Janae rolled her eyes. “Please. That’s because you get out of control whenever we go shopping. Five hours in a mall is just plain crazy.”
“Five hours of nothing but shopping is like pure heaven,” Audrey said, sighing wistfully. “Karen, let me know the next time you come to LA. Girl, I know all the great shopping spots—sales like you wouldn’t believe.”
Karen rubbed her hands together with glee. “Count me in.”
“I’ll pass,” Janae said.
“Oh, come on, Janae,” Karen pleaded. “It’ll be so much fun.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Tell you what. Karen, you and I can swing by and pick her up halfway through the day. We’ll even feed her first.”
“Audrey, two hours of shopping is my limit.” Janae held up two fingers. “Two.”
“Yes!” Karen tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I need to check my calendar to see which weekend I can fly down.”
Once the guys finished eating, everyone headed over to the beach. Audrey and Brad excused themselves and left to take a walk. A group of fans recognized Terrence, and he stopped to sign autographs with Donovan and Devin playing bodyguard.
Janae pulled Karen off to the side. “So how are things going with Damian?”
“Fine, I guess.” Karen didn’t know how to describe her feelings toward Damian. This was supposed to be nothing more than enjoying the company of a nice guy while on the cruise. Instead her feelings had taken on a life of their own.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. He’s a really nice guy, and I like him.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“I didn’t count on liking him this much. He’s an absolute gentleman, a great conversationalist, and makes me lose my mind with his kisses.”
Janae raised an eyebrow. “That good, huh?”
“Girl, yes. He is beyond amazing. Said it had been a while since he’d been with a woman, but if that’s his definition of being out of practice...”
“Sounds like you two hit it off pretty well. Might be something worth exploring.”
Karen frowned. “I don’t think so. I don’t even know where the man lives.”
“You do realize this is the twenty-first century. There’s email, texting, Skype—”
“Ha-ha, Ms. Smarty-Pants. I know that.” She shrugged. “But it’s not something we’ve talked about. For all I know, he may not want anything past this week.”
“Well, you never know unless you ask.”
“True.” Admittedly, Karen would like to see where things could go between them, but she didn’t want to set herself up for disappointment.
They hung out at the beach for a while longer and then headed back to the ship to give Terrence time to prepare for his Q & A session.
Later, after the session, Karen stood in line with the others to purchase and get her CD signed. Donovan told her she didn’t have to wait, but she didn’t feel right about cutting the line. To her surprise, Terrence told her the CD was on the house.
He handed her a CD, stood to take a picture with her and whispered, “I already signed this special one for you. I’ll always be grateful to you for bringing Janae to the concert. I can’t imagine my life without her. If you ever need anything, let me know.”
She hugged him. “Aw, you’re so sweet. Tell you what, if I get lucky enough to meet a special guy, you sing at my wedding and we’ll call it even.”
“Deal.” He grinned. “I saw the guy you were with. Should I be getting a song ready?”
Karen laughed. “You might want to hold off on that. Like I told your wife, I have no idea where the man lives.”
“Janae and I started as a long-distance relationship,” he pointed out.
She ignored his comment. “You have a long line of people waiting.”
He chuckled. “Okay. I can take a hint. See you later. We’re celebrating tomorrow night. Janae will fill you in.”
“All right.”
Karen went back to her room and took a short nap. Eating all that good food and being in the sun had drained her. When she woke up, she still had a couple of hours before dinner with Damian. Picking up her novel off the nightstand, she slid the balcony door open and stepped outside. She stared out over the water as the boat moved farther away from Nassau.
They had one last stop in Key West tomorrow before reaching Miami the following day. The week seemed to have flown by and went much better than she had anticipated. Nowhere in her wildest dreams did she ever think she’d meet a man like Damian. Would he want to continue what they had started or relegate her to his past? Sure, they had several things in common and got along great in and out of bed, but would that be enough?
She released a heavy sigh. Everything was going great until things moved past the physical to the emotional. And this is why I shouldn’t let my feelings get involved. Karen lowered herself into one of the cushioned chairs and opened the book. She tried concentrating on the words, but her mind kept wandering to dinner with Damian. After sitting there for nearly an hour, she closed the book, got to her feet and went inside to shower. She dressed, styled her hair and applied light makeup. The closer it got to seven, the more nervous she became.
When seven o’clock came and went, her nervousness turned to concern. The phone rang and she snatched it up, hoping it was Damian.
“Hey, girl,” Janae said when Karen answered.
“Hey.”
“I wanted to let you know that some of Terrence’s musician friends are throwing us a party tomorrow night. It’s going to be in the Sapphire Room again at eight. You’re welcome to bring Damian. Are you guys getting together tonight?”
“We were supposed to go to dinner, but I haven’t heard from him.”
“What time was dinner?”
“Half an hour ago.”
“Maybe he lost track of time with his friends. I’m sure he’ll be there.”
“Maybe.” But she wasn’t convinced.
“Well, I’ll let you go in case he’s trying to call. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“All right.” Karen placed the phone in the cradle.
As the minutes and hours ticked off, she realized Damian wasn’t coming. She never thought he’d be the type of man to do something like this, but she was wrong. Again. She changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed, vowing not to let her guard down ever again.
Chapter 8
Damian could hear the music and laughter floating through the open French doors leading to his balcony. Kyle and Troy had tried to get him to join them, but he couldn’t be bothered. What he wanted was to be with Karen. He rose from the chair he had been sitting in for the past hour and stepped out onto the balcony. Folding his arms across his chest, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He had only come on the cruise to get his friends off his back. He never intended to meet a woman, much less form an instant connection with one—a connection that he seemed to have no control over. Did she feel it, as well?
Tonight he had planned to fill in all the gaps, starting with her last name and where she lived. He shook his head, not believing he hadn’t even asked her last name. Damian didn’t care where she lived, as long as she agreed to keep seeing him. He wanted to tell her that he shared her passion for teaching and the joy of seeing new minds come alive. He still would...if he got the chance. Would she accept his apology? Even if she did, it was no guarantee she’d want to continue what they had started. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He went back inside, crossed the spacious suite and opened the door to find Troy and Kyle standing there. Damian stepped back and waved them in.
“What are you guys doing here? I thought you’d be well into the night action by now.”
“Yeah. Me, too,” Kyle said. “But it’s hard to have a good time know
ing you’re up here miserable.” He dropped down on a sofa, stretched out and flung an arm across his face.
Troy took a seat in a chair, and Damian sat across from him in a matching one. “I feel bad about making you miss your dinner with Karen. To make it up to you, I chartered a seaplane for tomorrow.”
“I’ll pitch in for the cost,” Damian said.
Troy waved him off. “Nah, man. Don’t worry about it since it was our fault. We should’ve asked you if you had plans, knowing how much time you two have been spending together.”
“Is this thing serious between you two?” Kyle asked.
“I can’t say it’s serious, but I feel something for her I’ve never felt with any other woman.”
Kyle brought his arm down and rolled his head in Damian’s direction. “Even Joyce?”
Damian hesitated before answering quietly, “Yes.” He’d asked himself the question and knew the answer, but saying the word out loud made him feel as though he was betraying Joyce.
Troy regarded him for a moment. “We figured as much.”
“What does that mean?”
“Damian, we never thought...”
“Thought what?” Damian asked when Troy trailed off.
“We always wondered whether Joyce was the right woman for you. And after seeing you with Karen—”
Damian jumped up from the chair. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It means,” Kyle started, coming to a sitting position, “that you and Joyce seemed more like best friends than lovers.”
“Are you saying I didn’t love my wife?” Damian exploded.
Kyle blew out a harsh breath. “Calm down, man. No, that’s not what I’m saying. Can you sit down, please? I’m getting a crick in my neck.”
He plopped his six-foot-four-inch frame in the chair, crossed his arms and glared at Kyle.
“I know you loved Joyce, but were you in love with her—that deep, passionate kind of love that makes you lose your mind?”
Damian didn’t answer. He and Joyce had shared a close friendship and trusted each other. And there were other reasons that factored into their marriage—reasons he’d never shared with anyone. No, they didn’t have a passionate love, but he did love her.
“It’s the kind of love that when you look at her, your only thought is how much you want to be with her.”
“Sort of like the way you look at Karen,” Troy said.
Damian frowned. “What, you’re a mind reader now?”
“We’ve known each other for over twenty years. I’m sure you’d be able to see the same thing in Kyle or me. Look, Damian, Joyce was a sweet girl, and we all loved her, but it seemed as if you stopped living once you two married.”
“We didn’t expect you to hang out with us like you had before, but you never accepted the invitations even when Joyce was invited,” Kyle added. “We don’t want to see the same thing happen again.”
He had never stopped to think about how cut off they’d been from life. His wife hadn’t been much of a people person, and he hadn’t wanted her to be uncomfortable, so he started declining invitations from his friends and family until, gradually, the invitations stopped. Damian remembered his own mother mentioning something similar a time or two.
“And you think that if I’m with Karen, I’ll do the same thing again.” He divided his gaze between the two men. Neither answered, but their expressions told all, and he felt his anger rising. “First of all, you’re acting like I’m planning to get married right now, which I’m not. Second, Karen and Joyce are two different women.”
“Look, we’re not trying to upset you,” Troy said. “But we’re brothers. And when one of us is hurting, it affects us all. We’ve been worried about you, man. This week is the first time in a long while that you’ve been relaxed and almost happy like you used to be. I can’t even imagine how hard it was to lose Joyce. But I just don’t want you to go back to being the same way after this week is over.”
Damian sat quietly as he digested Troy’s words. Yeah, it had been hard, but honestly over the past few months, he’d begun to feel restless, as though he was ready to move on. He’d even gone on dates, but hadn’t found a woman who stirred his interest. Until now.
“You used to be the one we could always count on for a good laugh.” Kyle chuckled, as if remembering.
“You guys have always had my back. Though I may not have said it lately, I do appreciate it.” Damian shook his head. “Not sure how much I appreciate all this advice, though,” he said wryly.
“Hey, that’s what friends and brothers do,” Kyle said pointedly.
Damian nodded. “I realized this week that I miss having fun,” he confessed. “I can’t go back to being alone all the time.”
“What if things don’t work out with Karen?”
Once again, the thought of not being able to give their relationship a chance didn’t sit well with him. “Even if they don’t, I’m going to try to get out more.”
“My boy is back!”
“Shut up, Kyle.” But Damian was grinning as he said it.
The three friends spent the evening catching up and reminiscing about old times. Damian enjoyed himself but anxiously awaited morning so he could get back to the ship...and Karen.
* * *
As soon as he’d boarded the ship the next day, Damian went to Karen’s room but got no answer. He spent more than an hour searching the deck and various places for her, before concluding that she might have gone ashore. His friends agreed and convinced Damian to have lunch and wait for the ship to leave before resuming his search. When the ship pulled out of the dock, Damian strode urgently down the hallway toward her room, hoping to catch her before dinner. He stopped at her door and knocked. When she didn’t answer, he knocked again.
“Karen? It’s Damian.”
He needed to find her and explain. Damian knew she was probably upset with him and wondered if she was in the room and refusing to answer. No. She wasn’t that kind of person. An elderly couple stopped at the room across from hers, and the man eyed Damian warily. Moving away from the door, Damian trudged back the way he had come and took the elevator to the main dining restaurant and started his search again.
There had to be more than a thousand people on this cruise. Everyone seemed to be out milling around and enjoying their last night, which made looking for Karen more difficult. He ended up back on the deck staring out over the water, thinking about what would happen when he found Karen. In a perfect world, they’d exchange personal information and then... Realistically, life never went according to plan, and he had to wrap his mind around the possibility that she’d say no. However, the chemistry between them remained strong, and he’d use that as his starting point. But he had to find her first.
It was nearly midnight when Damian decided to try knocking on Karen’s door again. At the last moment, he scribbled a note, leaving his number and asking her to wait for him in the morning before disembarking, just in case she hadn’t returned. He took the elevator to her deck and moved quickly down the corridor.
He stopped at her door and took a deep breath. Raising his hand, he knocked softly. No answer. He knocked harder and called out to her.
“It’s a little late to be going around knocking on folks’ doors, don’t you think, son?”
Damian spun around to find the elderly gentleman he’d seen earlier that evening—the last time Damian came to the door—standing in his doorway wearing a pair of striped flannel pajamas.
“Either the young lady isn’t in, or she’s sending you a message.”
Damian lowered his head in embarrassment. “I apologize for disturbing you, sir.”
The man regarded him silently and nodded. He smiled knowingly and said, “I hope things turn out for you.”
“So do I,” he said. “Again, my ap
ologies.”
The man nodded once more and closed his door softly.
Damian pulled the note out of his pocket, slid it under the door, then made his way back to his room to pack. He tossed and turned for hours, finally drifting off near dawn. It seemed as if he had just closed his eyes when a loud bang next door startled him. He groaned and glanced over at the clock. Eight. He cursed under his breath and jumped off the bed. Snatching back the curtains, he saw buildings and realized they were pulling into port.
He quickly showered and dressed. Praying she hadn’t left, he hurried to Karen’s room. His anxiety mounted as two elevators passed because they were full. When he finally got to her room, Damian’s heart nearly stopped. The door stood open, and the housekeeper’s cart blocked the entry. I’m too late. He peeked in the room, knowing she was gone, but wanting to be wrong.
Sighing heavily, he trudged to his room. Kyle and Troy stepped out into the hall as he reached the door. Before they could ask, Damian shook his head, opened the door and grabbed his bags.
“Let’s go.” He walked off.
They disembarked and took a shuttle to the airport. After they arrived and went through security, Damian dropped into a chair to wait. Thankfully they had a morning flight, as he had no desire to sit around for hours. When the time came, he boarded the plane, settled into the seat and closed his eyes.
Had Karen gotten the note? Or was she—as the gentleman last night put it—sending him a message? The whys and what-ifs continued to attack him, and as the plane lifted off, he was left with wondering, once again, what could have been.
Chapter 9
Karen received a warm welcome back when she walked through the school office early Monday morning and her students greeted her with squeals, laughter and hugs. It was just the lift she needed after spending another restless night thinking about Damian. Last night, when she reached into the tote bag and took out the two books, the photo of her and Damian from Dunn’s River Falls slipped out. She had lingered over every detail of his face and body—wet, sun-browned, smooth skin with those swim trunks plastered against him, hazel eyes and that killer smile.
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