“The McClintock brothers are here,” Wes noted softly, leaning to whisper in her ear. “Jeff and Celia Henderson duly noted, at the railing, looking out over the water. Darkness is falling and they appear to just be enjoying the view. Amelia... hm. No Amelia Swenson yet.”
“And no Edward, George or Sally, either,” Chloe commented.
“They’re probably together,” Wes said. “I’ll go and order our predinner nonalcoholic drinks,” he said dryly.
“Oh, and look! Daniel is trying to pick up a pretty girl. I’ll come with you and ruin his night for him!” Chloe suggested.
Daniel looked up and saw the two of them coming. It was impossible to tell if he feared his night being ruined or not, but there was little choice for him other than to greet the two of them with smiles.
“Hey, good to see you. Gina!” he said, addressing the blonde, “I’d like you to meet the ship’s superheroes, Mr. and Mrs. Wesley and Chloe Douglas,” Daniel said, creating a flourishing gesture as he spoke. “Douglas duo! Meet Gina Holden of Atlanta, Georgia. She’s a model with dozens of fans and we’re doing everything we can to help her learn how to stay in the fields of demand and popularity while keeping all the creepy guys who are after her all the time at bay!”
“Ah, security, security!” Wes said.
Gina Holden gave them a beautiful smile and seemed to be truly glad to meet them. “You two are something else!” she told them. “First, bringing Edward Thompson out of the deep and then that lady last night! Hey, you’ve kept this incredible cruise and event on track! We’re all very grateful.”
“We just managed to move first,” Wes said. He shrugged. “Things you do when you’re really young that pay later. And my business is running a dive boat, being a dive captain. And Chloe did a different kind of diving, so... We were just lucky. But, seriously, this ship has an amazing crew. That young lifeguard last night would have gotten to Sally, and, again, thankfully, she’s a swimmer, so she was okay! In fact, we usually see her out here,” he added, looking around.
Daniel laughed. “She’s wherever Edward is, I’m willing to bet!”
“Probably,” Chloe agreed, grinning. “And Edward seems to be very happy with her company, so it’s all good.”
“And he still has that nurse hanging around him,” Daniel noted. “Hey, that works out, too. A nurse watching out for Edward—and now he can make sure that Sally doesn’t have any aftereffects from her own brush with death. And I heard that the situation has already been fixed! Some little broken screw caused that drain to suddenly turn into a vacuum.”
“Did you go back to the pool?” Wes asked him.
“No, they’ve fixed it, but they’re not reopening it until tomorrow,” Daniel said.
“Ah. I guess they want to make sure that it’s all really solved,” Wes said. “Good idea on their part.”
“Oh, yeah. If Sally had a mean bone in her body, she could sue big-time. In fact, most people would probably do so,” Daniel said.
“I guess she’s just not a litigious person,” Chloe offered.
“They do make just honestly nice people!” Gina chimed in.
“So, hey. We’ve gotten our drinks. We were just about to head over to the table where my brother is sitting over there,” Daniel said. “As always, you superheroes are welcome to join us.”
“Thanks. I’ll just get our drinks,” Wes told him.
“We can wait—” Daniel began.
“No, no, you all go ahead!” Wes said. “I’ll be right there.”
Daniel shrugged and indicated that Gina and Chloe should go ahead of him. Chloe did so, but Gina turned back to talk to her as they walked.
“You guys really are amazing, you know! Almost as if you were trained to save lives!” she said.
“Right place at the right time or wrong place at the wrong time or something like that!” Chloe said with a shrug.
“I just wish sometimes...” Gina began softly.
“Wish?” Chloe asked.
“I wish that I was—useful. I mean, I make a great living so I’m grateful. But I’m... ornamental. Sometimes I wish...”
“You know,” Chloe told her, “I’m sure you are useful in ways you don’t even know about! I mean, it probably makes people happy just to see pictures of you. When they’re depressed, need a smile! I’m sure you’re very useful and more—it sounds to me as if you’re just a really nice and decent person and that’s incredibly important these days—well, and always!”
“I do try to give to important causes, too,” Gina told her.
