“Katmandu?”
“Or somewhere else exotic, far away and out of reach apparently, of my phone.”
Sam tucked his hands into his slacks pockets. “So you take a fifteen-day cruise?”
Mia shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“With Maya.”
“And her family.”
He glanced down the hallway and then to the closed door, as if expecting to see Joe and the kids pop out of hiding. “You’re kidding.”
“Why would I kid?”
The door flew open and Maya was there, glaring at him. Mia sighed, but gave up trying to rein in her twin.
“Why wouldn’t she bring her family along as backup when she has to face you?” Maya asked.
“Backup?” He pulled his hands free, folded his arms across his chest and glared at the mirror image of Mia. “Why the hell would she need backup?”
“As if you didn’t know,” Maya snapped. “And another news flash for you, Mom and Dad are here too, and they’re not real happy about it.”
He looked at Mia. “Your parents are here?”
She lifted both hands helplessly. Mia hadn’t actually invited any of her family along on this trip. She’d simply made the mistake of telling her twin what she was planning and Maya had taken it from there. Her family was circling the wagons to keep her from being hurt again. Hard to be angry with the people who loved you because they wanted to protect you.
Also hard to not be frustrated by them.
“Are Merry and her family here too?” Sam asked. “Cousins? Best friends?”
“Merry didn’t trust herself to see you,” Maya snapped.
Thank God, their older sister Merry had decided to stay home with her family or things would have been even wilder. It was comforting to realize that at least one member of her family was sane.
“Maya,” Mia said on a sigh, “you’re not helping. Close the door.”
“Fine but I’ll be listening anyway,” she warned and slammed the door so that the sound echoed along the hallway.
And she would be, too, Mia knew. “Merry stayed home to keep the bakery running,” she said. “Christmas is our busiest time of the year.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“So busy,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken, “Mom and Dad are cruising to Hawaii, but they’re going to fly home from there to help Merry.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.” He shook his head, took her arm and steered her further from the door, no doubt because he knew that Maya was indeed listening to everything they said. “I still don’t know why you’re here. Why you felt like you needed an army just to face me.”
“Not an army. Just people who love me.” Mia pulled her arm free of his grasp because the heat building up from his touch was way too distracting. How was she supposed to keep her mind on why she was there when he was capable of dissolving her brain so easily?
And that, she told herself, was exactly why the family had come along.
“We have to talk.”
“Yeah, I guessed that much,” he said, shooting a glance at the still closed door.
Just being this close to Sam was awakening everything inside her and Mia knew that she was really going to need her family as a buffer. Because her natural impulse was to move in closer, hook her arms around his neck and pull his head to hers for one of the kisses she had spent the last few months hungering for—and trying to forget.
But that wouldn’t solve anything. They would still be two people connected only by a piece of paper. They had never been married in the same way her parents were. The Harpers were a unit. A team, in the best sense of the word.
While Mia and Sam had shared a bed but not much else. He was always working and when he wasn’t, he was locked in his study, going over paperwork for the business or making calls or jetting off to meetings with clients and boat builders and—anyone who wasn’t her.
Passion still simmered between them, but she’d learned the hard way that desire wasn’t enough to build a life on. She needed a husband who was there to talk to, to laugh with—and they hadn’t done that nearly enough. She wanted a man who could bend and not be constricted by his own inner rules and Sam didn’t know how to bend. How to compromise. Mia had tried. Had fought for their marriage but when she realized that only she was trying, she gave up.
If he’d been willing to work on things with her, they’d still be together.
“Fine then. We’ll talk,” Sam said, still keeping a wary eye on the door of her suite as if expecting Maya to leap out again.
Mia would not have been surprised. Her twin was very protective.
“But not here where Maya’s listening to everything we say...” He frowned thoughtfully. “Once we’re underway, I need to meet with some of the crew, check on a few things...”
She sighed. “Of course you do.”
One eyebrow lifted. “You know I take these cruises to get the information I need on how our ships are operating.”
“I remember.” In fact, she recalled the cruises they’d taken together after they were married. Two of them. One to the Bahamas. One to Panama. And on each of them, the only time she really saw her new husband was at night, in their bed. Otherwise, Sam the Workaholic was so busy, it had been as if she were traveling alone.
“That’s why we’re here. On this ship,” Mia said. “I knew you’d be taking this cruise.”
He laughed. “Even knowing I hate the Christmas cruises?”
“Yes. Because it helps you avoid having to be at home with a non-Christmas,” she said.
His frown went a little deeper. Apparently, he didn’t like the fact that she could read him so easily. But it hadn’t been difficult. Sam hated Christmas and no matter how Mia
