he was smitten with Catherine. There would be no un-smittening him. Really, who could blame him? She was a nice lady.
Studying her, Sophie detected sadness in her eyes. With the demonstration over, people moved to the display tables to get serious about purchasing the various goodies. Catherine stayed seated and Sophie remained with her.
“Catherine, are you okay?”
“Me? I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You don’t look fine.”
“You’re sweet to ask. I just get a little blue sometimes.”
“You miss your husband?”
“I do. Not that our marriage was perfect—no marriage is—but I miss the companionship.”
“You have kids, though, right?”
“Oh, yes, but they have lives of their own.”
Sophie thought of how close she was with her parents. She and her brother and sister had lives of their own, of course, but their mom and dad were still an integral part of those lives. Why weren’t Catherine’s kids on this cruise with her?
Any number of reasons. Maybe they couldn’t afford it. Maybe Catherine couldn’t afford to take them.
“I bet they think you’re fabulous,” Sophie said, determined to cheer her up. She sure wanted to cheer up someone.
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“Well, I think you’re fabulous. Hey, want to adopt me?”
That did bring a smile. “I doubt your mother would want to share.”
“Sure she would. Anyway, you can’t have too many moms, right?”
“Oh, yes, you can,” said Athena, who had returned in time to eavesdrop.
Catherine’s smile vanished. “I’m feeling a little tired. I think I’ll say good-night,” she said.
“Don’t go, Catherine,” Sophie urged.
“No, really. It’s been a long day. I’ll see you in the morning,” Catherine said, then got up and threaded her way through the throng of shoppers.
“That was classy,” Sophie said.
Athena pretended not to hear. Bitch.
Sophie left her to sit by her bitchy self and went to join her sister at the display table.
Trevor slipped in next to her. “Find anything you like?”
“Found something I didn’t like,” she said, glaring across the room at Athena. “That woman leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”
“We’d better put something good in it, then. Fancy another drink?”
“May as well,” she said.
There was sure no point trying to talk to Rudy. He was all about Catherine. And anyway, look what came with him. Would she want to be related to Athena?
“Want to join us?” Trevor asked Sierra, who was half-heartedly fingering a paperweight.
“Nah. You two go ahead and enjoy yourselves. I’m going to head back to the room.”
To mope. “Already? Why don’t you hang out with us for a while,” Sophie urged.
“I want to be rested up for Heidelberg. I’ll see you later.”
“I hope she doesn’t just go to the room and text Mark,” Sophie said, watching her go.
“Mark?”
Sophie bit her lip. She shouldn’t have been voicing her thoughts out loud.
“Hey, none of my business,” Trevor said easily. He pointed to the glass art in front of them. “Anything catch your eye?”
“Nope,” Sophie said, and picked up the paperweight.
“Uh-huh.”
“It’s for my sister.” As if a paperweight could counter the heavy weight on Sierra’s heart. Sophie bought it, anyway.
“Trevor,” someone called, and she turned to see his number one fan moving in their direction.
Trevor was suddenly deaf. “Come on,” he said to Sophie, “I see a seat in the corner.” He put a hand to the small of her back and steered her away.
“You can run but you can’t hide,” she joked.
“I can try,” he said.
As they settled in Sophie did a quick scan of the room, looking for the girl. She’d been waylaid by a husky guy in jeans and a T-shirt. It looked like Trevor was safe for a while.
“I think you dodged the bullet,” she said.
“I hope so.”
“It’s got to be tough to have women throwing themselves at you all the time,” she teased.
“Funny.” He shook his head. “What is it with people always going after someone who’s not right for them?”
“Maybe you’re right for her and you don’t know it.”
“I’m way too old for her,” he said in disgust.
“Not necessarily. After a certain point, age doesn’t really matter,” Sophie argued.
“And after a certain point it does again. Age gaps don’t matter so much in the middle of life, but they do in the early part and they do again at the end. You kinda want to reach the finish line together.”
There was that. But still. “Lots of people manage quite well in spite of their age difference.”
“You think so, huh?”
“I do,” she insisted.
A waiter arrived and Trevor ordered drinks for them—beer for him and a Winter Wonderland for Sophie.
“There’s something to be said for being