One Charmed Christmas Read online

  “Not a dozen at a time,” Trevor said.

  Did Dr. Rudy like kids? He was a little old to be starting a family. But lots of men married younger women and did exactly that. A woman would never have to worry when her children got sick if she was married to a doctor.

  “So, your sister’s married. Anyone special in your life?” he asked. Getting right to the point.

  How to answer that? “Um.”

  “Um means not yet, right?” he said, and smiled.

  “Well.” That smile was what every girl wanted for Christmas. Trevor March himself was what every girl wanted for Christmas. Every girl who wasn’t prone to illness.

  That wasn’t her. She had to stay focused. Anyway, Dr. Rudy had a great smile, too.

  They were below again in the main part of the ship and on their way to the lounge.

  “Anyway, if this other guy is only an ‘um,’ you want to stay open to other possibilities, right?” he argued.

  “How do you know I won’t turn out to be an ‘um’?” she argued, handing back his sport coat.

  “I don’t. But I have a sneaking suspicion you won’t. I already know you have good taste. You like my chocolate.”

  That made her chuckle. “Almost every woman likes chocolate.”

  “But not every woman has such a pretty smile.”

  Trevor March had a way with words.

  They reached the lounge and she looked to where she and her sister had sat the night before. There was Sierra and the two older women, Catherine and Denise. And Rudy and his daughter. Crudballs. An older man, short and stocky, wearing a Santa hat, was joining them, taking the seat Sierra should have been saving for Sophie. Thanks, sis.

  “Do you see your friends?” Trevor asked.

  She frowned. “I do, but it looks like somebody took my seat.”

  “That sucks,” Trevor said, wearing the same smile. “I see two seats over here. How about joining me for a while and catching up with your sister later?”

  There was no place to sit over by Dr. Rudy unless she plopped in his lap. “All right,” she said. She sure didn’t want to go back to her room now that her tummy was feeling better.

  “We can talk some more and find out if either of us is an ‘um,’” he said.

  Sophie strongly suspected there was little about Trevor March that qualified as an “um.” He was the kind of man who could easily pull a woman off course. Darn Sierra, anyway. She should have saved her sis a seat.

  * * *

  Catherine noticed that Sierra hadn’t said anything about the seat next to her when a short husky man took the seat between her and Denise. “Do you think your sister plans to try and join us?” she asked.

  “I doubt it,” Sierra said as she took the drink the server had brought her.

  “I’m sorry she’s not feeling well.”

  “It happens a lot.”

  “Poor girl.”

  “My sister is a bit of a hypochondriac,” Sierra said. “She had asthma as a child. She outgrew it, but she still worries a lot about her health.”

  It was hard to imagine someone so young and seemingly healthy always being focused on illness.

  All she could think to say was, “Poor girl. I do hope she’ll feel better by tomorrow.”

  Sierra looked across the lounge. “I guess she’s fine now.” She held up both hands in a helpless gesture and shrugged.

  Catherine followed her gaze and saw her sister entering the room with a man somewhere in his thirties. She frowned across the lounge at Sierra.

  “It’s too bad we didn’t save her a seat,” Catherine said.

  “She’s not suffering any obviously.”

  Judging from the looks of the man she was with she certainly shouldn’t have been. He was fit looking with dark hair, and as handsome as she was cute. Together they made a very attractive couple.

  The man who had taken Sophie’s seat introduced himself as Charlie. He quickly proved himself a nice addition to the group, keeping everyone—especially Denise—entertained with his quips and jokes. Charlie lived in Bellevue, a high-end Seattle suburb. He owned several rental properties around the city, and with Denise being in real estate, they had plenty to talk about. It was plain to see she’d been his main target when he joined them. But he wasn’t above sharing jokes with the others.

  “You know why Santa never goes on a diet?” he was saying to Rudy. “He has to keep his figure. His contract has a Santa clause.”

  Everyone groaned and Charlie said, “Okay, that one’s not ready for prime time yet. But I’ll keep trying. Laughter’s the best medicine, right, Doc?”

  “It definitely is good medicine,” Rudy agreed.

  “Where do you practice?” Charlie asked.

  Rudy told him and that started a conversation going between the two men.

  “And what do you do, Athena?” Catherine asked.

  “I’m an executive assistant for a film agent in Los Angeles.”

  “Now, that sounds glam,” Denise said, encouraging Athena to share more.

  “It’s work, like any other,” Athena said, and turned her head toward Charlie. Conversation over.

  Catherine and Denise exchanged looks. Every party has a pooper, that’s why we invited you.

  Catherine returned her attention to Sierra. “It’s nice to be doing a trip with your sister.”

  Sierra’s smile faltered and she stared at her drink. “She took my husband’s place. He couldn’t get away from work. This was supposed to be a surprise but it didn’t work out.”

  From the expression on the woman’s face Catherine wondered if more than just the trip wasn’t working out. “That’s too bad.”

  Sierra took a sip of her drink. “Oh, well. Sophie and I will have a good time.”

  And here came their cruise director, Elsa, to tell them all about the good time that was planned for them the next day. “I hope you all enjoyed your first dinner on the Heart of the Rhine,” she said. This produced appreciative applause and she continued. “Chef Bruno has many more wonderful treats planned for you as we make our journey down the Rhine. And now, tomorrow, we have planned for you several shore excursions to enjoy. We know many of you will want to visit the Kinderdijk windmills. This is a unique and historic UNESCO World Heritage Site and you will be able to tour a working windmill.”

  “That sounds like fun,” Catherine said to Denise.

  “Are you ladies doing that one?” Rudy asked.

  “I want to,” Catherine said.

  “Me, too,” said Denise.

  “I do, too,” Rudy said, and smiled at Catherine.

  “So do I,” put in his daughter.

  “Count me in,” Charlie said.

  “And we will also make a brief stop in Rotterdam where those of you who have already signed up will disembark the ship to join our Dutch cheese maker tour.”

  “No cutting the cheese for us, eh?” quipped Charlie, producing a collective groan from the others.

  “Then tomorrow afternoon at three, right here in the lounge, Chef Bruno will show you how to make Appelflappen, a traditional Dutch treat.”

  “I bet they’ll have free samples,” said Charlie.

  “I’ll be there then,” said Denise.

  So would Catherine, if her energy level held up. “It sounds like we have a full day ahead of us tomorrow,” she observed.

  “I’m looking forward to it,” Rudy said, and smiled at her.

  His daughter didn’t say anything.

  * * *

  “Feeling like the kid who didn’t get invited to the party?” Trevor asked Sophie as the cruise director set aside her mike and the pianist began playing a jazzy medley of Christmas songs.

  Sophie had been stealing a lot of glances at the chatting group in the middle of the lounge, wishing she was there. Not that Trevor March
wasn’t wunderbar, but a girl who was prone to health problems didn’t need wunderbar. She needed a doctor. And how was Sophie supposed to make a connection with that doctor from the opposite side of the lounge?

  Still, she’d thought she was being discreet. “Is it that obvious?” she asked.

  “No, I’m just that observant,” Trevor said. “It’s one of my many good qualities.”

  “It sounds like you’ve got a lot of good qualities,” she teased.

  He grinned. “I do.”

  “What are your other good qualities?”

  “I’m entertaining, generous, I can cook.”

  “A man who cooks, that’s impressive.”

  “Can you?”

  “Of course I can. No one makes a better French silk pie than me.”

  “A pretty big brag to make to a guy who owns a chocolate company.”

  “I’m that confident.”

  He nodded. “I’m impressed. Most of the women I’ve dated wouldn’t even know what a French silk pie was, let alone how to make one. Nobody likes to cook anymore,” he finished sadly.

  “I do. It’s one of my good qualities.”

  “I bet you’ve got a ton.”

  “Oh, I don’t know,” she said.

  Right now being magnanimous sure wasn’t one of them. She shot another glance over to where her sister, the traitor, sat with Dr. Rudy and company. He and Catherine seemed to really be hitting it off. Or maybe he was just being polite. It looked like Denise had already found someone, so that took her out of the running. Catherine was another story. She was still on her own, and frustratingly, irritatingly nice. Hard to compete with nice, especially from across the room.

  Sophie suddenly felt cranky. And tired.

  But Catherine had to be tired, too. Sophie was younger. She could outwait her.

  “Would you like another glass of white wine?” Trevor asked.

  “I’d better not,” she said. “Wine always makes me sleepy.”

  And she had to stay awake. Had to outwait Catherine. Had...to...

  The sound of someone snoring jerked Sophie awake. Who was that? Her. And here she was on the fake leather sofa with her head on Trevor March’s shoulder.

  She pulled away, mortified. “Oh, gosh, I’m sorry. Please tell me I didn’t drool on your jacket.”

  “Okay, I won’t,” he said. “Looks like the jet lag has hit.”

  She glanced to where her sister and the rest of her dinner companions had been sitting. There was no one there. In fact, there were a lot of empty seats in the lounge.

  “Your sister stopped by,” Trevor said. “I told her I’d walk you to your room after you woke up.”

  “What if I hadn’t woken up?”

  “I have no problem spending the night in the lounge with a beautiful woman’s head on my shoulder.”

  “Someone you don’t even know.” Good Lord, and here she was using him for a pillow.

  “Someone I’m getting to know.”

  “Drooling on your jacket.”

  “What’s a little drool between friends? Anyway, I didn’t notice. I was too busy admiring how thick your eyelashes are. And real, too. You don’t see that very much anymore.”

  “You are sure good with the flattery thing,” she said, standing up. She was going to give Sierra an earful when she got back to their room.

  “Another one of my fine qualities.”

  “You sound practically perfect.”

  “Oh, I am,” he said, and stood up also. “Except that I’m a slob and I lose my temper in traffic and yell at people a lot.”

  “That could get you killed.”

  “Not as long as I keep my car windows rolled up. Come on, I’ll walk you back to your room.”

  “I’m probably pretty safe walking there all by myself,” she said as they left the lounge.

  He looked at her, shocked. “You haven’t heard of the cruise ship ghost?”

  “Cruise ship ghost?”

  “Oh, yeah. One of the earlier captains of this ship. He died on it. He ran it aground.”

  Sophie raised her eyebrows. “Can you run a ship aground in a river?”

  “This guy did. He’d been drinking too much schnapps and wasn’t paying attention. He knew there’d be a big scandal and he’d lose his job so he went into this very lounge, drank one last shot of schnapps and then broke the bottle and slit his wrists with it.”

  “Eeew.”

  “They say he walks the halls every night at...” Trevor checked his watch. “Eleven-thirty. Every cruise he’s on the lookout for a woman.”

  “Lonely, huh?”

  “No, he just figures he’ll get more sympathy from a woman than a man and he needs someone to bandage his wrists.”

  “Okay, that was the stupidest ghost story I ever heard,” Sophie said, shaking her head at him.

  “I guess storyteller doesn’t go down as one of my talents.”

  “And I guess I don’t need an escort.”

  “Let me walk with you, anyway,” he said.

  “You’re hard to say no to.”

  “I hope so,” he said with a grin.

  It didn’t take them long to get to her stateroom, which was probably just as well. Trevor March was a very tempting distraction. If Sophie hadn’t met Dr. Rudy first she’d have been very happy hanging out with Trevor. But she had met Rudy. She’d made up her mind, knew what she wanted, and she was going to make sure she got it. Or rather, him.

  “Thanks for protecting me from the ghost,” she said as they stood in front of her stateroom door.

  “Ghost protection is one of my specialties.”

  “I’ll remember that,” she said. She brushed at the wet spot on his jacket. “And sorry about the drool.”

  “Anytime you need a shoulder to sleep on.”

  Oh, no. There would be no more of that. Before he could mention the next day’s activities and try to make any plans, she unlocked her door, murmured, “Good night,” and slipped into the room.

  She found Sierra in a sleep tee, stretched out on the bed with her phone.

  “You sexting? Want me to leave the room?”

  “Right.” Sierra tossed her phone aside. “I was checking Facebook.”

  “So you haven’t heard from Mark?”

  “No, and honestly, I don’t expect to.”

  Sophie plopped onto her side of the bed. “I’m sorry, Sissy.”

  Sierra shrugged. “He’s busy at work.” Then she changed the subject. “Who was that gorgeous man you were talking to?”

  “His name’s Trevor March. I met him when I went up to the top deck to get some air.”

  “You sure got more than air.”

  “He’s not a doctor.” That said it all.

  “Who cares? Just looking at him is bound to cure whatever’s wrong with you. What does he do?”

  “He owns Cupid’s Chocolates.”

  “Does it get any better than that?”

  “Never mind him. How come you didn’t save me a seat?”

  “Because you said you were sick. I figured you’d go back to the room and take a bunch of medicine and go to sleep.”

  “Well, I didn’t,” Sophie said irritably, her earlier sympathy for her sister temporarily shelved.

  “Then you weren’t sick?”

  “I was sick. Trevor just happened to have something with him that made me feel better.”

  “Oh, motion sickness meds?”

  “No, chocolate with ginger.”

  Sierra gave a snort. “Chocolate, the new cure for motion sickness.”

  “Everyone knows ginger helps with an upset stomach,” Sohie said, frowning at her.

  “And everyone knows you can’t get sick on a river cruise.”

  “Well, I did,” Sophie insisted. “I do
get sick a lot, and that’s why I should be with a man who’s a doctor.”

  “Used to get sick,” Sierra corrected her. “You’re perfectly healthy now.”

  Her sister didn’t get it. Things could come on you suddenly, out of the blue. One minute you could be running on the soccer field, the next you could be collapsed on the sidelines, gasping for air, your mother calling 911.

  Sierra’s expression softened. “Okay, so it would be great if your perfect man turned out to be a doctor. But it’s not Rudy. He’s way too old for you.”

  “He is not.”

  “Come on, he’s Dad’s age. If you slept with him it would be like having sex with your father.”

  Sophie scowled at her. “Thanks for sticking that image in my brain.”

  “It should be in your brain. Anyway, I think he’s interested in Catherine.”

  “Thanks to my own sister not saving me a seat. All he had to talk to was Catherine.”

  “I think all he wanted to talk to was Catherine. Give up, Soph.”

  “No way. What’s she got that I haven’t got in better condition?”

  “It’s not gonna happen,” Sierra predicted.

  “Oh, yes, it is. I have a whole week. Men have fallen in love with me in less time than that.”

  “And fallen out of love in less time than that, too.”

  “Oh, ha ha.”

  Sierra yawned. “You can work on proving me wrong tomorrow. Right now I need to go to sleep.”

  So did Sophie. Her head was buzzing. Jet leg was about to take her down for the count. She brushed her teeth, put on her plaid flannel jammies and climbed under the covers. Moments later she was as soundly asleep as her sister.

  Then came the wee hours of the morning when she dreamed herself into an emergency room. She had a terrible fever. Pneumonia? West Nile virus? Yes, that was it, because she’d just come off a cruise down the Amazon and a mosquito the size of a bird had bitten her.

  “I need Dr. Nichols,” she told the nurse who was taking her blood pressure. The nurse looked a lot like Elsa.

  “Oh, yes, you need to get well right away, because we have such a wonderful outing planned for you tomorrow,” the woman said. “One hundred and three fever. I think the doctor will want to bleed you. I’ll get the leeches.”