AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah?”
“Are we there yet?”
I laugh. “We’re still on the plane, so no.”
“I have a confession,” she whispers. “I’ve never been on a cruise. I’m kinda scared. I’ve never even been on a boat.”
A small red flag slowly rises and waves with an imaginary breeze. If she’s never been on the water, I might want to keep a lookout for motion sickness, just in case. I take her hand from her lap and intertwine her fingers with mine. “You’ll be with me, so you’ll be okay.”
“I never promised to spend time with you,” she reminds me.
“Don’t even think about teasing me, Jamie. It’s my birthday and you’re my present; you’ll be with me.” Especially since I know that Kayla will be making an effort to give her a chance.
Jamie smiles at me and kisses my cheek as it’s announced that we’ll be landing soon. We’re all in our own little world as we land, get our bags, and meet our shuttle, which will take us to our hotel for tonight as we don’t board the ship until tomorrow.
We check in, drop our bags off in our rooms, and then head out. Everyone wants to see the Space Needle and it’s not too terribly far from the hotel. We have to wait a little bit to go up after buying our tickets since they send people up in groups. It’s always interesting to people watch. We even see a group of protestors walking down the road, though we aren’t sure what they are protesting, or maybe rallying for.
Soon, we’re all in an elevator heading to the top. The attendant welcomes us and tells us some facts on the ride up. The view is wonderful. Once we step to the outside portion and walk around, we can even see some cruise ships. Kayla is our official photographer on this trip, so she snaps away.
“Will you take a picture of Logan and me?” she asks me.
“I don’t know how to use this thing.”
Jamie laughs and Kayla says, “Just press this button.”
They find an empty spot against the railing and I snap a photo.
“That’s a good one,” Jamie praises. “Do you want one with Kayla and Gregory? I can take it.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I hand the camera to her and switch places with Logan while Gregory joins us.
She snaps a picture and returns the camera to Kayla. “Let’s walk around again,” she says to me.
“Wait,” Kayla says with a sigh. “Dad, do you want a picture?” Her eyes flick to Jamie.
With a smile, I look at Jamie. “What do you say, honey? Want a picture with me?”
She frowns and wrinkles her nose. She even pulls away from me. “With you? No way.”
I laugh and tug her over. “Too bad. Smile and look like you love me.” With our arms around one another, Kayla takes the picture. I smile gratefully at her before Jamie leads me away. “See?” I point out to Jamie. “This trip will be better than you thought it would be.”
“Her being a little nice to me after all this time scares me.”
“Let’s hope it’ll be a normal thing soon.”
We meet back up with the rest of the gang and travel back down. After we spend some time in the gift shop, we walk down the street toward the hotel. All we have to do today is survive dinner together. Then Jamie and I get a night in the hotel room. Tomorrow, we all board the ship. I pray this trip goes well.
“I felt like we were cattle being herded on board,” Jamie says as she grabs an alcoholic beverage from a waitress as she stops by. “This ship is huge, too.” She takes a sip and looks out over the water. We’re standing on the top deck at the railings. The wind is mild for the moment.
“They have bigger ones,” Gregory says from the other side of her.
“We’re going to get lost,” she mumbles. Jamie looks at me. “You can’t leave me alone. I’m not to be left alone, Brent. I’ll never find my way around this place.”
I laugh, wrap an arm around her waist, and tug her close to my side. “I won’t let you get lost.”
“Thank you.” She kisses me softly before returning her gaze to our view.
There’s a lot of small talk. Kayla takes pictures and is able to get someone to take a group picture. Gregory talks about how he plans to find the teen center after dinner. He also tells Jamie about how we’ll all have to meet up for the crew to go over safety protocols.
