Page 26 of Captain's Orders
"Dani, sweetheart?" Patricia waved at her from the sundeck.
Dani looked up. "Mrs. Whitfield. Sorry. What can I get you?"
"Just a water, dear. Sparkling, with lemon."
"Coming right up." Dani was just about to head for the bar when a shriek came from the upper deck—Bea's. She was on the lounger with Sarah, her hands cupped over her head, sobbing. A half-eaten fruit kebab was on the deck beside her.
"It tried to EAT me," Bea was howling.
"A bird wanted your pineapple, Bea. It didn't try to eat you," Sarah said.
"It DID."
"Don't be dramatic." Sarah went back to her phone, but Bea continued to howl so Dani crossed to the lounger.
"Hey, Bea. Was it that naughty bird again?"
Bea nodded, lower lip wobbling.
Dani crouched beside her and looked up at Sarah.Ice cream?she mouthed. Sarah smiled and gave her a thumbs-up. Anything to not have to deal with her own kid, Dani supposed.
"Want to come to the galley with me?" she asked Bea. "See if Lindsay's got ice cream?"
"Yes!" Bea was off the lounger before Dani had straightened herself, the seagull abruptly demoted to a problem for another day.
Dani scooped up the abandoned fruit kebab, took Bea's hand, and they made their way down to the galley, Bea chattering at her about ice cream toppings.
"Well, well. What have we here," Lindsay said when Dani pushed the door open with her hip.
"Bea got eaten again." Dani threw the fruit kebab in the trash can. "By a seagull."
"Did it now?" Lindsay set her knife down. "Sounds like an emergency. Bea, are you an ice cream emergency?"
"Yes, please."
"Excellent answer. Climb up there." She gestured to the bench at the crew table, and Bea scrambled onto it. She knew the drill by now.
Lindsay opened the freezer and took out the chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry tubs, set a glass bowl on the counter, pulled a scoop from the drawer. She assembled a small scoop of each flavor, layered with a drizzle of chocolate sauce, a drizzle of strawberry coulis, and a handful of rainbow sprinkles and edible glitter. Then a wafer pushed into the side at a jaunty angle and whipped cream. She reached into a drawer and produced a paper umbrella and a sparkly mermaid tail cake topper, and lastly a few edible flowers from a box in the fridge.
"It's a MERMAID!" Bea squeaked.
"I know. Don't tell the others. They'll all want one."
"I won't." Bea picked up her spoon and Lindsay turned her attention to Dani.
Whatever it was she was seeing—the color in Dani's cheeks, the way she was standing, the way she hadn't quite met her eye since she'd walked in—was adding up in her head fast. Dani's hand went to her collar, tugging it a fraction higher.
Lindsay's eyes tracked the movement. "Dani."
"What?"
She stepped around the counter towards her, and out of reflex, Dani stepped back. Lindsay covered the distance and tugged the side of her collar down before she could stop her.
She gasped and stared at Dani, open-mouthed. Needing a moment to recover from the discovery, she stepped back and continued to gawk at her, crossing her arms over her chest. "Well, well, well. That's interesting. Now where did you get a bruise like that, Dani?"
"Lindsay, please."
Bea looked up from her bowl with sprinkles stuck to her chin. "Are you hurt? Do you want ice cream too?"
