away, couldn’t she? “I did tell you about that woman we saw coming out of there with her upper lip looking like a duck’s bill, right?”
“I’m completely confident in Dr. Madsen’s abilities.”
Chapter Ten
A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.
– G.K. Chesterton
Whenever there was a ship’s announcement—and they were frequent—passengers were al
erted that communication from the bridge was imminent by tinkling sounds that reminded Toni of the arrival of Glinda the Good Witch. Sometimes the tinkling sound was the prelude to one of the officers telling them where they were, at how many knots they were traveling, or what the weather forecast was going to be.
Sometimes the announcement was about an upcoming event on board or, like today, was to let them know where they were. “Welcome to Grand Cayman Island!” the enthusiastic voice boomed. “Passengers are invited to join us in the Caribbean dining room, where you may gather to take tenders to the island. We will get you to Grand Cayman as quickly as we can and we do remind all passengers that the final tender back to the ship will be at six p.m.”
Tiffany wore a pretty sundress and she’d taken care with her hair and makeup. After the grim specter who had arrived at the stateroom yesterday, and had barely spoken to Toni since, she’d expected to find her daughter decked out in black, her aspect one of abject misery.
Instead, she came forward and looked Toni right in the eye. “Mom,” she said, “I am going to be seventeen in a few days. I really need you to start trusting me to make my own decisions.” Her words so closely echoed what Linda had advised that Toni would have suspected collusion except that her daughter and Linda hadn’t been alone together since yesterday. Tiff had avoided both of them.
She drew a deep breath. She tried to be honest with her daughter, but sometimes it was difficult. “Tiff, I know I embarrassed you yesterday and I’m real sorry about that. I needed to meet that young man and I was really hoping he’d let us get to know him by joining us for a meal.”
“And he will when he can. But today, he’s invited me to go on a shore excursion with him and I really want to go. Please, Mama?” Then she twinkled in the engaging way that reminded Toni of Dwayne. “I promise not to come back pregnant.”
“Tiffany!” Linda said, sounding shocked, but kind of faking it.
Tiff put her hands up like a gunfighter surrendering. “Kidding.”
She could rarely resist Tiffany when her daughter turned on the charm. Also, she’d had time to ponder Linda’s advice. She only wished Luke had got back to her with the results of the background check, but so far nothing.