“I am, but I’m not lying.” He reaches for my hand. “Ready for your last cappuccino and Belgian waffle?”
“Sure.”
We say goodbye to Chris and Aubrey after breakfast, hugging them both and promising to keep in touch.
“You can come visit,” Aubrey whispers as she hugs me. “Or I’ll come to Cologne and we can take a shopping trip to Paris, okay? Promise you’ll keep in touch?”
“You promise first,” I whisper, blinking away tears.
“Promise.” We laugh and hug tighter.
“Safe travels,” I whisper.
“You too.”
Ace got our luggage and the four of us walk across the gangway onto the shore.
And standing beside a Mercedes with a driver is my mother.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter.
“What’s wrong?” Ace looks around in alarm, his gaze settling on my mother with a scowl.
“Is that your mom?” Chris stage whispered.
“We’re so going to miss our flight,” Aubrey adds.
“Fuck.” Ace looks at me. “What do you want to do?”
“Well, I guess it’s now or never, huh? Let’s get this over with.” Dragging my suitcase behind me, I stride over to my mother and put my hands on my hips. “Hello, Mother. What are you doing here?”
“We have to talk,” she says quietly.
“Oh, yes, we certainly do.” I feel Ace’s presence though he came up behind me quietly.
“There’s room in the car for both of you and your luggage,” Mom says. “So, we can?—”
“Sorry, there’s four of us,” I say with a shrug. “We have Chris and Aubrey too.” That’s a lie, of course, but I’m not going to make this easy on her.
“Shannon, please.” She actually looks like she’s about to cry, which is so unlike my mother it gives me pause.
“Mom, you’ve really hurt me,” I say in a rigid voice that I hope sounds at least a little controlled since my emotions are all over the damn place. “I don’t know exactly what you did, but the fact that you and Sandra were up to something behind my back is beyond me. Why?”
“If you come with me, I can explain. Please. There’s a hotel not far from here. We can eat in the restaurant and talk. It will just take a little while, and once you know the whole story, if you’re still angry, I’ll understand.”
I don’t know what to do. I owe her the chance to explain, but my heart is suddenly beating wildly right now. So hard, in fact, I’m a little afraid I’m having a heart attack or something. My reasonable brain warns me this might be a panic attack, but I’ve never had one before, so I can’t be sure, and I turn, reaching for Ace blindly.
“Ace…” My voice shakes a little but he’s right there, closing his arms around me as a wave of nausea so strong my knees start to buckle washes over me.
“Shannon!” I hear Aubrey’s squeak of fear and my mother’s startled cry.
I’m not sure what’s happening. All I know is that Ace’s arms are around me and he’s whispering softly, telling me everything is going to be okay, reminding me to breathe… Why aren’t I breathing? I feel hot and then sweaty and then everything gets a little fuzzy.
Chapter 23
Ace
I don’t know what’s going on at first, but one minute Shannon’s calling my name and the next she's sliding to the ground. I catch her, of course, but she’s so damn pale, her skin clammy as I try to figure out what’s going on with her. Someone from the boat runs over to see if we need help, and though I’m fairly certain she’s having some kind of anxiety attack, I carry her back on board with Chris, Aubrey, and her mother following.
