Wait for Me: Family Love Story in Alaska... A Christian Romance Novel with a Sidearm of Suspense (Vacation Sweethearts Book 3)

by Jan Thompson

  Zaid must have spotted her. He came her way.

  “Good afternoon.” He did not use her name.

  Marie returned the greeting. She switched to Arabic. “Is everything okay?”

  “Very safe, ma’am.” Zaid seemed pleased that Marie chose to speak to him in his mother tongue. “Where is your family?”

  “Hiding in the lounge until I tell them that the coast is clear.” Marie looked that way only to see Jonas’s face plastered to the window.

  Zaid grinned. “The coast is clear. Look around and be assured.”

  So Marie did.

  And was surprised to see men with earbuds and wearing thick jackets spread all over the deck, trying to look normal and trying to blend in. They were from all nationalities, it seemed. Had they been onboard the ship all this time?

  “They arrived this morning,” Zaid said quietly, as if sensing her question.

  “Did you get any sleep?” Marie regretted asking. She did not want Zaid to think she was showing any interest in him.

  “Did you and Logan get any sleep?”

  “Barely.”

  “Same.”

  “Why can’t we have a nice family vacation?” Marie asked, knowing the answer was never simple in a complicated world.

  “Because of evil people.”

  “Bad.”

  “No. Evil. Absolutely evil.” Zaid stepped away. “You have a nice day.”

  Marie walked toward the door that led to the lounge. It had three doors. Two on the inside, and this one on the outside. She waved to Jonas at the window. He waved back.

  The kid had no idea how complex life was. All Marie could do was try her best to make their environment as safe as possible for Jonas and the next generations to grow up in.

  Sometimes it felt like a losing battle.

  But then God is always victorious.

  Praise the Lord.

  “Mommy, look who’s inside too?” Jonas pointed to Abdul at the next table.

  Sitting next to Jonas, Logan pointed to an empty spot on the upholstered bench that went all around the bottom of the windows.

  “Thanks for saving me a seat. Where’s Mrs. Ping?” Marie sat down.

  Logan pushed a mug of hot chocolate toward her on the small table in front of them. “She’s gone to check if we could meet the geologist.”

  On the other side of Logan, Jonas was showing Abdul his new notebook. “This is Mommy’s pen. Want to see how it works?”

  Abdul nodded. Jonas began to scribble in the notebook. “I’m taking notes about the geezers.”

  Several people turned their heads toward Jonas.

  “Glaciers,” Logan explained. “We’re still working on pronunciation and everything else.”

  A few of the elderly passengers nodded.

  “It’s safe outside,” Marie said quietly to Logan, just in case Jonas had altogether forgotten about the glaciers.

  “As of two minutes ago?” Logan whispered.

  “Trust God to keep us safe.” Marie swiped her phone, tapped a few times, and showed Logan what she had screen captured and saved. It was Psalm 61:3, one of her favorite verses that God had brought to her mind many times over while she had been behind enemy lines.

  For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.

  “I like that. Email it to me?” Logan asked.

  “Sure.” And she did.

  Logan’s right hand reached for her left hand. Marie didn’t protest.

  “Whoa!” Jonas jumped up and down on the deck as another giant chunk of glacier crashed into the cold sea.

  He urged Abdul to jump too. Abdul glanced at his mother, as if looking for permission. She smiled and nodded slightly.

  The two boys jumped and shouted, “Whoa!”

  Surrounding them were the two families, although Abdul’s family seemed to have more bodyguards today than in Ketchikan. Speaking of which, Logan had changed his mind about that morning only the day before. He was confident now that Jonas had been safe walking about with Abdul’s family.

  His concerns had been unfounded.

  Logan wasn’t sure who among the crowd were part of Abdul’s protection unit, and he wished that he were more observant. He decided to ask Marie later—if he had a chance—whether she noticed new people in the crowd.

  Marie was standing next to Abdul’s mother and her assistant. None of them said a word to one another. They stood there, smiling. Marie was taking photos of Jonas, the glaciers, and then back to Jonas.

  Logan lost track of what the geologist was talking about. It looked like Jonas had also forgotten that he had been assigned to take notes. The backpack carrying all that school stuff was now in Marie’s hands.

  Somehow Logan felt a bit safer in the crowd. Like nobody in their right minds would try to take down a thousand people milling about on this open deck.

  Besides, Marie had informed him that the ship had beefed up security after what happened on Wednesday night. The evidence had to be all around them, although Logan couldn’t tell with everyone wearing thick jackets in the chilly weather. Yeah, it was still July, but there was ice all around them.

  Logan made eye contact with one of Zaid’s men whom he recognized. He was sure they all knew who he was—a civilian who had survived some sort of terrorist attack in Marie’s stateroom, and had war wounds to prove he had been there in person.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Yes, I believe that’s the safest thing to do, considering all that we went through,” Marie said to Logan after dinner when they had time alone.

  Logan seemed to have expected their evening walk on the deck, and she didn’t want to disappoint him. The night was cloudy, and the air nippy, but they walked anyway.

  It was their last night on the cruise.

  “When we tell Jonas in the morning, I don’t know how he’ll react,” Logan asked quietly. He didn’t hold her hands, but he was walking close enough to put his good arm around her shoulder, although he did not.

  “Safety first. If he doesn’t understand now, he will understand later.”

  “Interestingly, his friend is staying through until the ship docks in Seattle on Saturday.”

  “That’s their choice.” Marie wasn’t entirely certain that beefing up security was enough to protect anyone. However, Zaid seemed to think it was plenty, especially since they suspected that their boy was not in any danger.

  In fact, Zaid had made it clear to her that she had brought danger to the cruise.

  “I shouldn’t have come,” Marie said.

  “You had no idea it wasn’t completely over.” Logan didn’t say more, but he seemed to indicate that he could put two and two together.

  “Now we know it isn’t.” Marie was still waiting for a reply from Mendenhall Security. As soon as she could, she had sent an encrypted message to Esperanza.

  She had also contacted her INTERPOL office in France, who had connected her to the INTERPOL National Central Bureau in Ottawa.

  Everyone had been informed.

  But Esperanza’s concerns made Marie worry. To her credit, the security specialist did not trust anyone else to go after Buchanan. She wanted to do it herself.

  Marie had thought Esperanza would be satisfied that Molyneux was finally behind bars, but apparently not. As long as the terrorist was still alive, her associates thought they could roam free and rule the world.

  Buchanan seemed to be one such prideful creature.

  “We can always return to Victoria,” Logan said.

  Marie nodded. “Of course. It’s only a flight away.”

  “Sometimes a child needs to know that we parents do things for their safety.”

  “And they may not understand it at first—much like how we might pitch a fit at God whenever He tries to keep us safe.”

  Logan stopped walking. “Did you just say pitch a fit? Going southern belle on me?”

  Marie ignored his small talk. “We need to talk to Mrs. Ping about tomorrow.”

  �
�Why? Isn’t she coming home with us?”

  “Technically you paid for the entire trip. If I go home with you until Sunday, there’s no reason she can’t stay for the rest of the trip and enjoy what little cruise is left.”

  “We’re assuming she’s in no danger.”

  “She can protect herself.”

  Logan raised his eyebrows. “Something else you’re not telling me?”

  “She has a black belt in martial arts, as we know,” Marie said, not giving anything else away. Like the five one-week weapons training that Esperanza had given Mrs. Ping, who had been in the police force—albeit a desk job—in Hong Kong before her family emigrated to the USA twenty years ago. She was rusty in the weapons department, but Esperanza polished off the grime.

  “Maybe she should be with us, then, to help us keep Jonas safe.”

  “Espy is sending someone to your house as we speak. We’ll be fine.”

  “We will?” Logan smiled. “I can’t believe you’ll be spending a couple of days at home.”

  “Your home.”

  “It’s also yours. It will always be yours—if you want.”

  Marie didn’t want to go there. “The most important thing right now is to make sure Jonas is safe.”

  “Our safety is in God’s hands. Remember the verse you gave me yesterday?” Logan swiped his phone. “Let me read the email back to you. ‘For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.’ Psalm 61:3.”

  “Amen.” Marie turned around.

  They were only halfway down the top deck. Marie felt an urgent need to return to Jonas’s stateroom. She didn’t have to, but she felt like she needed to watch her son sleep, as if time was running out.

  “Are we going back already?” Logan asked.

  “I think I’ll turn in early tonight. By now Mrs. Ping would have gotten Jonas ready for bed.”

  On the way down the stairs, Logan said he was glad Marie came on the cruise.

  “Or you wouldn’t hear the end of it from Jonas.” Marie laughed.

  “That too. But more than that, I am glad you’re here. I think this was the best week of our marriage—barring a few things—don’t you think?”

  Marie stepped off the stairs onto the wood floor next to a sliding glass door that faced a railing and the ocean beyond. Logan tugged at her hand, and pulled her toward him, ever so gently, as if he would be okay with it if she declined his invitation.

  She was curious. Where was he going with this?

  “I just want—need—a hug,” Logan confessed.

  I can hug. And so she did.

  They held each other in the small balcony, night wind in their hair, the slushing noise of the waves disappearing into Marie’s thoughts of long lost-homes and missed affections.

  Of a little boy who wanted his mother.

  Of an ex-husband who still cared.

  “I will always love you,” he whispered.

  Was that the wind in her hair speaking what she wanted to hear?

  “I’ve mistaken you five ways through Christmas, but I want to make amends now.” Logan kept his voice low. For her ears only.

  “What does that even mean—five ways through Christmas?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then why say it?” Marie chuckled.

  “Because it sounds good.”

  “Christmas sounds good?” Marie remembered the first two years they had been married, the lovely Christmases they had—and the overkill they did to please their small child.

  “I want you home for Christmas—if it’s at all possible,” Logan said.

  “I can check my schedule to see.” The night was darkening, and even with the small lamp by the door, Marie could not read Logan’s eyes or his deep thoughts.

  “That will be great if you can. If there’s even a remote possibility…”

  “Maybe.”

  “Maybe? I’ll take maybe. It’s better than no.”

  Yes, it’s better than no.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  The next morning, Logan had second thoughts about their plans when they docked at the Victoria Cruise Ship Terminal at Ogden Point on the south end of Vancouver Island, Canada. He had packed his one suitcase, and was making a final walk around his stateroom to make sure he hadn’t left anything behind—like his power cord or his credit card.

  Outside on the balcony, the Friday morning air was crisp and the sky was clear, yet the atmosphere held a foreboding of the one event that Logan had been trying not to think about for several days now: separation.

  Before the cruise, he dreaded the whole affair. His marriage with Marie hadn’t worked out, so why would he want to relive it? Even though it was only for seven days, he had the idea that they’d both be miserable, putting on false smiles for their son’s sake.

  Now, at the end of their week together, Logan wondered if he had misjudged Marie while they had been married. Although she hadn’t totally come clean about her job—or jobs—he sensed that she would eventually do so when she was ready.

  Am I ready to hear what she has to say?

  “I should focus on the positives of our relationship,” Logan said to no one.

  This week, they had touched each other, even kissed, more than they ever did in three years. For that, Logan knew he had to be grateful.

  Hours from now, they would go their separate ways. She would go back to France to resume whatever job she said she did. Logan would remain in Atlanta, without the woman he loved.

  Loved?

  Yes, loved.

  Logan didn’t want to recall how his anger had caused him to distance himself from Marie, to hate on her. Perhaps he had been jealous that her job was so important to her that she couldn’t tell him anything about it, leaving him wondering. Perhaps being a translator was all she really did, and he had read too much into her life, assumed too much, imagined too much.

  Logan shook his head. “You want me to believe that you’re just a garden variety translator? Not after that night.”

  It was still a blur in his mind. In the comfort of his own home next week, Logan would try to process what went on that night, when they were both nearly killed.

  Maybe it was best if he and Marie never got back together again after this.

  On the other hand, Logan knew that they both still had feelings for each other. Whether they were new feelings or revived from their dating days and the honeymoon year of their marriage, he could not be sure. But he knew that, if he could have a second chance with Marie, he would take it.

  I want her back.

  But does she want to come back to me?

  Logan picked up a sock from the closet floor and stuffed it into his suitcase. He decided he would launder everything when he got home to Atlanta. He wasn’t like Marie, who had separate compartments in her suitcase so that her dirty clothes did not mix with her clean clothes. Sometimes she even used a large trash bag to put her dirty clothes in before she packed her suitcase to go home from their vacations. And she would never throw her shoes on top of the clothes. Shoes went into their own bags.

  Is she still like that today or has she changed some?

  Logan zipped up the suitcase and rolled it to the door. He debated whether to make another sweep of the stateroom—like Marie would.

  He almost did, but his phone rang.

  It was Mrs. Ping. Her voice sounded unsure and excited at the same time, and Logan prayed that she wouldn’t throw a curveball at him.

  Logan took a deep breath and listened.

  Ah, Mrs. Ping wanted to go see the flowers at Butchart Gardens. She said she would be safe with the captain.

  “Did I hear that correctly?” Logan wasn’t sure his ears were working right. “Did you say the captain? As in the captain of this ship?”

  “My companion for the day. He’s widowed, as I am.”

  “Is he? How did you know that?”

  “We’ve talked.”

  “Talked?” Logan almost asked her when she had the time to talk
with the captain, and then he remembered all the times he and Marie had taken Jonas off Mrs. Ping’s hands and given her a lot of time off.

  So that’s what she’s been doing with all that extra time. Chatting with the captain.

  “He’s seen me around. We eat dinner at the same time as he does, remember?” Mrs. Ping said.

  “We do? I don’t recall.”

  “Yes, whenever we come and go from the dining hall, I see him walking about. I thanked him for doing such a great job, and he offered to give me a personal tour of this beautiful ship.”

  “A personal tour?” This is getting serious.

  “Anyway, he introduced us to the geologist—remember we did that yesterday? The next thing I knew, he offered to show me around Butchart Gardens.”

  They have official tour guides there, you know.

  “He contacted you.” Logan made the statement, knowing that Mrs. Ping was lost to her newfound beau. How was that going to affect their plans for the day?

  “He sent me this pretty card—the steward brought it to me not half an hour ago—and offered to spend the day with me.”

  “Wow.”

  “I know, right? Wow.”

  Logan took a deep breath. He needed Mrs. Ping to be with Jonas. They were leaving Victoria—and the cruise ship—for Atlanta.

  “Our flight is at noon,” Logan reminded her. Of course, she knew that.

  “That’s why I called.”

  Logan heard a knock on the door.

  “Wait a second,” Logan said. “Someone’s at the door.”

  “It’s me.”

  “You didn’t have to call if you’re standing outside.” Logan sighed. He unlocked the door.

  There was Mrs. Ping, blushing and grinning and all.

  “Are you blushing?” She’s in love.

  She cleared her throat. “If it’s okay with you Mr. Logan, I would like to stay on the ship for the rest of the cruise. We dock in Seattle tomorrow, anyway, and you’ve already paid for my plane ticket back to Atlanta. I will be there by Saturday night, as was in our original cruise plan. Marie said she will stay until Sunday after church before she flies home to France.”