Fearless Read online

  “I knew it!” Anna laughed. “You two sneaking behind my back again?”

  “Not really; it just came up in conversation a couple of weeks ago.”

  “And what about Mr. Waffles?” Anna asked.

  “SeaWorld has a pet-sitting service. I checked.”

  “Looks like you’ve thought of everything.”

  “My cousin has a time-share in Orlando. She’s not using it, so she offered it to me, and the idea blossomed from there. I checked the airlines, and there is a flight out of Lubbock on Friday.”

  “Then, yes, you can take Christina and Mr. Waffles while I . . . do whatever I’m supposed to do.” She’d feel better knowing Mandy and Christina were out of town.

  “I promise, you’ll have a good time. You know I’ve been on more than a dozen cruises, and I had a blast every time. You’ll be surprised at all the activities on and off the ship. Maybe you could vlog. No, forget I said that. This is a vacation from vlogging. Though you could take pictures.”

  “I’ll hold you to that. If it’s too awful, you’re in for it, big-time,” Anna teased. “And no pictures.”

  “Right. So, I can call the travel agency?” Mandy asked. “They’ve kept a room on the upper deck open for you; it’s the best they have. We can fly to Orlando together. I don’t think the flight was completely booked.”

  “Make the call.”

  “Consider it done,” Mandy singsonged, taking her cell phone from her pocket. Mandy was the ultimate vacationer, being single and gorgeous. They’d hit it off right away when she’d applied for the assistant position, and they’d been best friends ever since.

  Anna shook her head, amazed that she’d so readily agreed to Mandy’s plans. She really did need some time away from work. As much as she enjoyed working, a few days to herself would be nice. Factor in the fear she’d been living with for the past few weeks, and Mandy’s cruise plans couldn’t have happened at a better time.

  Since Wade’s death, she had dated a few guys, but there was nothing serious with any of them. Except one. Sort of. James Banks. She wasn’t really that serious about him, but he had been more than serious about her. He was a photographer she’d met while on location shooting a video for her YouTube channel. A true charmer. Blond, blue-eyed, and sexy as hell. She’d enjoyed spending time with him; he made her laugh and forget about the past. They’d already been seeing one another for three months when she learned he was still married. Feeling like a total fool, she’d broken it off immediately. He tried to convince her that he was in the process of getting a divorce. Anna adamantly told him no, see you later, have a nice life. She didn’t need or want anyone’s excess baggage. He’d called her numerous times, pleading for a second chance, but she’d politely told him he wasn’t the one for her. He’d been hurt, but she knew he’d get over her, as he was quite handsome and outgoing. No doubt, women would line up just to have a date with him. She didn’t need a man in her life. She and Christina had gotten along just fine without one in their lives, and she was positive she would continue to do just that.

  Though late at night, when she was alone with her thoughts, she questioned her choices and how they would affect her daughter’s future. Anna hoped that the absence of a male role model in Christina’s life would not have any serious negative effects on her. She tried her best to be both mother and father, and so far, she hadn’t heard any alarm bells ringing. Yet the issue was always present in her mind, especially now that Christina was a teenager. Hormones and peer pressure were very real. She didn’t want her daughter to feel like she couldn’t come to her if she had problems with school, her friends, or anything she wasn’t sure of or comfortable with. So far, they’d shared a super mother-daughter relationship, and she prayed it would continue.

  Anna had been raised in most part by her mother, her father having died from pancreatic cancer when she was only seven. She’d loved her dad so much, missed his big, booming voice when he’d come home from work, and for a while, it had been difficult for her to understand why he never came home again. With time and maturity, she understood, but she had never stopping missing him. He was the kind of man who walked into a room and people noticed him. He was movie-star handsome, with thick auburn hair and the same aqua-blue eyes she had, his smile as bright as the stars. People chartered his deep-sea fishing boat, the Miss Ellie, and he always had a story to tell at the dinner table. Her mother would laugh at his stories, telling him she knew a fish story when she heard one. They were a happy, fun-loving family. Then her father changed. Almost overnight. He lost weight, his bronzed skin became sallow, washed-out. His energy fizzled out like a deflated balloon. For months, her mother insisted that he go to the doctor for a checkup. And when he finally did, the news had devastated them. He hung on for nine months after his diagnosis. He died in her mother’s arms late one night while Anna was sleeping. She remembered waking up that morning and seeing her mother, her eyes swollen from crying, and she knew her daddy was gone. Their sadness seemed to last forever after he died. Mom sold the fishing boat and their house. Then they’d moved to a small condo on Padre Island. While her mother tried her best, their lives were never the same. Holidays were lackluster, forced. In Anna’s senior year of high school, her mother died of a massive heart attack at the young age of forty-two, and, once again, life for Anna drastically changed. With no family to speak of, she’d stayed with Elizabeth Callahan, her best friend in high school. As soon as she graduated, she moved to Lubbock to attend Texas Tech University. With three part-time jobs and a few scholarships, she managed to earn a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She found a job with a small, family-owned ad agency in which she earned enough to rent an efficiency apartment and buy a secondhand Honda. Anna had many friends during her time in college, but none were so close that she shared with them the tragic story of how she’d lost her parents. It was still painful and raw, especially the loss of her mother and the nightmare of the panic attacks her death had caused. Those attacks almost crippled her as she blamed herself for her mother’s death even though she knew it was impossible for her to have caused her mother to have a heart attack. It just seemed that everyone she loved died.

  If she learned anything from her parents, it was to move forward and make each day count, to never live in the past. Positive to a fault, Anna did her very best to stay upbeat, but there were times when she thought she might fall apart. One lonely weekend, beyond homesick, she drove to Corpus Christi to check out her old house and all the places that were once so familiar to her. She’d purchased a sub sandwich from Heavenly Hoagies, taking it down to the docks at Red Dot Pier, where her father had anchored his fishing boat, and her life changed. Almost instantly.

  She’d been lost in memories when a giant of a man caught her attention. For a moment, she’d thought it was her father, then realized how ridiculous that was. Her father was gone, but from a distance this guy reminded her of him. Tall, broad-shouldered, with light brown hair streaked from too much time in the sun. There was a worn leather tool belt hanging loosely around his hips, his muscular legs were encased in faded denim, and a too-tight, faded Houston Oilers shirt clung to his chest. Mesmerized, she’d watched him as he carefully sanded what appeared to be a piece of delicate wood. She wasn’t sure of the type. Whatever it was, his long fingers touched it as though it were the most delicate object in the world. She was unsure how long she’d been sitting staring at him. Apparently it had been too long because he’d suddenly stopped and looked up, his eyes settling on her. He was the most beautiful male specimen she’d ever seen.

  He tilted his head, as if in question, and she nodded, unsure why. She remembered the sound of the ocean slapping against the boat’s hull, the briny smell, seagulls plunging down into the water, their high-pitched squeal piercing the air as they swooped down for their catch of the day.

  It was as though time stopped. Anna had no memory of walking down the pier to the boat, though she did recall that his eyes never left hers. Time was endless. Without invitation, s
he’d reached for the hand he held out to her and stepped onto the deck. “I’m Wade Campbell.”

  “Anna Ross,” she’d said, taking his hand. She’d never experienced such physicality from a single touch.

  After that moment, her life was a whirlwind of change. She returned to Lubbock, gave a two-week notice at the ad agency. Luckily, she didn’t have a lease on her small apartment. She packed what little she owned into the trunk of her Honda and, two and a half weeks later, she’d rented a dingy but cheap apartment in Corpus Christi. She wasn’t so lucky finding work in her chosen field, so she’d taken a job as a desk clerk at the exclusive Omni Hotel. Eight months later, she and Wade were married in a small ceremony on the beach. Her life was almost perfect, and not a day passed that she didn’t thank her lucky stars for her spur-of-the-moment trip to Corpus Christi.

  For the next few years, Anna and Wade lived an ideal life. He finally saved enough money to purchase the shop he’d worked for, Woodworks. He specialized in restoring boats, yachts, and any water vessel that had any kind of wood. Though his was only a one-man operation, he made enough money for Anna to quit her job at the hotel. She’d saved enough for a down payment on a small house in Corpus Christi’s Bay Area. The location was safe, family-oriented, and they both loved the neighborhood.

  Anna had a knack for decorating, and she’d turned their average little home into a stylish yet comfortable living space. With so much time on her hands since she’d stopped working, she discovered she had a special flair in the kitchen. Her mother had been an excellent cook, too, so she assumed she’d inherited this skill from her. Wade was only too happy to be her taste tester. She fashioned new recipes for desserts and special drink concoctions, smoothies and a variety of drinks using Texas’s famed Dr. Pepper as a base. She grew her own vegetables, herbs, and spices, another new skill she enjoyed. She relished entertaining in her tastefully decorated home and did so often, and the small group of friends they shared told her that an invitation to her dinner parties was in high demand from others in their neighborhood, neighbors whom Anna and Wade didn’t know as well as they did Joyce, Robert, Ashley, and her husband, Bryan.

  Once a month, she hosted a cookout for the neighborhood. They made more friends, and Anna looked forward to planning and preparing new and different meals for them.

  Wade and Bryan both became motorcycle enthusiasts. Anna wasn’t thrilled about it, but Wade enjoyed it immensely, and she was grateful he had a hobby that wasn’t related to his work. After a few months of riding a secondhand motorcycle, he’d invested in a Harley, and this became his only mode of transportation during all but the rainy season. Then Anna insisted he drive his old pickup truck that had been on its last mile when they’d met. He was due for a new set of wheels, but until they saved up, he’d made do with his old truck and new Harley.

  They had been married over two years when she discovered she was pregnant. Wade had been ecstatic when she’d told him the news. Unlike many new parents, they chose to wait until the birth to find out their child’s gender. To Anna, this was part of the thrill of being pregnant. Their friends were astonished at this news but understood their desire to keep the excitement buzzing until the actual delivery.

  As typical first-time births went, Anna was in labor for eighteen hours, Wade with her through every cry, every scream, then every push. He’d cut the cord, placed a tiny baby on her chest, and announced with tear-filled eyes, “We’ve got ourselves a little girl.” She’d been over the moon, seeing her little bundle of joy, and only now would admit that she’d secretly hoped for a daughter the first time around. Andrew Wade Campbell would have a big sister whenever he arrived, if at all. Or not—because another girl would be just fine, too. They’d wanted at least two, maybe three children. Gender really didn’t matter. Her love for Christina was enormous, so complete that she knew her heart would swell with love for each child she gave birth to.

  The first few weeks were tough, but Anna was competent, patient, and madly in love with her daughter, so the loss of sleep and routine in their lives was worth it. She hadn’t suffered from any dark moments after the birth and for that she was grateful.

  Soon enough, they would be on a better schedule. Until then, she made the best of their new lifestyle. Wade took a month off work to stay home with her. She cherished the time but realized that one of them had to earn a living. Her first day alone with her daughter had been uneventful, and for that she was glad. As the weeks turned into months, her days and nights became more routine. Time flew, and suddenly, one day Christina was four months old, sleeping through most nights.

  When Christina turned two, they decided to try for a brother or sister. Months went by and nothing happened. After a year of trying, they both visited their doctors to see if either had developed any medical issues that would prevent them from conceiving. Both were given a clean bill of health and were told to stop thinking about getting pregnant, and most likely they would easily have a second child.

  On the fifth anniversary of their daughter’s birth, Anna decided she would not have another child. It wasn’t happening, and after many tears, anger at her own body, numerous crazy how-to-conceive concoctions, she told Wade she wasn’t going to think about having another child. One was enough. Both were content with this decision. Secretly, though, Anna hoped that after having made the decision, she would get pregnant.

  During Christina’s first semester of second grade, her life, their lives changed forever. Anna couldn’t forget that horrible day. She would never get over the loss though she’d learned to live with it.

  She’d just put her daughter down for the night and settled on the sofa to read an article Wade had recently been featured in. Wade had a big job he’d had to finish, so she knew he wouldn’t be in until late. Around midnight she’d gone to bed, knowing she’d see her husband in the morning.

  Around four in the morning, she’d been woken from a sound sleep by the shrill sound of the telephone ringing. Thinking it was Wade, she answered with a sleepy-sounding hello.

  “Mrs. Campbell?” a stern, businesslike voice asked.

  She remembered sitting up, switching the bedside light on. “Yes, this is she.”

  From there, she always drew a blank. Her memory had completely blocked out the events of that early-morning tragedy. He’d been in a fatal motorcycle accident. All she needed to remember was that Wade was dead.

  Her life would never be the same. The darkness overwhelmed her.

  Chapter 2

  “This is unbelievable,” Anna said to the cabin steward.

  “Yes, ma’am. This is the largest cabin on the ship,” he said. “Your suite is the best we have to offer. No other compares.”

  She nodded. “It’s more than I expected.” It was like a luxurious apartment. There were two bedrooms, two and a half baths, and two private balconies.

  “You’ll have the entire fourteen hundred square feet of space all to yourself,” the steward continued. “Unless . . . well, this is a singles cruise, ma’am.” He added the last sentence with a wink.

  “Call me Anna.” She knew from the brochure she’d read on the plane that she was assigned a personal steward /butler. She didn’t want to be called “ma’am” for seven days. Might as well get that out of the way.

  “My pleasure. And you may call me George,” he said in a lovely Jamaican accent.

  Extending her hand, she said, “We could be besties at the end of this cruise.”

  He laughed and shook her hand. “Besties?”

  George appeared to be in his mid- to late-twenties. Tall and broad-shouldered, he was a good-looking guy. With his coffee-colored eyes, dark, closely clipped hair, and warm brown skin, he probably had women falling at his feet. “It’s what my daughter calls her best friend, Tiffany. Besties.”

  “Of course. Then we will be ‘besties,’ Anna,” he said, his smile friendly and a bit flirty in a teasing sort of way.

  Some women might’ve been offended. She wasn’t at all. Having the abi
lity to read people, she suspected George was just as friendly to everyone he met.

  Spying a silver bucket on the kitchen counter, she removed a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne. “Nice,” she said.

  “Allow me,” George said, taking the chilled bottle of champagne from her.

  “Thank you,” she said, heading out to the balcony. Excited to have such a luxurious space all to herself, she settled onto a lounge chair. The summer air was thick with humidity, but there was just enough breeze from the Gulf for it to be tolerable. Glad she’d packed shorts and several sleeveless sundresses, she decided then and there she was going to do just as Mandy suggested. Rest, relax, and allow herself to be waited on. According to the brochure, that was the main point of cruising on the Splendor of the Sea.

  George stepped onto the balcony, a glass of the Veuve Clicquot on a tray. “I’ll leave the bottle to chill,” he said. “If you need anything, Anna, please push the button labeled STEWARD. I’m available around the clock.”

  They really did wait on one hand and foot, she thought. “Thank you, George. I’m going to enjoy this”—she held up the crystal flute of champagne—“then I plan to unpack and get settled in.”

  George held up his free hand. “No, no you may not! I will unpack for you now.”

  “That’s okay. I can do it myself.”

  “Anna, this is what I’m here for. Please allow me to do my job,” he insisted.

  She wasn’t comfortable with him handling her lingerie and personal items. “I insist. I’m a bit OCD and have my own system, so please, let me take care of that later. I’ll have another glass,” she added, holding the flute out to him. If she continued to drink this fast, she’d be totally inebriated by dinner; she already felt a bit light-headed from just one glass. Not much of a drinker since she’d had Christina, she reminded herself to take it easy. She didn’t want George to think she was heavy-handed with the booze. He whirled away and, within seconds, was back with a fresh flute of the bubbly.