They sat down at the table and Sierra stared at her plate. “I should have stayed home.”
“No, Mark should have come,” Sophie said firmly.
“If I’d known he wouldn’t have been able to get away, I’d never have booked this. I still don’t get it. I thought he could take the time off. In fact, I’m sure I remember him saying back in October that he had some days he needed to take off before the end of the year or he’d lose them.”
Even though Mark had tried to explain his job to Sophie once, she still didn’t really know what he did. He was some kind of something that had to do with claims at an insurance company. Was he so important he couldn’t take some time away? Surely his boss could have let him take a week’s vacation, especially after assuring Sierra it would be no problem.
“Maybe you were right, maybe you guys do need some time apart,” Sophie offered, echoing her sister’s weak excuse when she’d first called Sophie with the news Mark wasn’t going.
“I just need to hear from him.” Sierra took a vicious bite of her pastry. Then she shoved aside her plate and stood. “I’m going to the room. I’ll see you there.”
She was probably off to text Mark. For the third time since they’d boarded the ship. Well, there was the time difference.
Except the night before would have meant morning for him. Even accounting for meetings or whatever, he should have had time for a one-sentence reply. The fact that he hadn’t said a lot. Poor Sierra. Hopefully, she and Mark would be able to resolve their issues.
Of course they would. This was only a bump in the road. Meanwhile, though, Sophie was going to do her best to distract her sister from that bump and make sure she enjoyed the German scenery.
She was seated by herself at the table, finishing her coffee, when the German class walked past, a giant amoeba with twenty-four legs. Except amoebas didn’t have legs. They were just blobs. And there with the...whatever...was Trevor March’s brother. She didn’t see any sign of Trevor, though. Maybe he’d overslept, too.
Just as well. Sophie needed to concentrate on Dr. Rudy.
She lingered over her coffee another twenty minutes, wanting to give her sister some alone time, then went to the room to get ready for the morning tour. She found Sierra sitting on the edge of the bed, staring out their French balcony window.
“I guess we should start getting ready,” Sophie said. “The tour starts in half an hour.”
“You go. I think I’ll stay on the ship and read.”
“You paid a lot of money for this,” Sophie reminded her. “You should at least try and enjoy some of it.”
“I am,” Sierra insisted.
“How?”
“I’m eating.”
Yeah, pastry. “Which means you’ve got some calories to burn. And what better way to burn them than looking at old windmills.” Sierra didn’t say anything, so Sophie went into sales pitch mode. “That is a once in a lifetime experience, something you might never get to do again.” Still no reply. “Mom will want to see pictures of us having fun together.”
“Send her a picture of you having fun. She’ll be fine with that.”
“It will be interesting,” Sophie promised. “And you can just as easily wait for a text walking around sightseeing as you can sitting in the room. Anyway, there’s nothing you can do about Mark. He’s in Washington and you’re here. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.”
Wrong thing to say. Sierra looked like she was going to cry.
Sophie rushed on. “But you don’t know what that is, so why spoil something you paid for and were looking forward to by worrying?”
“I can’t help it,” Sierra said miserably.
“Don’t let Mark be the Grinch and steal this trip from you. You’ve been excited about it for months.”
“I was excited about doing it with him.” Sierra’s cheeks turned pink. “Sorry, Soph. You know what I mean.”
“I do. And I’m sorry he’s not here. But he wanted you to go have fun so let’s try to have some fun. Let’s make some nice memories, you and me. What do you say?”
Sierra pursed her lips and sighed. “I say you’re right. Let’s go look at windmills.”
A large group of people had opted for touring the windmills and were gathered around a woman in dark slacks and a bright red windbreaker, huddled inside their own jackets and trying to ignore the drizzle and wind. Sophie caught sight of