Page 6 of Honeymoon for Seven

“Last one there is a rotten egg!” Jake cheered with three kids barreling after him.

“No running in the halls,” his mom called after them.

Nick had opted to carry Phoebe in order to keep up with the kids who weren’t quite running any longer but were moving pretty darn close to it.

The ship tilted left and his mother banged into the wall.

“You okay?”

She nodded, shrugged, and kept walking. The kids were totally oblivious to the ship’s movement. Maybe they should all almost run down the halls.

At the club, there were fewer kids than he had expected. The staff pointed out that many of the kids were on the island with their parents, if this were an at sea day, the place would be packed. Made sense to him. Immediately, the kids ran inside and each found something of interest and within minutes it looked to him like they were already making new friends.

With Phoebe in one arm and using his other arm to get him back down the hall, Nick kept an eye on his mom, leaning left and right in front of him like a Friday night drunk. If it was normal for a ship to rock harder than a mechanical bull, why in the heck did people keep coming back?

Chapter Four

If Ginnie had ever been more relaxed, she had no idea when it could have been. Despite almost sliding off the massage chair near the end, twice, she still felt like she’d spent the last hour in heaven. Beyond any doubt, she was most definitely doing this again before the cruise ended.

“Be careful,” the receptionist waved to her as she passed the front desk and reached the spa doors.

“Thank you.” She wasn’t sure what she was thanking the woman for, or why Ginnie needed to be told to be careful, but maybe that was something they told every passenger who walked out of the spa with limbs as relaxed as rubber bands.

All she wanted to do now was lie down and maybe read a good book, but somehow, doing that in her room felt wrong. With most of the passengers on the island, there were probably plenty of lounge chairs available on deck to enjoy her latest novel and soak up some vitamin D.

The ship lurched left and she bumped against the nearest wall. That was odd. Making her way to the double door to the deck, she stepped outside, the cool wind slapping her in the face. Since when was the wind on a cruise ship cool? Except maybe for an Alaskan cruise and last time she looked, they were in the wrong part of the ocean for that. Intent on crossing the ship to the elevator nearest her room, she reached an open deck and the gray skies immediately caught her eye. “Oh, that does not look good.”

Now she needed to decide did she really want to try and cross the deck? Several staff were frantically scrambling around, stacking lounge chairs. Every so many seconds the ship would tip to one side and people would lose their footing or bump into the stacks. If folks who worked on this ship couldn’t keep their balance, even if the railing was too high to fall over, she was not taking any chances. Turning around, she fought her way through the wind trying to push her back inside, and suddenly reading a book in one of the lounges sounded like a much better idea than on the sunless deck.

By the time she returned to her room and emerged from her cabin with her latest novel in hand, and her keycard and phone in the pouch dangling from her neck, everyone she passed on her way to her favorite lounge was muttering and most were bouncing off the walls like a pinball machine. She was rather proud of herself, she seemed to have found her sea legs. Wobbling a bit, but for the most part she was holding her own.

No sooner had she settled into a seat by the piano bar, when she could have sworn she heard a clunking sound. A heavy clunking sound. Curiosity aroused, she paused and listened carefully. The sound continued and her very relaxed muscles tightened. That was the anchor. Wasn’t it? That or the ship was breaking apart with every smack of the growing waves. Neither option struck her as ideal.

Staring at the waves rolling higher and higher, Ginnie debated if she should worry. Part of her wanted to rely on every loud and frantic nerve of her Italian upbringing and run from the lounge screaming, while another part carefully reminded her that she’d never heard of a modern-day cruise ship sinking. She was still debating with herself when she noticed little Phoebe waddling her way at the end of her uncle’s arm.

“Hello,” the deep male voice called to her from several yards away.

“Hi.” She closed the book she wasn’t reading anyhow, and smiled at him.

The moment Phoebe spotted her, the little cherub grinned and seemed to be pulling her uncle behind her. The ship or the seas, or some combination thereof, must have known Phoebe was walking because for the first time since Ginnie had left the spa, the ship barely moved. When the child reached her, she flung her arms up at Ginnie.

Without any hesitation, Ginnie scooped the little one up. “Don’t you look pretty today?”

Phoebe repeated what sounded likepetey.

While Phoebe reached for the colorful stone hanging from Ginnie’s necklace, Ginnie looked over Phoebe’s shoulder. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Mom’s in the ladies’ room and the other kids are in the ship’s Kids Club. We were just on our way to check on how things are going with them. It’s almost lunchtime and we didn’t know if the weather was affecting their fun or not.”

“My recollection of childhood is that very little interferes with having fun. They’re probably oblivious.” The words had no sooner left her lips than the ship did a severe tilt to one side and Ginnie had to do some fast footwork to keep from toppling over, Phoebe and all.

“Are sailings always this rough?” Those beautiful blue eyes narrowed.

Ginnie shook her head. “Not even close. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I thought I heard the anchor moving.”

“Moving?” Nick turned his gaze to the windows across the lounge. “As in going down or coming up?”

“They may have needed more length to avoid stress?” What she knew about ships, anchors, and physics wouldn’t fill a thimble, but that was her best practical guess.

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