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"Hey, good morning again." Luka stops what he's doing and studies Dane. "I see your expression hasn't changed. You were smiling when you woke up, and you're still doing it. You must be happy about something." He looks like he wants tosay something else but doesn't, going back to setting the table instead.
"You're the second person to say something like that. You act like I never smile."
Luka grabs a stack of coffee cups from a cabinet and takes them to another table. "Not like the way you are now. You look different. I don't know, maybe more relaxed. Did something happen?"
Something happened all right, and her name is Brittany. Dane can't help his grin. She's been on his mind almost every waking second since last night. But he isn't about to tell Luka that. "No, nothing happened," Dane lies, feeling himself getting hard as he pictures Brittany's naked body underneath her robe. Damn, he needs to stop thinking about her and clear her from his mind. He'll think about work. That's what he'll do—not here on the ship, but back in London.
Dane sighs when his mind flips in that direction. He'll be busy when he returns and steps into his new role with its increased responsibilities. His position change hasn't been officially announced yet, although he's been given a heads-up since it's all part of the master plan. He should probably take a few days to visit his family back in Bulgaria—mainly his mother and grandparents—if he can squeeze out the time. Once he becomes inundated with work, vacations will become a luxury he can ill afford for a while, or at least until he gets the hang of the new job.
Dane quietly hums as he and Luka finish setting up their section of the room. More staff slowly trickle in as the hour nears seven.
A small line forms outside the closed dining room door. Bernard checks the time on his watch and opens it, letting the guests come in and take a seat, with most gravitating to the same table each meal. Dane looks up from his task of restocking theminiature jelly jars at the bread and pastry table to see Brittany, the four older ladies, and their new gentleman friend take seats at their usual table by the window.
Dane's breath catches in his throat as Brittany spots him and delivers a beaming smile. She's gorgeous, dressed in jeans and a forest-green sweater, with her dark hair pulled into a ponytail. How she could have thought he found her unattractive was beyond him. He hurries over to her table, even though Luka is already waiting on them.
The liveliest of the four older ladies is sitting next to Brittany. She looks up from her menu, her lips spreading wide when she sees Dane.
"Well, good morning, young man. This is the first time we've had the pleasure of seeing you at breakfast. It must be our lucky day. Two handsome men at our table before we've even had our coffee. I'm not sure my heart can take it." She brings her hand to her chest, giving her fingers an exaggerated flutter.
The bespectacled lady beside the gentleman at the window brings her hand to her mouth and coughs. "Correction. Three handsome men." She smiles at the white-haired gentleman.
"Oh, of course, my mistake," the first woman says.
"Madam, I'm not sure our hearts can take the stunning beauty radiating from your table," Dane teases, casting a side look at Brittany.
"Oh, my. I need you at my breakfast table every morning," the woman declares, causing several chuckles. "And please, stop calling me madam. I'm Iris. Next to me is my sister, Dahlia, and next to her is Rose. You know Brittany, of course. Beside her is Marigold, and that's Larry at the window. We'd prefer you use our names. Personally, it sounds too stuffy when you say madam."
"Of course, if that's what you prefer, ma…Iris."
"I do, and it sounds better already."
"Wonderful. I'll try my best to remember that over the next few days." Dane smiles, although his mind is working feverishly on a way to remember their names. Always good at word association, he realizes their names are flowers. That's it…flowers. He'll call this the flower table. These ladies' ages appear somewhere between his mother and grandmother, and when Dane was young, he'd bring them both bouquets of hand-picked flowers for their birthdays. That should make it easy to remember, especially when he smells Iris's slightly overdone floral perfume.
Iris's gaze slides from Luka to Dane. "When our cruise ends, do you two young men go home or work on another cruise?"
"It'll be the end of the regular season, so we both go home since neither of us is working the Christmas market cruises. I'll go back to Zagreb in Croatia," Luka says.
"And you, dear. Where do you go?" Iris smiles up at Dane.
"I'll be going home to London." Dane catches the disappointed expression on Brittany's face before she hides it. But why the look? Is she disappointed because she enjoyed the cruise and it's ending, or is it because he's leaving for London, and their time together will end? If it's the latter, it's not what he expected, although it makes him feel good to know she might miss him. He knows he'll miss her. There's no doubt in his mind about that, especially with the way his feelings toward her keep growing. He tried to brush them off as a byproduct of sexual attraction. But as the days passed, he could no longer deny it. He likes Brittany a hell of a lot more than just a little. And it isn't strictly because of the sex.
Their night together in Budapest was intended as a one-time encounter, and ending up on the cruise together was an unexpected bonus. Unfortunately, Dane's a realist and knows that regardless of his feelings toward her, a relationship between them won't work. He didn't see any way it could. They're headingoff in opposite directions, and he's a self-proclaimed workaholic—with his job expected to get even crazier after he returns home.
"Well, since our cruise is coming to an end in a matter of days, we should make the most of the time we have left. Don't you think?" Iris pointedly glances between Dane and Brittany, making Brittany blush.
"Absolutely." Dane grins at her, agreeing wholeheartedly with her sentiments. He turns to Luka. "Can I help you with anything?"
"If you could get coffee for six with cream, a glass of orange juice, one french toast, and an eggs benedict florentine, I'll wait on the table next to us."
"I can do that." Dane glances around the table. "Anything else?"
Iris shakes her head. "No, dear. The rest of us are going to the omelet station and hot buffet."
"Very well. I'll be right back with your coffee and juice."
Dane returns with three small carafes of coffee and three small stainless steel containers filled with cream and distributes them around the table. After turning the coffee cups over onto their saucers, he fills each cup with the steaming brew. He dashes off again, returning with the two plates of food and the glass of orange juice.
"Who has the orange juice?" Dane asks Marigold. She and Larry are the only ones at the table, the others at the omelet station.
