come here to his home, looking for some fun, relaxation and a good time. Now they were being forced to face something none of them wanted to think about. And they were his responsibility. It was up to him to keep them all safe and calm and as happy as possible.
“If it hits,” Gabe said, keeping his voice easy, casual, “then we’ll deal. The resort is as safe a place as you’ll find. And we’re going to make it safer.”
“How?” A few people shouted the single word.
“We’ll be boarding up the windows in here,” he said, waving one hand at the busboys who were already carrying in sheets of plywood and the tools they needed to safeguard the wide windows.
A murmur of discontent swept the crowd and he knew they were all thinking about being shut up inside a single room for who knew how long. It was going to be hard enough being part of a crowd confined in one room. But when that room had boarded-up windows and became more or less a plush jail cell, it was going to be even harder.
He was just trying to figure out a way to make this seem less frightening when someone stepped up beside him on the small stage.
Stunned speechless, he could only stare as Debbie lifted both hands and smiled at everyone. She looked happy, relaxed and completely in control.
“Hi, everybody,” she said, and instantly the crowd quieted. “I know you’re all nervous, but really, you don’t have to be. Fantasies is safe. Mr. Vaughn and his staff are going to be doing everything they can to make this whole situation as easy as it can be on all of us.”
“Who the hell’re you?” A deep voice from the back of the room sounded out.
“My name’s Debbie Harris,” she said, speaking slowly and clearly. “I own a travel agency in California and I can tell you firsthand, I’ve been in situations just like this one in far less favorable circumstances and I’m still here to tell the tale.”
Someone laughed nervously and while Gabe watched with interest, Debbie kept talking. “I’m going to be helping Mr. Vaughn out as much as possible.”
She glanced at Gabe and shot him a smile bright enough to light up every shadow inside him. Admiration for her filled him and he had to admit that the feel of the crowd had really eased up since she’d joined him on the stage. There was just something about her that reached people.
Including him.
“I’m a guest here, too,” Debbie was saying. “Just like the rest of you. I know none of us signed up to work on our vacations, but I’ve found that keeping busy in stressful times helps us all to feel safer. And, if we all work together, we can get through this with as little trouble as possible.”
There was some muttering, but mostly, Gabe noticed, the people in the crowd were more relaxed. Some of them smiling, some of them nodding. All of them listening.
“Now, if some of you guys would go to the windows and help the busboys with the plywood, that’d be great,” Debbie said. As a few men moved off, she continued. “And we can use more help, setting up the cots, arranging a temporary kitchen-” she looked at Gabe and he pointed to the far corner “-over there. We’ll need people to help serve, set up chairs, to pass out supplies, make lists and, oh, lots of other stuff.”
She grinned at them all again, as if she and the crowd were sharing a secret and Gabe saw just how well it was working. Before there had been nerves, fear and a humming energy that could have turned ugly. But in just a few minutes Debbie’s easy smile, professional savvy and knowledge of human nature had turned it all around.
“So how about it?” she asked. “You guys willing to pitch in?”
Applause started, slowly at first, and then catching on and rising into a wave of sound that roared into the closed-up room. And while the guests cheered, Gabe looked at Debbie and felt his heart turn over.
Twelve
The storm raged all day and long into the night.
Debbie became the unofficial cruise director-initiating games, sing-alongs, even, in desperation, a marshmallow roast over the chef’s open flames. She’d done anything she could think of to keep the crowd relaxed. She hadn’t had a moment to just sit all night.
Gabe and his staff had been just as busy.
Silently, efficiently, they went about the business of keeping everyone safe. The windows were boarded, security guards were on hand to keep people from stealing outside to watch the storm and Gabe himself seemed to be constantly in motion. She watched him work the crowd, smiling, chatting as if this was just another weekend on Fantasies. His easy manner and quiet confidence instilled a sense of well-being in everyone he passed and Debbie had to admire him for it.
Gabe really was in his element, she realized. This place was more than his kingdom. It was his home and here, he was both host and touchstone.
Wandering the darkened room, Debbie walked around the edge of the club, moving as quietly as she could. People were stretched out on the cots and mats provided by the hotel, and some of them were even managing to sleep, in spite of the howling wind and the rain slamming against the boarded-up windows. A few muffled sobs reached her, too, and she knew that fear was still high as the world outside seemed to tear itself apart.
All she really wanted was a place to collapse. She was bone-weary but too wired to sleep. Besides, she didn’t think she’d be able to close her eyes while the wind was screaming like some wild creature just outside the room.
Grabbing a cup of coffee from the chef’s table, she held it between her palms and carried it with her to the far side of the club. There, she gratefully eased down to the floor and leaned against the wall.
Sipping at her coffee, she tried not to listen to the storm. Tried to ignore the hundred or more terrified people in the room. Tried not to let her own fear, that she’d been successfully blocking all day, suddenly take up life in the pit of her stomach. She tried, anyway.
“Mind some company?”
Debbie looked up at Gabe and shook her head. “Not at all. Pull up the floor and sit down.”
His mouth quirked into a half smile as he eased down beside her. Pulling one knee up, he rested his forearm atop it and stared off across the room. “Long day.”
“Yeah, it really was.” She took a sip of coffee, then held the cup out to him.
“Thanks.” He took a sip, sighed, then handed it back to her. “And not just for the coffee.”
“You’re welcome,” Debbie said, then laughed a little. “Wow. We’re actually being nice to each other twice in one day.”
He leaned back, stretched out his legs and folded his arms over his chest. “A record for us.”
“Didn’t used to be.” Debbie looked at him, his profile softened in the dim light, and her heart filled with both want and regret. “There was a time when we were great together.”
“A long time ago.”
In the dark, in the relative quiet in their little corner of the room, she said softly, “I didn’t want to say no to you ten years ago, Gabe. I loved you so much.”
He turned his head to look down at her, but with the light behind him, she couldn’t really see his eyes. And she wished she could. She’d always been able to look into those eyes and see love.
God, she missed that.
“You should have had faith in me, Deb,” he said, and his voice sounded tired. “Faith in us.”
“Maybe,” she admitted, thinking back to the girl she had once been. The girl who had been so scared. Scared of loving too much. Scared of never being safe. Scared of taking a chance-a risk. “Maybe I should have, Gabe. I don’t really know anymore. But since we’re being so honest here, do you think you’d have done all this if we had stayed together back then?”
“Funny,” he said after a long moment or two. “Someone else asked me that just yesterday.”
“And?”
“And, I don’t know.” He blew out a breath. “Guess I’ll never know. I was so damn mad at you for so long…”
Blindly, she reached for his hand and when his fingers closed over hers, Debbie clung to the warmth of him as
