“I am sorry. I do not have that information.”
I thanked him, ignored Sue’s angry expression, and considered who else I might try to pry that information from.
Tapping on a microphone in the center of the room created strident noises that claimed our attention. Our tuxedo-clad maître d’ stepped to the mike.
“Good morning. I hope all of you enjoyed your first night aboard.” A smattering of people clapped. “You will enjoy wonderful foods from throughout the world during your stay with us. I would like to introduce you to the man responsible for all of those meals. Please welcome our Executive Chef, Mr. Andrew Sandkeep.”
A husky man wearing all white, including his tall straight chef’s hat, strode forward. People applauded. The Executive Chef took the mike. “I hope you enjoyed your first meal,” he said with an accent I couldn’t place.
We clapped to show our appreciation for the food his cooks prepared.
“We have a treat for you,” he said, although he did not look extra pleased. “This ship has invited a celebrity chef, a man that we are sure you will all appreciate. The person who brought him here will introduce this chef to us. Please welcome Mr. Gil Thurman.”
My heart lurched.
Gil stepped up to the microphone.
My tablemates flung gazes at me. I kept my chin up and tried not to react, although I felt my cheeks flame. Gil came on this ship for a reason, a reason that didn’t include me?
“Thank you,” he said after people clapped. “I’m not a chef. I don’t even know how to boil eggs.”
Many laughed. Yes, Gil, like me, was not proficient in the kitchen. The main thing I did with stoves was dust them. If we lived together, we would probably starve.
“I am fortunate enough to have this chef preparing meals for our customers around New Orleans. He works magic in the kitchen and will do the same thing for you during this trip,” Gil said, and a slight man stepped near, the chef’s hat enhancing his stature. “This is Adam Hebert, who works magic in a kitchen.”
Gil moved away. He had the decorum not to look at me.
His chef spoke with a Cajun patois. “I’m the lucky man for getting to work in one of Mr. Thurman’s Cajun Delights restaurants. During most of your meals on this trip, you will be able to select Cajun dishes. For breakfast, you could have grits and boudin, which is a type of pork sausage, with eggs and biscuits and hash browns made with smothered onions and green onions and potatoes and mushrooms. You might also choose beignets coated in powdered sugar and café au lait. Y’all pass a good time on your trip now and have fun eating.”
“I want that,” Jane said once the chef quit talking and our waiter approached.
“What?” the waiter asked.
“Everything Chef Hebert mentioned.”
The waiter smiled, nodding as each of us ordered the same thing.
“He made me really hungry,” Randy told us.
Sue faced me, thick makeup under her eye smudged, so that the purple area looked almost black. “So Mr. Thurman came on this ship after you, huh?”
My cheeks burned. “I was so wrong.”
“I can’t believe you told him off, and all he did was bring a chef on board.”
“I need to apologize.”
Tetter leaned toward me. “When was the last time you saw him?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“And he didn’t tell you he was coming on this ship?” Sue asked, tone snippy. “Then you two mustn’t be as close as you think you are.”
“Lay off, Sue.” Jane stretched out her hand as though needing to protect me. “I’m sure Cealie feels bad enough.”
I nodded, lips tight, attitude grim. Maybe Sue was right. Gil and I weren’t as close as I thought.
“Look at that man’s plate. I could snitch a chunk of boudin from it,” Randy said.
Tetter grinned. “It does smell good.”
“You want me to grab some for you?” Randy asked her, face serious. She lowered her eyes and shook her head. The moment struck me as a flirtatious game between teenagers. But these were adults, and they were married. To other people.
A sausage aroma wafted from the next table. Enticing, the scent carried a slight peppery tang. The French toast smelled sugary.
“So are you going to apologize?” Sue asked me.
“To…?”
She shook an index finger. “You know who. You know perfectly well what you did to that man. You told him off—right in front of all of us.”
“All right, Sue. That’s Cealie’s business. She can tell him she’s sorry or leave things as they are. It’s her life,” Jane said, face tight with anger.
Sue splayed her fingers on the table and shoved up to her feet. “All of it is her business, as far as I’m concerned. And yours. And yours, Randy. You, too, Tetter. I don’t even know why I was invited to come on this trip.” She whipped toward the entrance and took off, a statuesque figure, tightening her wrap around her shoulders.
“She is so annoying, sometimes I really could kill her.” Jane shook her head.
“Don’t talk like that.” Tetter shuddered. She looked brittle and fragile, not at all like the outgoing chatterbox from our class.
“I mean it. She’s just as aggravating now as she was when she was a boy back in school,” Jane said.
Skin above Randy’s eyes crinkled. “What do you mean, ‘as a boy?’”
Tetter shook her head at Jane, probably not wanting her to reveal Sue’s secret.
I sipped the orange juice a waiter brought, not taking part in the discussion. I remained too unhappy with myself for having judged Gil’s actions. And I had really misjudged them.
Jane faced Randy. “You didn’t know Cealie’s Aunt Sue used to be her Uncle Stu from our class?”
Randy roared out a laugh. “I know you’re kidding me. The sexy woman who just left here could not be—” He chuckled, glancing at each of us. “No way am I going to believe that.”
I was too upset with Sue to try to defend her. I didn’t know whether she wanted the truth told about her surgical transformation, or if she hid that information. With the way she’d come on to the man we had met on the Lido Deck, I figured she didn’t disclose her past to everyone.
Waiters carried plates to our table. No wonder the toast smelled so appealing. It was Lost Bread. Gil’s mother had called it
pain perdu
. The bread was drenched in a mixture of egg, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, then lightly browned in a skillet.
I scanned the scrambled eggs, hash browns, Lost Bread, and boudin. My mouth watered. And then I spied Gil. On the opposite side of the dining room, he headed for the exit.
I rushed after him.
A few stragglers waited near the elevators. So did Gil. People smiled at him, probably recognizing him from his little talk at the mike in the dining room.
He saw me coming. His smiled faded into a guarded expression.
I strode up to him. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” An elevator door clinked open behind him. He ignored it.
“I had no idea you were coming on this ship or bringing one of your chefs.”
“When you and I were in Gatlinburg, Cealie, I asked you to come on a trip with me.”
“You wouldn’t say where you were going or how long you’d be.”
“You didn’t give me a chance. You just said no.”
“Aw, man,” the gray-haired woman behind Gil said. She frowned at me and shook her head, letting me know I had done a terrible thing.
“I love him,” I told her, “and I believe he loves me. I’m just not quite ready to get tied down yet.”
She skimmed my face and figure. “At your age?”
I huffed, and her friend grabbed her arm and pointed toward the restroom. Both women headed there.
Another door opened, revealing an empty elevator. Gil snagged me by the hand. “Let’s get in.” He tugged me inside.
“So is it only a happy coincidence that you and I came on the same cruise?” I asked, still not ready to totally give in. “And neither of us knew the other one was coming to Alaska?”
“When did you decide to take this trip?”
“A few weeks ago. Jane Easterly is one of my best friends from high school. She invited me and said our gang was coming for a kind of class reunion. We’d all get to visit and especially help our buddy Tetter take care of a severe problem. Of course a major bonus for me is that I’ll get to see Tommy in Skagway.”
Gil smiled. “I’m sure you’re happy about getting to see your son and his family.”
“I can’t wait.”
“But did you tell me anything about that invitation from your friend?”
I shook my head. “Since you and I decided we weren’t going to stay together, we didn’t need to tell each other all of our plans.”
“You made that decision.” He touched the tip of my nose, making a chill of excitement skitter to my heels. “I want to know everything about you. Where you go. Who you’re doing things with. Anything major that happens. Even small daily events.”
The elevator door opened. We were gazing at each other. A rush of people stepped inside. We stepped out. Gil and I had entered the Grand Atrium. Gads of people surrounded us, some at the bar, scores of travelers moving across the floor. I glanced above. More of the same, an ant farm of people heading in and out of shops and up and down decks in elevators and on the winding stairs.
Gil pressed close to me.
I placed my hands against his chest to stop him from getting any nearer. “Something major happened on this ship last night. A man died.”
“I know.” He gripped my hand and led the way toward a wall, one of the few spots away from others.
“I saw him dead at the bottom of the stairwell,” I said, voice shaky. “I had met him.” The full force of knowing Jonathan had died made me shiver. Tears heated my eyes. “He was a man who came on a cruise for a wonderful experience in a breathtaking place. And soon after starting the trip, he was dead.”
“I’m really sorry about that. I didn’t see him but knew someone died after we embarked. My uncle is the ship’s doctor. He invited me to come on a cruise and bring a chef along.”
“Oh, that doctor is your dad’s brother. No wonder you have the same family name.”
“Right. We don’t get to see each other often. Getting to spend time with him is the reason I came. And, of course, having one of my chefs prepare Cajun dishes.”
I knew it. Gil would not be traveling unless his vacation involved work. I didn’t feel so bad now about not agreeing to join him on a trip.
“Cealie, I saw someone running off from your table not long before you came out of the dining room. A tall woman with striking features.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll tell you about her. But what did your uncle say? Why did that man die?”
“He doesn’t know yet. It might have been an accident. He could have had a seizure and fallen. He could have died from the fall. They’ll need to do tests, some of them onshore. It might take awhile for the results.”
“I have a bad feeling about his death.”
“Maybe the police can use that.” He smirked.
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
“I want to be…Cealie, I get so confused when I’m around you. I want to let you go on with finding yourself, as you say you want to do. But it’s so difficult not being with you.”
I nodded, my resolve weakening, my body shifting closer.
“You didn’t even kiss me hello,” he said.
The next minute, I was in Gil’s embrace, my body arched knowingly into his. All thoughts of where we were vanished. I tightened my arms around him, fitting my torso against the right places.
“Oh, wow,” I uttered, our lips parting. I meshed my lips again with his, pressing my body even closer, feeling him wanting me. I wanted him. I definitely wanted him.
“I guess he forgives you,” a voice behind me said. Sue’s voice.
Gil and I stepped apart.
All of my shipboard classmates circled us.
Chapter 5
“Gil,” I said and searched for sane words since I remained in the throes of passion, “these are my friends. You saw them.”
“Hello, friends.” Gil grinned and nodded.
“That’s Jane,” I said.
“Nice to meet you, Jane.” He shook her hand.
“I know their maiden names but forget those married names, so—this is Tetter. That’s Sue. And Randy.”
Gil shook hands with them. “One man in the group? You’re a lucky fellow,” he told Randy, sizing him up, giving me a raised eyebrow.
“I am lucky,” Randy said. He stood beside Tetter. Lowering his eyes, he shifted his gaze toward her.
“You all got together with Sue?” I asked, surprised that Sue had allowed them to join her. She had left in such a tiff.
Tetter shook her head. If she was aware of Randy’s nearness, it didn’t seem to bother her. “We just saw her standing here behind you.”
Great. How long had Sue stood close? The whole time Gil and I shared heated kisses? That thought detracted from our passion.
“Something happened to your eye?” Gil asked Sue.
She touched her cheek. “You should have seen the other gal,” she said with a wry grin. I’d expected her to end that sentence with
guy
because of the cliché, and also because, at the angle where I stood, her strong cheekbones and narrow chin made me envision her as I’d first known her—as Stu, who used to shave that face. This relative of mine could be annoying as either Stu or Sue. “I’m Cealie’s aunt,” she added.
“And I have an uncle aboard,” Gil said and turned his smile at me. “Maybe we could have a family reunion.”
Right.
I faced Sue. “Do you want something?”
She shook her head, expression cocky. “I only wanted to see how long you could kiss without coming out for air.”
“Did you time us?” Gil asked, apparently amused.
“I will next time,” Sue said, and I got ready to give her a sassy retort.
“The next time,” Gil said and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, “we won’t be out in public.”
“Ah,” Jane said with enthusiasm. “We have an onboard romance brewing.”
I noticed Randy’s quick smile at Tetter. And her demure glance at him.
A flicker of sadness crossed Sue’s face.
Gil tightened his grip around my shoulder. “I’d like to brew romance any place this lady wants.” He kissed the top of my head. “But right now I have an appointment. I’m sure I’ll see all of you later.”
“An appointment?” I said.
“Yes.” He nudged me a couple of feet from the group, grabbed a cocktail napkin off the bar, used a pen from his pocket and wrote. “Here’s my stateroom number. Tell me yours and what time you eat dinner. And do you share your stateroom with anyone?”