Chapter Seven
James peered out into the crowd in front of the tour bus, hoping he hadn’t screwed this up.
The first port of call was in the Dominican Republic. The ship pulled up right along a dock surrounded by the bluest ocean he’d ever seen.
Tour guides held pamphlets and attempted to pull people into a conversation as they passed, even though it was obvious they were already on a tour and simply waiting for everyone to show up.
James had stood in front of the activity desk, trying to figure out which activities his new friend would likely go on.
The three main excursions were waterfall trekking; zip-lining and ATV adventure; or a party boat out on the water, which included snorkeling.
Considering Mari had sat by the pool the previous day and the fact that she’d refused free drinks, he ruled out the party boat. Zip-lining and ATVs? Yeah, James didn’t see that one happening for her either.
That left the waterfalls.
He’d booked his ticket with the ship the previous night and now stood with a small sack that held a change of shorts and a towel.
There were three massive tour buses in line to pick up the tourists and ship them off to the jungles of the island to explore.
And James was looking for Mari.
Shortly after they’d struck their bargain, her friend Rosa showed up to pull Mari away to play Ping-Pong.
James had returned to his stateroom to do the work he promised himself he’d do.
Only he found himself staring at his computer, then glancing out the open sliding doors of his stateroom at the vast blue sea that stretched out in every direction and asking himself, “What the hell am I doing in this room?”
Sure, he hadn’t planned on meeting a woman on the cruise.
But . . .
Mari was beautiful and funny. She acted unaffected by everything going on around her but kept side-eyeing the fun with a tap of her fingers. James couldn’t help but think that with the smallest of nudges, Mari would be on the dance floor, laughing it up with the rest of them.
And when was the last time he was that guy on the dance floor?
It had been a while.
And probably for the same reasons Mari sat on the sidelines.
Kids that had dominated her life, now she had grandchildren. Which blew his mind.
She’d gone on the cruise to play wingman to her best friend.
And James had come to appease his kids.
But why not have as much fun as possible?
And why not do that with someone as engaging as Mari?
Here he stood, attempting to execute that engagement, with a ticket in his hand for an excursion he assumed Mari and Rosa were on.
Since the person he’d booked the tour through asked which singles group he belonged to, James hoped that meant he would be on Mari’s bus. James found the bus he was assigned and climbed inside. He passed several rows of unknown faces before finding an empty seat.
No Mari.
As the bus filled, he started to wonder if he’d made a mistake.
His heart skipped at a familiar face. Only it wasn’t the one he wanted to see.
Clipboard in hand, Summer stood in front of everyone, counting people.
When she noticed him, she gave a little wave and continued counting.
James watched as Summer said something to the driver and then looked at her watch.
The driver started the bus.
Damn it. He’d made the wrong call.
Then James saw Summer duck her head and point.
James followed her gaze and smiled.
Mari and Rosa climbed onto the bus while James patted himself on the back.
James studied his lap, hoping she didn’t see him watching.
“James,” Mari called.
He looked up. “What a surprise.”
Rosa took a seat close to the window directly across the aisle from his. Mari joined her friend.
Talking over the empty seat beside him, Mari asked, “What happened to getting your work done?”
“I’ll have time for that later. When will I be in the Dominican Republic again?”
“You planned on working?” Rosa asked over her friend.
More than one head turned his way from the other passengers.
“Well—”
Four more people walked between the seats, cutting off their conversation.
Following them came Summer. “I see you found Mari,” Summer said loud enough for everyone to hear.
Shit.
Mari turned up one eyebrow.
“Yesterday, actually,” he said. James swallowed and attempted to keep a smile while glaring at Summer.
“Good.” Summer dropped her clipboard on the seat beside him. “Mind if I sit here?”
“Uhm.” Kinda.
“Thanks.” And she was gone, back to the front of the bus while the driver pulled away from the curb.
“You know Summer?” Rosa asked.
He nodded.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen . . .” The tour director spoke over the intercom, pulling everyone’s attention to him.
While the tour guide introduced himself, Summer slowly made her way back to the seat beside James.
“We have about an hour’s drive to our first stop . . .” the tour director continued.
Summer leaned close and said in a hushed whisper, “Did your computer break?”
“No.”
She stifled a laugh and glanced at Mari from the corner of her eye.
James pretended not to notice and stared at the guide as if he was riveted by his instructions.
“She’s a widow,” Summer whispered again.
Without looking over, he clenched his jaw and uttered, “I know.”
“I don’t think she’s dated—”
“If I needed a wingman, I’d ask,” he cut her off.
The bus started to move.
Summer chuckled.
Thankfully, she stopped talking until the guide was finished telling them about what to expect on the tour.
Conversations among the passengers started up, filling the quiet space.
Summer leaned across the aisle. “I heard you had quite a night, Rosa. Everyone has been talking about it.”
James let out a sigh.
“Who was your partner?”
“Julio.”
“Have you seen him since?” Summer asked.
“No.” Rosa sounded disappointed.
Summer scooted forward in her seat. “When we get back home, I have some ideas on how to bring more people into our group. I think you’d be great at leading some of the activities.”
James shook his head. He’d heard Summer’s pitch to gather volunteers so many times, he could recite her script verbatim.
“You think so?” Rosa asked.
“Yeah.” Summer shifted again. “Uhm, Mari . . . would you mind switching seats? I need to save my voice, and this bus is loud.”
“Of course,” Mari said.
Summer leaned in, grabbed her clipboard, and whispered, “You owe me.”
James cleared his throat, wanting to strangle hers.
But he didn’t have time to do anything but smile when Mari and Summer switched seats.
“Hello,” Mari said.
“Hi. Did you two have fun last night?”
“We did. We turned in entirely too late.”
“I think that’s the expectation on this cruise,” he said.
“What about you? Did you get out?”
He shrugged. “I thought it was best to put in a couple of hours last night since I booked this tour today.”
“Then you’re sticking with the ‘working while you’re on vacation’ plan?”
He shrugged. “A few hours here and there won’t hurt.”
Mari fixed him with a stare. “You never mentioned what you did for a living?”
James felt his shoulders relaxing as he stepped into familiar territory. “I own a rental company.”
“Homes?”
He shook his head. “Equipment. Heavy machinery. Cranes, mostly.”
Mari’s brow knitted together.
“Whenever a skyscraper is under construction, you’ll see massive cranes moving material around. My company supplies projects with the equipment and operators,” James explained.
“Really? How did you fall into that?” Mari’s smile and dark eyes felt genuinely interested.
“I went to trade school straight out of high school and eventually became an operator. It didn’t take me long to realize the real money was in owning the equipment and renting it out.
I didn’t want to work for someone else my entire life, so I took night classes to figure out the business part.
I came up with a plan and talked my way into a loan to buy my first two pieces of equipment. ”
“Two?”
He nodded. “One to lease out and one that I could operate. They weren’t the kind for skyscrapers.
Much smaller scale. Every year, I brought in more.
With it came employees, operators, and maintenance workers.
I went from renting yard space to store machinery to buying my own property and office building. ”
“That’s impressive. All while raising your girls?”
“Like I said, Cindy and I co-parent well.” He didn’t like bringing his ex-wife into their conversation, but he couldn’t take all the parenting credit. “Did you say something about a restaurant? I meant to ask you about that yesterday.”
“D’Angelo’s, in Little Italy,” she told him with a smile.
He tried to picture the area. “I think I know where that is. I can’t say if I’ve ever eaten there.”
Her smile fell slightly, she gave a small toss of her hand and a roll of an eye. “Then you haven’t sampled the best Italian food in San Diego.”
“Is that right?” he teased.
“Paulo and I took it over when my parents returned to Italy. It’s one of the oldest restaurants in the neighborhood.” Pride spread over her features.
“You’re the chef?”
She hummed. “Some days. Not as often anymore. Luca, my oldest, runs the kitchen staff. I jump in when needed.”
“Running a business is just as hard as working in it.”
Mari nodded. “I have help for that these days. Which is why I’m on this cruise, I suppose.”
“You’ve done the right thing if your business can run without you,” he said.
Her sideways glance and tiny smirk saw right through him. “This from the man who brought his computer and planned on working the entire time.”
James hung his head in mock shame. “Guilty. Maybe you can give me some pointers on how to get others to do my job so I can vacation work-free.”
“Unless your daughters are interested in taking over, I don’t have any other suggestions.”
James laughed. “God, no. Ellie thinks she’s going to play professional softball, and Madison wants to be a rocket scientist.”
Mari winced. “That won’t work, then.”
“No. It won’t. At best, I can hope to have someone else running my company for me by the time I want to retire. Or maybe I’ll sell.” That thought had only crossed his mind a couple of times.
“You would sell what you’ve worked so hard to build?” Mari sounded shocked.
He sighed. “I honestly don’t know. It depends.
If one of my girls marries someone who wants to take it over .
. . or maybe a grandchild. But that’s a long way off.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Ellie stayed single, and something tells me Madison will find a man more interested in inventing machines than running a company that uses them. ”
His words seemed to soak into Mari’s head.
“Life has a way of working out.”
The bus jolted as they turned off the main road and onto one that hadn’t been repaved in who knew how long.
“That’s tomorrow’s problem,” James said. “Today I’m trekking to waterfalls.” With a beautiful woman. But he left that part out.