Paradise Cursed Snippet 7
CHAPTER 6
That evening in the dinner room, Ayanna could not help but feel exhilarated at her fortunate timing. Five minutes later and Captain McKinsey would have offered the job to Jase Graham. Cooyah! One piece done, and soon you dressback dis trouble, you. She felt sure, yeah.
Wearing white pants, now, with a blue shirt to match the Sarah Jane’s trim, she prepared to assume the double-job her captain had assigned. Every sailor has to fill in where needed, he had told her. First and most important, take excellent care of our guests.
“Ow yuh do?” Ayanna extended her hands to greet the pair entering the room, as different as a toucan and a dove. The young one, with her spiky strawberry hair, wore green batik, showy like the hair color. The older one, the dove, wore gauzy white cotton beneath a mass of springy dark curls.
Their warm hands nestled softly in her own—until the dove jerked hers away. During the contact, Ayanna felt the dove’s thoughts slide over her own like oil. Flashing a smile, she pretended not to notice, but wondered if the dove might be obeah and see inside to the Bokor’s curse Ayanna was carrying.
“Coodeh, da ting I love about dining on da Sarah Jane,” she said, laying on her thick patois, which tourists ate up like candy, “is hevery tebble has a niceee view. Yuh da bess frens, yeah?”
“Sisters,” said the toucan. “I’m Dayna Kohl, this is Erin, and you have the most amazing job! Has Captain McKinsey mentioned me? He said there might be a place for me among the crew.”
The dove scooted into a booth, her eyes wide, her arms and hands tucked straight down, as if to avoid Ayanna’s touch. If she was obeah, her magic must be puny for her to look so trepid. When they were both seated, Ayanna handed each woman a menu and filled their glasses, wine for the dove, fizzy punch for the toucan.
“I ’elp yuh mek up yuh mind, yeah? Swimps, fish, chawklit cake, all good flayvah. Stek is also good, but not so tender. I come bawk inna bit.”
The chubby lady with bells on her ears requested to sit at Captain McKinsey’s table, and he surprised Ayanna by agreeing. It was rumored he kept himself aloof from the crew and passengers, but he knew how to turn on the charm when it suited, rising and taking the woman’s two plump hands in his own, thanking her warmly for joining him. As charming as he was handsome, this captain.
Ayanna waved over a steward to bring wine. She seated another couple before returning to the toucan and dove.
When the woman called Erin returned the paper menu, her hands all over it, Ayanna felt the thrum of a strange energy in the paper. This woman definitely was witchy, yeah, maybe obeah or maybe some sapless American magic that would do Ayanna no good. But if she was wrong about McKinsey, if he would not or could not help, an American dove with puny magic might be her only salvation.
“Do you find that woman creepy?” Erin whispered when Ayanna had taken their order and gone.
“If tall, black, and dazzling is creepy, sure. Put Ayanna’s image on a travel poster and the Caribbean Isles would be flooded with hot-blooded, tongue-dragging men. How can we hope to entice a sailor to look at us with her aboard?”
Erin rolled her eyes, but at least she’d come out of her weird funk. Sort of.
Dayna hadn’t missed Erin’s grimace when Ayanna touched her hand, as if a goose had walked over her grave. Did the first mate’s exotic beauty remind her of the “best friend” who thought it was cool to sleep with a bride’s fiancé? Or was it that Erin hated everything about this ship? Watching her sister scan the menu with the same grim distraction she’d shown earlier with the steward, Dayna almost wished she’d agreed to stay at the resort. But only almost.
“Erin, lighten up! You are no longer engaged, and we have six days to do all the things we wouldn’t think of doing at home on the Texas range.” Grinning, Dayna nodded toward a sailor making his way around the tables, stopping to talk with each passenger. “We can start with that choice hunk of manhood.”
Blond and built, he had a lazy stride that radiated confidence.
“Second Mate Jase Graham,” Dayna added. “I heard him telling another passenger when we came in.”
Erin shook her head. “Too bold, too schmaltzy. Do you memorize all the sailors’ names, or only the sexy ones?”
“His smile could melt ice, sis. Look at him! I’ll take Jase, you can have Captain Moody McKinsey. You’re perfect for each other, beautiful, brooding, and mysterious.” Dayna had tried several times to catch the captain’s eye after their first meeting, but he was like quick silver, warmly mingling among passengers one second, silently vanishing the next.
Erin turned her gaze to the captain’s table. Even from here Dayna could hear his resonant voice and his low, easy laugh, a ripple of sound that seemed to bounce along like the gentle waves rocking the ship. He sat with Ola and a middle-aged couple. Ola’s bracelet twinkled in the candlelight as she talked with her busy hands. Tonight she wore matching earrings, a cluster of tiny, glittering gold bells.
“The captain looks cheerful enough,” Erin said. “I don’t find him at all gloomy.”
His smile tonight, Dayna had to admit, was much more appealing than the serious mug he wore when he thought no one was noticing. “Maybe he’s a chubby chaser.”
“Dayna Alice Kohl! The whole world does not revolve around sex.”
“This week it does. I’m seventeen, still a virgin, and hopelessly in heat. You’re on the rebound and ripe for vengeance sex. Hair of the dog—best cure for hangovers and fickle fiancés. And if one guy can help you recover, then a dozen guys will do it twelve times faster.”
“You’re sixteen,” Erin corrected.
Jase Graham took that moment to stop at their table and introduce himself. Dayna watched his gaze move from her to Erin, where his dazzling smile oddly froze. He mumbled a few encouraging words about scuba diving excursions, but when a steward arrived with two hot plates, the second mate gave her a quick wink and was gone. Okay, plenty of other cuties aboard.
For a while, grilled “swimps” and multicolored vegetables took their attention. Then halfway through their meal, Dayna looked up to see her sister studying Jase Graham.
“That man looks familiar,” she said vaguely.
“Oh, sure. Like we travel from dusty Central Texas to this watery tropical paradise, our first time ever, and you think you recognize someone from home? Anyway, he’s mine, remember?”
When Erin didn’t respond and seemed about to drift into one of her fogs, Dayna slid a hand into her pocket.
“It’d be a shame to waste the whole week going after the wrong man,” she said, “Especially when you can pick out the right guy with a flick of the cards.”
What had hurt Erin as much as finding her fiancé with another woman was the fact that she’d predicted it months in advance. Reading tarot cards and astrology charts was Erin’s hobby, but she was much better at it than anyone except Dayna knew, verging on psychic at times.
“I told you, I’m done with all that.” Erin shook her head and frowned. Then her eyes turned solemn. “You are not seriously planning to lose your virginity on this cruise, are you?”
Dayna batted her lashes. “Every sailor I’ve seen is cute as a puppy and looks like he could wrestle a gator with his bare hands.”
“So… gator-wrestling is a turn on?” Erin’s frown deepened. “If you weren’t my brilliant little sister, I’d be worried.”
“My first time off the ranch and on a sailing ship, I want this trip to be memorable, every single minute of it.” For Dayna, being happy actually had nothing to do with men. It meant getting a turn at the helm, hoisting a sail, or even scrubbing the deck. But she also wanted Erin to shake off the memory of being jilted by the jerk.
She took the deck of cards from her pocket and set them on the table. “C’mon, Sis. One reading each, so we’ll know how to make the most of this cruise.”
The blood drained from Erin’s face. “No.”
She could be so stubborn at times. To be fair, predicting the jerk’s tryst wasn’t quite the worst of it. A week before the aborted wedding, Erin had done a reading for a good friend.
The cards predicted danger, and when the friend was seriously injured the next day, Erin had tossed all her cards in the trash.
Determined to jolt her sister out of her melancholy, Dayna pushed their empty plates aside.
“Hair of the dog.” She opened the tarot deck.
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