Blond back in school, Tetter wore her white-blond hair in a sleek chin-length cut. Colored? Natural? I couldn’t tell. An unusual paisley-printed pink and orange shirt looked great on her pale coloring. The tip of her nose kept that endearing upward tilt. Her eyes, though, lacked their luster.
“Sue hasn’t gotten here yet?” I asked. “She told me she saw all of you.”
Tetter shook her head, her tight lips curved down at the edges. Of course she had that major problem we’d come to help her solve. I couldn’t bluntly ask about it but knew she would talk about it soon enough.
Jane leaned toward me. “You haven’t found anyone else to marry?”
“I don’t have any marriage plans.” An ache squeezed in my chest. I had found someone but couldn’t stay with him yet. “But you’re still married?”
“Thirty-five happy years. Just like Tetter. She eloped exactly one month after our wedding.”
Our table stewards arrived and introduced themselves, an exuberant young woman and an insecure-looking man, probably on his maiden voyage. They took our drink orders, opened linen napkins on our laps, and handed us menus. While we made selections from the enticing fare, our male steward retrieved breads for us to select.
“I feel like a queen,” Jane said once we turned in our orders. “This is only my second time to cruise.”
“You’ll love it. And Alaska is fantastic,” I said. “Tetter, you’ve cruised before?”
“Yes.” Eyes forlorn, she sipped from her water goblet.
Our wine arrived. “To being together. And Westside High.” Jane lifted her glass in a toast.
“Yay, W.H.S.,” I said, Tetter and I clinking wine glasses against hers. Our old friend, everybody’s buddy, was staying too quiet. I hated to pry into her business so early but might need to.
“Are many others from our class coming?” I asked, noticing passengers filling tables around ours. None resembled former classmates.
Jane shook her head. “I was trying to get everyone from our gang at school. We were going to have a great little reunion of our closest friends.”
“And you invited Stu—now Sue,” I said. “Did y’all get close?”
“No, I just felt sorry for him. Her. Whatever,” Jane said. “Especially after people started canceling. Angie’s mother broke her hip. Suzanna’s youngest grandson broke a leg while waterskiing. Elizabeth’s husband needs a triple bypass.”
“Poor things,” I said. “I’ll miss them, but I know family comes first.”
Our entrees came. We raved about how good our exquisite dishes looked and tasted. We had finished our breads, soups, salads, and entrees, and were studying the dessert menus when Sue arrived.
“I’m just in time for the good stuff.” She took a chair and glanced at my menu. All of us ordered the Exotic Chocolate Explosion.
“Were you unpacking all that time, or did you take a nap?” I asked.
“Getting a massage.” Sue flashed a bright smile.
“I didn’t think the spa opened until seven tonight,” Jane said.
Sue didn’t respond. She peered in every direction around the dining room. “This place is wonderful. It’s my maiden voyage.” She grinned at us. “I feel like a virgin.”
“A virgin cruiser.” Tetter’s tone lay flat. Normally, she would crack jokes about Sue’s comment.
“Enjoy.” Our waitress brought mountains of soft devil’s food cake with chocolate sauce swirling down the sides, topped by dollops of whipped cream and a cherry.
My mouth watered. I set down my wine glass and grabbed my dessert fork.
“I can’t eat this,” Sue said. “My figure would be ruined.”
Before anyone could respond, a woman’s scream pierced the air, coming from outside our room.
People glanced at each other and at the entrance. Everyone from our table darted from the room, along with lots of others. Some individuals were down in the stairwell.
“Get back! They’re coming with a stretcher,” a crewmember yelled. “We need space. Please get back.” More crewmembers joined him. The crowd shifted away.
A wrench-like squeeze gripped my chest. I saw the unmoving man lying face up. He wore a hot pink shirt. I nudged Sue. “Isn’t that the man you met on the Lido Deck?”
She stared down the stairs. “I’m not sure.”
Uniformed men maneuvered a stretcher into the area. They slid the man on it. His arms hung over the sides.
My aunt might have spent the last hour and a half alone with him.
Chapter 2
“Were you just with him?” I asked Sue.
“Hush.” She angled her head toward surrounding people who’d done like us—rushed out of the dining room after a woman out here screamed. We stared at the limp passenger down on the stretcher.
My stomach knotted. I leaned to Sue. “He is the one we met at the safety drill.”
“Let the doctor through,” a crewmember below urged. A man wearing all white rushed near and bent over the stretcher.
“Please return to the dining room,” crewmembers told all of us.
“I don’t feel like eating anymore,” I said. People around repeated the same sentiment. Many crowded around the bank of elevators. I had the same idea, but the area was too crowded. I returned to our table.
No-longer-appealing chocolate mountains sat untouched at our four places.
“Did you see Tetter and Jane?” Sue asked, sitting with me.
“Not since we ran from the table,” I realized. “I wonder if they’re coming back.”
“It seems like they’d say something before leaving us.”
I craned my neck, searching for them. Possibly they had forgotten the location of our table, although we were near the entrance and any waiter could direct our friends here. “Maybe they went to the restroom.”
While waiting, I scanned our dining room, a lavish treat to the eye. Chandeliers glittered. Mauve candles in sconces flickered on walls. People of many nationalities wore tuxes and waited on tables with elegant settings. Fresh flowers centered each linen-topped table. All looked prepared to treat royalty, not the ailing victim of an accident.
“Let’s get out of here.” Sue sounded apprehensive, exactly as I felt. We strode to the polished open exit doors. “Let’s go to the medical center to find out how Jonathan is.”
“His name’s Jonathan?”
Her cheeks flushed. She kept her eyes lowered. “Jonathan Mill.”
“I’d certainly like to find out if he’s okay,” I said.
From her purse Sue pulled out a small folded sheet with ship’s deck plan. “The medical center is on deck three.”
We took the first elevator that arrived. I was ready to ask Sue if she’d spent the hour or so with Jonathan before his fall, but a family of five stared at us. “Are y’all having fun?” the young wife asked with a southern twang. “We sure are. We’ve never done this before, and we all love it.”
“We do, too,” I said. Except for meeting a man and seeing him unconscious.
Two floors after the family got off, our elevator door opened. Contrasting the exquisite setting of the rest of the ship, this deck could have belonged to a battleship. Gray metal. With the gangway on one end, it looked functional and smelled of oil and wet rope. Thick opaque plastic sheets cut into two-inch-wide strips shut off an opening marked Crewmembers Only. Wooden counters stood on either side of an entrance, the stations where security members checked I.D.’s before letting people in.
A door to the left was labeled medical center.
A stern-faced security guard met us right inside. “I’m sorry, unless you have an emergency, you’ll need to come back later.”
I peered beyond him toward the rear hall, but saw no one. The doctor and nurses must be back there, trying to help the man who’d fallen.
Sue stood chest to chest with the guard. “A man fell and seemed badly hurt. His name is Jonathan Mill. I need to know how he’s doing.”
The guard’s stern eyes softened, expressing concern. “What’s your relationship to Mr. Mill?”
Sue’s Adam’s apple that had not been altered in surgery shifted as she swallowed. She glanced at me and then met the guard’s gaze. “We’re friends.”
He shook his head.
“Intimate friends,” I blurted. I’d barely met the downed man but cared about him. I cared about everyone, particularly a person who was hurt.
“I’m sorry. Only immediate family members or a traveling partner can get that information at this time.”
“Have you seen him?” Sue asked.
“Yes, ma’am.” The guard hesitated a moment. “I’m sorry but I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
We stomped to the elevator.
“What floor?” Sue asked, stepping inside.
“Let’s go to a bar.”
She checked her deck plan. “They have plenty on different floors. We’ll go to the Promenade Deck, okay?”
I nodded. “I sure hope Jonathan is okay,” I said, a truth that might get her to offer feedback.
She stared at numbers lighting above the door as though their movement were most important. The door pinged open.
People fingered items for sale around gift shops. Shirts and jackets with the ship’s logo hung in the hall. I glanced around, searching for the classmates we’d found and then lost from the dining room.
“Here’s a bar. No, it’s too full and too bright. Let’s check another one,” Sue said, stepping ahead, not slowing to look for anyone.
The Ginger Bar was subtly lit with brown leather seating areas. Some tables. Many booths. A man in a far corner played a quiet song from the seventies on a piano. We took a table and ordered margaritas.
“Sue, you didn’t know him before? You just met him on the Lido Deck, right?”
She hesitated a long minute. “Right.” She exhaled. “I’m sure he’ll be okay.”
“Me too. He seemed young to have had a heart attack. Maybe he tripped. He told
me
to be careful,” I said and waited for a response.
None came. She licked salt off the rim of her frosty margarita on the rocks.
“Sue, were you with him?”
“I told you where I was. Getting massaged.” She took two quick swallows of her drink.
She obviously wouldn’t say more about Jonathan now. “Do you know what Tetter’s problem is?” I asked, realizing that sounded callous. “When Jane invited me to come, she said Tetter had a major problem we would help her solve. You know everyone loves Tetter, and we sure want to help her.”
“I haven’t kept up much with classmates. Jane told me the same thing she told you.”
Okay, I’d work on getting her interest elsewhere. “My son Tommy and his family live in Skagway. I can’t wait to see them during this trip! He lost his job when his company folded, and they moved up here. He’s always working but took some vacation time to get to visit with me.”
Sue peered toward a dark wall, appearing disinterested in my child.
I would need to find out more about Tetter. But now I wondered about Sue and Jonathan Mill. Had she told us the truth?
“Did you have a full-body massage?” I asked. “Or a facial?” I imagined Sue, who used to be Stu, wrapped in a sheet with no underwear and wondered about changes to certain body parts.
I mentally slapped myself. I didn’t need to think of such things but often couldn’t help wayward thoughts.
“Cealie, I know you and the others don’t believe me, but that’s what I did. I had a massage. The spa was open.” She gulped her drink.
“I believe you. I just…wondered how your massage was.” I slipped my left hand into my right palm and pinched, reminding myself not to fib.
“It was great. A good-looking woman rubbed me down. I didn’t get excited, but I did relax. Until now.” On her feet, she headed for the door.
I dashed after her. “I believe you,” I said, not sure whether that was the truth.
“Let’s just forget it. Look, there’s Tetter and Jane.”
Both women headed toward us. Jane smiled.
I didn’t smile back.
“Gil,” I said to the man coming behind them.
“Cealie,” he said, taking long strides forward.
Hands on hips, I stared at all six-foot three inches of him. Still well-muscled, with thick steel-gray hair and firm cheekbones, he wore an ironed sports shirt and new jeans that would cover soft navy blue briefs.
He reached for me, attempting to pull me into his arms.
I tugged back. “I can’t believe you followed me!”
He grinned. “This is funny.”
His grin fueled my anger. “This is not funny. You asked me to marry you, and I didn’t agree to, so now you’re following me, even on a cruise?” I huffed, hearing classmates near me catch their breaths. “I don’t even know how you found out I was coming here.”
He spread his hands in innocence. “I didn’t.”
“Right.” Staring at his handsome face, recalling hot romance in his arms, I gathered all of my strength. “Gil, I want you to stay away from me.”
His lips flattened. His chest swayed back from me. He took a step backward. “I’ll abide by your wishes.”
“Good.”
“I’ll see you.” He gave me a brief nod. His gaze slid to my classmates, and he strode away.
Sue tugged on my arm. “Who is that?”
“He’s a hunk.” Jane still eyed him.
Tetter’s forehead wrinkled. “Cealie, he wanted to marry you, and you turned him down?” She sounded more interested than critical.
A white-haired couple gave me severe looks, like I’d committed the worst sin.
I led my classmates away from that nosy judgmental couple. We gathered in an open area near the casino. Slot machines dinged and screeched. Dealers’ voices carried. This was what I wanted, except for the smoky odor. Noise was better than quiet places where strangers heard every word. Nobody else needed to know about Gil and me.
My classmates’ piercing gazes all targeted me. Everyone waited for an explanation for my rude behavior.
“His name is Gil Thurman.”
“Sounds good. Where did you meet him?” Jane asked.
“At one of his restaurants.”
“
One
of his restaurants?” Sue said.
“The one in Vicksburg, Mississippi. We were attracted to each other.”
Sue nodded, apparently satisfied with my answers, but then glanced around as though looking for someone.
“And then you fell in love, and he asked you to marry him.” Tetter stated major events from my life as though teaching how to construct a declarative sentence. I’d recently had to remind the latest hire in my copyediting agency about such things.