One Charmed Christmas

by Sheila Roberts

  She’d made sure Daddy knew she was a widow. Yes, very clever, very sneaky. She was the one Athena would have to watch out for. She was looking for a second husband with a fat wallet.

  She could look all she wanted but she couldn’t touch. Athena would make sure of it. Her father had suffered enough heartbreak and no way was she going to let that happen to him again.

  * * *

  Well, damn. The hottie Trevor had spotted when he first came on the boat was already surrounded by people. And here he was all aftershaved and spiffed up and ready to make a good impression.

  Who was that old dude she was talking to? No, not talking to. Flirting with. He watched as she flipped her hair and smiled at the guy. Okay, Trevor had to admit that he looked good for somebody who had to be at least sixty—George Clooney hair, good physical condition—but still the man was old enough to be her father. Trevor noticed that the woman sitting on the other side of him didn’t look happy. Worried about competition, maybe.

  “There you are.”

  He turned to see Harriet approaching.

  He felt as if he’d swallowed a rock and it was sitting there in his gut. Was this how an animal felt when it was cornered?

  “Hey, Harriet,” he said, trying for a tone that was polite yet discouraging.

  “We’re all sitting over there.” She pointed across the lounge to a group of chairs along one of the windows, by the grand piano. Hugh was slouched in one, and there was his tagalong, the giggler, along with two other guys. Kurt was nowhere to be seen. And now, Trevor was going to be nowhere to be seen.

  “Okay, catch you later,” he said, then turned and went back the way he’d come. When it came time for dinner he was going to make sure he was seated nowhere near the tables of the German 201 class. Kurt was on his own because Trevor was determined to talk to the hot mystery woman.

  4

  By six o’clock the lounge was packed with happy cruisers, all styled for winter in long pants and sweaters, many celebrating the season, wearing red or green. One man wore a Santa hat.

  With the exception of a group of college students, most everyone appeared to be forty or older, which made Sophie and Sierra two of the younger passengers on board. That didn’t bother Sophie. She liked older people. Her parents were in their sixties and they were great. So was her grandpa, who was eighty-four and still the life of every holiday party with his light-up bow tie and his repertoire of silly jokes.

  She especially liked older people who were doctors. Rudy Nichols was so handsome. Considerate. And easy to talk to. A doctor! She’d already met a doctor and they hadn’t even left the dock yet. Oh, yes, this cruise was meant to be.

  “We are going to have a ball,” Denise was saying.

  Yes, they were. Sophie looked to catch her sister’s eye and share a smile, but Sierra was busy checking her cell phone in hopes of finding a text from her husband. He’d said he couldn’t come on the cruise, but what was stopping him from sending her a message—broken fingers? If he ruined this trip for Sierra, Sophie was going to throttle him.

  No, no, she wasn’t going to let Mark do that. She was going to make sure Sierra had a good time.

  The ship’s cruise director appeared, a round-faced cheerleader type with light brown hair cut in a short bob, dressed in a jaunty uniform of slacks and a dark blue jacket over a white blouse. She wore a red scarf tied around her neck in a jaunty bow. She looked about Sophie’s age, and she was bubbling over with enthusiasm. She introduced herself as Elsa.

  “We have many wonderful excursions planned for you,” she told everyone. “And, of course, we know you will enjoy visiting the Christmas markets in the various towns we visit. Every evening we will tell you about the next day’s adventures so you can plan what you would like to do.”

  What you would like to do. Sophie would like to get to know the good doctor better.

  “And we, your crew here on the Heart of the Rhine, are going to make sure you enjoy your time on board with us. We have our fabulous chef, Bruno, who will be making many German specialties for you along the way. Say hello, Bruno,” she called to the man wearing a white jacket and a chef’s toque who stood by the entrance to the buffet in the stern. Bruno waved and everyone acknowledged him with polite applause. “And Peter here in the lounge will make sure you enjoy all manner of wonderful drinks. You will want to try his candy cane cocktail.”

  “That sounds good, doesn’t it?” Sophie said to Rudy.

  “Indeed, it does,” he said, smiling at her.

  “You’ll have to try one,” his daughter said to him, not even looking Sophie’s direction. Not very friendly. Sophie wasn’t sure she liked Athena.

  Next Elsa pointed out a stocky man in a black suit, seated at the baby grand piano. “And we have Jacques here at the piano to entertain you with your favorite songs. We have some fun activities lined up and a music trivia game. Maybe your team will win a prize.”

  “That would be us,” Denise said to the group.

  “And now,” Elsa said, “I would like to introduce you to our captain, Captain Hans Ritter, who will lead us in our toast to our voyage.”

  As she spoke, servers had been circulating through the lounge, passing out glasses of champagne. “Free champagne. Pretty cool, huh?” Sophie said to her sister.

  Sierra nodded and smiled. Sophie could tell it was a forced smile.

  Thank you, Mark, for not even bothering to text your wife and see if she landed okay. She was barely gone and already forgotten.

  Mark had taken them to the airport and said all the right things. Such a shitty deal he had to work. He was sorry he was going to miss seeing all those cool places, but he knew the sisters would have a good time together. Maybe he’d been trying to make the best of things, but it seemed to Sophie that he hadn’t had to try all that hard. He’d seemed almost chipper as he said bon voyage to his wife. Glad to have her gone for a week? Sophie hoped not.

  She also hoped her sister would be able to enjoy herself. Between “I’m going” and “We’re now boarding” Sierra’s moods had bounced from excited to depressed and back again. In the end Mark had managed to find just the right blend of regret and encouragement to get her to pack her bags and go, all the while reminding her it would have been a sad waste of money not to. Though now Sophie was thinking that if Sierra didn’t have any fun it would still be just as sad a waste of money.

  Once everyone had their champagne, the captain made his toast. “We welcome you all aboard,” he said. “Here is to making good friends and good memories.”

  “I like that,” Sophie said, and gave her sister a shoulder bump. Sierra smiled at her, a good sign, and that made Sophie smile, too.

  She shared it with Rudy and he smiled back. His daughter, the sour lemon, frowned. What was her problem, anyway? Maybe she needed a nap.

  Oh, well. Everyone else was nice. “Catherine reminds me of Grandma Wilson,” Sophie said as the sisters left the lounge after the toasting ceremony.

  Grandma Wilson had been their favorite grandma. She’d never come to visit without bringing goodies from her little garden or homemade divinity, and she’d taught the girls how to play canasta. She’d been a soft-spoken woman with a ready smile and a listening ear. They’d lost her three years earlier and Sophie still missed her. Grandma Wilson had been her buddy.

  “She does,” Sierra agreed. “And I like her friend Denise. I want to look like her when I get old.”

  Denise did know how to rock that whole aging-lady thing. Frumpy was obviously not a word in her vocabulary. Her white blouse had been simple but expensive. Yet not as expensive as the designer jeans she’d been wearing or the heels under them. Or the emerald ring on her right hand. The scarf, Sophie was sure, was Hermès.

  “Do we want to try and sit with them at dinner?” Sierra asked as they stopped at the hand sanitizer station on their way back to their room.

 
“For sure. And Rudy,” Sophie added as she stepped into the bathroom to check her makeup.

  Sierra followed her and stood in the doorway. “Rudy. The man old enough to be your father? That Rudy?”

  Sophie didn’t have to look her way to see the disapproving frown. She knew it was there. “What does age matter if you’re soul mates?” She dug some mascara out of her makeup bag.

  “You are not soul mates,” Sierra said firmly.

  “How do you know?” Sophie shot back. Sierra’s marriage didn’t exactly indicate she was an expert on soul mates. Saying that out loud would have been unkind, but that didn’t mean Sophie couldn’t think it.

  Sierra made an exasperated sound. “Just because he’s a doctor.”

  “‘A doctor would be the perfect husband for you,’” Sophie quoted. “Isn’t that what you told me when you first invited me on this cruise?”

  “I didn’t mean an old doctor.”

  “He’s not that old, and he’s very attractive.”

  “I don’t care how attractive he is, he’s too old for you.”

  “Women get together with older men all the time, you know,” Sophie said. “Anyway, I like Rudy. He’s friendly and a good conversationalist. And there’s something to be said for older men. They’re mature and responsible. Half the men our age are nothing more than little boys in big bodies—all about having fun and running away from commitment.” Like her last boyfriend. “They don’t think of anything but themselves.” Rather like Mark. She kept that thought to herself also.

  “Tell all that to his daughter. I’m sure his daughter will be delighted to see you getting together with her dad.”

  Sophie put away her mascara and turned to her sister. “What’s with her, anyway? She ought to be wearing a T-shirt that says Grinch Girl.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t like women younger than her hitting on her dad.”

  “I wasn’t hitting,” Sophie insisted. “I was just visiting with him.”

  “You were hitting,” Sierra said, trying to imitate Sophie’s hair flip.

  “Your hair’s not long enough to make that work,” Sophie teased.

  “Lady Godiva wouldn’t have enough hair to get this man. His daughter is going to make sure of that.”

  “We’ll see,” Sophie said.

  “You’d better watch yourself. Athena’s liable to push you right off the ship.”

  “Don’t even say things like that,” Sophie said, horrified. “If I fell in the river this time of year I’d catch pneumonia.”

  * * *

  Due to the size of the ship there was only one dining room and one dinner seating time and that was at seven. The dining room offered open seating, and an array of tables fanned out before Athena and Rudy, all of them elegant with white linen tablecloths, fine china and silver and wine goblets sparkling in the light of the candles on the tables.

  A feeling of foreboding crept over Athena when her father led her to a table for six not far from the restaurant entrance and seated them facing the door. As if it had all been rehearsed, Catherine and Denise, the two older women they’d met in the lounge, entered, looking around.

  Denise was the first to spot them, said something to her friend and waved, and Daddy motioned them over. Oh, boy. Was this how it was going to be for the whole cruise?

  Of course it was. This was exactly what Athena had suspected would happen, which was why she’d come along in the first place.

  And not only Catherine and Denise, but here came the sisters, as well. “Do you have room for two more?” asked the one called Sophie.

  Hard to say no since there were still two seats left.

  “Certainly,” Daddy said. “Join us, please.”

  Oh, boy. What to do?

  Subtlety was required. Her father wouldn’t be pleased if Athena rebuffed their new acquaintances. He’d want to know why. And she didn’t dare tell him. He would pull father rank on her and inform her that he was well able to take care of his own social life and certainly didn’t need his daughter running interference. She’d once heard a radio finance guru call it powdered-butt syndrome. Parents, the ones who changed your diapers and raised you, often didn’t take kindly to a role reversal and weren’t prone to taking advice. She’d have to find ways of discouraging fortune hunters without her father ever realizing she was doing it.

  She smiled politely. She could, after all, be polite. Polite but discouraging.

  So now they were six: Sophie and her sister, Catherine sitting on Daddy’s other side and Denise. A regular harem.

  The waiter handed Athena a menu. Suddenly nothing looked good.

  “Everything sounds so delicious I don’t know how I’ll choose,” Catherine said.

  “You don’t have to,” Daddy told her. “If you want two appetizers or two main courses you may request both.”

  “How about two desserts?” asked Sierra. “I don’t think I can choose between almond cake and chocolate mousse.”

  “Have two desserts,” Denise advised her. “Life’s uncertain, eat dessert first and make it worth your while.”

  Sierra smiled at that, and Sophie said, “Do what makes you happy, Sissy.”

  The two were obviously close and Athena envied that. Being an only child, she’d never enjoyed the camaraderie of a sibling. She’d settled for girlfriends, but she and her best friend, Mel, had been friends since third grade. Practically sisters.

  Mel had wholeheartedly approved of Athena’s plan to go on the cruise as her father’s bodyguard. “Men are too trusting,” she’d said. “I read about one retired doctor who found someone online and wound up paying for a house for her. Then, when it was time to meet in person, he bought her a plane ticket to France and they planned to meet at the Eiffel Tower but she never showed up. He had a limo and champagne and everything.”

  Athena could picture her own generous, trusting father doing the very same thing. Daddy was a romantic at heart. He’d never forgotten an anniversary, often brought home flowers for Mom for no reason and, once they became empty nesters, frequently drove her to beachside towns on the California coast for weekend getaways. He’d spoiled Athena, too, buying her jewelry for her birthdays—everything from birthstone rings to pearls—taking pictures of her in all her finery before every high school dance. Getting all teary-eyed when he walked her down the aisle. Getting teary-eyed again when she got divorced and insisting on sending her and her friend Mel to Hawaii to help Athena heal her broken heart. Her mother had confided that he’d hoped she’d meet someone while walking on the beach. As if meeting someone, on the beach or otherwise, was a good idea when she was newly divorced.

  He’d been just as happy to spoil Nicole, indulging her every whim. A new car? Sure. Blue to match her eyes. She did have spectacular eyes. Botox? She didn’t need it but if it would make her feel better, okay. Trips to Tahiti and Fiji, a cruise in the Greek isles. A Caribbean cruise, which included getting some expensive new jewelry in Grand Cayman. It was only money. Money that was quickly evaporating.

  Not that Athena minded seeing her father spend money. She just minded seeing him spend it on someone who didn’t love him and was only using him.

  And then, along came the heart surgeon with the summer house in the San Juans, the boat and the ski lodge in Schweitzer. She’d divorced Daddy faster than you could say more money, leaving him hurt and broken. Her poor, innocent father. He’d been so naive and trusting. Didn’t see the writing on the wall from the beginning of their relationship: The End, Coming Soon.

  Now here was a whole table full of potential The Ends. Athena had her work cut out for her.

  * * *

  Conversation over dinner was congenial, the kind of easy talk you had with people you were getting to know. The older ones compared the ages of their grandchildren while the younger ones shared more about what they liked to do for fun. They all bantered
over which state was the best to live in. And, of course, they had to ask each other about the various dishes they were enjoying.

  Catherine licked up every bite of her pork stuffed with dried plums. “I’m going to have to see if I can duplicate this when I get home,” she said to no one in particular.

  “You like to cook, then?” Rudy asked.

  “I enjoy being in the kitchen,” she said.

  “There’s an understatement,” said Denise. “She can name you every show on the Food Network. One of the highlights of Christmas is getting a jar of her raspberry jelly.”

  “That sounds yummy,” said Sophie. “My grandma used to make jam. I always helped her.”

  She looked wistful and Catherine took that to mean that her grandmother was no longer around. Rather than ask, though, she simply said, “She sounds like a wonderful woman.”

  “She was,” said Sophie. “You remind me of her.”

  “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Good. It was meant as one. I sure miss her. She left a big hole in our hearts when she died.”

  Rudy wasn’t smiling anymore. “I can understand that.”

  “My mother left a big hole in ours,” said Athena. “She was irreplaceable.”

  A compliment to her mother and maybe a warning to any woman who might be trying to do just that, thought Catherine. Athena had hardly looked happy to see her and Denise approaching their table for dinner.

  She supposed she couldn’t blame Athena for feeling the way she did. The loss of her mother probably made her father doubly precious. It stood to reason she’d be reluctant to share, fearful of losing his affection.