Sighing with relief, I made my way into my office for the first time today. It was 1115 and I’d been there since 0500 and hadn’t even had coffee yet.
Opening the top of a bottled coffee I kept in the refrigerator by my desk, I took a long sip. It seemed impossible to believe that just twelve hours ago I was in my quarters drinking wine with Charlie. This emergency felt like it had gone on for days.
Charlie. What a woman. Making love with her had been spectacular. Truly like nothing I had ever experienced before. I couldn’t imagine what caused her to leave like that, without so much as a text or a note. She didn’t seem the type to seduce the captain and just leave.
Speaking of texts, as soon as we were back on our new course, I’d have to get down to my quarters and text my mother back. I hadn’t had time to grab my phone before coming up here, and had been offline for several hours. She tended to panic when I didn’t call her back, and with this incident plastered all over the news, she was probably in quite a state. I imagined I’d have a ton of messages and missed calls when I got back home to my phone.
“Sir. We have main engine power back.” April beamed.
“Well done, April! Well done.” I would write a very glowing note for her record during her next performance evaluation.
If I was still on the ship, that is...
I was right. My phone had blown up with missed calls and texts. Forty-seven of them! It was notable to me that Gianna hadn’t checked in. I guess we really were divorced.
Scrolling back to read the messages, I got all the way back to the one that came in the middle of the night. “Before I’m too old to cook.” Very funny, Mom.
Then it hit me. This message came in during the middle of the night. Maybe, somehow, Charlie saw it. The message mentioned “your wife.”
She left because she thinks I’m married!
As soon as I could, I needed to find her and tell her that I am not really married anymore. It was very important to me that she knew this.
After grabbing a quick shower and putting on a fresh uniform, I fed Ciao and headed back up to the bridge.
I immediately went over to Carlos. “Hey. You need a break. You’ve been here for hours. I’ll take over.”
“I don’t have anywhere I need to be,” he said. But his eyes were bleary.
“Yes, you do. Go find your ex-wife and her husband and make sure they’re okay.”
“I don’t know, Captain Luca….”
“Trust me. Do it. You’ve been worried about her all morning. And for good reason. Once you love someone, you always love them. Even if the relationship changes. Find her and give her a hug and shake her husband’s hand. You’ll be glad you did.”
“All right. Thank you, sir.”
As he left the bridge, I could feel the eyes of the rest of the crew on me.
“What? They don’t call this the Love Boat for nothing…”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is Captain Luca speaking. As you can tell, we have made it safely through the storm and are headed to Vieques. When we arrive, the ship will be cleared and you all will be given accommodations in local hotels, and transported back to Miami. If we had just been re-routed from the storm, we might have been able to continue the sailing, but because we had mechanical issues with the ship, we will have to end the cruise a few days early. The cruise line will be in contact with each of you to discuss your options.
For now, I want to express my gratitude to the staff and crew for their professionalism during this morning’s emergency, and to you, the passengers for your composure. We should be arriving in Vieques in the next three hours. Everyone will disembark and be taken to your hotels and you will receive information about your transportation back to Miami. The cruise line will be contacting you later with more information. Arrivederci.”
Now that I was finished with that, I needed to find Charlie. I had some explaining to do.
23
Charlie: The Favor
Sam and I were back in our suite, packing. This was not how I’d expected my first cruise to turn out.
“Do you have my Rolling Stones shirt?” Sam yelled from the other room.
“I don’t think so.”
She came into my room. “I can’t find it.”
“Did you wear it with Josh?”
She grinned. “Honey, I wasn’t wearing anything with Josh.”
I had to laugh. “Cute.”
“Speaking of which…”
Uh oh. I knew this line of questioning was coming.
I turned my back to zip up my suitcase. “Yes?”
“What happened with Captain Handsome?”
“Nothing…” My voice sounded so stupid even to me.
“Right.” She wasn’t buying it. “Charlie. Look at me.”
I didn’t want to, but I turned around. I knew she would see it immediately. We’d been best friends practically our whole lives.
“Oh. My. God. Praise the Lord, it finally happened. You had sex!”
I felt a blush creeping up. “Fine. Yes, I did.”
Sam started squealing. “Oh wow. Yay! So?”
“Sammie, I am not going to kiss and tell.”
She looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“But I will tell you that he’s amazing.”
“That is so cool! Are you going to see him again?”
“No.” I went into the bathroom to pack my toiletry bag.
“No? Why not?” She followed me in.
“Because he’s married.” I kept my back to her so she wouldn’t see how upset I was.
“No shit? Married! I never would have guessed. I usually have a really good radar for that.”
I closed my bag and brushed past her back into my room. “Yeah. So…”
She followed me and forced me to face her. “Charlie. Honey. I’m sorry.” She hugged me, and the tears I didn’t want to come, came.
“Yeah. I told myself I wasn’t going to get involved with anyone on the cruise and then what do I do? Get involved with the captain of the ship! The married captain. I am so stupid.”
“You are not stupid! Anyone would have done it. He’s hot! He’s hotter than the kitchen at Ameci’s pizza in July.”
That made me smile. We’d both worked there one summer and it was insanely warm. “Yeah. He is that.”
Before we could explore his hotness any further, the doorbell rang.
“Is that the doorbell?” Sam asked, confused.
“Maybe it’s the porter for our bags?” I went to tell him we needed a few more minutes. We hadn’t even docked yet!
Pulling the door open, I started to say, “Would it be possible to…?”
It wasn’t the porter. It was Captain Luca.
He grinned at me and said, “Yes. It is most definitely possible.”
What the hell was he doing here? Back for more?
“What do you want?” I blocked the entrance to the room. Not like he was planning on storming the suite, but it was instinctive.
“You’re angry.”
“Yes. I am.”
“I can explain.”
“I don’t see what there is to explain. You’re married.” I stood there with my arms crossed.
“Can I come in, please?”
The idea of making the captain stand in the hallway was kind of appealing, but I stepped aside. “Fine. But I need to keep packing.” I walked resolutely back to my room.
“Nice suite,” he said, looking around. “I’m glad they gave you this one.”
We got to my room and Sam was standing there. “I’ll just go check and see if that shirt is at Josh’s place.”
“You don’t have to leave,” I said.
“Yes, I do. Besides, I owe you a favor.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, from the karaoke thing.”
I winced, remembering that night. “Oh yeah. Well, this isn’t really a favor.”
She looked at the two of us and then raised her eyebrows. “Oh trust me. It is. You’ll tha
nk me later.” She grabbed her purse and said, “Text me when you’re done.”
“Done with wha..” Before I could finish, she shut the door.
I turned to Dean, who was smiling at me. “You look very sexy right now.”
Sexy? What the hell? I was mad at him.
“Is that what you tell your wife?” That wasn’t fair, even for me.
His face clouded over. “Charlie. I am getting a divorce.”
“Oh sure. That’s what they all say.” I was slamming things in my carry on.
“I mean it. I signed the papers on this cruise. That’s what I was doing in St. Croix.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at him. “You’re serious.”
“I am. Gianna, my… ex-wife… ended things. I guess the life of a captain’s wife was too much for her.”
I sat on the end of the bed. My mind was reeling. “I’m really sorry, Dean.”
He shook his head. “I’m not. She wasn’t my… what do you Americans say… soul mate?”
“I don’t believe in soul mates.” I wanted to when I was younger, but after all this time, I had kind of given up hope of meeting mine.
Dean crossed the room and pulled me up by my hands.
“Do you know what I think?” he said, standing impossibly close to me.
I felt that same buzzing electricity and wanted to kiss those lips. “What’s that?”
“I think that we might just be soul mates.”
Uh, what? We just met.
“Dean. I don’t think…” before I could finish the sentence, he kissed me.
“Love at first sight,” he said as he kissed my cheeks and face. “You don’t believe in love at first sight?”
I never did before. But with this sexy man kissing me all over, I might have to rethink my stance on that one.
His hands grazed my breast and his kiss became deeper.
“Don’t you have to dock the ship?”
Through his kisses, he said, “I’m letting Carlos handle this one. I have another port of entry I want to explore.”
I started laughing. “Are you always this corny?” That was like a line out of some romance novel.
“Sometimes. But, seriously. I want to see where things go with us. I feel a connection here and I don’t want to lose it.”
I felt the same connection. “How can we do that? I live in Arizona. You’re in Italy.”
“I was thinking of leaving the ship. Maybe taking a job as a riverboat captain. Your river has cruises, yes?”
He was going to quit his job and move to Arizona? For me? This was crazy.
“Dean, I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking. Life is an adventure and I’m ready for a new one. We don’t have to do more than date. See where things go. What do you say?”
I didn’t know what to say, honestly. It had all happened so fast. “Well. I guess we could see about making some waves on the river…”
Epilogue: One Year Later
“Sam. Hold still.”
I was pinning her hair up and she kept squirming.
“I think it looks stupid to have my hair up with the veil.” She made a face in the mirror.
“It looks beautiful. Look from the back.” I held a mirror up for her to see.
“Okay. You’re right. I know Josh really wanted me to wear his mother’s veil.”
Sam and Josh had been dating since we’d gotten back from the cruise. In fact, she moved to Philadelphia to be with him and she and I hadn’t seen each other in three months. I was just glad she wanted to have her wedding here at home.
“I’m sure she would have loved seeing you in it.” Josh’s mother passed away shortly before the cruise. That’s why he and his dad were on the ship. They were trying to focus on something good to help them through their grief.
“Are there a lot of people out there?” Sam took a sip of sparkling cider. “Will they all be staring at me?”
I laughed. “Uh, yeah. You’re the bride. Everyone will be staring at you.”
“Shit. I told Josh we should have eloped.”
“Since when are you shy?”
She stood and smoothed her hands over her baby bump. “Since I’m a pregnant bride, that’s when.”
“Better to be a pregnant bride than a pregnant groom.”
She hugged me. “You’re weird. And I couldn’t ask for a better best friend than you.”
There was a knock on the door. Sam’s father stuck his head in. “They’re waiting for you, sweetheart.”
It was showtime.
Sam and I linked arms and walked down the dark-paneled hallways of the Colorado Belle. Dean had indeed quit his job on the Allure and instead of getting another job on a boat, he bought his own and gave cruise tours all up and down the Colorado River.
The deck of the Belle was set up with white chairs and a satin runner. Red roses lined the aisle, and the big white paddles of the steamboat were moving slowly and rhythmically. I walked up the aisle, holding a bouquet of matching roses.
Dean looked so handsome standing there in his white uniform. Everyone stood as Sam’s dad walked her down the aisle to Josh.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…’
I was so happy for Sam that I could explode. She and Josh were so happy and she was finally going to have everything she wanted since she was a kid.
Two hours later, the reception was going strong. I was standing on the upper deck looking down on the festivities. So much had happened since our cruise on the Allure. Not only had Dean moved to Arizona and bought the Colorado Belle, but Carlos had been promoted to Captain.
That groupie guy Kevin was actually a mystery shopper on the cruise. He gave such a glowing evaluation of his experience, even with all the problems, and Dean had given Carlos a strong recommendation for promotion.
“Hey. I thought I saw you up here.” Dean came upstairs, holding two glasses of champagne. He kissed me before giving me a glass.
“It was a beautiful ceremony, Dean. Thank you. You made Sammie’s dream come true.”
Dean and I started dating when he moved here, and within a few months, he moved in. He’d been right. We really were soul mates. We’d been through quite a bit in the last twelve months. My book tour had been intense and him starting his new business added quite a bit of stress. Plus, his mother didn’t exactly love me.
“You know what would make my dream come true, Charlie Miller?”
I wrapped my arms around him. “What’s that, Dean Luca?”
He stepped back and dropped to his knee. He had a small white velvet box. “It would make my dream come true if you would marry me. Become Mrs. Charlie Luca. That would make me the happiest man on the planet.”
This was a no brainer. Dean had been my first lover and I wanted him to be my last. “Yes.” My eyes filled with tears. “I would love to marry you.”
And, we kissed, right there, under the full Arizona moon, watching the waves behind us.
THE END
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Protective Captain
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