Her First Vacation Read online

  HER FIRST VACATION

  By Jennie Leigh

  Her First Vacation

  Copyright 2013, Jennie Leigh

  Self-publishing

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  Books by Jennie Leigh

  Bitter Wild

  Her First Vacation

  What readers are saying about Bitter Wild…

  “This is a book that you don't want to put down until you are finished reading it.” Kay Kerney

  “Lots of action and adventure (and the romance is pretty intense, too!).” Val B

  “Bitter Wild is a wonderful adventure. Having both lead characters show such strength, yet having the willingness to work together for the greater good is the ultimate in reading for me. I loved it that the woman was the wilderness expert, sure of herself and allowing no challenge to her role of leader while in that world. Not many strong alpha men could successfully step back and follow a woman while still retaining his alpha male role.” sandiec34

  “This book is a must read for those who love cowboys, strong women, dogs, horses and adventure. Oh, yeah, and romance, I can't forget romance.” Sandra Cuppett

  What readers are saying about Her First Vacation…

  “Filled with action and romance. Great characters you get involved with and want to get to know.” Val B

  What readers are saying about Jennie Leigh…

  “Jennie Leigh has done a wonderful job, creating characters that you like and cheer for. I look forward to more from this talented writer.” sandiec34

  “Jennie Leigh is a talented writer and spins a fast moving, suspenseful yarn that will not let go.” Sandra Cuppett

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  FROM THE AUTHOR

  PROLOGUE

  The stunned silence that followed Claire Abernathy’s announcement didn’t last long. Her sister, Diane, recovered first. She began to laugh as she shook her head. “You, on a cruise? That’s too funny.” She continued to chortle as Claire’s mother recovered enough from her initial surprise to chime in.

  “Really, Claire, what in the world were you thinking?”

  Claire exercised the same supreme self-control she’d always maintained when it came to her family. “I was thinking that I need a vacation.”

  Diane had finally stopped laughing, though she was still grinning broadly, showing off her perfect teeth. Like so much else about her, the teeth were a façade, capped so the natural imperfections were hidden.. “So you decided to go on a cruise?”

  “Well, it sounded like fun.”

  “Ha! Fun for me or Mom or any of the billions of other normal people in the world, but fun for you? I don’t think so.” Her gaze slid over Claire from head to toe and back. “Look at you. It’s eighty degrees outside and you’re covered from neck to ankles. I haven’t seen you go anywhere in public in a swimsuit in so long that I can’t remember the last time. Do you even have a suit anymore?” She shook her head. “Cruises are for normal people, not stodgy old schoolmarms. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb and probably get seasick to boot.”

  Claire felt the painful prick of her sister’s words but didn’t let it show in her face or eyes. The fact was, Diane was right. Claire was, and always had been, a very reserved woman. She wasn’t exactly shy. She couldn’t be shy and teach a bunch of eight-year-olds. They might be little and cute, but they could eat a person alive if she wasn’t prepared to stand up to them. But she was uncomfortable in her own skin. She had been ever since she’d witnessed the way her sister transformed from girl to woman.

  Her gaze flicked to her sister. Diane had always been beautiful and confident. From her gleaming cap of blonde hair to her full breasts and long, shapely legs, she was completely at home with her own sexuality. She’d sailed through puberty, blossoming into a gorgeous young woman who would only get better with age, just like their mother, who was beautiful and youthful enough at fifty to pass for their sister instead of their mother. Margaret and Diane Abernathy were stunning women who could have any man they wanted. They breezed through life, taking for granted the profound power at their command. And while Claire knew they both loved her as much as they could, she sometimes found herself struggling not to scream at the fates for choosing not to give her even a smidgen of their sparkle.

  She was tall, yes, but more skinny than shapely. Her legs were so long that finding pants that fit correctly was difficult, unless she didn’t mind paying a small fortune for the designer clothes her mother and sister favored. Though Claire had enough money to pay a little more for her clothes, she’d never been able to bring herself to be so careless with her finances. She was a saver, a planner. So she bought less expensive clothes that didn’t always fit her as well as they might and she wore skirts and dresses almost exclusively because it was much easier to fit them than pants. The skirts tended to be long because she couldn’t quite imagine why she’d want to show off her toothpick legs. Add to her somewhat ungainly structure a pair of less than spectacular breasts and a face that was much too angular to ever be considered pretty. Her eyes were a muddled blue and her hair was a color she’d long since come to term “drab brown.” For reasons she wasn’t even sure she understood herself, she’d stopped cutting it years ago and now it fell past her waist. Of necessity, she wore it in a bun just to keep it out of her way. For special occasions she braided it, then twisted it into a bun. All in all, she knew the total package was nothing to write home about. She was the ugly duckling of the family. Unlike the fairy tale, though, she’d never turned into a swan.

  She gave a small shrug as she answered her sister’s harsh words. “You may be right. But I’ve decided that I’m going, and I’m not going to change my mind.”

  Her mother rose to her feet and came toward her. Margaret Abernathy had never been the stereotypical June Cleaver mother. In fact, she’d never quite managed to grow up at all. When Claire and Diane’s father died, Margaret had been wholly unable to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a household. It had fallen to Claire to step up and fill that void, which was why she was such a pragmatic person. She was the adult in the house, even now. There were times, though, when her mother liked to make the effort to shoulder the mantle of maternity. Apparently, this was one of those moments. She reached out and laid her hand on Claire’s arm.

  “Darling, I completely understand your
desire to get away for a while, but couldn’t you find something more in keeping with your personality and lifestyle? Diane’s right about a cruise, you know. I just can’t imagine you enjoying yourself.”

  The first thought that popped into Claire’s head was that she’d enjoy any time that she got away from this house and this town and the endless monotony of her life. She didn’t give the thought voice, though, because she would never tell her mother and sister just how tiring their constant neediness was for her. They were both grown, yet they still relied on her to tend to the little details like paying bills and going to the grocery store. She was sick to death of all the responsibility. It had been building for months, maybe even years, until she finally decided that if she didn’t get away for a while she was going to snap.

  It wasn’t just her mother and sister. It was everything about her life. She did the same thing every day. The only variation in her schedule was the shift from being in school to the summer break and she spent most of that tutoring. She hadn’t been on a date in more than a year. Her last night out with a man had been a total disaster. It had ended quickly and he had never called her again. There was a man she worked with, another teacher at her school, who had shown some interest in her, but she ignored his subtle overtures. He was a good man, the sort that would make a considerate husband. She just wasn’t interested. Not in him.

  The truth was, deep in her heart, buried beneath all her pragmatism and sensibility, was a spark of romance. Rationally she knew it made no sense. She couldn’t stop herself from clinging to a tattered hope that somewhere out there was a man who was meant just for her. A man who would touch her as no other ever had, who would see beyond the bland outer shell to the true woman beneath. Not a knight in shining armor, since she didn’t need to be rescued, but a man full of honor and passion and intelligence. Her standards might be high, and her hope might be irrational to say the least, yet she clung to it with all her strength because if she ever let it go, then she feared that she would simply fade away. She would become the “stodgy schoolmarm” her sister accused her of being. She was already in danger of losing herself in the tedium of her life. That’s why she’d tapped into her savings and planned this trip.

  She was driven by desperation and nearly overcome with uncertainty and fear. What if she’d made a mistake? What if her mother and sister were right? For the sake of her own sanity, she refused to give the doubts more than a passing consideration. The cruise was booked, as was the flight that would take her to the port where she would board the ship. The money had already been spent and she wasn’t going to let anything, especially her own lack of confidence, get in her way. She squared her shoulders as she met her mother’s gaze.

  “I’m going, and that’s final.”

  There must have been something in her voice or her eyes, a hint of the determination behind her decision. Her mother blinked once, then dropped her hand. Claire saw the mild shock in her eyes and understood it. Claire didn’t put her foot down often, and she virtually never stood up to both her mother and sister at the same time. She’d let them overshadow her for years, given them an almost instinctual deference because she hadn’t been able to stop herself. Even she was awed by them. She knew better than to imagine that things would ever change, but she was at least going to stand up for herself once in her life. Mistake or not, this was her choice and she would deal with the consequences, whatever they turned out to be.

  Diane shook her head as she shot her sister a disgusted look. “Fine. Go on your little cruise. But I expect to hear you tell me I was right when you drag your miserable rear back here.” She snorted. “If you actually go through with it at all.”

  At that moment Claire swore to herself that no matter what happened, if she spent the entire trip puking her guts out with seasickness, she would come home swearing it was the best time she’d ever had in her life. She was tired of being the punch line of her sister’s jokes. Tired of living in the shadow of her mother and sister. Tired of being the rational, sensible, utterly responsible woman that she was. She was going on this cruise and somehow she was going to find a way to enjoy it. She’d come home tanned and relaxed with a whole new outlook on life and her sister would be the one forced to eat her words.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Claire lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and praying that the mocking refrain playing repeatedly in her head would stop. It was her sister’s voice, saying “I told you so,” in that singsong tone children used when they taunted one another. She was three days into the cruise and she was, as her mother and sister had predicted, not enjoying herself. Oh, there were parts she liked. First of all, she had been thrilled to discover that she not only did not suffer from seasickness, she found the motion soothing. And there was no doubt that the ship and all its amenities were spectacular. It was an impressive sight all alone. Her room wasn’t anything particularly magnificent, though it was on the outside of the ship and she even had a tiny little balcony. She spent most of her evenings out there watching the sea and the sky and the way the ship cut through the water with such seeming ease. That was another part of the trip that she was coming to realize she appreciated.

  In all her life, she’d never been to the coast. She hadn’t ever been anywhere. Her first sight of the sea hadn’t been all that wonderful. It had looked dark and dirty and nothing like the pictures in the brochures the travel agent had shown her. But the day before they’d reached the tropics and the water had turned into something magical. As clear as glass and the most incredible shade of blue-green that she’d ever seen. The photos couldn’t possibly do it justice. They’d docked for a while at an island, though Claire had not gone ashore. They weren’t going to be there long and she’d chosen to enjoy the beauty around her from the comfort of the ship.

  The night before, at dinner, she’d learned that all her tablemates had left the ship. They shared stories about the village and the people of the island. The women discussed the things they’d bought. Claire had felt even more an outcast than usual. Of course, she’d felt out of place from the first moment she saw the others she’d been seated with. It didn’t take her long to realize that the seating wasn’t entirely random. There were eight of them that shared a table, four women and four men, and not one of them was married. If that wasn’t enough to make her uneasy, the people themselves certainly were. The other women were the sort that made Claire feel frumpy. They weren’t all necessarily beautiful in the most classic sense of the word, but they each displayed obvious self-confidence that made up for any particular physical shortcomings.

  Two of them were very typical women, reasonably attractive though without the special spark that Claire had spent her life envying in her mother and sister. The third was by far the most attractive. Cathy Baldwin was vivacious and flirtatious. She was pretty and she knew it. She generally monopolized everyone’s attention, especially that of the men at the table. Claire had watched her flirt with all four of them while somehow managing to make each of them feel that she was focused exclusively on him. It was a baffling talent that Claire knew she would never master. She simply didn’t have that kind of personality. The other women apparently didn’t share her observant nature, though. Or perhaps they simply didn’t care. Either way, the three women seemed to like one another and were quickly building friendships.

  The men weren’t quite as chummy with each other as the women, though they seemed to get along okay. Two of them pretty much overshadowed the others. Colin Montgomery and Garret Palmer were the kind of men that had always scared Claire to death. Handsome, strong, confident, and supremely male. Not that the other two were homely or effeminate. They just sort of paled in comparison. It was similar to what happened to her next to the other women, though less pronounced because the two men made a serious effort to keep themselves involved in the conversation.

  Claire, as usual, was left on the outside, or at the very best on the fringes, of the circle. She sat there, barely speaking, watching them all and wishing th
at somehow, she could figure out how to join in. Mostly, they all ignored her. She’d seen the dismissive looks the other women had given her when she first met them. She’d seen the disappointment on the faces of the men when they realized their fourth candidate for shipboard romance was a frumpy old maid. All except Colin. He hadn’t given her the same vaguely disdainful look as the others. To be completely truthful, there didn’t appear to be any expression at all on his face or in his eyes when he looked at her that first time. He’d plastered a generic smile on his face as he introduced himself and since then he hadn’t spoken more than a few dozen words to her. That was, however, more than she could say for any of the others.

  Basically, she was every bit as alone and outcast as she was at home and she was miserable because of it. For some unfathomable reason she’d imagined that things would be different once she got away from her family. She’d thought some magical transformation would take place, and she would finally blossom just as her sister had years before. She would lose her inhibitions and grow some confidence. She would become someone new. She should have known better. Any fool knew that people didn’t change. Not that drastically and certainly not overnight. So here she was, the same mousy wallflower she’d always been, and she had another two and a half weeks to endure it. Because she would never even consider going home early. Her sister might have been right, but Claire would never give her the chance to gloat about it. Which meant she was stuck. She sighed as she reached over to turn off the light. It was going to be a long three weeks.

  Colin Montgomery prided himself on his powers of observation. He was the kind of man who could take in an entire room in a single glance and keep his attention focused on one subject while his eyes and even his voice appeared to be locked onto another. He had a very compartmentalized nature. It’s what made him so damn good at working undercover. As he surreptitiously watched his target, he pretended to focus on someone else entirely. His gaze locked onto the face of Claire Abernathy as she leaned against the railing and stared out at the activity in the harbor around them. He could see the pucker between her brows, the downcast edge of her wide mouth. In the time that he’d known her he could count on one hand the instances he’d seen her smile. Even fewer were the times she’d met him eye to eye. Shy didn’t quite seem to be an adequate word to describe her. She was the most retiring woman he’d ever met. She said virtually nothing, unless she was spoken to directly. She just sat there, watching everyone and everything around her with those big, gray eyes of hers. She was a teacher, he knew. Elementary. The very idea of it scared him as nothing else ever could. He’d faced down the nastiest drug cartels, crime families, and other unsavory characters without once flinching. But a room full of little kids sounded like his worst nightmare. How could she be so timid and deal with that?