Man Overboard. Karen Leabo

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      And then there was the seasickness.

      “Did you take your motion sickness pills?” Aurora asked.

      “Yes, Mother.”

      “Paige,” Aurora huffed, “don’t call me that. I don’t want anyone to know I’m old enough to have a twenty-seven-year-old daughter. For this week I’m not a day over forty-five, and you’re my niece.”

      Paige could only shake her head as she hung her new clothes in the surprisingly roomy closet of their first-class suite. She had to admit their quarters were more luxurious than she would have guessed possible aboard a ship. They even had a small veranda.

      Her mother’s room was on the other side of a connecting door. She’d tried to get Aurora to share a single cabin, but Aurora had ruled that out immediately. What if one of them had a guest? she’d discreetly pointed out.

      That’s just what Paige was worried about. Aurora was definitely on the prowl—husband hunting again. Every time she went on a cruise, she came home married, or nearly so. Paige was determined her mother was not going to hook up with another loser.

      Aurora eyed her daughter’s simple green skirt and cotton print blouse, then pursed her lips disapprovingly. “You’re not going to the cocktail party like that, are you?”

      “What’s wrong with this?” Paige asked defensively.

      “Well, nothing, if you’re teaching school. But this is a cruise. Liven up, girl! Put on one of those cute outfits I bought for you. First impressions are essential. You want to make an impact during the first official cruise function, start carving out your territory.” As she spoke, she pawed through Paige’s closet.

      Paige wondered what Aurora meant by carving out territory.

      “Now this—this is perfect,” Aurora said, pulling from the closet a crisp, white shorts outfit trimmed in navy blue piping. “I have a little navy straw hat that’ll go perfectly. Wait right here.” She thrust the outfit at Paige and disappeared through the connecting door.

      With a sigh, Paige began undressing. This was a familiar scene. Aurora was always trying to turn her daughter into a clothes horse, and it never worked out. With her short stature and curvy figure, Paige simply wasn’t the high-fashion type. Whenever she took Aurora’s advice, she ended up looking like an overdressed doll instead of a sophisticated woman. But Aurora simply refused to understand that Paige’s personal style was quite different from her mother’s.

      Well, what did it matter? Maybe if Aurora spent the next seven days dressing Paige and telling her how to behave on a cruise, she would be too busy to meet and fall in love with some freeloading bum.

      Aurora had a real talent for picking the most inappropriate men to marry. The only exception to that rule was Aurora’s first husband, Paige’s father. He was the one who’d convinced Paige to brave the hated cruise ship in order to keep her mother out of matrimonial trouble. Bobby Stovall had bailed Aurora out of more than one disastrous marriage and continued to support her financially, although his legal obligation to do so had ended long ago. He was still genuinely fond of her—but he’d made it clear that if she married again, he would cut her off for good.

      Paige didn’t want that. Aurora needed Bobby, although she would never admit it.

      Fifteen minutes later, feeling rather foolish in the hat Aurora had insisted she wear, Paige walked with her mother onto the Lido Deck, where a lavish buffet of fresh fruit, cheese and crackers awaited them. A smiling waiter thrust a glass of champagne into Paige’s hand. Since champagne always gave her a headache, she set the full glass on the first empty tray she saw.

      “Come on, let’s get in line for the food,” Aurora said as she surveyed the milling crowd with a practiced eye. Then, under her breath, she added, “Gawd, is there anyone here under seventy?”

      There did seem to be a preponderance of silver hair and canes among the Caribbean Mermaid’s passengers, but no shortage of male hormones, if the stares Aurora drew were any indication. Even in her clever new outfit, Paige felt like a plain brown duck next to her mother.

      It had always been like that.

      The two women found a table and sat down with their plates of fresh fruit. Aurora nibbled at a melon wedge disinterestedly as she continued to eye the crowd. “Where are all the good-looking men?”

      “What about that one over there?” Paige said, nodding toward a distinguished, sixtyish-looking man with a head of thick, silver hair and a healthy tan. He looked pretty respectable.

      “Oh, that’s Doc Waller,” Aurora said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “He’s a widower. I’ve met him on several cruises. He’s quite a nice gentleman, but...too old for me. They’re all too old. I hope this cruise doesn’t turn out to be a total waste of—wait a minute!” She grew very still, and her sharp blue eyes stared intently at some point in the distance. “Would you look at that?” she whispered.

      “What?” Paige asked, squinting in the same direction. Then she saw him, and she wondered how they’d missed him before. Standing a good head taller than most of the people around him, he possessed the sort of lean, hard good looks one might expect to see on a man driving a race car or climbing a mountain. His hair, a rich, dark brown with slight silvering at the temples, was longer than conservative fashion dictated, and the wind rippled it like a woman’s fingers would. His impossibly wide shoulders stretched the confines of the cotton print shirt he wore, and his legs appeared too muscular, too powerful, for his tame, white twill shorts.

      He was easily the best-looking man Paige had seen in months. Years, maybe. Unfortunately, there was a comely dark-haired woman clinging to his arm.

      He was talking to another man, one of comparable age—late thirties, Paige guessed—and nice looking, but not in the same league as the tall, dark-haired one.

      “Not bad, eh?” Aurora commented from the side of her mouth. “And there are two of them.”

      “Mother! Aside from the fact that they’re both young enough to be your—”

      “Bite your tongue,” Aurora whispered. “And stop calling me Mother.”

      “All right, Aurora. But you talk like those two men are a couple of ripe plums we can just pick from a tree. What makes you think either of them will have the slightest interest in us?”

      “Instinct, my dear,” Aurora purred. “And besides, I don’t see much competition.”

      “You don’t see the large-breasted brunette in the halter top, breathing into the taller man’s ear?” Paige asked dryly.

      “Oh, her. She’s too young to hold his interest for long. Now, a man like that, he no doubt appreciates a woman with a little sophistication, one who’s been around the block.”

      “How about one who’s been around the world a couple of times?” Paige murmured.

      “What?”

      “Nothing. Oh, Lord, they’re coming this way.” Paige quickly pretended interest in her strawberries.

      “Well, of course they’re coming this way. I gave them my look.”

      “What СКАЧАТЬ