Chapter Six #2
“You pick, or I will.”
“I am not—”
“Fine.” With one word, Rosa marched away.
Neither spiked tomato juice nor orange juice–filled champagne ended up being the drink of choice. Instead, Rosa returned with the ship’s drink of the day. A peach-vodka something that the ship had a silly name for.
Mari gave up arguing.
The book she’d opened up was finally catching her attention and helping her tune out the party that grew around her.
The clouds floated overhead just enough to keep her from getting overheated but not enough to make her want to seek another spot to read.
Down at the pool, Percy had arrived and started working the guests up for the “Hottest Man on Board” contest.
Just as the night before, the crew used the audience for grabbing volunteers or let friends push friends to the front of the crowd.
Mari was content watching from her perch, but Rosa wanted to get into the mix.
“Go. Please,” Mari insisted.
Thankfully, Rosa didn’t need to be told twice.
Once her friend was out of sight, Mari covered her face with her hands and sighed.
This was going to be a long vacation.
“It looks like you’ve been abandoned.”
She spread her fingers and looked through them at the man behind the words.
It was him.
The man from the lounge.
“You.”
“Hi,” he said with a smile.
“Hello.” Mari sat a little taller, feeling a little strange lying on a lounge chair with a man leaning against the railing of the ship looking down at her.
“Your friend likes the party.”
“Apparently. I’ve honestly never seen this side of her.”
Another smile. “I didn’t catch your name last night. I’m James.”
Should she stand? Shake his hand?
“Mari,” she said without doing either of those things.
James waved a hand at the empty chair to her side. “Mind if I sit?”
“That depends.”
He lifted a brow. “On?”
“If you don’t offer me a drink or suggest we go somewhere else.”
“Deal.”
Mari pushed the hat she wore a little farther back on her head.
“You’re not interested in the party down there?”
Mari glanced over the railing at the crazy going on at the pool. “I have no need to rate the men on this ship.”
“Not out loud.”
“Not at all,” Mari insisted.
James narrowed his eyes. “Fascinating,” he muttered.
“What is fascinating?”
James sat back on the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “A single woman on a singles cruise with a singles group who isn’t searching out the single men.”
Mari’s jaw opened, then closed. “I’m . . . How do you know I’m with a singles group?”
“The T-shirt yesterday.”
“You saw me?”
A knowing smile crept onto his face. “I might have overheard you scolding the kid at the pool.”
“He was ridiculous.”
“Ballsy.”
“My son is older than him.”
James smiled. “How many children do you have?”
“Three. All married. Two grandchildren with two more on the way,” she said. “What about you?”
“Two daughters. Both going off to college later this year.”
“Both?”
“They’re twins.”
Mari sat taller. “My daughter-in-law is pregnant with twins.”
“Really?”
“We were shocked. Twins don’t run in the family. My Gio couldn’t be happier. He’s always wanted a dozen children.”
“I don’t think I know anyone with more than three. A dozen sounds like a made-for-TV movie.”
A cheer from the pool rose, capturing Mari’s attention. “Maybe two babies at once will quell his ambitious desires. Emma may take some convincing after this.”
“Emma is your daughter-in-law?”
“Yes.”
James nodded a couple of times. “Cindy wasn’t interested in trying again. We do have twins in the family, and she was worried it would happen again.”
Mari glanced at James’s left hand. “Cindy . . .”
“My ex-wife,” he said with a smile and long breath. “We split when the girls were young.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. We’re good friends. Her new husband is perfect for her. Great to the girls. Bitterness after a failed marriage only poisons the kids.” James smiled. “We didn’t want that for Madison and Ellie.”
The tone in James’s voice softened when he spoke of his daughters.
“You didn’t love your wife?”
“Of course I did.” He paused. “But not in the way Clayton does. We knew that if we’d stayed together for the girls, we would have ended up hating each other.”
Mari thought of Rosa and her hatred for Joseph. A man who married her because she got pregnant, stuck around long enough to have two children, and then up and left one day, never to return.
“I suppose that’s admirable of you. Both of you.”
James cocked his head to the side. “What about you? What happened with you and your ex?”
Mari hummed and smiled. “Paulo is not my ex.”
The look on James’s face froze.
“I lost him ten years ago to cancer.”
He released a sigh. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”
Instead of saying he needn’t be, Mari responded, “Thank you. It feels like a lifetime ago. He was a good man. Loving. Hardworking. A wonderful father.” Mari tried to envision his face and found it hard.
“You never remarried?”
“Lord, no. I still loved my husband. I was busy raising my children. Keeping the restaurant going. The thought of another man never entered my head.” Not even as a passing thought.
“But that has changed.”
It wasn’t a question. Though Mari answered it as if it were. “No . . . well, yes. My children are grown. The restaurant practically runs itself.”
James kept his eyes on hers. “But you’re here. On this cruise with these people.”
It dawned on Mari, then, what James was alluding to. “Allora. I’m . . . No. I’m here for Rosa. She wanted this.” Mari lifted a hand to the surrounding ship and people. “She wants a second chance at love. Or perhaps to discover herself. I’m here to support her.”
Mari wasn’t sure if there was disappointment in his eyes or concern.
“You’re a good friend.”
“I certainly don’t want to mislead anyone.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Not the older gentleman last night or the . . . child yesterday. And not you,” she tacked on the end.
“Oh?”
Mari placed a hand on her chest, felt heat in her cheeks. “You’re much too nice of a man to waste your time with me.”
“Is that what I’m doing?”
She paused. “Isn’t it?” Maybe she read that wrong. Read him wrong. Maybe he was just being polite and wasn’t seeing if she was receptive to his attention. Oh, God. What am I doing? “You said it yourself. This is a singles cruise. You’re single.” Her words were coming in a rush.
James looked away, hiding a grin. “I’m here under duress myself.”
“Oh?”
Mari watched as James looked around. “I told you, my daughters are going off to college.”
“Okay.”
“Apparently, they’ve been discussing which one of them needs to pick a school close by so they can take care of me.”
Mari’s heart melted. “That’s so sweet.”
“Cindy didn’t think so. She believes the only way I’m going to convince our girls that I’m all right is to start dating. Or at least make it look like I’m trying. We told the girls I was going on this vacation to do just that.”
“Date?”
“Or make them think I am. Once they’re settled at school, they’ll forget about me and my love life, or lack of, and things can go back to normal. Cindy talked to Summer, and here I am.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Summer? You’re from San Diego?” Mari had assumed he was from somewhere else.
“I am. Didn’t I say that?”
“No. You didn’t.” She would have remembered that. “I haven’t seen you with the group.”
He shook his head. “This was a Cindy and Summer thing. Like you, I’m not here looking for romance.”
“Right.”
He turned, swept his feet from the lounge chair, and faced her. “You know . . . maybe we could help each other out.”
“Cosa?” Mari shook her head, realized she’d spoken in Italian. “What? How?”
“Well, men keep approaching you. Like last night. I can’t imagine that is going to change for the duration of this vacation. You are an attractive woman, Mari.”
She swallowed, and her face heated. It had been a very long time since she’d heard a man say those simple words.
“I’m a grandmother.”
“That’s not a deterrent. Anyway, my point. When Rosa is busy rating the men on the ship or playing games, perhaps I can keep you company. Maybe the curious men will leave you alone.”
Mari wasn’t buying it. “I’m capable of turning men away.”
James let out a deflated sigh. “I guess that’s true.”
The look on his face was comical.
“What is it that I could do for you?”
He slowly let a smile creep on his face. “Take a couple of pictures with me? On a beach or in the casino? To show my girls that I’m trying. Pictures will help my cause.”
“Oh, well. That makes sense. I can’t imagine that would hurt.” Smiling for a camera wasn’t asking a lot.
James lifted a brow. “You’ll help me out?”
“I don’t see why not,” she said.
“Perfect. Thank you.”
“I haven’t done anything yet.”
“That’s not true.” He relaxed back into his chair. “I was planning on spending most of my days in my stateroom.”
“Why?”
He lifted his hand, palm up. “I mean . . . I’m a good-looking man. I don’t need women hitting on me.”
Mari laughed. “Humble, too.”
He laughed with her. “Not today.”
It felt good to smile.