“And the Dunn’s River Falls!” Jeff said.
“Yeah. We’re intending on going on the tour ourselves,” Wes said.
“Nice! No computers, just lots of water. Yeah, we are on the water now. Crystal clear water, beautiful sun, but it is different,” Jeff said.
Celia headed on into the room, smiling at Chloe and then George and Edward, of course.
“We came to see—” she began.
“Celia! I’m great!” Edward told her. “You’ve met this young man, George Garcia. With him at my side, I couldn’t be anything but great! Now, all of you! I’m fine. Go to dinner. Go dancing. Go have fun—it’s a cruise!”
“Okay, okay! We had a minute, so we thought that we’d drop by!” Celia told him.
She walked closer to him, giving him a kiss on the top of his head. Chloe wondered how easy it would be for someone to try to do something to him with so simple a gesture.
But George was standing right at Edward’s side, watching every second.
Nothing would go unnoticed.
But then again...
Celia couldn’t be their only suspect, not when they also had her husband, Jeff, brothers Daniel and Broderick, and Amelia Swenson.
And still...
Celia really could be nasty when she chose, even if she seemed to choose to aim that behavior toward her husband more than others. It wasn’t that she was overt—it was in the tone she used when speaking with him, the way that something simmered just beneath the surface, as if she was the one who was always in charge.
“Shall we?” Celia asked, looking around the little room at her husband, Wes and Chloe.
“Yep, dinner! We shall!” Celia said. “Later, Edward. George, make him behave!” she added, heading out of the room with the others in her wake.
She glanced back at Wes.
He was playing the part, looking like nothing other than a man about to have a nice dinner with his wife and friends.
Except...
He’d learned something from George. She wondered how long she was going to need to wait to discover just what that was.
Six
Beyond a doubt, Wes felt like he was a passenger aboard a luxury liner. Then again, most cruise ships were nice, but this...
Even the deck furniture was elegant; deep, rich carved wooden chairs and lounges with plush upholstery. Barstools were comfortable; the bar itself was handsomely carved mahogany, he thought.
What wind and rain must do! But then again, he assumed the crew was ready to protect the extravagance of the furniture when the weather threatened.
And now, of course, he was curious about the areas George had described.
As a crew member coming aboard, George had been privy to some of the different areas of the ship.
A lower deck that carried ballast.
One for the immense piles of garbage a ship at sea accumulated.
One for all the mechanics needed to oversee the power for the giant vessel.
Another for the crew, which was, George had explained, kind of like a massive dormitory, and which also had stowage compartments for those larger items that had come aboard, and passengers couldn’t keep in their cabins.
