Page 37 of Cruising for Christmas
Within fifteen minutes, they packed their bags and looked semi-presentable for breakfast. It would have to do.
They rushed out of their room and hurried to the morning buffet. Ian’s family was already seated and halfway through their breakfast by the time Norah and Ian sat down.
“Late night?” Linda asked, a small smile tugging at her lips.
Norah’s face flamed despite knowing Linda wasn’t insinuating anything. But Shay raised a meaningful eyebrow.
“We didn’t set an alarm,” was all Ian said in response.
The group chatted while everyone finished their food, but Norah didn’t hear any of it. Her focus was on the man beside her, who rested his hand on her thigh, rubbing his thumb soothingly over it. The trip was almost over, and her throat tightened at the thought of walking away from him in a few brief hours, not knowing when or if they would see each other again.
After breakfast, everyone parted ways in their hallway, and it was to Norah’s horror that she realized Ian’s parents were in the room directly next to theirs. They shared a wall where their bed had been banging nearly all night long as they had sex multiple times, in between getting up and banging on Ryan and Shay’s door for fun and laughing hysterically over Shay cursing them.
When Ian and Norah stepped into their room to get their bags, Norah shut the door quickly. Ian gave her a questioning look.
“Did you know your parents were in the room next to us?”
He shrugged. “I knew they were in a room near us.”
“So they heard us having sex?” She widened her eyes to make a point.
He laughed. “Probably.”
She continued to stare at him wide-eyed.
He stepped closer to her and stroked a hand over her cheek. “My parents are very open about sex. You heard them at dinner one of those first nights. They were probably rooting for us.”
“Oh my God. How embarrassing,” she whispered.
He only laughed while shouldering his backpack and taking both of their rolling suitcases before stepping into the hall. Norah put her own backpack over her shoulders and followed him. As a group, they made their way off the ship. They caught a shuttle to the airport, and Norah’s heart sank when she realized Ian was flying a different airline entirely and would be in a different terminal. She had expected to spend time with him before they had to board their flights home, but it hadn’t occurred to her they wouldn’t be in the same terminal before departure.
As if they all realized what was happening, Linda and James said goodbye to Norah before stepping to the side with Shay and Ryan. Linda and James would fly out of the same terminal as Ian and were hugging Shay and Ryan goodbye, giving Ian and Norah a moment alone.
Ian pulled Norah closer and wrapped his arms around her. She slinked hers around his waist and rested her head against his chest. He sighed into her hair, and she closed her eyes, willing the tears back that suddenly pressed against the back of her eyes.
“I’m going to miss you,” he said.
“I’m going to miss you, too.”
“This isn’t the end. Okay? We can figure something out, right?”
She squeezed him tighter. She wasn’t sure how that would work, but she nodded against his chest. “Yes.”
“I need your phone number,” he whispered.
She laughed, breaking the tension, and pulled her phone out of her backpack. It had been off since they left seven days earlier. She powered it back on as he did the same. Her phone pinged with three missed text messages, one from her sister, one from her brother, and one from her parents, all wishing her a Merry Christmas. Ian’s phone pinged for a solid minute straight.
“Popular guy,” Norah said.
She handed him her phone, and he typed his number into her contacts. She then sent him a text so he would have her number, which added to the several others that continued to ping his phone.
Ian rolled his eyes. “It’s my ex. She’s been nonstop texting me since we broke up.”
A coil of jealousy wound up in Norah’s belly, and her stomach dropped. “How long ago did you break up?”
“A week before the cruise.”
A lightbulb went off. The room was meant for him and his girlfriend. He had to have specifically requested the room have a single bed, or risk winding up with two.
