Holding hands.
Maybe sitting in the same chair again.
He rested his cheek against the top of her head.
“This is nice,” she murmured.
“Very.”
After another minute or so, she leaned back and looked up at him.
He looked into her eyes, searching to see what was written there.
A smile.
Giving her time to back away, he bent his head toward hers.
And, this time, he kissed her.
The dayat sea had been just what Elise needed.
She needed to make sure to thank whoever planned the trip for giving them every other day off.
This day would be another long one. They’d have breakfast with local VIPs of some kind, visit an early education center, lunch at a local school followed by a performance of some kind, then a formal dinner with different local dignitaries before returning to the yacht at least fourteen hours later.
Aides of some kind would ensure they had clothes to change into during the course of the day.
“Ready?” Frederick entered the main portion of the owner’s suite. He wore dark blue jeans and a collared shirt.
That made her feel better about her own jeans and flowing sheer top with a matching tank top underneath. There was no reason for her to believe she’d be given clothing that wasn’t appropriate for the occasion, but it still gave her a sense of relief.
Elise smiled at her husband. “I am.”
He leaned down and gave her a gentle kiss. “Then let’s go.”
Hand-in-hand, they left the suite and went to the elevator. Elise had found that Frederick preferred it, though she hadn’t asked why.
Maybe he had an old knee injury that bothered him if he took the stairs?
Even before they walked down the gangplank, Elise could hear the crowds gathered cheering in the distance.
“They must have been up early,” she told Frederick. “I’m barely coherent.”
“People get there early for this sort of thing. Some will even camp out overnight, depending on the event. I’m sure a few people were there a full twenty-four hours before the wedding started.” He squeezed her hand then released it so they could go down the narrow gangplank.
When they reached the breakfast venue, Elise was surprised to see it was more of a rec room than a formal venue. The local dignitaries weren’t the typical ones. Instead, they were teenagers and grandparents participating in an adopt-a-grandparent program.
They circulated around the room for about twenty minutes before taking their seats at the head table.
When breakfast ended, they spent another hour talking with the teens and grandparents who’d been paired up by the program. All of them had stories about how the program had affected their lives in a positive manner.
“I wish I’d had a program like this,” Elise told some of them. “We didn’t live near my grandparents. I would have loved to have that kind of relationship with someone.”
The teenager and retiree shared a look, one Elise couldn’t quite decipher.
“There’s something else we’d like to do,” the teen told her in a rush. “We’ve heard about it in other places, but we’d like to look into doing it here.”
Was this a way to make whatever it was her responsibility? “What’s that?”
