A few years later, the farm was gone. Her grandmotherhad died in the retirement home. Both of her parents had passed away. Now, it could very well be possible that her marriage was dying, too. Or maybe it already had, and she was just beating a dead horse.
She could hear the haunting sound of the monkeys before they ever stepped out of the dense forest and into a small clearing. It reminded her of the soundtrack on a horror film just before something horrible was about to happen. Was this an omen? Were their screams just a prelude to the death of her marriage?
“The howling can be heard up to three miles away,” Rovelle told them as the tourists started whipping out their phones and cameras to take pictures.
“The big guy up there who is making the most noise is the only alpha male in this family.” He pointed toward the largest monkey in the tree ahead of them. “That means this is a new family. Later, the male might accept one of the babies you see up there next to the females into the group or possibly even a male looking for a place after he’s gone out on his own from another family.”
Family.
That word stuck in Ava’s mind. A family like what her grandparents and her parents had had before they were taken away from her. She wanted to be a mother who made cookies for an after-school snack and helped her child build a science project. She wanted to grow old with a man and someday sit on a porch and watch her grandchild—or grandchildren, if she was blessed—chase fireflies.
Thirty years of age was the new twenty, and she still had lots of time to make those dreams come true. She glanced over at Vince, who was taking a picture of the monkeys with his phone. What kind of father would he make? Would he be one who helped his child build a volcano for a school project, or would he want to send the son or daughter off to boarding school the way his mother had done with him?
The male of the species threw back his head and howled so loudly that a couple of people dropped their phones and covered their ears. To Ava, it seemed as if the family’s head honcho was simply telling the people staring at his wives and children that they should keep their distance, or he would get aggressive with them.
“Loud, isn’t he?” Vince asked.
“He’s protecting his own. Some males howl and threaten. Others…” She shrugged.
“Others do what?” He locked eyes with her.
“Others seem to not care enough to protect what they have,” she told him.
“If you are talking about me, and I think you probably are, I deserve every bit of it.” Vince locked eyes with hers. “I’m working on something that was sparked by something Henry said. Will you go out to dinner with me tomorrow evening so we can talk, and I mean seriously?”
“We dock tomorrow in Honduras,” she said.
“That’s not an answer,” Vince said. “I won’t be gettingoff the ship in Honduras. I’ll be working on something I need to talk to you about, but the plans are still not set in stone, and I want to wait until they are.”
“Yes, I will have dinner with you.” For the first time, she felt a bit of hope that things just might work out.
“Pick you up at seven?” he asked.
“I’ll be waiting for you at the elevator doors,” she answered, and wondered what Sookie and the ladies would say when they heard the news. Would they break out a bottle of champagne?
Chapter 5
Sookie and the ladies had been on pins and needles all day, hoping that their plan to throw Ava and Vince together had worked. Sookie was on her second beer when Ava appeared in the doorway. Minnie pushed back her chair and stood up so that Ava could see where they were sitting in the buffet area of the ship’s dining room. Dotty threw up a hand and waved.
Ava made her way around several tables and sat down in the empty chair. Her expression didn’t tell Sookie much of anything at all.
“Did you enjoy that little excursion?” Minnie asked.
“How about the luncheon they serve under the pavilion? Did you make any new friends?” Dotty asked.
“Vince was there, and as luck would have it, I had to sit beside him on the bus which, by the way, was not air-conditioned.”
At the mention of his name, Ava’s eyes seemed to sparkle just a little, and that gave Sookie a little hope. “Did he talk to you?”
“He did. We’re having dinner tomorrow night. Hesays he’s working on something, but he didn’t want to tell me about it until it was definite.”
“I’m not real sure that’s a good idea,” Minnie said as she picked up her whiskey sour and took a sip.
“Why are you saying that? Of course, it’s a good idea,” Sookie fussed.
Minnie giggled. “I just want her to think about it.”
“It’s just dinner, and we have lots of things to discuss, so why not get it over with?” Ava’s eyes darted around the lido deck as if she was looking for Vince.
