Page 20 of Honeymoon for Seven

She shrugged. “Not that bad, but not that good either.”

“I’ll carry you.”

Her brows rose high on her forehead and her eyes widened.

“I mean the singing.”

“I know what you mean.” She sighed. “Why do you want to do this anyhow?”

His turn to shrug. “I think it will be fun.”

“Fun?” She actually chuckled. “I don’t know about you.”

“Come on. What happens at sea stays at sea.”

“Who told you that?” Her brows crumpled together.

“No one. Just makes sense.” He slipped his hands into his pockets. “I promise it won’t be that bad.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this.”

He waited as she blew out a sigh and straightened her spine and lifted her chin. She was going to say yes.

“Let’s get this over with before I change my mind.”

Picking out an acceptable song seemed to take longer than writing the Declaration of Independence. Most of the typical duets fell under the category of romantic and no matter how much he liked Ginnie—really liked her—singing any of those songs spelled awkward with a capital A. Just the title of ‘Leather and Lace’ had Ginnie blushing. Nope. This might have been the worst idea he’d ever had. Then he spotted it. Especially since technically the original song was not a duet. “This one.” He tapped his finger on the sheet and in front of the staff member and bit back a laugh when Ginnie’s eyes bugged out of her head.

“You’re kidding?”

“Would you rather sing, ‘Leather and Lace’?”

Furiously shaking her head, she waved her hands at him. “No, this song is perfect.”

“Did you try calling her again?” Antoinette Ummarino had been frantic ever since she’d heard on the news that a severe storm had forced a major cruise ship to pull out to sea, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded in port.

“Mama, I’m sure she’s fine or someone would have told us.” Mina had been telling her mother this all day and most of the night and it wasn’t doing a lick of good. Even having her sister Jo chime in wasn’t helping.

“The news said the ship was allowing all passengers to have cell phone connections and refunding fees to those who had paid for a communication plan. Ginnie wouldn’t waste money on it, but her phone has to be working.”

Obviously, having her phone go repeatedly to voice mail was not a comfort to anyone, but Mina wasn’t going to point that out to her mother.

“Hey,” Jo looked up from her ringing phone, “it’s Ginnie.”

“Ginnie?” Her mother’s face brightened as she scurried across the kitchen to stand beside her youngest daughter.

Mina crossed the kitchen even faster than her mother as the phone continued to ring. “What are you waiting for? Answer it!”Baby sisters.

“Hello,” Jo practically shouted into the phone.

“Why are you yelling?” Mina sighed. “This isn’t a couple of tin cans and string.”

Jo’s brows buckled together. “I can’t hear very well. There’s lots of clamoring.”

“Clamoring?” her mother sank into the kitchen chair beside her youngest daughter. “What are you talking about? Give me that.” Antoinette Ummarino yanked the phone out of her daughter’s hand. “Ginnie, baby.”

“Mama,” Jo whined. “You know she hates it when you call her that.”

The truth was, all three of them hated being called baby, but they loved their mother enough to ignore it, most of the time.

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