After saying their goodbyes, they walked hand-in-hand out of the dining room.Olive leaned into his arm.“Where to?”
He did a quick mental survey of what he knew of the ship.“That lunch cafe should be empty.”
“Sounds good.My room is, too.Erin and Calvin had plans this morning.”
“Rather cramped quarters,” he said.“Not really anywhere to sit.”
She thought of the desk chair and the beds.No other surfaces.“True.”
They strolled down the passageway and through glass doors that swished open for them.A faint, mingled trace of chlorine from the nearby pools and fried dough from the arcade wafted through.
Two more turns and they found themselves in an empty pizza and ice cream cafe.He knew it would fill up in a couple of hours with teenagers and kids.
They settled at a two-top table.Olive propped her chin in her hand and said, “Okay.Explain Cynthia Norton and all of that emotion in there.”
Jerry thought back to the first day he saw Cynthia through the scope of his sniper rifle and the events that unfolded after he squeezed the trigger.The back of his neck tightened slightly at the memory.“It’s a long story,” he began.“What did she tell you?”
Olive leaned forward and smeared sunscreen on her calves.The sun warmed the lotion, filling the area with the smell of coconut sunscreen.
They sat in an isolated area of the nearly empty pool.Jerry lay on his stomach, a hat covering his head.She didn’t know whether he dozed or relaxed, but she just enjoyed sitting next to him, not talking.
Despite the relative emptiness of the ship, an announcement came over the loudspeakers.“Good afternoon, folks, this is your Cruise Director!Tonight, catch our spectacular Broadway-style show at 7:30 PM in the Grand Theater, followed by a karaoke extravaganza at 9:00 PM in the Moonlit Bar.Tomorrow, day 4, all passengers must head to our private island between 7:00 AM and 11:00 AM for a day of fun while our crew conducts mandatory safety training and lifeboat drills.Bring your cruise card and check your newsletter for disembarkation details.Enjoy your afternoon!”
Olive’s eyes scanned Jerry’s bare back and legs.She knew what caused the scar on his left upper arm, but she had never seen him shirtless or in shorts above his knees before.She loved looking at the muscles of his strong back, shoulders, and arms.
But the long scar on the left side of his back resembled a nasty burn.Then there was the obvious bullet wound in his mid-left thigh.Her curiosity nearly overwhelmed her, but she had no intention of disturbing him right now.
He’d spent the morning adding to Cynthia’s story about the harrowing escape from the jungle with a very seriously wounded Bill and more seriously wounded Phil.He told her a little bit about Emma’s capture in a small village outside of Djibouti and the team’s rescue mission.He couldn’t talk much about Lynda and Bill’s story except to say that it had been a joint operation with the FBI and a few other agencies, and how that mission had unexpectedly reunited the two college sweethearts.
Jerry had never once mentioned anything that would correlate to a bullet in his leg and a nasty burn on his back.She started to wonder if he had even more scars beneath his swim trunks before she purposely turned her thoughts away from that area.
Clearly, the work Jerry and his teammates did involved a high degree of risk and danger, but she had never considered how those threats could spill out into ordinary life.She’d learned about Melissa and Phil’s troubles with a drug cartel in Miami, and how it tied into Phil’s brother’s murder.The story of how Cynthia and Rick met, and the few details she had learned about Bill and Lynda had intrigued and thrilled her.Finding out about how Jorge had saved Emma from certain death left her speechless.
Thinking about how she and Jerry had met in a chapel in Kentucky made her think about how incredibly boring their story would be compared to the others.A small part of her barely recognized wished she and Jerry had some adventure tale to tell.
She smiled and shook her head at the silly thought.Life came with its own kind of adventures.She didn’t need guns and danger piled onto it—even if she could honestly say she first met him in a trauma center with a life-threatening bullet wound to his arm.
“Mind if we join you?”Emma asked, gesturing at the empty chairs next to her.
Olive shifted her sunglasses to the top of her head and looked up at Emma.She wore a yellow bathing suit that glowed against her dark tan skin.“Of course not,” she said.“You look so nice.”
“I wasn’t sure if you were seeking privacy.There’s a lot of group time lately.”Emma said.
“We spent the morning alone.It was lovely, but we’re here for people.”
Jorge set a pool bag on the ground next to Emma’s chair.“Want anything from the bar?”
She nodded.“Some of that sparkling lemonade, if they have it.”
He raised an eyebrow at Olive, who shook her head and held up her water bottle.As he walked away, Emma clipped her towel to her chair then settled on it.“What did y’all do with your time this morning?”
“Chatted,” Olive said.She put her sunglasses back on and settled her head back.“Jerry was telling me how he met you and Cynthia and Lynda.”
“Really?”She leaned over Olive and looked at Jerry.“Seems like a conversation like that would have a lot of holes in it.”
Olive chuckled.“I’m sure it did.I was just sitting here looking at all the holes in his body he hasn’t explained yet.And I was thinking about how exciting it all sounded and how comparatively boring my military service was.”
Emma gifted her with a skeptical look.“Can’t see how a surgical nurse in Landstuhl would find any day boring.I imagine you have all sorts of exciting stories.”
